Christians love to read the psalms and rightly so. But while Psalms may be the most popular book of the Bible, they are often misunderstood and misinterpreted. Many of us choose a few favorites or a catchy positive verse and ignore others that strike us as bizarre or even cruel. Like with all books in the Bible to gain a better understanding and appreciation of the whole collection, we need solid principles of interpretation that will guide us to a proper reading and application of this riveting book.

The book of Psalms is the hymn-book of the Jews, and  were generally set to music (indeed the word ‘psalm’ derives from the Greek word ψαλμοι [psalmoi], meaning “songs sung to a harp”). It has been used in the same way by the Church over the centuries. Within our more individualistic society we have tended to neglect the community setting for many of these “hymns”.

Understanding the psalms

The psalms as poetry

The psalms are Hebrew poetry, and it is that form that helps them to be more easily remembered. Just think about the songs you sing today, most of us can recite a whole chorus without much thought, but have difficulty remembering fully the words of a short paragraph in a news article. Hebrew poetry was important to the Israelites, allowing them to transmit the psalms orally, thus making them available even to those unable to read.

One of the most obvious poetic features of the psalms is their use of what we call parallelism. e.g. “The heavens declare the glory of God; / the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Ps 19:1). The psalmist is not trying to say that the heavens do one thing and the skies another. Instead, he is using parallelism to reinforce the idea. Don’t worry yourself too much about the terms, I just want to help convey a sense of the artistry of Hebrew poetry.   

Parallelism comes in 3 different flavours:

* The second line reinforces the first (Synonomous) e.g. “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud / your sins like the morning mist” (Is 44:22).

* The second line contrasts the first (Antithetical) e.g. “They do not cry out to me from their hearts / but wail upon their beds” (Hos 7:14)

* The second line adds to the first (Synthetic) e.g. “Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion / to govern the mountains of Esau” (Ob 21)

The appeal of the Psalms has always been in their expression of the “heart”, the emotions of people. The Psalm in essence address the mind through the heart. As a result we should be wary of overthinking them, or looking for doctrinal truths where none are intended. Psalmists commonly used what we might call ‘poetic/artistic licence’ in order to get their point across – using hyperbole (exaggeration) to reinforce the idea of something. This is an especially important consideration when reading the so-called ‘imprecatory’ (i.e. cursing) psalms, such as Psalm 137. In these the psalmist plumbs the outer reaches of human emotion, making for strong reading.

Similarly, psalmists often employ metaphor e.g. mountains leap like rams (114:4), enemies spew out swords from their lips (59:7) etc. It is important that we not press the metaphors beyond the author’s intent, or take them literally. e.g. the reader of Psalm 23 might make the mistake of believing that God wants them to be like sheep! Instead we need to seek the point that the psalmist is making through the metaphor.

The psalms as literature

The psalms come in many types:       

* Lament: A lament psalm is one that speaks of struggles, suffering or disappointment. They can either be individual ( e.g. 3, 22, 31, 39, 42, 57, 71, 88, 120, 139, 142) or corporate (e.g. 12, 44, 80, 94, 137). They assume a deep trust in God.

* Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving psalms express gratitude to God for what he has done, either for an individual (e.g. 18, 30, 32, 34, 40, 66, 92, 116, 118, 138) or for the Israelite community (e.g. 65, 67, 75, 107, 124, 136).

* Praise: Praise psalms focus on God, without any particular reference to specific miseries or joys. God is variously praised as creator (e.g. 8, 19, 104, 148), protector/benefactor (e.g. 66, 100, 111, 114, 149) and the Lord of history (e.g. 33, 103, 113, 117, 145-7)

* Salvation: Salvation psalms review the history of God’s saving works (e.g. 78, 105, 10, 135-6). These may have many different purposes e.g. celebration, thanksgiving, warning etc.

* Celebration/Affirmation: The psalms celebrate such things as the renewal of the covenant between God & Israel (e.g. 50, 81), the covenant between God and the line of David (89, 132), kingship (e.g. 2, 18, 20, 21, 45, 72, 101, 110, 144), coronations (e.g. 24, 29, 47, 93, 95-9) and the special relationship between God and Jerusalem (e.g. 46, 48, 76, 84, 87, 122).

* Wisdom: Wisdom psalms praise the merits of wisdom and living a wise life (e.g. 36, 37, 49, 73, 112, 127, 128, 133).

* Trust: These focus on God’s trustworthiness (e.g. 11, 16, 23, 27, 62, 63, 91, 121, 125, 131).

Individual psalms often follow a formal structure, much like our own poetry e.g. a sonnet conforms to a particular structure and rhythm. Knowledge of that structure can help us to recognise transitions from one theme to another, or to usefully divide a psalm up for closer inspection. Similarly, the psalms abound with patterns – alliteration, word plays and acrostics.

It should be noted that the psalms were functional – written for a specific purpose, and often for a particular occasion. We need to consider the original purpose behind the psalm before applying it for some other purpose. The royal psalms, for example, were composed to be sung at the celebration of Israel’s kingship.

For these reasons and more, it is important that each psalm be read as a whole, and not just a verse at a time.

Applying the psalms

This is where it can get difficult and our usual pattern of understanding scripture often kicks in, where we take one verse and apply it to our life. Unlike other portions of Scripture, the psalms are not necessarily a direct message from God to people, but are from people to God. For this reason they are not primarily for teaching.

However they do become useful as a demonstration of an honest relationship with God - he would rather that we pour out our feelings before him, allowing him to address them, than for us to bottle things up inside and try to ‘hide’ from him. The psalms are a useful help in expressing joys & sorrow, successes & failures, hopes & regrets – both individually and corporately.

The psalms demonstrate for us the importance of reflection and meditation on God’s works. They call us to prayer, to think on God’s Word, and to fellowship with other believers. They encourage us to trust in God in spite of our feelings, and to wait and to watch for the Lord’s deliverance.

**Much of what I have written here is taken from the following excellent book:
Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart, “The Psalms: Israel’s Prayer and Ours” in How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (3rd Edition, Zondervan, 2003) pp. 205-223

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

Related posts:

1. How to Read Psalms (Part 2)
2. >Reflections on the Psalms
3. Blogging the Psalms
4. Psalm 1: Reflection
5. Psalm 1: A Tale of 2 Ways