Page 48 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

1.) Hymns: songs for trouble-free times that typically celebrate God as Creator and as Redeemer
(29; 30; 34; 47; 103; 11; 118 148; 149 etc.)
2.) Laments: songs during times of disorientation when life is not well-ordered or oriented. They
answer the questions of “Who?”, ”What?” and “Why?” (3; 5; 6; 10; 13; 16; 22; 30; 38; 44; 88; etc.).
3.) Songs of Thanksgiving: songs to express joy and gratitude to God for his deliverance (18; 34;
66; 75; 116; etc.)
4.) Songs of Confidence: songs about personal trouble yet with undoubted assurance of God’s
help (16; 23; 27; 62; 91; 115; 125 131).
5.) Divine Kingship Songs: songs focusing on the kingship of God, his supremacy over other
gods, and his universal care of the nations (47; 93; 95; 96; 97; 98; 99; etc.).
6. Wisdom Songs: songs inviting the reader to make choices that lead to a truly happy life (19;
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32; 37; 112; 119; etc.

Since about 1980 many scholars have turned their attention to the Psalms as a collection put together
purposely. They have struggled to identify techniques that ancient writers used to place one psalm after
another. This discipline, called “canonical interpretation,” looks for connections between psalms Instead
of a haphazard arrangement.

As a relatively new approach, experts are still working to find clear structures that speak to a reader
about the theme and divisions of Psalms. Highly technical information we might find today (such as the
use of computers to analyze the original Hebrew of the psalms) was not available centuries ago. We
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want to be careful about imposing “an artificial order” on the text. Peter Ho finds 32 “formal and tacit”
(implied) techniques. His seven formal techniques are: book divisions, prologue (Ps 1-2), epilogue (Ps
146-150), symmetrical structures, Davidic collections, Elohistic/YHWH psalms, and acrostics and
alphabetical psalms. Not unlike other methods, the “canonical” approach can get really complicated.
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We wonder if the average reader in NT times would identify all the techniques. We would expect an
easily recognizable order.
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We find many personal expressions in individual psalms, but the poems are not so much about the
individual as about God and about the expectations of the individual as to how God might work. “The
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Poets of Israel did not make their national heroes, however great, the subjects of their verse.” While
rooted in real life events, experiences, the hero of the psalms is God. Thus, the Hebrew title means
“praises” or “songs of praise.” “Thanksgiving is the very life of the Psalms, even of those in which there
breathes most the language of complaint. ‘To the Glory of God’ might stand as the Inscription of each.”
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73 Mark D. Futato. Interpreting the Psalms (Grand Rapids: Kegel, 2007), 146-173.
74 Peter C. W. Ho. The Design of the Psalter (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2019), 40.
75 Ibid., 35.
76 We recognize that our presentation of Psalms goes against much that has been written in the last 100+ years.
Scholars have been stuck on ever more detailed analysis of Psalms into types of literature or original settings in
temple worship. Everyone admits to the complexity of the material. Some throw up their hands and assume no
overall arrangement, viewing most of the psalms as individual expressions. We agree with those who see a
diversion of effort from the real focus of Psalms. “Attempts to grapple with the Psalter’s shape essentially came to a
standstill for the better part of a century” (Cole, “Psalm 1 -2,” 184).
77 Perowne, J. J. Steward, The Book of Psalms (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976), 5.
78 Ibid., 71.
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