An Introduction to the Old Testament - Psalms

Dillard, Raymond B. & Longman, Tremper III. "Psalms."  An Introduction to the Old Testament.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1994.  211-234.

The Psalms attract a great deal of attention from Christians.  On the surface, we love the Psalms.  "When examined closely, however, the Psalter surprises us and we have difficulty understanding its message" (p. 211).  Consider the claims of psalmists to holiness.  Consider Psalm 137.8-9 where we seem to rejoice in the destruction of Babylonian infants.  Certainly the content is harder to understand than we might think.

We see that the Psalter is a collection of individual psalms.  It thus has very little historical or literary cohesiveness.  There are many different authors spread over a very long period of time.  There are psalms we cannot date.  Some psalms have ascriptions which may or may not be part of the original composition.  Ultimately we have to consider the Psalms as a collection of individual works, mostly nonspecific in their historical or cultural setting, all testifying to something about our Lord.

Scholars tend to divide the Psalms into seven different genres.  The Psalter does not seem to be arranged by genre, but we can identify different types of psalms throughout the collection.  The most common three genres are hymns of joy, laments, and thanksgivings.  Of the three genres, laments tend to have a specific form, while the others do not.  The less common four genres are psalms of confidence, psalms of remembrance, wisdom psalms, and kingship psalms.

(p. 225) "The evidence supports a picture of the Psalter as an open, dynamic book during the canonical period.  Individual psalms were composed and added over a thousand-year period."

The Psalter has approximately as little theological cohesiveness as it does historical or literary cohesiveness.  Throughout the Psalter we see prayers which cry out to God and depend on his mercy.  But we do not see any sort of systematic teaching.  We see God's special presence in his appointed places.  We see God working in history.  We see God imposing his Law on people.  We see the exaltation of a kingdom - temporally of David's kingdom, eternally of God's kingdom and the Davidic heir.  We see God as the one who fights on behalf of his people.  

As we consider the New Testament we see a vital relationship between the Psalter and the authors of the New Testament.  Jesus and the apostles quote the Psalms to document just about every concept they talk about.  No other book except Isaiah even comes close to the same frequency of quotation in the New Testament.  

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com