Chapter: Book 5

Prepared for Psalms Group, May 2, 2021

“No escape, no regrets, no compromise.” That’s a description of Psalm 139. Filled with good theology about God’s omniscience (139:1-6), omnipresence (139:7-12), creatorship (139:13-18), and holiness (139:19-24), these four stanzas of Psalm 139 arecomplex and intimate, and theological abstractions are “far from its heart.” In fact, you can label these stanzas, “God’s complete knowledge of me (1-6),” “God with me in every place (7-12),” “God’s sovereign ownership of every part of me (13-18),” and “God’s will that I be like him (19-24).” (Motyer, New Bible Commentary, 578)

Prepared for Psalms Group, 4/25/21

In Book 5 of Psalms, the two great sequences of psalms sung at Israel’s three Pilgrim Feasts — Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles — reveal the authentic joy of relying on the LORD in all of life’s circumstances. The Egyptian Hallel (Psalms 113-118) and the Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120-135) echoed on the roads to Jerusalem, in the homes of the faithful, throughout the city of Jerusalem, and in the liturgy of worship in the Temple. “Hallel,” praise the highest God, reverberated for all to hear as Psalm 117, the shortest psalm and shortest chapter in the Bible, summarizes:

Praise Yahweh, all ye nations! Laud him, all ye tribes!
For his hesed is mighty over us, and the truth of Yahweh is eternal!
Praise Yahweh! 

(Psalm 117, translated by Win Groseclose in his book The Egyptian Hallel Psalms, who defines “hesed” as God’s covenant faithfulness, his faithful care for his people.)

Prepared for Psalms Group, 4/18/21

In Book 5 of the Psalms, there are two great sequences of psalms which were sung at the three Pilgrim Feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, the Egyptian Hallel (113-118), sung especially at Passover, and the Songs of Ascents (120-134). What we can see quite clearly in both series is that the hearts of the people of God were full of joy as they celebrated the redeeming love and redemptive acts of their God. The combination of words and actions served to deepen the people’s sense of thanksgiving and renewed commitment, at least for those who were spiritually sensitive.

Prepared for Psalms Group, March 7, 2021

One benefit of praying the psalms is how they keep reminding us of our own and every other person’s limited humanity.  Seeing and/or experiencing human limitation can open our hearts to God’s ways of living:  

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy (hesed), and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

Prepared for Psalms Group, February 28, 2021

Psalm 130 focuses specifically on the chaos churned up in our lives by our own sins.  The 7 penitential Psalms (6, 32, 38, 51,102,130, 143) offer an honest portrayal of the damage done to humans by their own sins and by the sins of others. These psalms combine that truth about sinful human people and systems with the amazing truth of YHWH’s character. I sometimes think of YHWH as the “ideal parent” we humans long for:  all-powerful yet unfailingly loving and merciful, all-knowing and wise yet overflowing with grace and forgiveness, consistently just and fair in discipline, and 100% committed to what is best for each one of us.     

Prepared for Psalms Group, February 21, 2021

Psalm 119 is called the “Great Psalm” because of its length; it takes up a big part of Book V of the Psalms. Some scholars think it is was an original conclusion of an earlier anthology, finishing off the theme started in Psalm 1, another wisdom/Torah psalm, as is Psalm 19:7-11.

Prepared for Psalms Group, December 20, 2020

The psalmist asks God to “remember David and all his troubles.”  That’s what pilgrim people needed to be reflecting on as they neared Jerusalem, some for the first time in their lives, and glimpsed the temple, according to Psalm 132.  Included In the Psalter as one of the Songs of Ascent, Psalm 132 reminds those journeying people (and us as journeying people) about David’s promises to God and God’s biggest promise to David.  (See Mark 13:1b for a first century person’s descriptors of the temple.)  

Prepared for Psalms Group, December 13, 2020

From beginning to end the subject matter of the psalms is the Lord of Israel.  In various ways the many lament psalms or prayers for help that are so pervasive in the Psalter speak to and about God; in so doing they inform the one reading them of what this God is like and why one turns in that direction in times of trouble… What happens is what aways happens in prayer:  a theological understanding of the One to whom the prayer is lifted is both implicit and explicit in the prayer.  We learn about God as we pray.  We say what we know and believe about God as we cry out.  That is certainly the case with the psalmist.

Patrick Miller, The Lord of the Psalms, from the Introduction

How often do you experience doubts about God’s existence or God’s character?  What seems to trigger those doubts?  How do you express those doubts?  

In his short chapter, “The End,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer observes that our hope as Christians is directed to Jesus’ return and the resurrection of the dead. Bonhoeffer also observes that “life in fellowship with the God of revelation, the final victory of God in the world, and the setting up of the messianic kingdom are objects of prayer in the psalms.”  The Psalter reminds us to pray for, find comfort in, and praise God for his rescue plan for all his creation and our part in it.  Here’s how Bonhoeffer describes psalms like Psalms 2 and 149 in “The End”:

“Hanging Out with the Humbled” describes living in community with others who are seeking transformation into the humility of Christ. (Philippians 2: 1-11; St. Benedict’s Ladder of Humility, PDF below)

“Hanging out with the Humbled” describes both the means and the evidence of contentment in our journey with God in Christ.  Experiencing humility with God and in community creates and evidences contentment. Think about where you are in your own experiences with humility, community and contentment  as you read and reflect on Psalm 119:57-64, Psalm 131 and Psalm 33.