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Originally posted by Nigel M:
Still on Ps. 1: has anyone any idea why this particular Psalm was chosen to head up the entire Psalter? I'm assuming it wasn't accidental; the fact that the Israelites divvied up the Psalms into 5 separate sections or books suggests that there was a plan. The whole Psalter ends with a series of doxologies / Hallelujahs, which is interesting because quite a few English language hymnals put those sort of praise songs up front. Is Ps. 1 meant to be a scene-setter for what follows? A major theme? A summary of the rest?

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"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse" (Malachi 4:5-6 NIV)

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"This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you—may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up' " (2 Chron. 36:23 NIV)

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Why‍ do the nations rebel?
Why‍ are the countries‍‍ devising‍ plots that will fail?‍
The kings of the earth‍ form a united front;‍
the rulers collaborate‍ against the LORD and his anointed king.
They say,‍ ‍“Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us!
Let’s free ourselves from‍‍ their ropes!”
The one enthroned‍‍ in heaven laughs in disgust;‍ ‍
the Lord taunts‍‍ them.
Then he angrily speaks to them
and terrifies them in his rage,‍ saying,‍ ‍
“I myself‍ have installed‍ my king
on Zion, my holy hill.”
The king says, ‍ “I will announce the LORD’S decree. He said to me:‍ ‍
‘You are my son! ‍ This very day I have become your father!
Ask me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,
the ends of the earth as your personal property.
You will break them with an iron sceptre;‍ ‍
you will smash them like a potter’s jar!’” ‍
So now, you kings, do what is wise;‍‍
you rulers of the earth, submit to correction! ‍
Serve‍ the LORD in fear!
Repent in terror!‍ ‍
Give sincere homage!‍ ‍
Otherwise he‍‍ will be angry,‍ and you will die because of your behaviour,‍ ‍
when his anger quickly ignites.‍‍
How blessed are all who take shelter in him! [NET Bible - I removed the verse divisions to keep the flow]

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1. WHY do the heathen so furiously rage together : and why do the people imagine a vain thing?
2. The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together : against the Lord, and against his Anointed.
3. Let us break their bonds asunder : and cast away their cords from us.
4. He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn : the Lord shall have them in derision.
5. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath : and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6. Yet I have set my King : upon my holy hill of Sion.
7. I will preach the law, whereof the Lord hath said unto me : Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
8. Desire of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance: and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.
9. Thou shalt bruise them with a rod of iron : and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
10. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings : be learned, ye that are judges of the earth.
11. Serve the Lord in fear : and rejoice unto him with reverence.
12. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and so ye perish from the right way : if his wrath be kindled, (yea, but a little,) blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

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Sorry, but I love Handel, and like to see these words.

Anyway, sometimes it's good to have a couple of different translations to work from.

I'd say this one is about the "Golden Age of David the King," who ushered in an era of peace and prosperity, maybe? David is the favored Son and Anointed here? And it's a song that announces that God is with David, and that the kings should listen to David's admonitions about submitting to God.

What's interesting about Psalms is that the narrative point-of-view often changes in midstream. For instance, it looks like this happens between verse 5 and 6 here; first, the POV is David's - then all of a sudden it's God's - then back to David in verse 7, as far as I can tell. I wonder if this change is something that was acted out in liturgical worship, or sung antiphonally or something?

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Originally posted by pooka:

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Originally posted by TubaMirum:

...This discussion came up because I wondered how we could justify the amount of work necessary to "decode" the Bible; it's obvious that we need the help of scholars to understand much of what's written in the Bible since we don't understand the original contexts at all in many cases. Not so with Psalms; they speak to us directly about the spiritual life. Not much is known, in fact, about their origins, in many cases - but this isn't important, it seems.

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Throughout history, there have always been people who devote themselves to the study and interpretation of Scripture and who pass their findings down to the wider faith communities. Perhaps we forget just how much we owe them in terms of a clearer understanding of the scriptures, even the Psalms. I remember when I first became a Christian, most of the Bible was jarring and strange to me and mostly irrelevant. As far as I was concerned, the only bit I had to follow from the OT was the ten commandments. NT was a bit better because 'I am a Christian now, so I guess I had better do my four Christian rules' (read bible every day; go to church; pray daily; witness). The Psalms were all right because they're nice, but they were just as foreign to me as anything else. If I had stayed at a purely devotional level of my understanding, I would be tragedy truly personified because I would never have grown.

