Chunks: The Book of Psalms

In Psalm 109, the psalmist has been the victim of injustice. One or more people have brought charges against the psalmist, and are willing to tell any lie to get a conviction. In response, the psalmist prays for vengeance and divine retaliation, not only against the psalmist’s enemies, but their families and future descendants. What is one to do with such a psalm? Here, we’ll compare it to Psalm 3...

When we sing words from the Psalms in church, we typically sing praise songs, not laments. And we do not sing songs of cursing, known as imprecatory psalms. But much of Psalm 109, a psalm that was apparently meant to be sung, is a prayer for the complete destruction of the psalmist’s enemy. In this episode, we’ll cautiously examine the psalmist’s lament.

Homelessness is not just a modern problem; some form of it has probably existed throughout history. The first of the four stories of redemption in Psalm 107 seems to describe such a situation. Those who are hungry, thirsting, and wandering without a home are rescued from their distress by God and blessed. The imagery is reminiscent of the teaching of Jesus…

In the previous episode, we explored the fourth of Psalm 107’s four stories. Here, we look at the second and third, which share something unusual in common. One is a graphic story about people crying out to God from prison; the other is about people crying out in the midst of life-threatening illness. But all the people are described as justly deserving their suffering. And yet, when they turn and...

Psalm 107 presents four stories of redemption. We’ll begin with the fourth, which takes place at sea. Sailors on a merchant vessel are caught in a terrible storm, and fearing for their lives, they cry out to God and are rescued. But as in so many psalms, the people are called not merely to praise God for what he has done, but for who he is: a God of unfailing love. 

The Psalter is divided into five books. Psalm 106 is the last psalm of Book IV. Psalm 107 then sets the tone for Book V by repeating the opening words of Psalm 106: “Give thanks to the LORD for he is good; his love endures forever.” God is to be praised as the Redeemer, and the psalm presents four paradigmatic stories in which God redeemed people from trouble. Whatever tale our own stories may tel...

God’s history of faithfulness to his people demands their faithful response in return. But Psalm 106 recalls episode after episode of sin and rebellion, culminating in the people being conquered by Assyria and Bablyon and taken away into captivity. But that is not the end of the story. The psalmist still believes in and prays for God’s mercy, and in hope, the psalm ends on a note of praise.

Try to imagine the enormity of the miracle God did through Moses at the Red Sea. Could anyone experience that and not believe in God, in God’s power and compassion? After that, could any of God’s people forget what they owed to God? If we only read Psalm 105, we’d think the answer would be no. But Psalm 106 recalls the events of Exodus 16 and 17, and how quickly the people forgot God’s mercy. 

If our life story was to be told in front of others, would we want the whole truth to be told? Probably not. But the psalmists knew that the story of God’s faithfulness would not be complete without the story of the human response on the other side of the covenant relationship. Though Psalm 106 begins and ends with a “Hallelujah,” it is an honest confession of the people’s faithless sin. The psalm...

You’ve heard some of the reasons to read Psalms 105 and 106 together; now it’s time to examine each psalm more closely, beginning with Psalm 105. It begins with David’s song of celebration at the return of the ark, then runs quickly through centuries of history: Joseph’s rise to power in Egypt; Moses and the Exodus; God’s faithfulness to the people in the wilderness. The whole psalm is a celebrati...

When King David brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, he had a song written for the occasion. As mentioned in the previous episode, the song—which can be found in 1 Chronicles 16—gives form and content to Psalms 105 and 106. Psalm 105, again, is celebratory. But in Psalm 106, the psalmist reminds the people of the danger of mistaking superstition for true worship. 

We’ve explored Psalms 103 and 104; now we’ll dive into Psalms 105 and 106, which should be read back to back (and after, we’ll look at Psalm 107 as well). Psalms 105 and 106 are both examples of so-called historical psalms, whose purpose is to retell some of the history of God’s relationship to his people. The two psalms are like two sides of a coin, first recounting the history in a positive way,...

