One of the first steps to interpreting a passage is understanding its context. This is true of any literary genre, but when studying poetry in general and the Psalms in particular, we must take into consideration six individuals or groups of people by asking the following questions:
1. What did this Psalm mean to the author?
Some Psalms tell us who the author is. Many do not. Some offer clues about what he is going through in the superscript. Others disclose these details through the poem or song itself. The author may describe a flight from enemies, a pilgrimage to the temple for a feast, or an experience of extreme distress. A careful reading of the text may help us recognize some of these contextual elements.
2. What did this Psalm mean to the original audience?
The book of Psalms is organized into five books, which take us progressively through the history of the nation of Israel. For example, Book 1 focuses on David’s struggle with his enemies. And Book 5 focuses on the post-exilic nation’s hope in a coming King. Therefore, when we read a Psalm, we will better understand its original audience if we interpret it in light of its placement in the book of Psalms. Because not only is each individual Psalm inspired, but so is the process by which the Psalter was organized into its final form at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
And sometimes understanding the placement of a Psalm in relation to those before and after the one we are studying will help us recognize its context and themes as well. A good commentary or Bible dictionary may prove helpful in discovering some of these themes and connections.
3. How does this Psalm speak of Jesus Christ?
How does this Psalm point to Christ by either direct prophecy or through themes that recur throughout Scripture? For example, many psalms express words that Christ would have prayed to the Father or that we would pray to him. Others express words of praise that highlight his attributes. Through the use of typology, others express David’s flight from his enemies as a type that points both backward to his ancestors and their experience before their enemies and forward to David’s Son, who would experience similar opposition.
4. What does this Psalm mean to the New Testament authors?
How would the apostles, those who penned the New Testament, have understood this text? Because they were emphatically Christocentric. Did they quote or allude to the psalm I’m studying? Did Christ?
5. What does this Psalm mean to me?
Once I have studied a text through these different layers of context, I can then ask myself how it speaks to my present reality as a married woman with two daughters living in Montreal, Quebec. Because God has something to say to me through this word, a message the purpose of which is transformation and not merely information transfer.
6. What did this Psalm mean to the Church?
I believe it is essential for us to interpret and apply the Bible in community, especially in the West, where we tend to read the Scriptures individualistically.
I should ask myself what a text means not only to me, but to us, Christ’s covenant people. And when I ask myself this question, I should think of both my local church and the church throughout the world and throughout the corridors of time. Because I have lenses through which I view the world. I have much to learn by listening to those who have interpreted a Psalm in light of their own realities, be they Christians in China facing persecution today or be they 16th-century Reformers defending the truths of Scripture before great opposition.
