HYMNS OF PRAISE

DIMENSION ONE: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

Answer these questions by reading Psalm 8

1. The psalm talks to whom? (8:1) The psalm talks to Yahweh, the Lord.

2. What has God created? (8:3) God has created the heavens, the moon, and the stars.

3. How are human beings described in the psalm? (8:4-5) Human beings are a tiny part of creation, and at the same time "a little lower than the angels."

Answer these questions by reading Psalm 19

4. What is proclaiming God's glory in the psalm? (19:1) The heavens declare God's glory.

5. How does the psalmist describe God's law? (19:7-9) God's law is perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, firm, and righteous.

6. What must our words and thoughts be in relationship to God? (19:14) They must be pleasing in God's sight.

Answer these questions by reading Psalm 29

7. The psalm talks to whom? (29:1) The psalm speaks to the "heavenly beings," or the mighty ones.

8. What does the voice of God do? (29:3-9) The voice of God thunders, breaks cedars, makes mountains shake ("makes Lebanon leap like a calf"), brings lightning, causes earthquakes, and strips forests bare.

9. What does the psalmist ask from God? (29:11) The psalmist asks strength and peace for the people.

Answer these questions by reading Psalm 33

10. Who should praise God according to this psalm? (33:1) All righteous persons should praise God.

11. How should God be praised? (33:2-3) God should be praised with lyre, harp, skillful playing, a new song, and shouts for joy.

12. What does God do? (33:13-14) God sees "all mankind" and watches "all who live on earth."

13. What makes the psalmist glad? (33:20-21) Trusting in God's holy name makes the psalmist glad.

Answer these questions by reading Psalm 47

14. Who is asked to praise God? (47:1) All nations are to praise God.

15. Why should God be praised? (47:7) God should be praised because "God is the King of all the earth."

Answer these questions by reading Psalm 96

16. What kind of song does the psalmist want us to sing to God? (96:1) We are to sing a new song to God.

17. Why should we sing to God? (96:4-5) We are to sing to God because God is great and to be feared above all the gods of the nations, who are idols.

18. What should we tell the nations about God? (96:10) We should say that God reigns; God "will judge the peoples with equity."

Answer these questions by reading Psalm 104

19. Where do we find the clearest evidence of God's work in the world? (104:10, 14, 24) We must look at the creation to find evidence of God's work — the springs, the grass, the creatures.

20. How long will the psalmist praise God? (104:33) The psalmist will praise God as long as he lives.

DIMENSION TWO: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE MEAN?

Background Information on the Psalms

The psalms to be covered in this lesson are 8, 19, 29, 33, 47, 96, and 104. Psalms 93, 95, 97, 98, and 99 are of the same type, but are not examined in this session.

The hymns of praise are often threefold in structure. They contain a call to praise, the reasons for praise, and a vow to continue and extend praise. By indicating this type of structure, we are engaging in a scholarly approach to the psalms called form criticism. Study of the Bible in this way began in the early years of the twentieth century in Germany. Its founding practitioner was Hermann Gunkel, a brilliant and insightful folklorist. What he did was both simple and very important for the study of the Bible.

In a groundbreaking study of Psalms, Gunkel showed that the psalms followed literary patterns. Some were hymns of praise. Others were laments, songs of thanksgiving, and so forth. Gunkel showed us that the psalms were not only the work of the free imaginations of individual poets. They were born out of the struggles of the community of the faithful in Israel.

Gunkel wrote a history of the use of these songs in Israel's worship. From his study, whole new vistas of the early life of Israel opened up to us. To examine the forms of the psalms is to get closer to their original force and to their continuing power in the life of worship. In the psalms, we see the record of a people of faith, wrestling with life and with God's role in it. Form criticism gives us a valuable tool to discern more clearly the community that produced the great literature of Israel.

Perhaps two persistent questions concerning the psalms should be discussed here: First, who wrote the Psalms? Jewish and Christian tradition has long said that David, the second king of Israel, wrote many of the psalms. He was a famous harpist whose soothing music calmed the raging of King Saul (1 Samuel 16:23). He is said to have sung the famous lament after the deaths of Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:19-27).

The usual translation of many of the headings for the Psalms reads "A Psalm of David" (see Psalms 8 and 19, for example). In fact, the translation of these particular headings might just as easily be "A Psalm to David." The Hebrew could be translated either way. If this second translation is given, these psalms could be seen as dedicated to David, the patron saint of Hebrew song. Even if translated "A Psalm of David" or "David's Psalm," that is hardly proof that David wrote these psalms.

The psalms came into existence as they were needed to express community concerns in worship. Some were probably written by individuals, and some were nurtured in the worshiping community of Israel. Who wrote the psalms is a question that cannot be easily answered and is not the most important question to ask about the Book of Psalms.

The second question follows from the first: What are these headings on some of the psalms? Who wrote them? Let us look at Psalm 8 for an example. It reads "For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David." The word translated director is not easily understood in Hebrew. It comes from a word meaning "enduring" or "eminence." Could it be a technical designation, defining a particular way of performing this psalm in the worship service? We do not know.

The second phase, "According to gittith," is even more mysterious. Is it a musical instrument? Is it a certain kind of musical accompaniment? Is it a reference to a particular group of musicians? Again, we do not know.

Most scholars feel that these headings were added well after the psalms originally were written. They tell us a little about when and under what circumstances the particular psalms might have been used, but they can tell us nothing about the...