Immerse: Poets Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 14
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IMMERSE
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POETS
Most of the psalms in the Bible are one of three types: praise, lament,
or thanksgiving. Psalms of praise call on people to worship and sing to
God, honoring him for his goodness and grace. Songs of lament are
prayers to God for deliverance in deeply troubled times. Laments typically begin with an urgent and emotional cry, describing the struggles
that the person or community is facing, and then make a specific request for help, almost always ending with expressions of trust in God.
Psalms of thanksgiving often begin by reviewing the troubles the poet
was experiencing. Then the poet calls upon God and is delivered.
Finally, others are invited to share in thanking and praising God.
This collection of psalms also includes some other types of songs.
Royal psalms celebrate the role of Israel’s king—both the human king
and God as the nation’s high king. Pilgrim psalms (also called psalms
of ascent) were sung by pilgrims making their way up to Jerusalem for
one of the great Jewish festivals. Wisdom psalms echo Israel’s traditions about following God’s instructions to discover the path to flourish
ing life.
It is important that the psalms are more than just songs of praise. The
laments and cries for justice prevent the praise songs from being merely
a celebration of the status quo. The life of faith includes the shattering
pain of injustice and wrongdoing that calls God’s power and goodness
into question. In such situations, God’s deliverance of his people in
answer to their cries leads them to a more profound appreciation of
his faithfulness and care. The enduring overall message of the book is
that God welcomes the honest expressions of our hearts, reflecting all
the challenges of our ongoing relationship with him.
The book of Psalms was very popular in the first century ad and is
crucial for understanding the story of Jesus the Messiah. The writers
of the New Testament saw the themes of Psalms continuing in the ongoing story of God’s people. This can also be true for us today as we
read, sing, reflect on, and enter into the same story of struggle, rescue,
and restoration. Israel’s songbook gives us the words for expressing our
own movements through lament and praise and thanksgiving on our
journey with God toward a world of justice and peace.
