Psalm Introduction
Introduction
The book of Psalms is a collection of songs. These are the songs the people of Israel used to worship God. When Israel returned from exile in Babylon, many of the songs were collected. This is how the book of Psalms came to be. The songs are about many different things. Some are for praising God. Some are asking God for help when there is trouble. Some are about telling people that God is King.
The book is divided into five parts. Each part ends with “Give praise to the Lord” and “Amen and Amen.” The five parts are called Books. This reminds us of the first five books of the Bible. They are often called the Books of the Law. The words of the Psalms can be used like the law. They can be read and studied for instruction.
The five Books of Psalms also tell a story about Israel. That story has three parts. The first part of Israel’s story is found in Books 1 and 2 of the Psalms. Most of the psalms in these books were written by King David. The second part of Israel’s story is found in Books 3 and 4. They tell about Israel being defeated and taken away as prisoners and slaves. These Psalms ask God to bring Israel back home. Book 5 states that God has brought his people back home. This book ends with a group of praise psalms. God has been faithful. He judged his people by allowing them to be taken away as prisoners. But now God has allowed his people to return home again.
Each Psalm tells how people respond to God in different ways. We can read them to help us as we respond to God ourselves. We can also look at the way the whole book is put together. This helps us learn the story of Israel. It shows us that God keeps his promises to his people.
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Psalm Introduction: NIrV
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Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Psalms Intro
Intro
About the Book of Psalms
Psalms contains 150 songs in 5 books.
Book 1: Psalms 1-41
Book 2: Psalms 42-72
Book 3: Psalms 73-89
Book 4: Psalms 90-106
Book 5: Psalms 107-150
Most of the psalms show the name of the writer at the top. King David wrote many of them. He lived almost 1,000 years before Jesus Christ.
The writers wrote the psalms for several different purposes. In some psalms, they remembered what God had done for his people in the past. There are happy psalms that praise God because he is great and good. In other psalms, the writers pray to God for help and they ask him to save them. Sometimes they pray that God will forgive them for the bad things that they have done. In some psalms, the writers ask God to destroy their enemies. Many of the psalms look to future times when God's special King, the Messiah, will rule everything.
The psalms show how God worked in the lives of his people. They include many things that still happen in the lives of people today. Many people find help as they read the Psalms. We can read them when we are happy and we want to praise God. We can also read them if we are sad and we want God to help us. If we trust God, we know that he will help us in our trouble.
The psalms tell us how great and powerful God is. They show us that bad things make him angry. They also show how much he loves us.
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