PSALMS
The Psalms, compiled and edited over a long period of time, is the Hebrew hymnbook.People for generations have turned to a psalm for comfort, peace, and encouragement.
Here is a variety of praises, prayers, and songs that serve several purposes: to remind Israel of its history (78, 105, 106), to offer blessings and curses (35, 69, 109, 137), to repent of sin (6, 32, 38, 51, 102), to encourage those on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (48, 120-134), to praise God (8, 19, 69, 95-100, 146-150), to cry for help in times of trouble (3, 5, 7, 9-10).
There are psalms that are arranged in such a clever fashion that each stanza starts with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet (25, 34, 111, 112, 119). Christians look to some psalms to see hints of Jesus (22, 110).
The Psalms are gathered into five sections, each of which ends with a doxology—1-41, 42-72, 73-89, 90-106, 107-150. As you read them, consider the Psalms to be literary prayers. The literary part can be seen in the use of poetry here with an emphasis on parallelism, which uses pairs of lines with the second line either repeating the first or giving an opposite meaning. The emphasis on prayer is evident throughout the Psalms; as one person put it, “The rest of the Bible is God’s word to the world, and the Psalms are man’s word to God.”