When I first began reading the Bible as a young believer in my teens, so much of it seemed foreign. Even though I’d grown up going to religious schools, this act called “quiet time” was strange and new to me. I wanted to encounter Jesus regularly. Yet the Psalms in particular presented a challenge. Other than Psalm 2, 22, 110, and a handful of others quoted in the New Testament, I did not know how the rest of the Psalter spoke of Christ. Am I the only one?
Most of us love the book of Psalms. When we only have 15 minutes before heading out the door on a busy morning, we turn to one of these songs of devotion. They can speak to us in our sorrow or joy, and lead us into the Lord’s presence in profound ways. Yet as I have grown in my understanding of the Word, I have learned the importance of interpreting a Psalm in its original context before venturing to say how it points to Christ. And only once I have taken these two crucial steps am I able to then apply it to my own life. As I have made this a practice in my walk with God, this process has enriched my communion with Jesus Christ through this songbook of the children of Israel. Here are 3 principles that have helped me to better understand and subsequently benefit from the psalms in my personal reflections and study.
1. Reading Poetry Well
First, developing a deeper understanding of poetry as a literary genre will help open the Scriptures to us. A poem is a meeting of minds, where the poet expresses his vision of reality to develop a relationship with us. “Will you come into my world?” A poem tries to connect. It is a persuasive tool.
So, because the Psalms are poetry, we need a different set of tools to understand them than when we read prose. Verse stirs us at a level other than the purely cerebral. The psalmist works through the mind to the level of our emotions, affections, and will. Here we engage with more than mere information. We witness a commitment between the author and the reader. He speaks to us and invites us to share our own thoughts. We need to listen to him not only on the level of the intellect, but also on the level of the heart. We need to put ourselves in his place. And we need to try to feel what he feels so that we can worship our God as he does.
The question to ask, then, is “Why?” What drove the author to compose this poem? Why did he express himself in this way? What emotions is he conveying? What emotion was he seeking to evoke in his hearers? Can you identify some key structural markers that show us where the author is taking us? Are there geographic clues? Changes in time? Changes in the person speaking? In the person being addressed? Intentional pauses in the flow, like the term “Selah”? Equally helpful is considering the poetic devices the author employs, be they vivid imagery, parallelism, acrostic, etc.
2. Finding Your Place in the Psalms
Have you ever heard the saying, “The Bible doesn’t revolve around you”? Well, this is true. The Bible is primarily the story of a holy God who glorifies himself in the salvation of sinners. Yet we are part of the drama of redemption. And the Psalms in particular give us the script to express what is deep within us. So, the Psalms revolve around God, but in a way, they revolve around us as well!
Before reading a psalm as the cry of my own heart, however, I need to get to know the human author. I need to understand what he was going through that made him write it. I need to dig a little deeper to find this context and discover what it meant to his original audience. After all, the psalmist did not write in his diary to keep his meditation between him and the Lord. He wrote so that his words might become part of the collection of songs of the people of Israel. And one day, of ours, too. The psalms were the hymn book and prayer book that Jesus knew and used, and they’re our heritage as well.
A few Psalms open with a superscript that describes the events taking place in the author’s life at the time of writing. Most, however, do not provide us with this information. (The superscript is the heading of a Psalm, which is part of the inspired text, unlike the editor’s titles on most chapters of the Bible). In the latter case, the Psalm itself, by its message, should point us to its context. Is David fleeing from his enemies? Is he celebrating the LORD in his sanctuary? These details, contained in the body of the Psalm, will help us find its context.
3. Finding Christ in the Psalms
Once we understand the context and what the Psalm meant to its original audience, we can look for the bridge to the cross. How do we see Jesus in this Psalm? We can look for him in two ways. First, he was the object of the praises of his people. Everything the Psalms say about Yahweh is also true about our Lord Jesus Christ. The Psalms, what’s more, express the cries and worship of the Son to the Father. Secondly, the suffering that the psalmist speaks of prefigures Christ. The trials that the authors of many of the Psalms experienced are a foretaste of the suffering that Jesus would endure for his elect.
The study of poetic literature is a huge field of research, and I realize I have only scratched the surface. I am no expert in Hebrew poetry, and I know I have a long way to go in understanding and applying the Psalms to my own life. But with the use of these principles, I’ve seen the Psalms come alive and usher me into the presence of Christ in rich ways. May this be the case for you as well. [1]
[1] I am indebted to David Jackman and the lecture he gave as part of a Charles Simeon Trust online course on Wisdom Literature.
