Understanding the Psalms

We have seen that Saul did not care about God and had no concern for spiritual things. When the ark came back into the land he leaves it sitting out in a field during his whole reign. He doesn’t care about the ark, he doesn’t try to rebuild the tabernacle, he doesn’t try to build a temple, he has no concern for that at all; yet it is David who as soon as he gained victory in Jerusalem and takes it away from the Jebusites, he immediately moves the ark to Jerusalem, and then he wants to build a house for the Lord. This is the context that backs up II Samuel chapter seven where God makes His covenant with David.

The interesting thing contextually is that it is when David brings the ark into Jerusalem that he begins to develop the corporate worship of the nation through the singing and the hymns. One of the things we should note is that when we have all of the mandates in the Mosaic law for worship there is no mention of singing. It is not instituted there. It is never instituted, it is as it is always supposed to be, a response to what God has done in our life. That is how hymnody developed. The song of Miriam in Exodus and the song of Moses were written as responses to what God had done in their life. David is the first one who begins to institutionalize and build formal choirs, and he does this and sets them up to sing the psalms antiphonally as they bring the ark into Jerusalem. One of the major themes throughout all of the psalms is that God’s name should be sanctified and that His should cease to be tarnished and treated lightly by mankind. One of the major issues throughout the all of the psalms is the idea that there is evil in the world and yet God is working to solve evil. This brings up the whole problem of evil.

There is an argument that if God is omnipotent, omniscient and holy then evil ought not to exist. But it does, therefore the God you say exists must not exist. The problem is in the last assumption there, that God is holy and doesn’t want evil. The point in the psalms is that God is continuously working in an evil world to redeem it. Man’s assumption is that God doesn’t want evil and he is going to remove it on man’s timetable. But God has a different timetable, He is working out His purposes in human history and He is removing evil. The whole plan of salvation is to ultimately redeem the entire universe and to remove evil and sin from it.

The Davidic covenant

God is going to make a covenant with David in 2 Samuel chapter seven and this covenant is so important that it is repeated three times in the Scriptures. It is stated in 1 Chronicles chapter seventeen, Psalm 89 and in 2 Samuel 7:5ff. After David conquers Jerusalem he wants to build God a house. But God reminds David that in the plan of God David’s role is to be a man of war, not a man of peace. Instead of David building God a house God is going to make David’s lineage a house. God wants a peaceful person to build the house and that will be Solomon. In the context of this God refers to David several times by an important phrase. 2 Samuel 7:5 ^NASB “Go and say to My servant David…” This is a special title that is only used for a very elite minority in the Scriptures. This is the ideal for the spiritual life in the Old Testament. The second part of the Abrahamic covenant is, “I will give you a seed.” That is expanded in the Davidic covenant. The land covenant, Davidic covenant and the New covenant all are expansions of sections of the Abrahamic covenant, so therefore they relate to that concept of a royal land treaty/royal grant treaty which is a special blessing given to a faithful servant.

The application for this is the parable where the Lord talks about the land owner who leaves and give responsibility to his servants. And when he comes back one of his servants hasn’t done anything with it, another has made a little bit, and one has made a lot. The Lord said to the last one, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” This is what we want to hear from the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ, so what this is a picture of is the believer’s rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. When the believer has a faithful life on earth and is obedient to the Lord then there are special blessings reserved in heaven for that believer throughout all eternity. This foreshadows that and how God treats “my servant” in the Old Testament.

2 Samuel 7:5 ^NASB “Go and say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Are you the one who should build Me a house to dwell in? [6] For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; but I have been moving about in a tent, even in a tabernacle. [7] Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’ [8] Now therefore, thus you shall say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people Israel.’”

The Bible needs to be interpreted in the time in which it was written. If we looked at the social structure of Israel in terms of all their prejudices and biases, if we went to the bottom rung of the social ladder and dropped to about ten feet below ground level; that is where the shepherd belonged. There was no one in their society looked down upon like the shepherd. For God to take that shepherd and elevate him to the highest level of society indicates that God does not look on them outside but on the inside, and the issue is positive volition. Because David came out of the sheepfold he has learned humility, grace orientation, and he trusted God. He had learned to meditate on God and to learn about Him, and that prepared him for his future.

In the Davidic covenant God outlines several promises to David. 2 Samuel 7:9 “I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth.” He begins in the past tense; this is what God has done for David. The great King is rehearsing the blessing that He has bestowed upon His vassal. Then notice the shift to the future tense: “I will make you a great name.” [10] “I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, [11] even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you.”

