TPT The Book of Psalms-Part 2 (eBook)

LESSON 1

Welcome to the Book of Psalms

Lord, you know everything there is to know about me.

You perceive every movement of my heart and soul,

and you understand my every thought

before it even enters my mind.

You are so intimately aware of me, Lord.

You read my heart like an open book

and you know all the words I’m about to speak before I even start a sentence!

You know every step I will take before my journey even begins.

…Where could I go from your Spirit?

Where could I run and hide from your face?

If I go up to heaven, you’re there!

If I go down to the realm of the dead, you’re there too!

If I fly with wings into the shining dawn, you’re there!

If I fly into the radiant sunset, you’re there waiting!

Wherever I go, your hand will guide me;

your strength will empower me.

It’s impossible to disappear from you

or to ask the darkness to hide me,

for your presence is everywhere,

bringing light into my night.

—PSALM 139:1–4, 7–11

A passionate relationship with God is the heart-cry of every person, but many of us don’t know how to express our praise, our prayers, or our passion to God. When we face times of heartbreak, jubilation, confusion, loss, or thanksgiving, it may be difficult to find the words to share our thoughts and feelings with the Lord in prayer. The book of Psalms is a help and a comfort to all of us, for it allows us to pray and praise along with the writers as they express the deepest longings of their hearts and the most exuberant worship and thanks for God’s amazing work in their lives.

The book of Psalms is a model of praise and prayer that we can follow. In fact, many believers have prayed through the Psalms, making the passages their own as they use them to speak and cry out to God and listen for his voice as he speaks to them. Psalms is a collection of different groups of prayers and songs used by the people of God for centuries, beginning in Old Testament times. The word psalms comes from the Greek word psalmos, translated from the Hebrew word mizmor, which means “songs” or “a poem set to notes.”2 In the centuries before Jesus was born, the Psalms helped a largely illiterate population learn and remember God’s Word by setting his words to music. They also played a critical role in the community as the people came together to worship God in the temple as well as in the many synagogues.

• Have you ever had trouble finding the words to express your thoughts and feelings to God or difficulty putting language to your heart’s deepest feelings and concerns? Describe a time or two when this occurred.

• Did you find a way to get past this time? What did you do and learn from it?

Authorship

The Psalms were composed by a number of people who lived in Old Testament times: David wrote seventy-three psalms; his son, King Solomon, wrote two. Other authors include Asaph, the sons of Korah, Jeduthun, Heman, Etan, and Moses. The various psalms were collected over centuries, but most were written between the time of David’s reign (ca. 1000 BC) and Ezra’s ministry (ca. 450 BC).

The book of Psalms that we have in our Bibles today is a collection that is divided into five sub-collections, or books, which seem to relate to the Pentateuch—the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. The Pentateuch is a book of instruction for God’s people, just as the book of Psalms is a kind of instruction manual on worshiping God and going to him with our joys and sorrows.

A popular phrase some years ago provoked thought by asking, “What would Jesus do?”—enabling believers to consider different options when they faced confusion in life or had to make important decisions. As we read the book of Psalms, we could consider the question “How would David pray?” when we need help expressing our thoughts and feelings to the Lord.

• Have you ever used one or more of the psalms in the Bible to express your feelings to God? If so, what was the result? If you have not, do you think this would help you as you engage with God in prayer? In what ways?

Key Themes

The book of Psalms is a book of poetry, which is interpreted differently from other books in the Bible, such as a book of history (including Genesis or Exodus) or a letter of Paul. Poetry uses fluid language, including metaphors and poetic techniques that are not usually meant to be taken literally. The psalms express deep emotion and are typically meant to be read in a devotional way. Still, different psalms had different uses for the original worshipers, and they have different uses for us today. Many psalms are hymns of praise through which we join with the writer in acknowledging the greatness and the majesty of our God. Some are psalms of lament through which we express our sorrow for sin, a request for God to intervene in our life circumstances, a desire to see God’s enemies punished, or a plea to God for help. Other psalms include songs of thanksgiving, wisdom psalms meant to teach or instruct God’s people, or songs sung within God’s community as they gathered at the temple.

   WORD WEALTH

The Hebrew word Selah is found throughout the book of Psalms. Many people believe that it indicates a place to stop and think about what has just been read or spoken aloud. The translator of The Passion Translation has used the phrase “Pause in his presence” to indicate where this phrase is used in the Psalms. Here is what the translator, Brian Simmons, says about the translation of this word:

The Hebrew word Selah [is] a puzzling word to translate. Most scholars believe it is a musical term for pause or rest. It is used a total of seventy-one times in the Psalms as an instruction to the music leader to pause and ponder in God’s presence. An almost identical word, Sela, means a massive rock cliff. It is said that when Selah is spoken that the words are carved in stone in the throne room of the heavens.3

As you pause in God’s presence throughout this study, consider how God also pauses to listen to you.

A Mirror into Our Souls

The book of Psalms is a beautiful, eloquent collection of patterns for prayer. Essentially, in Psalms, prayer has been married to poetry, and here, we find expression for all the emotions of life. The fourth-century church father Athanasius wrote this about the book of Psalms:

Among all the books [of the Bible], the Psalter has certainly a very special grace, a choiceness of quality well worthy to be pondered; for, besides the characteristics which it shares with others, it has this peculiar marvel of its own, that within it are represented and portrayed in all their great variety the movements of the human soul. It is like a picture, in which you see yourself portrayed, and seeing, may understand and consequently form yourself upon the pattern given. Elsewhere in the Bible you read only that the Law commands this or that to be done, you listen to the Prophets to learn about the Savior’s coming, or you turn to the historical books to learn the doings of the kings and holy men; but in the Psalter, besides all these things, you learn about yourself. You find depicted in it all the movements of your soul, all its changes, its ups and downs, its failures and recoveries. Moreover, whatever your particular need or trouble, from this same book you can select a form of words to fit it, so that you do not merely hear and then pass on, but learn the way to remedy your ill.4

John Calvin wrote this about Psalms, calling it “an anatomy of parts of the soul”:

There is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.5

• What is your favorite psalm? Why?

   EXPERIENCE GOD’S HEART

Any good relationship requires a give-and-take in communication. One person talks, and another person listens and responds. The entire Bible consists of God’s Word to us. We listen to his words, learn from his teaching, and consider the lives of God’s people who have gone before us. The book of Psalms adds a dimension to this that the other books of Scripture do not. In Psalms, we hear God’s people using words to reach out to the Lord. Other books of the Bible contain divine encounters and some occasional prayers, but no other solely comprises prayers and praises to God as Psalms does. Consequently, through this book, we can learn how to respond to God and answer his words to us. His Word is not meant for us to simply read and then set aside; we are to answer him in prayer and in actions as we pursue a personal relationship with him that fulfills the deepest longings of our heart.

• What deep emotions have you struggled to express to God?

• How do you anticipate the book of Psalms helping you with your prayer life and your worship of the Lord?

   SHARE GOD’S HEART

Praising and worshiping God are meant not only to be individual efforts but also to be a community undertaking. The same is true of prayer. It surely is important to cultivate your own times of prayer and worship with the Lord, but we...