Come Follow Me— Psalms

I have a plugin that will make Bible passages function as popups when you mouse over them, no need to click. However, it only works if there is a verse as well as a chapter number. So in many of the references below, where I intended the whole Psalm, I’ve had to add a “:1” to the reference make the popup work. 

Psalms is one of the most-often quoted books in the New Testament. Psalm 110:4, in fact, is the most alluded-to passage in the New Testament. (The other two books quoted most often are Deuteronomy and Isaiah.)

For Latter-day Saints, Psalms is one of those many books we have a strong tradition… of ignoring.  Yet, said President Benson,

The psalms in the Old Testament have a special food for the soul of one in distress.

How so? Well, Psalms are often prayers, songs, or both. They praise, ask, censure, worship, question, plead, and express frustration. Are you angry at God? So are some of the Psalms. Are you frustrated at how the wicked seem to prosper, while your own efforts at “living right” seem fruitlessly? There are Psalms expressing this frustration to God; I particularly like Psalm 73:1. Are you depressed? There are Psalms for that.

I think Psalms is a vastly underused pastoral resource, because we don’t know them. And that’s a shame. Among others, my favorites are Psalm 51 (that’s an entire post) because of the beautiful music and moving lyrics, and Psalm 73:1.

If I were a Bishop, during the OT year, I think I’d assign “talks” that included reading one or two thematic Psalms over the pulpit every Sunday, probably in a modern translation that was sensitive to literary aspects like Robert Alter’s (here piecemeal or here with the whole megillah .) And that’s because, the Psalms are highly literary poetry.

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Psalms as poetry

As with any genre, understanding its conventions will help you at least appreciate its artistry.

The main thing to understand about Hebrew and other ancient Near Eastern poetry is that its primary building block is not assonance or rhyme, but parallelism and repetition of various kinds. While not all the parallelism present translates well or at all, semantic parallelism most definitely comes through in translation. That is, you say X, then you repeat X with a term that means roughly the same thing, e.g.  line 1 will say “my brother” and line 2 will say “my mother’s son” referring to the same guy.

You will best understand and appreciate the poetry of Psalms in a translation newer than the KJV (although sometimes it captures things quite well.) Again, Robert Alter  is a professor of both literature and Hebrew (linked above) but any newish Bible translation that I recommend will be useful: Jewish translation, NRSV, etc.

The best place to start getting a handle on the nature of the poetry is

• Kevin Barney’s award-winning Ensign article on Understanding Old Testament Poetry. (LDS.org link, PDF.) As a side note, I wish the Liahona still did things like this, both in terms of holding article contests and this kind of scriptural depth.
  • See also his article on poetic word pairs from The Maxwell Institute. Link
• For follow-up, here is the Anchor Bible Dictionary article on parallelism (pdf).
• And there’s a section of my Sperry Symposium screencast on Reading the Old Testament in Context that talks about poetry.

In terms of books, here’s what I’d recommend.

• Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry
• James Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History
• And for the advanced student looking to dig, no Hebrew is necessary but the book is Hebrew-based. Adele Berlin,The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism (Logos too, on sale.)
  This is what we were assigned in Hebrew class at the University of Chicago. Berlin is the author of the ABD article above.

Our KJV does not set off poetry at all or indicate where the prose changes to poetry, but the vast majority of prophesy is delivered as poetry. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, etc., are nearly entirely poetry. Most Bible translations today will do something like set off the parallel lines to indicate a poetic section, as in the Isaiah passage below from the JPS Translation (found in the Jewish Study Bible.) Note the differences between the prose of v.5 and 11, verses the poetic parallel lines in between 5-11.

Psalms as… what now?

Our English name “Psalms” derives from Greek, psalmos “a song sung to a harp.” However, in Hebrew it’s variously termed

1. “praises”Heb. tehillim pronounced tə-hill-EEM related to hallelujah (see Psalm 111:1, Psalm 112:1, Psalm 113:1, Psalm 150:1)  or alternately
2. “prayers of David,” Heb. tephillot  per Psalm 72:20 tə-fill-OAT

Psalms as Israelite hymnbook
In my classes, I have sometimes related different portions of the Old Testament to various LDS books, as the analogy helps us understand their role and function.

Samuel-Kings is kind of like History of the Church. Leviticus and large portions of Numbers and Deuteronomy are a bit like the Church Handbook of Instructions or other Church handbooks, with detailed instructions on policies, laws, and how to perform various ordinances— the missionary “white bible”—  and under what circumstances. Important, but not terribly exciting to read through.

