True & Beautiful Things About the Bible--Old Testamentಮಾದರಿ

Psalms: Worship God

You’re not crazy—life really is hard. The Psalms tell us it’s been hard since the beginning. The poems, prayers, and song lyrics all go like this: We’re in a spot. We need out. We need God.

The good news is, we need Him—and we have Him. He shows up throughout the Psalms—a constant reminder that He is with us. “He’s-got-this” presence is written over every situation. It welcomes us to worship God as God and lets us express our hearts, us as us.

These 150 poems of sorts address much of life’s drama. Half of them were written by David—and most of those while he was a fugitive on the run from mad King Saul. (Read them alongside 1 Samuel 19-30.) They let us in on what David and the other handful of writers were thinking and feeling and praying about, inside the narrative. While they hid in a cave (Ps 22), when they gazed at the stars (Ps 8, 19), when they sang and danced and beat a drum (Ps 100).

If you look closely at the beginning of every Psalm, you’ll see a line of instructions. These notes, often “to the choirmaster,” means the Psalms were meant to be sung. They are a Jewish songbook to keep you connected to God, meant to be hummed and whistled while doing chores or around the dinner table, on the road and in temple worship.

The Psalms are also divided into five smaller books (example: Psalm 1-41 is Book 1.) This arrangement loosely corresponds with the first five books of the Bible, what Jews call “the Pentateuch.” When these Bible books were taught in the temple, then songs from that book of Psalms were sung.

Book 1 (Psalm 1-41) highlights God’s creation and personal relationships, like in Genesis.

Book 2 (Psalm 42-72) focuses on God’s deliverance and sounds a lot like Exodus.

Book 3 (Psalm 73-89) explores the sanctuary of God and is more liturgical, like Leviticus.

Book 4 (Psalm 90-106) sadly reflects the rebellion of Numbers.

Book 5 (Psalm 107-150) takes the focus back to God’s Word like Deuteronomy.

How do you know when one book is ending and another begins? Look for a doxology—like, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel who alone does wondrous things . . .

The Psalms show us how to let the Lord know everything on our hearts—what breaks it, what stirs it, where our questions come from. They often express the moment our pain turns to gratitude, or our doubt turns to faith. They root us in our relationship with the Lord.

He is our Shepherd. Our Rock. Our Road. Our Father. Our Friend. And “we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.” Psalm 100:3

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