Immerse: Poets Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 13
IMMERSED IN PSALMS
T H E R E A R E M O M E N T S in
life that need to be expressed with the full
strength of human emotion. And nothing serves that need better than
putting words to music. So we should not be surprised that ancient
Israel had a songbook, used in large gatherings at the Temple and
also in smaller settings within local communities. Psalms is a book of
song lyrics, and many have musical notations, instructions, and even
the names of tunes still attached. The fact that our Scriptures include
heartfelt expressions like these, of God’s people speaking directly to
him, highlights that he wants to hear from us. He wants us to express
our deepest longings and feelings to him.
These songs were gathered into the large collection we have today
during the time after Israel’s exile to Babylon, but many are preserved
from earlier times. King David is associated with seventy-three of
them, nearly half of the total number. (Our collection now includes 150
psalms, though Psalms 9/10 and 42/43 were each originally written as
one psalm but later divided. And one psalm is repeated twice, appearing as both Psalm 14 and Psalm 53.) Whether birthed in the spiritual
journey of an individual or the experiences of the community of God’s
people, all these songs came to be used in the corporate worship of
Israel.
But Psalms is more than a songbook. As the collection of Hebrew
poems came together, it was shaped into five “books,” each closing
with a doxology (special words of praise to God). These five books of
psalms recall the five books of Moses (the Torah) at the beginning of
the Bible. Just as the Torah was used for instruction and study, Psalms
came to be used the same way. In fact, Psalm 1 seems to have been
placed first precisely to encourage people to meditate on Psalms as a
book of instruction. This shows that these songs that were sung in worship could also be read as Scripture.
These song lyrics are written in the usual form of Hebrew poetry, with
groupings of parallel lines. The second line repeats, contrasts, or intensifies the meaning of the first line. The figurative language in these
poems is perfectly suited for forcefully expressing authentic human responses within God’s story.
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