Psalms Intro
Intro
The book of Psalms is a collection of song lyrics. Like many songs, they were first written in response to events in the lives of their authors. Later, the whole community used them in worship. When Israel returned from exile in Babylon many of the songs from over the centuries were collected in the book of Psalms.
The book is structured into five parts marked off by the phrase, Praise be to the Lord… Amen and Amen! These five “books” remind the reader of the five books of Moses. Like the law, these song lyrics can be read and studied for instruction. Psalm 1 emphasizes such meditation and seems to have been placed first to make this point.
The five books also tell a three-part story of Israel’s redemption: monarchy, exile and return. The psalms of King David dominate books one and two. The beginning and ending of book three highlight Israel’s exile. The fourth book ends with a plea that God bring the exiled people home. The fifth book declares that God has done just that. Now the reason for the group of praise psalms at the end of the book is apparent: God has been faithful, judging Israel in exile but then bringing the nation home again.
The book of Psalms thus operates at two levels: individually the songs explore a wide variety of honest spiritual responses to God, while the overall collection tells, and celebrates, the work of God in history to save his people.
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Psalms Intro: NIV
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The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
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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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