As for Psalms, it  is very much like the LDS Hymnbook. How so?

• The songs/Psalms represent a selection of what existed previously in oral form, and written second.
  • Our American hymnbook drew on preexisting hymns which people knew and sang (or prayed) before they were written down. It’s very likely the same with the Psalms.
•  The contents were written at different times by different people
  • Look at the bottom of an LDS hymn, and you can see who wrote the music, the lyrics, and when.
  •  Frequent attribution to King David, but see headings.
  • Psalms 42-49 attributed to sons of Korah.
• They’re divided into sections
  • In our hymnbook, these are thematic divisions, i.e. hymns for the sacrament, Christmas hymns, easter hymns, etc.
  • In Psalms, there are five divisions, with no apparent overriding theme. Psalms 1-41; 42-72; 73-89; 90-106; 107-150. Each group ends with small doxology or statement of praise to God.
• Some hymns are foreign, and have been borrowed with more or less adaptation.
  • We have many hymns written by Protestants, sometimes translated from German.
  • Psalm 29:1 is traditionally thought to have been lifted fairly directly from a Canaanite hymn to Baal, and the name of the deity changed. Psalm 104:1 comes fairly directly from an Egyptian hymn to the sun god.
• Paying attention to the lyrics/themes, there are some odd things, inconsistent, sometimes doctrinally at variance, present by nature of being archaic or borrowed or attributed.
  • For example, “How Firm a Foundation” contains the line, “What more can he say than to you he hath said?” Um, God has no more to say or reveal, really? What about line-upon-line? What about God “will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God”? It’s not a very LDS line, doctrinally speaking.
  • Psalm 82:1 portrays a council of divine beings. Psalm 93:1 hints strongly at a third creation account.
  • Contrast the “innocence” of David in Psa 18:1 with his extreme guilt in Psalm 51:1. Both are supposedly David.
• Modifications over time to make them more comfortable/”orthodox”/keep with with cultural sensitivities.
  • I am a Child of God has been changed recently to emphasize doing over knowing, in the line “teach me all that I must know do to live with him some day”
    • For a long article looking at many of these changes to the hymnbook, see “Changes in LDS Hymns” in Dialogue. (PDF link)
  • Psalm 96:1 incorporates part of Psalm 29:1, but changes the “gods/sons of the gods/divine beings” in Psalm 29:1 (KJV “mighty”) to the more monotheistic “families of the nations” in Psalm 96:7-8. Briefly on supposed-monotheism in the Old Testament, see here from Bible Review.
• Some are performed on various occasions or rituals
  • We have hymns for sacrament, easter, Christmas, New Year, but also patriotic/nationalistic hymns.
  • Matt 26:30 records that after the Last Supper, before they leave for the mount of Olives, they sang a hymn. As it turns out, we know what that was. Psalms 113-118 were called the Hallel, “praise!” (like hallelu-yah, the plural command “all you, praise Yahweh!). The Hallel was traditionally sung at Passover… as the Last Supper has been portrayed (though the Gospels disagree on this.)
• Performed by individuals, groups, choir.
  • Levitical choir in temple, 2Chr 5:13, which maybe included women? 1Chr 25:5, Ezr 2:65
  • Songs of ascent sung by Israelite pilgrims as they ascended to Jerusalem in Psalms 120:1— Psalm 34.
• Repetition
  • “Abide with Me” exists as both Hymn 165 and 166. Or repeated tunes with “Brightly Beams our Father’s Mercy” also appearing as “Should You Feel Inclined to Censure.”
  •  Psalm 53:1 and Psalm 14 :1are almost identical. Only the names of Yahweh and Elohim switched. To the Israelites, this would have been minor, just parallel names.

Moar Recommended Books

Beyond the books above, any newer Bible translations will be more sensitive to poetry than the KJV, at least in terms of recognizing it and setting it off somehow to tell you what you’re reading is now poetry.

• Nahum Sarna, On the Book of Psalms: Exploring the Prayers of Ancient Israel
  • Sarna was a Rabbi with a PhD, an  author I quite like.
• When it comes to the NT and its quotations, this is a useful volume. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, sample here of how Mark 15 uses Psalm 22. Like several books above, it’s available for Logos as well as paper, and given the scripture popups, I really like Logos for this.)

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