The Psalms
19th July 2024
What is a Psalm?
Firstly, a Psalm is part of the Bible and therefore, as 2 Timothy 3v16-17 tells us, it's God-breathed. It's inspired. It's inerrant. It's perfect. It's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. God speaks to us through the Psalms.
Secondly, at the same time, a Psalm is mostly words spoken by a human, not by God. It's both the word of God and the word of man. God is clever enough to make that possible. The Psalms are mostly words spoken by a human either to God or about God.
Thirdly, the Psalms are very different from each other. Some are songs of praise, some are heartfelt supplication for God's help, some are encouragement to the writer or to other people. Psalm 23 is about what a great shepherd God is, Psalm 22 is, among other things, a prophesy about the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Psalm 51 is a prayer of repentance. Psalm 139 is about God's omniscience. Psalm 133 is about the importance of living together in unity, and so on.
Fourthly, Some of the Psalms are rather negative in tone. For example:
Psalm 88v6-9
You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
Your wrath lies heavily on me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.
You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;
my eyes are dim with grief.
Some Psalms are even critical of God. Psalm 74 begins with the words, "Why have you rejected us for ever, O God?" But God had not rejected His people for ever.
God, in His infinite grace, has allowed His holy Bible to include passages like these because he knows that you and I go through a whole range of emotions in the Christian life, and it can be comforting for us to know that the godly people who wrote the Psalms went through the same emotions. Many of us doubt some aspect of God's character, or question some of God's decisions, sooner or later. We shouldn't, because God is perfect, but we do, because we're not perfect. Reading these Psalms helps us to identify how we feel, to express our feelings to God, and to process them.
It seems to me that we don't go to the Psalms for instruction so much as for empathy. God loves us so much, God so understands how we feel, that He allows into His Bible all sorts of human emotions, some of them quite negative, because we all feel negative sometimes.
This raises the question of what sort of truth the negative Psalms give us. My current thinking is that, while some statements in these Psalms are not true in themselves, each Psalm is completely true as a whole - and the Psalms are given to us whole. These negative Psalms are prayers, and they demonstrate to us how our thinking changes when we pray. We can begin to pray in a negative mindset, and come to peace and trust in God in the course of praying though whatever is troubling us. Thus each Psalm is the inerrant word of God, even though it contains factually inaccurate statements about God.
Fifthly, the psalms are songs. We don't have the original music, although sometimes somebody will set a Psalm to music, as Stuart Townend did with Psalm 23, "The Lord's my Shepherd". Songs sound nice, of course, but the main value of songs is they make the words easier to remember. It's been said that people of my age can't remember what we did yesterday, but we can remember all the words from a song written the 1960s, and it's true.
We may find ourselves singing a worship song to ourselves while doing the housework, or gardening, or going for a walk, and we'll remember the words, and they'll do us good.
When we read a Psalm, we don't usually have the advantage of a tune to sing it to, as the ancient Israelites did. But, just like a good song, a Psalm can speak to our hearts. Perhaps the whole Psalm will remind us of some important truth, or perhaps a passage of just a few words will touch us, and give us something to meditate on for the rest of the day.
The Psalms, many older Christian worship songs, and some modern ones, are full of doctrine, like Praise My Soul the King of Heaven, or Amazing Grace. When we sing them, we remember some to the important truths of the Christian faith. Some Psalms and Christian songs are songs of adoration to God, or songs about God's love or His faithfulness. A Psalm or a good Christian song reminds us of the truth, and also touches our hearts. Reading a Psalm or singing a Christian song can inspire us to trust God, or to serve God, or to follow God more carefully and wholeheartedly.
One last thought. We should be careful in our choice of Christian worship songs. Unlike the Psalms, Christian worship songs are not inerrant. Some are untrue, and some seems to glorify our own singing more than they glorify God. There are plenty of good Christian songs. Let's stick to those.