Reading the Psalms

For the past couple of days I have been posting devotionals from the Psalms.  I love the Psalms because of their raw emotion and honestly.  John Calvin wrote, “I may truly call this book (the Psalms) an anatomy of all the parts of the soul, for no one can feel a moment of the spirit which is not reflected in the mirror.  All sorrows, troubles, fears, doubts, hopes, pain, perplexities and stormy outbreaks by which the hearts of men are tossed have been depicted here to the very life.” 

C.S. Lewis also writes, “Most emphatically the Psalms must be read as poems; as lyrics, with all incense and all formalities, the hyperbole's, the emotional rather than the logical connections, which are proper to lyric poetry.” 

These men are essentially saying, the Psalms are meant to speak to the heart more than the head.  We are not necessarily meant to read them as intellectual observations as much as we are to observe the raw emotion as the Psalmists speak  through them and speak to our souls.  

There are five types of Psalms represented in the Bible.

1. Historical – Reflecting on what God has done in the life of the Psalmist or the nation of Israel.
2. Messianic – Anticipation of what God is going to do through the Messiah;  His suffering and His glory
3. Prophetic – What is yet to come.
4. Penitential – Deep confession of sin and brokenness.
5. Imprecatory – Imploring God to take vengeance on the enemies of his people.

The Psalms reflect or stir up  a certain emotion and they can be easily applied in our lives today.  However, we do need to be careful in reading, interpreting and applying certain Psalms to our everyday life.  We need to pay particular attention in regards to imprecatory Psalms which call down curses on the wicked, because many of them were written specifically by  Jews (often in times of war) and were applicable only for the Jews.

I just wanted to pause and give a little insight to the Psalms and as I continue to write devotionals from the Psalms, hopefully this little introduction to reading the Psalms can be helpful to to you.