Jesus taught his disciples to pray to God as their Father. The author of Psalm 103 also portrays God as our Father. But the psalmist says that God has compassion for us because he “remembers that we are dust.” That may sound shaming, as if the psalmist were saying that God is everything and we are therefore nothing. But is that what the psalmist means?

Psalm 103, again, repeatedly calls God’s people to bless him for who he is and what he has done. It speaks of God’s love and compassion. But the psalmist also declares—three times—that God’s love and compassion is for those who “fear” him. The fear of God is an important biblical theme, especially in the Old Testament. But how can we understand it, without losing hold of our understanding of God’s...

Psalm 103 is a summons to bless God; the invitation is issued a full six times. We are to bless God not just for what he’s done, but for who he is. Thinking back to God’s words to Moses after the disastrous episode with Aaron and the Golden Calf, the psalmist calls us to remember how God is merciful, gracious, and slow to anger.

Earlier, we took a close look at Psalm 104—a “creation psalm” that begins and ends with the phrase, “Bless the Lord, my soul” and then adds, “Hallelujah.” That may be the last word of the psalm, but it’s the first “hallelujah” in the Psalter. In this episode, we take a step back to examine Psalm 103—which reads like a prequel to Psalm 104 and gives the reader even more reasons to bless God.

Psalm 23 is known as the Shepherd Psalm for an obvious reason. But the relationship between a sheep and a shepherd is not the only metaphor the psalmist uses to portray our relationship to God. We are not just lowly sheep; by the end of the psalm we are honored guests at a banquet given by God. And why? So that all the world can see who really is the one true God.

The year 2020 was one of the most difficult of my life, as it was for some of you. At times, it felt like a long, dark valley. But as Psalm 23 suggests, even though we as sheep must travel through such dark places, we can trust that the Shepherd knows where to lead us. We don’t need to fear, as long as we are in the Shepherd’s company.

In our world of ubiquitous advertising, it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between a “want” and a “need.” Our homes may be filled with things we thought we needed but never use. The world of the psalmist is simpler, and so is the life of a sheep, as it’s portrayed in Psalm 23. If we’re going to own our sheepishness, are we willing to explore how the things that we really need ar...

Sheep are sometimes characterized as stupid; when we talk about people as being “sheep,” we mean that they are mindlessly following some leader. But sheep deserve more credit. True, they’re capable of straying. But they’re also capable of having a relationship of trust with a shepherd. Psalm 23, the so-called Shepherd Psalm, is one of the best-known and most beloved of the psalms. If we want to un...

If Psalms 104 and 8 celebrate the wonders of God’s creation, Psalm 139 celebrates the wonder of being created human. We don’t typically wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see someone who is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” But what if we did? What if we saw ourselves and others as being created in God’s image and took that vocation seriously?  

As suggested in the previous episode, the psalmist who wrote Psalm 139 marvels at the knowledge of being God’s handiwork. Moreover, the psalmist lives with a deep sense of God’s presence. The psalmist isn’t trying to run or hide from God’s presence, but instead is amazed at the constancy of it, and is secure in God’s love and care.

Even when we’ve been taught to be “nice,” we sometimes get carried away with negative emotion and speak without thinking. As we’ve seen, Psalm 139 contains some rather vehement words of hatred. But the psalmist also lives with a deep sense of being known intimately by God. What would happen if we were able to envision Jesus standing next to us as we speak?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus confronts what his hearers have been taught. While they had been told to love their neighbor and hate their enemy, Jesus taught them to love their enemies instead. Nowhere in Scripture are God’s people taught to hate their enemies—but Psalm 139 comes close. So are we justified in our anger or not? 

When we come to church to worship and sing, we expect to be uplifted and encouraged. When we interact with others, we follow an implicit rule of niceness. But some psalms contain brutal words of cursing and hatred. Psalm 139 is one such psalm—and the cursing comes in the context of some of the most beautiful words of humility and praise in Scripture.