Then there is a shift. 2 Samuel 7:12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.” This is a prophecy related to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a double fulfillment: initially Solomon; ultimately the Lord Jesus Christ. [13] “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” That is where it moves from Solomon in the first part to the Lord Jesus Christ in the second part. [14] “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me…” This is a reference to the house as a whole. Notice how v. 14 cannot be a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ: “… when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men,.” He is talking about the house of David as a whole, all of his descendants. [15] “but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took {it} away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.” So God’s faithfulness will always extend to the Davidic house. [16] “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”

If we are to interpret this literally, then even though right now there is not a Davidic throne in Jerusalem, for God to be faithful to His promise He must restore someone to that throne and there must be a literal king on a literal throne in Jerusalem. Part of this has been fulfilled literally; the future must also be fulfilled literally. For example, God promised to give David a great name. This is fulfilled in 2 Samuel 8:13. He promises David to extend the borders of the land. In 2 Samuel 8 is the rehearsal of all of David’s conquests and how he pushed the borders of Israel almost to the greatest extent they ever had. But it still doesn’t go all the way to the boundaries that God had promised Abraham. God promised to give David rest at the end of his life, and this is fulfilled in 1 Kings 5:4. God fulfilled those promises literally and precisely, so if He fulfilled part of the covenant then to be consistent we must interpret the yet to be fulfilled promises in a literal manner.

The promises to be fulfilled after his death are that he would have an eternal seed. Never before had a dynasty been promised an eternal prosperity or to have an eternal kingdom, an eternal dynasty. What this means is that there would always be a descendant of David on the throne. This becomes the tangible symbol of the covenant. Jesus is the last descendant of David, but Jesus was crucified so it seemed as though the covenant was over with. Jesus came back at the resurrection and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father’s throne (not on the throne). Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. Why? Because his father Joseph is the legal descendant of David but he comes through the line of Coniah. In Jeremiah 22:30 is the Coniah curse: “Write this man childless … no man is his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.” His line goes down to Joseph. Mary is the descendant of another child of David so Jesus traces His lineage back through Mary’s lineage. The point is that Jesus is both by adoption to Joseph a legal heir to the throne and by His physical lineage through Mary He is doubly qualified, doubly an heir to the throne of David. Secondly, there is a promise of an eternal throne in Jerusalem. That will come about in the future during the Millennial reign, and that is also an eternal kingdom for Israel.

The Psalms

The psalms have always been richly appreciated by the people of God because they speak to the very core of our experience. We see how they work through our problems by applying doctrine. As we read the psalms we see how the writer will think though logically, especially about the character of God and how different attributes of God are applied to particular problems in order to provide problem solving in terms of the faith-rest drill.

They were written by many different people. David writes most of them but not all of them. They are the hymns that the Jews sang. They are divided into five books and the last psalm or last verse in each book is a benediction or a blessing.

Book One: Psalms 1-41. At the end of Psalm 41 we read: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, From everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.”

Book Two: Psalms 41-72. This ends with vv. 19, 20: “And blessed be His glorious name forever; And may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen, and Amen. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” Verse 19 is the benediction; verse 20 is not true in our selection of the psalms because Psalms 142 & 143 are also written by David. What this tells us is that at an earlier stage in the collection of the psalms there was a selection where all the psalms of David were in the fist 72 psalms. Then as other psalms were written by other people throughout the history of Israel those were added and the selection was rearranged and there is a different form today than it was at one particular time. This relates to what is called the progress of revelation.

Book Three: Psalms 73-89. This ends with the benediction, “Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and Amen.”

Book Four: Psalms 90-106. It ends with “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say, ‘Amen.’ Praise the LORD!” The term “Praise the Lord” is one we find frequently in the Psalms, and in the Hebrew it is the word “hallelujah.” “Jah” is the abbreviated form of Yahweh: hallelu is the imperative form of the word hallel, to pray. It is a command; it is not declarative sentence as so many Christians use it.

Book Five: Psalms 107-150. Psalm 150, the last psalm is just one long extended benediction or praise to the Lord.

Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse.

Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre.

Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe.

Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!

The nature of Hebrew poetry is based on two things: rhythm and parallelism. The most important feature is parallelism. In English when we write a poem often there is a rhyming of words and there is similarity of sound and vocalization of words. In Hebrew there is a rhyming of paralleling mirroring of ideas from sentence to sentence. So it is not a rhyming of words but ideas. There are various different types of parallelism.

1. Synonymous parallelism. In the first line the point is stated and in the second line it is repeated in almost exactly the same way. It will pick up similar nuances. What is interesting is that when synonyms are used sometimes one word is broader than the word that is used in the next paragraph. Examples: Psalm 2:1 “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing?” This pictures how through all of history nations are antagonistic to God and portrayed as being in conflict with God. In the second line the uproar is defined as vain planning. They are trying to do something they will never accomplish; they are trying to act like God. Verse 2: “The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, [3] Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”

2. Emblematic parallelism. In this the first line states the concept and then the second line will picture, illustrate or elucidate what is said in the first line. It doesn’t just restate it, it goes on to develop it a little further. Example: Psalm 23:1, “The LORD is my shepherd…” Then there is the expansion of it, “I shall not want.”

3. Synthetic parallelism. A point is stated in the first line and then expanded in the second line. Psalm one.

4. Antithetical parallelism. The two lines contrast with one another. Psalm 1:6, “For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.”

More than fifty per cent of the Old Testament is in poetry, so to understand these dynamics of Hebrew poetry really helps to understand what is going on as we read the Scripture on our own.