Psalms can be taken at many levels but in a sense it is no different from other parts of the scriptures, in that there are parts that we understand, there are parts that we think we understand, and there are parts that make no sense at all. It is more pleasing because it has rhythms and rhymes and it appeals to our sense of beauty, but that doesn't immune us from misunderstanding or having no understanding. If we only take those bits that we like and understand (or think we understand) there will be lots of gaps in our understanding of the greater scheme of things in both width and depth. The result of this could be that we stay at the drinking milk level all our lives.

Just to give an example of what I mean and a possible misunderstanding: 'As the deer pants for water...so my soul thirsts for you' (Ps 42:1). It's possible for me to imagine Bambi with his big cute dewy eyes skipping lightly around looking for a stream to have a drink. Because I have never seen deer in their natural habitat, I get my reference from a Disney film. I may not be wrong, in that ‘Bambi’ is thirsty and that's what the verse said, but I would never have appreciated the depths of desperation and ugliness that comes from drought and famine and the struggle for life that this panting is about, which the later verses imply re: despair (which were the verses that I couldn’t relate to because I am not David and they are not nice. Something about shattering bones. Yuk!) So I would have missed out on the depths of the longing for God that this verse is talking about if I were not taught and learned or had tried to dig deeper into what this verse is about.

I think a degree of studying and searching is needed even in devotions, it may be not at the scholarly level, because clearly not everyone has the ability or the facility to do so. But that’s why we have ministers/ teachers to help us learn (if they are doing their job properly. Sadly, many are not). Indeed, I don’t see why the act of studying and learning itself can not be seen as an devotional act.

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I will be his father, and he shall be my son... [2 Sam 7:14, NIV]

He will call out to me, 'You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Saviour.' I will also appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth. [Ps. 89:26-27, NIV]

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We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.' [Acts 13:32-33, NIV]

I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. [2 Cor. 6:18, NIV]

For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my Son; today I have become your Father? Or again, I will be his Father, and he will be my Son? ...
So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, You are my Son; today I have become your Father. [Heb. 1:5; 5:5, NIV]

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We've grown accustomed to hearing 'pre-existence' and 'incarnation' when we read the likes of Acts 13:33 (eternally begotten?), but Paul seems to have in mind the resurrection as a point when Jesus became the vindicated son-king to the parent-God. This isn't to say that we cannot derive 'eternally begotten' from the bible, it's just that I'm not sure we take it as read from this passage.

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The Bible text designated YLT is from the 1898 Young's Literal Translation by Robert Young who also compiled Young's Analytical Concordance. This is an extremely literal translation that attempts to preserve the tense and word usage as found in the original Greek and Hebrew writings. The text was scanned from a reprint of the 1898 edition as published by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids Michigan. The book is still in print and may be ordered from Baker Book House. Obvious errors in spelling or inconsistent spellings of the same word were corrected in the computer edition of the text.

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• Bernhard W. Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament, 4th ed. (Prentice Hall, Inc. 1986), pp 540-567.
• Sigmund Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, 2 vols. (Abington, 1962)
• J.W. Rogerson and J.W. McKay, Cambridge Bible Commentary on the New English Bible, 3 vols., (Cambridge University Press, 1977). For most readers this is the best commentary on the Psalms. It exists in paperback at a reasonable price.
• Arthur Weiser, The Psalms, The Old Testament Library Series. (Westminster Press, 1962).

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Originally posted by CuppaT:
If you would like something a little lighter, though very though provoking, J.S. Bach, you could read Christ in the Psalms by Patrick Henry Reardon and use its meditations as a springboard for discussions.

You hit my favorite Psalm, Nigel -- 118 (LXX).

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Originally posted by Nigel M:
There's a similarity in theme between 1 and 118/119, isn't there?

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Originally posted by CuppaT:

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Originally posted by Nigel M:
There's a similarity in theme between 1 and 118/119, isn't there?

