July 6 - Psalm 1-2 | Psalm 10 | Psalm 33 | Psalm 71 | Psalm 91

Good morning everyone,

Today our reading took us to six more of the psalms and since we began with psalms one and two, I thought maybe a little back ground would be fun. The Hebrew title for psalms is simply “praises” which seems appropriate, right? as it is a book encouraging us to praise God, and instruction about praising God for his power and generosity, for his creation of the world, and for his past acts of deliverance for Israel. 

The English title is from the Greek translation “psalmoi” meaning instrumental music. There are one hundred fifty psalms in the Jewish and Western Christian tradition with seventy-three of them linked to King David. Hermann Gunkel, a German ,Old Testament scholar sought to categorize the psalms into five primary types of genres. 1) Hymns, songs of praise for God’s work. 2) Communal laments, where the nation mourns or grieves a common disaster.

3) Royal Psalms, sung at the king’s coronation or marriage or death. 4) Individual Laments, sorrow for a particular individual. 5) Individual Thanksgiving, where the individual thanks God for deliverance from personal distress. There are a few other miscellaneous genres but these cover the majority. 

Over the centuries many song writers and composers have set a number of the psalms to music. Johann Sebastian Bach used lines from the psalms for several of his cantatas while a more modern artist would be Sherry Youngward who in fact has an entire album devoted to the psalms making it really easy for anyone to memorize God’s Word. Very cool!

Psalm one begins with, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked.” Who we hang out with or associate with can and will have an overpowering influence on us, our behavior, our speech the way we think and what we believe in. It would behoove us to choose our company wisely for the ways of the wicked lead to destruction. Proverbs 12:26 says, “The righteous should choose his friends carefully, For the way of the wicked leads them astray."

Jesus said in John 15:13-16, ”Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” As Christians we are no longer servants but friends with Jesus Christ our Savior. What greater privilege is there on earth? Amen?

Have a great day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …