The second book in our Wisdom Series is Psalms: The prayerbook of God's people who are striving to be faithful to the Torah (teachings of God) and waiting for the Messianic Kingdom.
The Book of Psalms is the largest and perhaps most widely used book in the Bible. It is the most quoted book of the Old Testament--Jesus Himself used more quotes from the book of Psalms than from any other book.
It explores the full range of human experience in a very personal and practical way. It is an amazing book containing 150 beautifully written "songs" that run from the Creation through the patriarchal, theocratic, monarchical, exilic, and postexilic periods. The tremendous breadth of subject matter in the Psalms includes diverse topics, such as jubilation, war, peace, worship, judgment, messianic prophecy, praise, and lament.
After a short video overview of the entire Book of Psalms, we looked briefly at the top three most referenced Psalms by the 100 million users of the popular Bible App YouVersion.
Psalm 119: The longest Psalm and the longest chapter in the Bible mentions the Word of God in 171 of the 176 verses. The format of Psalm 119 is an alphabetic acrostic, meaning that the first letters of each line in Hebrew follow through the Hebrew alphabet, 8 lines per letter, thus 8 lines x 22 letters = 176 lines.
Psalm 51: This great psalm of repentance was written by David after Nathan rebuked him (2 Samuel 12) concerning his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uriah. It is the greatest example of a "penitential Psalm" in which David confesses his sin and prays for forgiveness. (Note: Psalm 32 can be read after/with this Psalm to hear David describe the blessedness and joy of one who has received the forgiveness prayed for in this Psalm.)
Psalm 1: One of my all-time favorite Psalms and the first scripture I memorized as a new Christian back in 1974. The first of the 150 Psalms stands as a kind of introduction to the rest of the Psalms. It is a wisdom Psalm and presents two ways of life: the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. There are two great thrusts that flow out of this Psalm: 1) The importance and absolute necessity of the Scripture, and 2) the changed character, stability, and fruitfulness it promises to those who make Scripture the core of their lives.
We will spend another week on Psalms before we move on to Proverbs.
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