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How so? I don't see it yet, but we can all think on it while you are replying.

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Originally posted by CuppaT:
In the Orthodox tradition, this psalm is chanted in part at funeral services. It is also chanted during the Lamentations of Holy Friday when we lament with the women and the disciples over Jesus' death, each verse interspersed with a lament.

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Originally posted by CuppaT:
Having the habit prayer already in place, and praying the psalms in particular forced a regularity that I could not have mustered otherwise.

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Originally posted by TubaMirum:
Have we posted the Benedictine Psalm schedule on this thread yet?

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• Psalm 1 we already covered above.
• Psalms 8, 104, and 19: These are “hymns of praise”
• Psalms 14 and 53: These two are almost identical, except in the use of “Elohim” vs. YHWH, respectively, in the Hebrew (which normally indicates that they come from different sources). These are laments over the wickedness of humankind and they look forward to the day that God will bring deliverance.
• Psalms 15, 24, 42, 43, and 122: Psalm 122 is one of the “Songs of Ascents” (more about that later); the others are thought to be for use in preparation for Temple worship.
• Psalm 22: Was included in particular to note its use among Christians during Holy Week, and for the fact that it contains Jesus’ words from the Cross.
• Psalm 34: This is a hymn of Thanksgiving, and an acrostic (other acrostics are Psalms 9-10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, 145).
• Psalm 119: This is the Longest Psalm; it is a long meditation on the Law and the joy that comes from keeping the statutes of the Law.
• Psalm 58: This is a cursing Psalm, calling for God’s judgement on the Psalmist’s enemies, who are declared to be breakers of the Law.
• Psalms 78, 105, 106: These are recitals of God’s saving deeds in Israel’s history. Psalms 105 and 106 are different in tone, though; one praises Israel, one accuses Israel.
• Psalm 137: The really bad Psalm, which contains a “blind hate and rage that the Psalmist is no longer able to master.” Much-discussed in several threads here.
• Psalms 146-150: “Hallelujah” Psalms. “Hallelujah” means “Praise YHWH.” These are songs of praise for and of all creation.

Some Psalms seem to have a liturgical use:

• Psalm 92 is labeled “A Song for the Sabbath.”
• Psalm 100 is labeled “A Psalm for the Thank Offering.”
• Psalm 38 (and others) are “designated for use at ‘memorial offerings’.”
• A few Psalms have tune names associated with them, and some have instructions to the "Choirmaster."

It is theorized that Israel ritually renewed its covenant with YHWH fairly often, perhaps even annually.

• “Psalm 81 suggests that the covenant is remembered on a regularly appointed feast day.”
• “Psalm 105...may also be a covenant renewal Psalm.”

“Royal theology”: These are Psalms that glorify Zion and which speak in kingly terms of God and God’s anointed (or Son).

• Psalms 93 and 95-100 are called “coronation Psalms”
• Psalms 46, 48, 76, 84, 87, 112 are “Songs of Zion.”
• Psalms 2, 20, 21, 45, 72, 110 glorify the Davidic king as God’s anointed.

Psalm 110 contains imagery used by early Christians to speak of Jesus.

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The “Songs of Ascents” are Psalms 120-134. There are many theories about this designation. Possibly these were “sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple.”

Isn't that an amazing and wonderful picture?

The materials further say that a theory developed among Jewish scholars during the early years of the Christian church was that “the Levites sang one of the 15 Songs of Ascents on each of the fifteen steps leading up to the place in the Temple where the worshipers stood.”

Which makes an even more amazing picture!

Another theory is that the word “ascents” refers “to a literary practice: the last word of one verse would be used as the first word of the following verse, thereby forming a ‘staircase’ of words running through the Psalm.” (See Psalm 121 for an example of this.)

Most scholars believe these Psalms had something to do with the approach of worshipers to the Temple, at any rate.

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Originally posted by TubaMirum:
So that's what I have, JSBach. I love this last stuff best, but it's all quite interesting. I'd like to get one of the books they recommend, too, to look at all this in more detail.

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Originally posted by J.S. Bach:
Our group study of psalms is going well. Thanks again for all your suggestions.

This week, I learned of Robert Alter's new The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary.

