Bibliotheca Sacra 153 (1997) 285-96
Copyright © 1997 by
ANCIENT PSALMS AND
MODERN WORSHIP
Edward M. Curtis
Despite disagreement and uncertainty
about a number of
issues1 related to the Book of
Psalms, scholars generally agree
that the psalms were used in
referred to as "the Hymnbook of the
psalms were used in
they reflect patterns for worship that can and
should be incorpo-
rated into congregational worship today.3
Throughout the history
Edward
M. Curtis is Professor of Biblical Studies, Talbot School of Theology, La
1 Debate continues about
whether the canonical psalms originated out of the per-
sonal experiences of
individuals and were later incorporated into
or whether they were largely written specifically
for use in
discussion continues about whether the only
significant Sitz im Leben for under-
standing a psalm involves the setting in which it
was used in worship or whether
the setting out of which the psalm originated is
equally useful. Of course in many
cases neither setting can be determined with any
degree of confidence. While there
is general agreement that stereotyped language and
stylistic considerations
strongly determined the forms of the various
types of psalms, the extent to which
the creativity of individual authors modified these
artistic canons is unclear.
Scholars
continue to discuss whether psalms should be categorized on the basis of
form or content. The extent to which psalms,
composed by a single author, were
modified by the priestly community to address the
needs of subsequent generations
is not certain. Also the extent to which the roots
of Hebrew psalmnody are to be
found in oral tradition is unclear as is the role
poems such as these played in the
lives of individual Israelites apart from public
worship. Gerald Wilson has argued
that the psalms that introduce each book in the psalter and the seam psalms be-
tween each book reflect a
specific agenda on the part of the editor who organized
the Book of Psalms (The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter [
19851).
Also see John Walton, "The Psalms: A Cantata
about the Davidic Covenant,"
Journal of the
Evangelical Theological Society 34 (1991): 21-31.
2 Norman Gottwald, The Hebrew Bible: A
Socio-literary Introduction (Philadel-
phia: Fortress, 1985), 525.
As Gottwald indicates, most scholars today recognize
that
much of the material in the Book of Psalms is
earlier than second temple times.
"Psalms
thus gives us a compressed sampling of texts from the first and second
temple programs of worship" (ibid.).
3 As Peter Craigie points out, "the book of Psalms as a whole
contains
songs and prayers which constitute the response of
the chosen people to their reve-
285
286
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA /
July-September 1997
of the church, the psalms have been used
extensively in personal
devotions and meditation, and the relevance of
these psalms for
both public and personal worship is almost
universally acknowl-
edged. Miller says, "It is in the conviction
that the psalms belong
both at the center of the life and worship of
Christian congrega-
tions and in the midst of the
personal pilgrimage that each of us
makes under the shadow of the Almighty, that I have
written this
book."4 Many recent books on worship
find numerous examples
from the Book of Psalms to support their points.5
Despite the
widespread agreement about the relevance of various
individual
psalms for worship today, important dimensions of
application
are sometimes overlooked.
Several difficulties are encountered in an
attempt to transfer
the use of psalms in Old Testament worship to
worship today.
First,
few details are given about how psalms were used in Old
Testament worship. That they were used is
clear from numerous
comments in the Bible6 as well as from
tradition.7 "That there
was a great number of activities accompanying
poetic ‘recita-
tions’ is clear from
allusions in the poems themselves. However,
there is not a single complete ritual preserved in
the Hebrew
Scriptures
that would indicate exactly the place and kind of ac-
companiment of prayer or
song."8 "Both the descriptions of such
cultic processions and the allusions to them in other
Old Testa-
ment texts and his own
imagination [are needed for the inter-
preter] to recall a picture of
the definite situation from which such
lation from God" (Psalms 1-50, Word Biblical Commentary [
39).
As such they stand as appropriate models for believers' responses to God to-
day.
4 Patrick D. Miller Jr., Interpreting the Psalms (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986), vii.
5 An example is Ronald B.
Allen and Gordon Borror, Worship: Rediscovering the
Missing Jewel (Portland, OR:
Multnomah, 1982).
