Favorite Psalms

Psalm 8

This is one of the great hymns of the ancient Hebrew church. The author is stirred to praise by the contemplation of the glory of God as manifested in the wonders of the heavens, which in turn excited reflection on the place of humankind in the scheme of creation. The hymn is marked by originality, imagination and deep insight as it contrasts god’s greatness with human littleness. However, humankind is too a master stroke in the artistry and the scheme of God. Because of God—humankind is ultimately crowned with glory and honor—given dominion over the creation. We have the vastly important job of managing his great ecology.

Psalm 19

This brief hymn starts as one of the noblest examples of Hebrew poetry. It follows one of the traditional patterns of hymnic composition, and from the beginning to the end it manifests fresh poetic and theological insights. As a Psalm opens, the hymn has already begun aeons ago at the time of the creation. Its first notes were sounded—and ever since as the celestial hosts keep singing it. The theme, which the heavens recount and the firmament proclaim, is the “work of his hand at their creation.” Though neither speech, nor words, nor voice is heard by mortal ears, the mind that surveys them can detect them, and the eloquence is so loud it resounds to the end of the world!

Psalm 22

Picture a solitary prophet—Amos or a Jeremiah—who feels utterly alone with all his enemies closing in on him to destroy him, because he has been faithful to the word of the Lord. This becomes the genuine outpouring of a sorely tried servant of God, who made so alive his own experience of despair that it has become the universal cry of the sufferer everywhere. It is apparent that Jesus used the psalm many times, when he went up to the solitary place to be alone with God. He could identify with the aloneness of the sufferer. On the cross he felt the ultimate aloneness—separated from earth and heaven—he uttered the words hope this psalm, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?”

Psalm 34

This song in Hebrew is an acrostic. Each line begins with the letter of the alphabet and order. By accident 6th letter, which belongs between line 5 and 6 has been omitted. The Psalm is a song of salvation. The keynote is found in verse 6.

     The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
     And saved him out of all of his troubles

The Psalm is sings confident trust in the Lord—whose providential care surrounds his righteous people. Gods people should give thanks to the Lord at all times, and not only when they are in need of being delivered out of great trouble.

Psalm 37

This Psalm is another acrostic song. Each of the 22 strophes or couplets, begins with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order. The great question of the Psalm is a fact fundamental to all wisdom literature. Why do the wicked seem so often to prosper—while the righteous suffer and live in privation? The answer of the song is that God does not always pay on Saturday night. Even though the fact of experience may at times indicate otherwise, it is only a seeming disturbance of the balance of justice. In due time, if we do not faint the righteous one, we shall be gloriously vindicated.

Psalm 51

David was an oriental Emperor, with powers of life and death over his people. For the Emperor, his whim was his subject’s beck and call. The subject was there to serve every need of the Emperor. One day, the Emperor was lounging on the upper deck, when he saw the beautiful wife of one of his army officers was sunbathing on her private patio on the roof of her home across from the palace. David desired Bathsheba for his harem. So, he acted like the emperor he was. His Army was at war. He commanded that Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, be given a command at the head of the Army, where he was most likely to be killed.

The Philistines obliged and killed Uriah. David brought comfort to Bathsheba by inviting her into his harem and promising that her first son by him would be his heir. For most oriental Emperors, the story would have ended there but not for David. Nathan the prophet comes on the scene. He has a grievance before the king, and says, “You are the man!” The story then is David’s Psalm of anguish and contrition.

Psalm 91

Picture a young Israeli today. He is a very devout Orthodox Jew surrounded on every side by enemies. Since his childhood, he has lived with the terrors of the night, and the arrows of death that fly in the daytime. With his faith rooted in God, he identifies with the ancient Psalmist, who lived in the same predicament. Life has many parables. But he is obsessed with the security of those who dwell in the secret place of the most high.

     A thousand may fall at your side
     Ten thousand at your right hand
But it will not come near you

In the midst of the Holocaust, God will protect you.