The Psalms and poetry

Hebrew poetry speaks in paired lines and in pictures, and pours out the heart before God. We learn to read parallelism and images and the different kinds of psalm, and read the lament of Psalm 13 as a prayer.

Willem van de Passe, King David Playing the Harp (after Abraham Bloemaert), 1607–1637 · Source

Lines in pairs

The Psalms, Proverbs and Job, and much of the prophets, are poetry. The mark of Hebrew poetry is parallelism: a second line takes up what the first has said, and echoes it, sharpens it or sets something against it.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.
Psalm 19:1

"The skies" take up "the heavens", and "the work of His hands" takes up "the glory of God". The two lines do not say two different things; they say one thing twice, and so say it more deeply.

In Proverbs the pairs often stand in contrast: "A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother" (Proverbs 10:1). Wise is set against foolish, joy against grief, while father and mother pair up to mean both parents. Read this as saying that only mothers grieve and fathers do not mind, and you have missed how the pair speaks.

Poetry also speaks in pictures: "The LORD is my shepherd" (Psalm 23:1); the LORD is my rock and my fortress (Psalm 18:2); "under His wings you will find refuge" (Psalm 91:4). A picture presses on the heart who God is. But do not harden a picture into a doctrine. To shelter under his wings does not mean that God has feathers; it means that he guards us as a bird covers her young.

The lament of Psalm 13

A woman in black stands alone beside a coffin heaped with flowers, a handkerchief pressed to her mouth. — Ivan Kramskoi, Inconsolable Grief, 1884 (Tretyakov Gallery) · Source

The Psalms hold many kinds of song: praise that exalts God; lament, crying out in trouble; thanksgiving after rescue; royal psalms that sing of the king God has set up; and wisdom psalms, like Psalm 1, that teach the two ways. Of the royal psalms, the New Testament reads Psalms 2 and 110 as fulfilled in Christ (Acts 13:33, Matthew 22:44). The book as a whole is introduced in the Psalms lesson. Lament is the commonest kind, so let us read Psalm 13:

How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long must I wrestle in my soul, with sorrow in my heart each day? How long will my enemy dominate me? Consider me and respond, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death, lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes rejoice when I fall. But I have trusted in Your loving devotion; my heart will rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.
Psalm 13:1-6

The psalm moves in three steps. Verses 1 and 2 are complaint: "How long" four times, and in the first line the question sharpens from "How long" to "forever". Verses 3 and 4 are petition: consider me, respond, give light to my eyes. Verses 5 and 6 are trust and praise, and a single "But" marks the turn.

Nothing is said to have changed outside. The psalm does not tell us that the enemy has gone. What has changed is where the psalmist is looking. Matthew Henry, an English minister, observes, "It is a common temptation, when trouble lasts long, to think that it will last always", and at verse 5 he writes, "The sudden, delightful changes in the book of Psalms, are often very remarkable" Matthew Henry.

Praying the Psalms

Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria in the fourth century, wrote to Marcellinus that while the other books of Scripture speak to us, the Psalms become words on our own lips, giving us words of prayer for every state of the soul: joy, grief, fear and thanksgiving Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus. The Psalms are God's word to us, and also words for us to speak to God.

The church has set this book of prayer at the heart of its worship. In Geneva, the worship John Calvin ordered had the people singing the Psalms The Genevan Form of Prayers, and the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterian churches names ‘singing of Psalms with grace in the heart’ among the parts of the ordinary worship of God ch. 21.5. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox church of the East, too, sing and read the Psalms in their daily hours of prayer.

When you pray the Psalms, bring your heart honestly. Lament is not a sign of unbelief; it is faith carrying its pain to God. Psalm 13 cries, "How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?" (Psalm 13:1). That is not a teaching that God forgets his people; it is the honest prayer of someone who feels forgotten. Elsewhere God says, "Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!" (Isaiah 49:15). Words of feeling are read as prayers, not as doctrines. Jesus himself cried out on the cross in the words of a psalm (Matthew 27:46).

Try it

Under autumn trees a flock of sheep grazes across a green pasture, and the sky shines in a still pond. — Julian Onderdonk, Pasture with Sheep and Ponds, 1905 · Source

Open Psalm 23 on the map. In the map under the Jesus tab, open Psalms and tap chapter 23: it has a ‘One-line summary’ and ‘Notes’. On the map, each psalm is a chapter. ‘Read Psalms 23’ opens the text.

Find the paired lines and the pictures. Read slowly, twice, and write in Notes where a second line takes up the first, and what pictures the psalm uses: ‘pictures: shepherd, green pastures, valley, table’. Find, too, where the psalmist stops speaking about the LORD and begins speaking to him.

Pray the psalm. Note what kind of psalm it is, choose one line that meets you where you are and pray it as your own, then put the whole psalm into a one-line summary.

Practice

Practice 1 of 7
In Psalm 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands" (Psalm 19:1), how are the two lines related?
Practice 2 of 7
Which reading of Proverbs 10:1, "A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother" (Proverbs 10:1), is right?
Practice 3 of 7
How do we read Psalm 91:4, "He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge" (Psalm 91:4)?
Practice 4 of 7
Which describes the movement of Psalm 13?
Practice 5 of 7
How do we read "Will You forget me forever?" in Psalm 13:1 (Psalm 13:1)?
Practice 6 of 7
What did Athanasius say of the Psalms in his letter to Marcellinus?
Practice 7 of 7
What does the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterian churches, ch. 21.5, say about singing the Psalms?

Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.

Source

Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms — 4th century. The other books speak to us, but the Psalms become words on our own lips: they give words of prayer for every state of the soul, joy, grief, fear and thanksgiving.
John Calvin, The Genevan Form of Prayers 1542 — The order of worship, prayers and metrical psalms of the Genevan church; before the Supper it calls hearts to be lifted up to heaven.

Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and the Fathers and classic commentary. They take the church's long rule of reading, that Scripture explains Scripture, as their standard, bring out the Reformed confessions' teaching, and present each tradition's way of reading fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.