6 The title to Psalm 92
reads, "A song for the Sabbath"; the superscription of
Psalm
100 suggests it was used in connection with the thanksgiving offering (cf.
Jer. 33:11). Numerous references throughout the
psalms indicate their connection
with temple worship (e.g., Pss.
5:7; 63:2-5; 66:13-17). In addition several passages
outside the Book of Psalms (e.g., 1 Chron. 16:4-36; Amos 5:23 [speaking of worship
at
sembly in which a
salvation-history hymn was sung.
7 According to the Psalm
scroll found at
sung at the altar with the daily sacrifices, 52
songs to accompany the Sabbath offer-
ings throughout the year,
and an additional 30 songs for the new moon festivals and
other festivals (J. A. Sanders, The Dead Sea Psalms Scroll [
University Press, 19671, 134).
8 Erhard Gerstenberger, "The Lyrical Literature," in The Hebrew Bible and Its
Modern Interpreters, ed. D. A. Knight and
G. M. Tucker (
1985), 426.
Ancient Psalms and
Modern Worship 287
a psalm cannot be separated,"9 A
second difficulty in transfer-
ring worship patterns from Old Testament psalmnody to worship
today is created by cultural differences between present-day
set-
tings and ancient
make some general suggestions about worship on the
basis of
material in the psalms and to identify certain
specific patterns in
the biblical psalms that can be applied today.
THE
IMPORTANCE OF MEDITATION IN WORSHIP
Rylaarsdam has argued that
proclamation was a fundamental
element in
the model for that proclamation.10
"These words ... shall be on
your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to
your sons and
shall talk of them when you sit in your house and
when you walk
by the way and when you lie down and when you rise
up. And you
shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall
be as
frontals on your forehead. And you shall write
them on the door-
posts of your house and on your gates." The same
emphasis on
constant attention to God's instruction and
reflection on His
works is found regularly in the Book of Psalms.
Psalm 1:3 describes a person who "prospers"
or succeeds in
what he or she does. The secret of that success
results from de-
lighting in the instruction of the Lord and
meditating on that in-
struction (1:2). Meditation is a
central theme in the worship re-
flected in the psalms. The
importance of the idea is not seen so
much in the occurrence of the Hebrew word hgAhA ("to meditate"), for
the word is not used frequently. Rather, the word
is but one of a
number of general synonyms used in the book. In Psalm
1 hgAhA is
used in parallel with CpaHA ("to
delight") and the two terms refer to
similar though not identical activities. In
Psalm 77:12 hgAhA is used
in parallel with the words rkazA ("to remember," v. 11) and HayWi ("to
muse," v. 12), while a few verses earlier a
similar idea is ex-
pressed in verses 5-6 with bwaHA ("to consider"), rkazA ("to remem-
ber") HayWi ("to muse"), and wpaHA ("to search
out" or "ponder"). To this
list could be added the frequently encountered ideas
of reflecting
on and studying the works of God (e.g., Pss. 111:2; 143:5). The
form of the psalms and their use in worship almost
certainly en-
couraged the focus and
meditation on God's truth and deeds that
are often called for in Scripture.
9 Sigmund Mowinckel, The Psalms in
1962):5.
10
J. Coert Rylaarsdam, "The
Matrix of Worship in the Old Testament," in Wor-
ship in Scripture and Tradition, ed. Massey Shepherd (
sity Press, 1963), 45.
288
BIBUOTHECA SACRA /
July-September 1997
THE
FORM OF PSALMS AND EFFECTIVE WORSHIP
The language of the psalms is poetry, which
effectively commu-
nicates feeling and experience.
The poetry enables readers to feel
something of the psalmists' pain, frustration, or
joy.
Because the author of Psalm 137 had been taken into
exile in
and the temple where God's presence had dwelt in a
special way.
The
psalm expresses the psalmist's painful longing for home in a
way that moves readers today to feel his sadness as
well. The de-
light and profound joy of the exiles when they, in
God's gracious
providence, were able once again to return home is
beautifully
expressed in Psalm 126.