It has only been out less than 2 weeks, so there haven't been that many reviews yet. A Boston Globe article states, "Alter aims to reproduce the rhythmic energy of the Hebrew texts in an English that adheres as closely as possible to the meaning and style of the original."

It sounds like it is worth investigating. A trip to the bookstore is in order.

Blessings,
JSB

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Psalm 3 - A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.

1 Lord!
How numerous are my enemies!
How many rise up against me!
2 Many are saying of me,
"There's no saving for him from God!"
Selah
3 But you, Lord, are a shield protecting me;
my glory and and lifter of my head.
4 To the Lord I cry out,
and he answers me from his holy hill.
Selah
5 Me? I lie down, I sleep,
I wake up - for the Lord supports me!
6 I'm not going to be afraid of the masses
coming at me on all sides.
7 Rise up, Lord!
Save me, my God!
You strike all my enemies on the jaw;
and break the teeth of the wicked.
8 The Lord saves!
On your people be your blessings!
Selah

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Originally posted by Nigel M:
On a day in England when a survey suggests that many National Health Service dental patients are being forced to go private or go without treatment, there's a timely picture here of the teeth of God's enemies being scattered all over the countryside.

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Oh, God!

(Where did my false teeth go?)

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Originally posted by pooka:

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Originally posted by Nigel M:
On a day in England when a survey suggests that many National Health Service dental patients are being forced to go private or go without treatment, there's a timely picture here of the teeth of God's enemies being scattered all over the countryside.

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Oh, God!

(Where did my false teeth go?)

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Originally posted by Nigel M:
...Not sure how [Alter] translates Psalm 3, but here's a stab to move things on (English versification - the Hebrew takes the heading as verse 1):-
Psalm 3 - A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.

...
3 But you, Lord, are a shield protecting me;
my glory and and lifter of my head.
...

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Originally posted by tclune:
...the image in 3:3 of God as "lifter of my head" is an odd one to my ears. It certainly calls to mind the Genesis story of Joseph and the interpretation of dreams for Pharoah's attendants, but I can't quite get a handle on what the image is intended to convey. Is the use with the baker intended as a joke, or can the phrase cover both positive and negative recognition by higher-ups?

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Judges 8:28 -
Thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again.

Job 10:15 -
If I am guilty—woe to me!
Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head,
for I am full of shame
and drowned in my affliction.

Psalm 24:7 -
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in!

Psalm 83:2 -
See how your enemies are astir,
how your foes raise their heads.

Psalm 110:7 -
He will drink from a brook beside the way;
therefore he will lift up his head.

Zech. 1:20 -
"These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head..."

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Job 11:15 'face', rather than 'head' -
then you will lift up your face without shame;
you will stand firm and without fear.

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Originally posted by Nigel M:
Thanks to J. S. Bach for drawing our attention to Alter's book on the Psalms. I don't have it either, but given Alter's background of work on Hebrew poetry it certainly sounds a worthwhile investment. Not sure how he translates Psalm 3, but here's a stab to move things on (English versification - the Hebrew takes the heading as verse 1):-

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Psalm 4 [NIV]
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm of David.
1 Answer me when I call to you,
O my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
be merciful to me and hear my prayer.

2 How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame ?
How long will you love delusions and seek false gods ?
Selah

3 Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;
the LORD will hear when I call to him.

4 In your anger do not sin;
when you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent.
Selah

5 Offer right sacrifices
and trust in the LORD.

6 Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?"
Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD.

7 You have filled my heart with greater joy
than when their grain and new wine abound.

8 I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O LORD,
make me dwell in safety.

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Originally posted by CuppaT:
Ah, I see that you have moved on. I never did figure out how to say what I was going to on Psalm 3.

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Originally posted by CuppaT:
...I came upon one of my favorite phrases this morning and wanted to ask you all if you knew of any others like it anywhere. It is not the sort of thing one can look up. It is a double word use...

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1 Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my sighing.
2 Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.

3 In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.

4 You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell.
5 The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.
6 You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors.

7 But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down towards your holy temple.

8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies— make straight your way before me.
9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with destruction. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit.
10 Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you.

11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
12 For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favour as with a shield.

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