Gerhard Pfandl and Ángel M. Rodríguez
The book of the Psalms contains some of the most inspiring subject matter in Scripture. It is more often quoted in the NT than any other book and is revered by Christians up to the present time. Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes focus on the Hebrew concept of wisdom (ḥokmĕh), a word indicating both the intellectual and moral traditions of ancient Israel. Be-cause Israel’s wisdom belonged to the larger context of the ancient Near East, we find in the biblical wisdom literature some parallels to the sayings of Egyptian and Mesopotamian sages.
The book of Psalms and the wisdom literature in the Bible are the work of a number of authors; the whole collection was probably brought together in its final form in the time of Ezra and of Nehemiah. Since these books were written in poetic form, the interpreter needs to take note of the characteristics of Hebrew poetry.
The book of Psalms is a collection of inspired Hebrew prayers and hymns, seventy-three of which are ascribed to King David. While the psalms primarily contain words spoken to God or about God, they are, at the same, time God’s words to His people; they focus on the relation-ship between God and His children. Psalms, therefore, contains hymns of praise for God’s great deeds; laments in which people pour out their hearts in times of trouble; and prayers for God’s guidance and help in the journey of life. They reflect the faith experience of the people of God prior to the first coming of Christ, but they are not time-bound. All the psalms were, and still are, used in private devotions and in public worship. They played an important part in the temple service down to its destruction in A.D. 70.
Because there are very few clues to their historical setting, they are, in a sense, universal. They speak to, and for, typical human situations and, therefore, have the capacity to speak to human beings in any age.
Because the psalms are poems—musical poems, they require special care when interpreted. Their poetic character is not obvious in translation, because, in contrast to western poetry, Hebrew poetry has no rhyme. Much of the language in the psalms is intentionally emotive; the interpreter, therefore, needs to be careful not to search for special meanings in every word or phrase in which the author has intended none. Furthermore, because the language of the psalms is largely metaphorical, the interpreter must look for the intent of the metaphors and not stop at their literal meaning. Mountains do not really skip like rams (Ps 114:4); nor should God’s people be or act like sheep (Ps 23).