The figures of speech in the psalms help readers
today enter
emotionally into the experiences of the authors. In
Psalm 42:7 the
psalmist wrote, "All Thy breakers and Thy
waves have rolled
over me." Certainly his figure of speech goes
beyond the physical
fact of the description and conveys the desperation
and helpless-
ness a person would feel as he or she struggled to
survive in a sea
or river during an intense storm. Even the
geographical refer-
ences used in Psalm 42--the
land of the
Mount
Hermon and
the area a sense of the isolation felt by this
psalmist who was ex-
iled from his beloved
Comparing the enemies of the righteous with
vicious, attack-
ing animals in Psalm 7:2 or
22:12-13, enables people today to feel
both the ruthlessness of the enemies and the terror
experienced by
the psalmist as a result of their attack.
The use of such emotive images in
that the proper focus of worship, at least as seen
in these psalms, is
neither a cold intellectually stimulating sermon
nor a mindless
emotionalism devoid of intellectual
content. Rather, the worship
reflected in the psalms addresses the needs of the
whole person11
and is both cognitive and affective. Present-day
worship needs to
be designed with both of these dimensions in mind.
The biblical psalms were set to music in
11 Hoekema's
comments are interesting in this regard. While rejecting a monistic
model, he nevertheless comes to the conclusion that
Scripture views man as a
whole person rather than as the sum of a variety of
parts (Created in God's Image
[
flowing from this conclusion. "The church
must be concerned about the whole per-
son. In preaching and teaching the church must
address not only the minds of
those to whom it ministers, but also their emotions
and their wills. Preaching that
merely communicates intellectual information about God
or the Bible is seriously
inadequate.... teaching should aim at a response
that involves all aspects of the
person" (ibid.).
Ancient Psalms and
Modern Worship 289
and their poetic and musical form make the truth
easier to re-
member than is often true in sermons today. As Allen
and Borror
say, "An idea (either good or bad) set to a
good melody, given
rhythmic intensity and harmonic consistency, can
really work
its way into our minds.... music is a powerful way
to get ...
ideas implanted and affect the behavior of mankind. .
. . What
we sing we remember, because we have combined the
power of
intellect with emotion."12 It is
amazing to see how quickly chil-
dren pick up television
commercials or the theology contained in
songs they learn in Sunday school or children's
church. No doubt
more long-lasting and life-changing results would be
effected if
worship services communicated a few basic
biblical truths in
ways that would more effectively impact both mind
and emotion.
Reinforcing
a few basic ideas throughout the service in various
ways could increase the probability that people
would remember
and reflect on those truths after the service
ended.
The use of word pictures and images throughout
the psalms
would also help establish ideas and themes in the
minds and
memories of those exposed to them in worship, thus
encouraging
the meditation and reflection called for in
passages like Psalm 1.
Such
images can also contribute to worship in another important
way. Ryken talks about
the power of images to influence attitudes
and behavior.
People may assent to the proposition that the
true end of life is
not to make money and
accumulate possessions, but if their minds
are filled with images of
big houses and fancy clothes, their actual
behavior will run in the
direction of materialism. People may the-
oretically believe in the ideals
of chastity and faithful wedded
love, but if their minds are
filled with images of exposed bodies
and songs of seduction,
their sexual behavior will have a large
admixture of lust and sexual
license in it.13
Today's Western culture is particularly adept at
filling the
minds of believers with images that an intellectually
stimulat-
ing sermon--even one that
evokes plenty of "Amens" from the
congregation--will have great
difficulty erasing. Ryken points
out that poetry and music and effective
storytelling techniques
derive their power from the images they leave in the
minds of peo-
ple, and techniques such as
these are regularly found throughout
the psalms.
Worship, as seen in the psalms, focuses one's
attention on the
Lord
in a way that stimulates both intellectually and emotion-
12 Allen and Borror, Worship:
Rediscovering the Missing Jewel, 162-63.
13 Leland Ryken, "The Creative Arts," in The Making of the Christian Mind, ed.
Arthur
Holmes (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1985), 106.
