When Paul urges Christians to, ‘Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’ (Eph 5:19) we might wonder what he’s getting at. Are these all the same, or is there a distinction? We know the early church composed hymns – and surely people made up beautiful songs – why continue with ancient Psalms? The previous post noted their liturgical purpose (that is, to be used for corporate and public worship). Yet many Psalms were originally written from intensely personal experiences questioning and re-assessing one’s relationship with God: passionate, desperate, joyful, anguished, indignant. Every deep human emotion came into play. How did this translate into worship?
The communal cultures of the Ancient Near East believed that one’s deep, inner emotions needed to be shared with others, not kept inside – grieving was done together, so was celebrating, so was prayer, fasting, expressing anguish or shame, and of course repentance. These were corporate acts. And Psalms were a means of assisting God’s people in expressing their experience together. Perhaps this explains why Jesus cried out his anguish in the words of a Psalm (22:1) while hanging on the cross.
There are so many types: psalms of pilgrimage, thanksgiving, lament, kingship, praise… used in a wide variety of contexts, but not in the way we so often use them today: individual reading and silent meditation. Written copies of Psalms would have been very rare. They’d have been read aloud in assemblies, heard, chanted, repeated – and mainly sung! And with singing comes memorising – just as we easily memorise our favourite pop-tunes today, especially when the lyrics are poetic.
We resonate with rhyme, but Hebrew poetry had its own unique features – most notably ‘parallelism’: two lines expressing the same idea (or its contrast). ‘The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble’ (Psalm 9:9). While deeply personal, they were masterly crafted to resonate with everyone! ‘I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping’ (6:6). We can all relate.
As literature, Psalms is actually 5 different books compiled, shaped and crafted over 400 years – probably not completed until the third century BC. Although nearly half are ascribed to David (others to Asaph, sons of Korah, many anonymous), authorship is ambiguous. A Psalm of David might mean ‘written by’, ‘concerning’, or ‘of the house of David’.
Nevertheless… ‘We shall go out with joy!’ Hallelujah.
