Category: Psalms

I remember when…

Those words were often followed by grandpa (or grandma, for that matter) telling us a story about his (or her) past.  As a child I would probably have tried to get away from hearing the story (again).   But as an adult, I realized my grandparents and their stories wouldn’t be around much longer, so I willingly listened and often asked them to share their stories with my family. I had come to cherish the stories of grandpa living out “west” in a sod house or grandma living in town to go to school then riding in a wagon home for the weekend on the family farm.  I wanted my children to know these stories too and the sense of family that comes with hearing these stories.

God wants that for His children, too.  Even in the psalms we find “family stories” with a poetic twist.

I love the imagery used in Psalm 78…13 He made the waters stand up like a heap…23…opened the doors of heaven…65…the Lord awoke as if from sleep…

In Psalm 106,  the “they did”…”God did” stanzas tell the story in a powerful way.

Then in Psalm 107, the repeated sentence-in verses 6,13, 19, 28 followed by another repeated sentence in verses 8, 15, 21, 31 helps us to remember the main point of this family story.

The words of the psalms are true and there is much we can learn from them, but we must keep the context and the type of literature in mind when we interpret them.  They are not written as literal, doctrinal treatises, but poetic expressions of God’s love and care for His people.

Tell God’s family stories, as well as your family stories, to the next generation that they may put their confidence in God.

…tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord…

that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,

that they may arise and tell them to their children,

That they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God…Psalm 78

Poetry in the Psalms

When I think of poetry, I think back to the poems I would have read as a child.   Often in them, the imagery helped me to visualize the scene and the rhyme made it easy to remember.

Rain Poem

The rain was like a little mouse

quiet, small and gray.

It pattered all around the house

 and then it went away.

by Elizabeth Coatsworth

In Hebrew poetry, the imagery again help us to visualize the scene, but it does not uses rhyming words.  Instead it uses “thought rhymes” or parallelism.  This is when two or more lines are coupled to form the complete thought.  Unlike poetry that relies on rhyme, parallelism can be translated into other languages without losing its poetic nature.

Three types of parallelism are

     Synonymous-The second line repeats the first line in different words.

     Antithetic-The second line contrasts with the first line.

     Synthetic-The second line explains and expands the first line.

Now, look back at Psalm 1.  What types of parallelism to you see?

Verse 1 could be synonymous or synthetic depending on where the break for line one is.  Verse 2 is easier, it  would be synonymous

It is important as we study the psalm to remember many use imagery, such as similes and metaphors.  Psalms are often lyrical poetry and not meant to be taken as literal statements. Psalm 1:3 would be an example of this.

3  He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

   Which yields its fruit in its season

   And its leaf does not wither;

   And in whatever he does he prospers

The imagery here helps us to understand the result of delighting in the law of the Lord and helps to see the contrasts in verses 4-6 of the outcome of the wicked.