Fr. Dave's Thoughts - July 18, 2025
Dear friends,
Currently, we are in the third section of the Old Testament known as the Poetic Books. There are five books in this section and last week we looked at the first, namely Job. Here is the list of the Poetic Books in the order they appear in our Bible:
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs (also knows as the Song of Solomon)
The second book in this section is the Book of Psalms known as the psalter. The psalter is beloved and has been used by the church since the very beginning. Jesus certainly knew the psalter and most likely used it in his own personal devotional life and in the synagogue when he would worship in community. In our liturgy, we recite a psalm every week and if you do one or all four of the daily offices in the Book of Common Prayer (Morning Prayer, Noontime Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline) we see the psalms scattered throughout these offices. St. Benedict in the Rule that he wrote for his monks in the early sixth century outlined the order in which the psalter should be said or chanted. He wanted all 150 psalms to be read or chanted every week.
The psalter is the hymn book of ancient Israel. Tradition has it that David wrote the psalms and clearly some of the psalms, seventy-three to be exact, have been ascribed to King David. Crediting nearly half of the psalms to David is a testimony to the regard in which this great leader of Israel was held. The tradition that David wrote all the psalms, however, is much later than the book itself. A close study of the psalter will reveal that it is the product of many minds over many centuries. The psalter reflects many aspects of the religious experience of Israel. “It’s intrinsic spiritual depth and beauty have made it from the earliest times a treasury of resources for public and private devotion in both Judaism and Christianity.”
Most of the psalms were likely composed to accompany acts of worship in the temple. Odd as it may sound to us, the psalms were not first written down and then sung, but vice versa. Most of the psalms were first sung and prayed long before they were written down. Those who wrote them down were not the same ones who composed them, rather, they were the ones who collected them. There are various ways to classify the psalms. The late Claus Westermann, who was professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg, in his classic book The Psalms, Structure, Content & Message offers us one way to look at these categories.
Let’s look first at the Community and Individual Lament Psalms. These psalms are characterized by the community asking for help in time of distress or by an individual seeking deliverance from illness or false accusations. There are not many Community Lament Psalms, but if you want to look at what this genre of psalm is about you might read Psalms: 44; 74; 79; 80; 83; 89. The Individual Lament Psalm is by far the most frequent type found in the psalter. About 50 psalms belong to this category. Examples of Individual Lament Psalms that you may want to look at include Psalms: 3-17; 31; 69; 71; 73; 86; 88; 102; 109; and 130, to name a few.
Westermann also describes Community and Individual Praise Psalms as well. “One characteristic of all community laments is their cry for deliverance from trouble. But when God broke [the] silence and came to the aid of the people, when [God] reversed their trouble and brought deliverance, then [God’s] deed had to awaken the jubilation of those who had been liberated, the praise of those who had been saved” Examples of Community Psalms of Praise would be Psalm 106 and 124. Just as the psalms of community praise correspond with the community psalms of lament, so too does the praise of the individual correspond to the lament by the individual. Examples of Individual Psalms of Praise are: 9; 18; 30; 19-24; 32; 92; 116; 138 to name a few.
The next category is the Psalm of Descriptive Praise. This type of psalm is a uniquely liturgical song, the song of a congregation gathered for worship. Every Sunday, we sing a Hymn of Praise right up front before the opening Collect. So too, the psalter included hymns of praise: 8; 29; 33; 65; 100; 103; 104; 111; 113; 117; 145-150 to name a few.
The next category is the Creation Psalms. These psalms extol the greatness of God the Creator and this finds expression in Psalms 8; 104; 139; and Psalm 148.
There are also liturgical Psalms. These Psalms are shaped by some liturgical activity. In its simplest form this might consist of clearly recognizable antiphonal dialog; an interchange between two groups or between a liturgist and a congregation – call and response. If this is confusing to you, think about what we do on Sunday morning. We normally read the psalm on Sunday morning either responsively by half or whole verse. This is what is meant by “call and response.” The psalter does not contain many psalms of this nature. In fact, no psalm reproduces a compete worship service and the liturgical action is always merely alluded to. Psalm 118 would be a good example of this type of psalm. It is easy to see in this psalm how it could be used in the context of worship.
There are also Royal Psalms and Enthronement Psalms. Royal Psalms like Psalm: 2; 20; 21; 45; 72; 110; and 132, to name a few, are psalms in which the king plays a role. Enthronement Psalms, on the other hand, talk about the Lord as King. Examples of Enthronement Psalms are: 47; 93; 96-99.
Finally, Wisdom Psalms are psalms that quite frankly could just as easily appear in the Book of Proverbs and nobody would know the difference. These psalms contain nuggets of truth that people might want to find a way to apply to their lives. Examples of Wisdom Psalms are Psalm 127 and Psalm 133.
A couple of final points. There are traditionally nine psalms that were done in an acrostic fashion, including the longest psalm, Psalm 119, which is also considered a Wisdom Psalm. An acrostic is poem that has a distinctive pattern using the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Unfortunately, our English translation is unable to capture this. Psalm 119 is perhaps the most elaborate demonstration of this type of poetry. Psalm 119 has 176 verses divided into 22 sections of 8 verses each. If you were to read the psalm in the Hebrew language, you would see that the first word of each of the eight verses in each section begin with the same Hebrew letter. So, Psalm 119 verses 1-8, each verse or stanza begins with the letter Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each of the verses, 9-16 begin with the letter Beth, the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It goes on like this through the end of the alphabet. You might notice if you look at Psalm 119 in most of our Bibles, that each of the sections is labeled with the name of the Hebrew letter that corresponds with the acrostic in that section and if flows in the order of the alphabet Aleph through Taw, the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet. This is not only interesting, but it is important to understand that parts of the Hebrew Scriptures were not written just to provide information. In this section, in particular, the poetic section, we find poetry, but poetry that also has a visual aesthetic. We find acrostic poetry in Proverbs and in the Book of Lamentations as well.
The other thing I want to mention is that you might come across some Bibles that have the palter numbered differently. There are 150 psalms in every Bible, but some Bibles follow the Hebrew Masoretic numbering, including most of our Protestant Bibles, while others follow the numbering of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Bible from the Hebrew. Some Psalms were combined in the Septuagint and others were divided. Some Roman Catholic and most Orthodox translations number the psalms differently than what we are familiar with. I just wanted you to be aware of this in case you run across it in your travels. Next week we will take a look at the Book of Proverbs.
Peace,
Dave.
i The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocryphal / Deuterocanonical Books, Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy eds., Oxford University Press, New York, NY; 1991; pp. 674 OT. ii Claus Westermann, The Psalms, Structure, Content, and Message, trans. Ralph D. Gehrke, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, MN: 1980; pp. 47