290
BIBUOTECA SACRA /
July-September 1997
ally. It encourages worshipers to remember, reflect,
ponder, and
meditate on the character and works of the Lord
in ways that
make it difficult to forget the images through which
the principles
were taught. Such worship glorifies God, elevating
His reputation
and impacting believers so that the principles are
not forgotten
when the benediction is pronounced.
LAMENTS
AND THANKSGIVING HYMNS
Looking more specifically at two types of
psalms--laments and
thanksgiving psalms--leads to
further implications for worship
today.
Laments outnumber every other kind of psalm in
the Psalter;
almost a third of the psalms belong to this category.
Laments have
their origin in situations of distress from which the
psalmists
cried out to God for help and deliverance. These
psalms follow a
generally similar form, though they stem from a
wide variety of
specific situations. Sometimes they reflect
community concerns;
sometimes they are the cries of individuals. They
reflect a wide
assortment of troubles--political pressure,
physical illness, lone-
liness, oppression, and a
variety of spiritual needs.
Interestingly every lament includes an element
of praise. As
view of life," nor is there in them "a
morbid concentration on
human agony and guilt."14 As Barth has noted, "All the psalms
are concerned not with distress as such, but with
taking it before
God,
who they know is the judge and at the same time the re-
deemer with sovereign power
over all distress."15 The psalmists
cried out to God from the depths of their distress,
confident that He
had the power to release them from their dilemmas.
The laments,
then, are actually expressions of praise-praise offered
to God in
situations where His help was needed. As Miller
says, the psalms
are "always moving toward praise." Even
in laments, "praise
and thanks are in a sense the final word, the
direction one is
headed, in the relationship with God."16
Most prayers of believers today probably belong
in the cate-
gory of laments. However, it seems that the biblical
laments are
seldom used as models for prayers that express grief
and dis-
tress. The quality of corporate worship could be
enhanced by se-
14 Bernhard
15 Christoph
Barth, Introduction
to the Psalms, trans. R. A. Wilson (
Scribner's Sons, 1966), 38.
16 Patrick Miller, Interpreting the Psalms (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986), 66.
Ancient Psalms and
Modern Worship 291
lecting biblical laments
appropriate to the needs of the congrega-
tion and creatively
incorporating them into worship services.
Thanksgiving psalms are closely related to the
lament
psalms. As Kraus notes, "The todah [thanksgiving hymn] stands
in a clear and unequivocal relation to the laments
of the individ-
ual."17 Some have suggested that
the thanksgiving psalms are an
expansion of the praise element already present in
the laments,
though there is clearly a difference between the two
in that
thanksgiving hymns come after the
prayers of the laments have
been answered. It is one thing to praise God in
anticipation of His
deliverance or on the basis of confidence that God
has heard one's
prayers. It is another thing to praise God in
response to deliver-
ance already experienced.
Thanksgiving psalms were sung by
people who in distress had experienced the goodness of
God.
That the laments and thanksgiving hymns are
related is
seen in the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1-2.
Hannah's inability
to have children and the taunting of her husband's
other wife,
Penninah, caused her great
distress. On one occasion when the
family was at the sanctuary at
was too upset to remain with the family at the
sacrificial meal.
She
went into the sanctuary to pray. As she prayed, she was so dis-
traught that her lament was not
audible. Eli the priest saw her lips
moving, and, not hearing any words, he supposed she
was drunk.
Hannah
explained her situation and he assured her that God had
heard her prayer and He would grant her request.
Samuel was
born to Hannah and after he was weaned, Hannah took
him to the
sanctuary to dedicate him to the Lord, and there
she prayed the
thanksgiving psalm found in 1 Samuel
2:1-10.
The thanksgiving psalms seem to have been used
in public
worship, often in conjunction with a
thanksgiving offering.
They
were meant as praise to God and also as a testimony to the
congregation of God's saving work.
