The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, (Psalm 23).
The probabilities are high that if you are reading this, you are familiar with the 23rd Psalm. It might be the best-known passage of the Bible out of the entire book. But did you know that it is actually the lyrics to a song? That is what the entire book of Psalms contains. They are 150 sets of lyrics to songs that were sung in the Temple, both during the time of David, and during the time of the Second Temple. In all likelihood, they were also sung in synagogues at the time and Jesus might have sung this one in the synagogue in Nazareth growing up.
Over the next few weeks, I am going to be teaching through some of the classic psalms at Highline Community Church. I’m calling the series “God’s Greatest Hits” because that is what the book of Psalms contains. When the Jews were putting together the canon of the Old Testament, they were compiling a group of documents that included a category they called “The Writings”. Along with the Law and the Prophets, the Writings were part of the eventual compilation that is known as the Tanakh. Christians call it the Old Testament. The word Tanakh is actually derived from an acrostic of the first letters of the three divisions noted above. T is for Torah (Law), N is for Nev’im (Prophets), and K is for Ketuvim (Writings).
I find the psalms to be the primary way I connect with God at a relational level. Almost 45 years ago, my dearest friend gave me my first Bible and challenged me to read five psalms a day. I did that for many years, until I wanted to slow down and reflect a bit, at which point I divided the 150 sets of lyrics into five sets of 30 and began reading one psalm a day that correlated to the day’s date.
Psalms span the breadth of the human experience and probably surprise most people who read them for the first time, who come to them with a preconceived notion of how we are to relate to God. The Psalmist, whether David, Solomon, Moses, The Sons of Korah, Asaph, Heman, or the anonymous writers (composers?) praised God in these songs. The name of the book in the Tanakh is “tehellim”, which translates as “praises”. Our word “psalm” comes from the Greek psalmoi, which means “songs sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments.” But they are not all “praises”.
Along with songs of adoration, the psalms contain songs that have been labeled “psalms of lament”. Sometimes they are called “psalms of complaint”. Check out Psalm 42. The writer is feeling a complete absence of God’s presence and he is lamenting. “Why are you so downcast, o my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” The writer (one of the Sons of Korah) is depressed and anxious. And he tells God how he is feeling in song. Bono does a nice job on one of these in U2’s “Psalm 40”. He sings, “I waited patiently for the Lord…” and in the chorus he asks the psalmist’s question: “How long?” In other words, “When are you going to show up God?”
Some of the psalms are Messianic. They contain prophecies of the coming of the future Messiah. Consider Psalm 110, where the writer quotes God saying, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘come sit at my feet until I make your enemies your footstool’.” Or check out Psalm 22, which Jesus quoted from the cross, and you will find a vivid description of crucifixion written almost a thousand years before the Romans “invented” it.
Some psalms express anger, either at an enemy or at God himself. One of the greats is Psalm 137. It was either written at the time of the Jewish captivity in Babylon or on reflection after the writer’s return to Israel. It talks about the psalmist’s “captors” asking them to sing “one of those songs of Zion”. I love the version of this psalm done in Godspell. You might check it out. But imagine in its original setting that the Jewish musician said, “Sure, I’ll sing you one of those songs”. Then he sings in Hebrew, so that the Babylonians don’t know what he is singing, the final words of Psalm 137: “Happy is the one who smashes your babies on the rocks!” Not exactly what we expect to find in the Bible.
So I invite you to join me over the next few weeks to dig deeper into these great songs; God’s Greatest Hits. The Sunday teaching will live stream at www.highlinecc.org, or you can catch either audio or video by the end of each week at the same site under “Teaching”. But even if you don’t join the journey, I would encourage you to do one thing: Read the Psalms!
Here is the link to the teaching: http://highlinecc.org/?page_id=196