Week 11: The Psalter
Week 11: The Psalter
The largest section of the Old Testament wisdom literature is, of course, the Psalter. It is also the most varied, for it contains several different genres, or types, of literature, including public liturgy and private devotion, lament and penitence, praise and prayer, remembrance and prophecy.
Calvin was right to call the Psalter a “mirror,” for it reflects all the moods of our human experience—joy and sorrow, excitement and depression, confidence and doubt, triumph and defeat. As another writer has put it, the Psalter “contains the whole music of the heart of man.”
Although different psalms were written by different authors, many without doubt came from David, who called himself “Israel’s singer of songs” (2 Sam. 23:1) and whose harp playing brought relief to Saul’s tormented soul (1 Sam. 16:14–23).
Sunday: Psalm 1—the Righteous and the Wicked
Monday: Psalm 19—God’s Self-Revelation
Tuesday: Psalm 32—the Forgiveness and Guidance of God
Wednesday: Psalms 42 and 43—Spiritual Depression
Thursday: Psalm 104—the Works of God in Nature
Friday: Psalm 130—a Cry from the Depths
Saturday: Psalm 150—the Final Doxology