Sometimes these psalms
were stated in association with a vow made in
connection with the
lament. What was vowed in the laments was carried out
in the
psalms of thanksgiving; perhaps these psalms were sung
as the
worshiper brought a thanksgiving offering to the
temple to cele-
brate the deliverance he had
experienced. Psalm 66 begins with a
description of God's deliverance, summarized in
verse 12, "We
went through fire and through water; yet Thou didst
bring us out
into a place of abundance." Verses 13-14 express
thanksgiving:
"I
shall come into Thy house with burnt offerings; I shall pay
Thee
my vows, which my lips uttered and my mouth spoke when I
17 F. Crusemann,
cited by Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 1-59,
trans. Hilton C. Os-
wald (Minneapolis: Augsburg,
1988), 47.
292
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA /
July--September 1997
was in distress." The purpose of doing this is
made clear in
verses 16-17, which call for others to listen to what
God had done
to rescue the psalmist. "Come and hear, all
who fear God, and I
will tell of what He has done for my soul. I cried
to Him with my
mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue."
Verses 19-20 add
words of praise: "But certainly God has heard;
He has given heed
to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who has
not turned away
my prayer, nor His lovingkindness
from me."
The public expression of thanksgiving is also
clear in
Psalm
40, though that psalm has no mention of an offering. The
psalmist wrote, "I have proclaimed glad
tidings of righteousness
in the great congregation; behold I will not
restrain my lips, 0
Lord,
Thou knowest. I have not hidden Thy righteousness
within
my heart; I have spoken of Thy faithfulness and
Thy salvation; I
have not concealed Thy lovingkindness
and Thy truth from the
great congregation" (vv. 9-10).
Psalm 116 provides another example of the public
thanksgiv-
ing and praise that seem to
have been a regular part of
worship. Verse 3 recounts the distress faced by
the psalmist, and
in verse 4 he explained what he did in his trouble.
"Then I called
upon the name of the Lord: 0 Lord, I beseech Thee,
save my life!"
God
heard the psalmist's prayer and granted his request. The
psalmist's response is recorded in verses 12-19. He
wrote, "I
shall pay my vows to the Lord; oh may it be in the
presence of all
His people" (v. 14). Then in verses 17-19 he
affirmed his offering
of thanksgiving to the Lord. "To Thee I shall
offer a sacrifice of
thanksgiving, and call upon the name
of the Lord. I shall pay my
vows to the Lord; oh may it be in the presence of
all His people, in
the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of
you, 0
Praise
the Lord!"
This psalm [is] the personal tribute of a man
whose prayer has
found an overwhelming answer.
He has come now to the temple
to tell the whole assembly
what has happened, and to offer to God
what he had vowed to Him in
his extremity.... Such psalms ...
would help many another
person find words for his own public
thanksgiving.18
Regarding
verse 19 Kidner writes,
We may note that the intensely personal faith
and love which
mark this psalm are not in
competition with the public and local-
ized expressions of
godliness. This flame is not withdrawn, to burn
alone. Placed in the midst it
will kindle others, and blaze all the
longer and better for it.19
18 Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150,
Tyndale Old Testament Commentary (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity,
1975), 407.
19 Ibid.,
411.
Ancient Psalms and
Modern Worship 293
ence and public worship are
frequently fused into one whole to the
advantage of the entire congregation."20
The importance of thanksgiving is reflected in
the frequency
with which it appears in the psalms; thanksgiving
clearly consti-
tuted an important element in
sages that suggest that the very act of giving thanks
is pleasing to
God
and is one of the ways believers glorify Him. "I will praise
the name of God with song, and shall magnify Him
with thanks-
giving. And it will please the Lord better than an ox
or a young
bull with horns and hoofs" (Ps. 69:30-31).
CELEBRATING
DELIVERANCE
Two aspects of the thanksgiving psalms can be
incorporated into
worship today. The first stems from the clear
connection between
laments and thanksgiving songs found in
Scripture. Church
congregations are often informed of a
need and encouraged to
pray about that need. Sometimes those laments may
even ap-
proach the intensity of the
biblical laments. Often, though, when
the prayer is answered, there is little public
acknowledgement of
the fact, and rarely if ever does the congregation
celebrate the de-
liverance effected by God in the
way suggested by the thanksgiv-
ing hymns.
