Preliminaries:
They are liturgies designed to lead us into a personal encounter with God.
Authorship: Traditionally many psalms are ascribed to David. Though this tradition may be accurate – we know that David loved music and wrote psalms (1 Sam. 16,14-23 and 18,10) – modern scholars see the superscriptions to the psalms (where an author may be mentioned), as being added later by those who collected and edited the psalms for use in the temple worship. A psalm like psalm 23, or 51, could easily then be associated with known events in David´s life (in these cases, that he was a shepherd as a boy, and his fall over Bathseba).
Approaching the Psalms from a literary-critical point of view, to discover how to read them, does not preclude, but should enrich them as being God´s word to us!
2 questions:
1. What kind of literature?
2. What use did they serve?
General observations:
- They are carefully constructed poetry; contrast with spontaneous prose prayers in OT narrative (e.g. 2 Sam 1,17-27)
- They are largely open- ended, the I, we, you, they of the psalm is rarely specified; reference to historical events lacking.
- Multiple crisis often preclude a description of one person’s experience.
- All the 150 psalms though unique follow established literary patterns, and can be classified according to genre; temple entry liturgies, hymns, individual prayers, corporate prayers, thanksgivings, royal psalms and wisdom psalms
- They are full of liturgical expressions and ritual allusions
Conclusions:
- They are not ad hoc creations, but were written for recurring occasions.
- They were written to be performed, to be used in worship
- They were written to lead the worshiper into a direct and personal encounter with God They are not descriptive, but prescriptive – concerned with leading the worshippers´ prayers and worship, rather than the composer´s. (Not personal testimonies)
- Multiple troubles/enemies are included so that your situation might be covered.
- You identify with the I/we/they of the psalm. There are two character profiles: The righteous and the wicked. You identify with the righteous. The self-descriptions of the speaker as righteous (Psalm 18,20-24), or as a servant do not reflect the boasting of the composer, rather are to be adopted by the worshipper; if the psalm is to have its desired effect.
Usage:
They are written as liturgies to be used in temple worship, and worship on other occasions, clan gatherings etc.
What do we need to be careful of?
1. They are written in the preexilic period (most of them); revelation is progressive. In the preexilic time, evil was readily identified with Israel´s enemies. Psalms written in the post exilic period show more awareness of the fact that most evil comes from our own inner selves.
2. God’s presence resided in the temple; in the later psalms, there was cognition of the fact that God doesn’t live in a temple made with hands.
This approach to reading the Psalms is taken from Professor Craig C. Broyles book Psalms (The New International Commentary), which I can recommend!