Even testimonies in church services of what God
is doing in
people's lives fall short of the biblical
examples. Such testimonies
often come from the same individuals and often deal
with trivial
matters. The pattern in the psalms, however,
reveals the proper
connection between a petition, its answer (i.e.,
God's powerful,
gracious response), and the believer's thankful
response before
the congregation.
One should note, nevertheless, that the
thanksgiving hymns
do not seem to be correlated specifically with
lament psalms.21
Nor
does the Bible refer to individuals going to the tabernacle or
20 A. A. Anderson, Psalms, New Century Bible Commentary (
Eerdmans,
1972), 790.
21 In a statement typical
of most commentators, Tremper Longmann
III says, "The
amazing thing about the psalms is that though
they were born out of particular life
experiences, their content is remarkably devoid of
any references to the particular
events that brought them into being" (How to Read the Psalms [
InterVarsity,
19881, 42).
He further notes that this lack of historical specificity in
the psalms is in strong contrast to what is found
in other parts of the old
Testament (e.g., Judg.
5 or Exod. 15).
particular circumstances (such as is often
attempted in the exegesis of the Psalms)
presents us with a generalization of what often
happens in typical cases" (Psalms
30).
This is because "they were, primarily, intended
as vehicles to convey the feel-
ings and attitude of any
worshiper in a similar situation" (ibid.).
294
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA /
July-September 1997
temple to voice a lament psalm and then going later to
offer a
thanksgiving song along with their thankoffering. Kraus,
though, has suggested that "during the great
worship festivals of
portunity to present his thankoffering in the circle of family
members, friends and other witnesses, to report
concerning dis-
tress and deliverance and to sing praises."22
Several factors do suggest that a connection
between lament
and thanksgiving was recognized in
ample the psalm in Jonah 2 is set in a context that
clearly implies
it is a lament; the contents of the poem, though,
read like a
thanksgiving hymn. The poem was no
doubt written after the de-
liverance had been accomplished,
and given the situation out of
which it came, a public lament would hardly have been
possible.
At
the same time the connection between the difficulty/lament
and the thankful public response to God's
deliverance is clearly
seen in the poem.
The association between lament and thanksgiving
is also
made in the part of the standard thanksgiving psalm
form that
reviews the difficulty and usually mentions the
psalmist's cry to
God for help. Often the thanksgiving
is connected with a vow
made to God during the difficulty, which helps show
the associa-
tion between the two types
of psalms.
DIDACTIC
DIMENSION
A second feature of thanksgiving psalms that
could be incorpo-
rated into worship today is their didactic dimension.
Comment-
ing on Psalm 22:22-31,
Miller says, "The singer who has been
delivered stands in the midst of the congregation
and tells of the
Lord's
power (cf. 35:18; 40:9) that the children of
God's
great power and goodness will themselves praise and glo-
rify the Lord."23
Psalm 34, which has characteristics of both a
thanksgiving psalm and a wisdom
psalm, illustrates the didactic
element well. The author praised God for
delivering him from a
difficult situation, and he took his experience as
normative for
others. He cried out to God from his distress and God
heard and
delivered him. That then became the pattern for
others, and the
psalmist encouraged them to "taste and see
that the Lord is good"
(v. 8), to experience the blessing that comes
from trusting Him.
In
these songs the poets saw in God's deliverance a concrete
example of His grace and power and so their
experience became
22 Kraus, Psalms 1-59, 52.
23 Miller, Interpreting
the Psalms, 72.
Ancient Psalms and Modem
Worship 295
an occasion for stating what God is like. With the
focus in these
psalms on the character and power of God, the
psalmists called on
others to learn from their experience and to join them
in giving
praise to God. The psalmists' experiences pointed to
the works of
God
the community could meditate on, thus learning more about
His character. These expressions of
thanksgiving were directed
to God and elevated His reputation, and in this
respect the biblical
pattern seems to stand at variance with at least
some modern
practice. As Longman observes, "The ‘sharing
times’ that occur
in modern church services and fellowship groups
are too often an
excuse to praise ourselves. The psalmist is a model
for ‘sharing’
as he directs the attention of the congregation
away from himself
and toward God."24
Psalm 107, containing elements of both
thanksgiving and
praise, suggests how these psalms might be used in
worship.
Scholars
are not agreed on the literary history of this psalm and
the way it was used.25 It begins,
however, by calling those whom
God
has redeemed from difficulty to acknowledge that fact.
Verses
4-32 mention four groups that can attest to the Lord's
goodness in delivering them. In each instance
they faced a diffi-
cult and threatening situation: "they cried out
to the Lord in their
trouble; He delivered them out of their
distresses" (vv. 6, 13, 19,
28).
Each example provides a basis for the redeemed to
"give
thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness,
and for His wonders
to the sons of men!" (vv.
8, 15, 21, 31). According to verse 32, they
were to "extol Him also in the congregation of
the people, and
praise Him at the seat of the elders."
"psalm may have been used at a communal thankoffering
at
which various groups of people offered their
thanksgiving sacri-
fice and their grateful
praise."26 Certainly this thanksgiving
psalm could easily be used as a basis for a service
in which people
from the congregation who have experienced God's deliverance
from various difficulties could publicly give thanks
to God for
His
ds,H,
("lovingkindness" or "loyal love") and for His
wonders.
The thanksgiving psalms also share a perspective
with sal-
vation-history psalms--a category to
which they are related. The
perspective is related to the idea of meditation and
reflecting on
the works of God found throughout the psalms, and
this perspec-
tive may help account for
their use in
24 Longman, How
to Read the Psalms, 146.
25 A summary of the
suggestions and a helpful bibliography is in Leslie Allen,
Psalms 101-150, Word Biblical
Commentary (Waco, TX: Word, 1983), 60-63.
26 Anderson, Psalms,
749.
296
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA /
July-September 1997
of salvation-history psalms are Psalms 78, 105,
and 106, which
review significant events in
shows how one of these songs was used. When the
postexilic
community in
Levites
used a salvation-history psalm similar to those found in
Psalms. The hymn recounts God's past dealings
with His people,
beginning with His choice of Abraham and moving
through the
Exodus, the wilderness wanderings, and the
Conquest.
Both the
faithfulness of God in keeping His
promise to Abraham and the
unfaithfulness of the Israelites in
responding to that goodness are
declared. The people's reflection on their
history caused them to
sign a covenant as a people (Neh.
9:38), in which they agreed to
"walk in God's Law . . . and to keep and observe all the com-
mandments of God" (10:29).
Thus reflecting on and studying the works of God--both
in
history (the salvation-history psalms) and more
recently in the
lives of individuals (the thanksgiving psalms)--provides
con-
crete examples of what God is
like and gives a firm basis for
praising Him. It also provides important
reference points for be-
lievers as they move into an
unseen future.
CONCLUSION
The psalms affirm the importance of reflecting
and meditating
on God's truth and His works. The psalms are
structured in a
way that encourages in worship the same persistent
focus on God
called for in Deuteronomy 6.
hanced this concentration, and
the psalms reveal several tech-
niques that contribute significantly
to the effective accomplish-
ment of this goal. Worship
that involves the entire person and
that focuses attention on God and His graciousness
both in history
and in the lives of His people today encourages the
kind of medi-
tative reflection on God and
His truth that is essential for spiri-
tual success and the
enjoyment of God's blessing. Worship that
effectively uses stories, poetry, and music to plant
and reinforce
images of God's truth in the minds of the people can
contribute
greatly to their growth toward maturity. Worship
that displays for
people the connection between crying out to God in
their distress,
the gracious deliverance that God brings, and their
public
thanksgiving to God for His help
serves an important didactic
function and helps establish good habits in God's
people. Recog-
nizing principles such as
these in the Book of Psalms and incor-
porating them into the life and
worship of the church today can
play a major role in helping believers develop godly
character
and in equipping them to glorify God and enjoy Him
forever.
This
material is cited with gracious permission from:
www.dts.edu
Please report any errors to Ted
Hildebrandt at: