The Psalms: Prayers of Yesterday and

Today
Quick Facts: Psalms was the prayer and hymnbook of the Ancient Hebrews.
Psalms is divided into five books. It is a redacted collection of
collections formed over time.
Psalms was probably among the last books in the Old Testament to
reach its final form.
A wide range of authors likely wrote the psalms. No authors identity is
known for certain.

Genre: Hebrew Poetry, Song, and Liturgy

Parallelism: The juxtaposition of two or more balanced grammatical
elements1

Example: Psalm 5
Give ear to my words/

O LORD

/heed to my

sighing.

Listen to the sound of my cry/ my King and my God/ for to you I pray.

Life (faith) cycles of Orientation, Disorientation, and Reorientation 2

1 NICOT 40.
2 This application system was articulated by Walter Brueggeman applying the
philosophy of Ricoeur. For further reading see Brueggemanns essay The Psalms
and the Life of Faith: A Suggested Typology of Function in Soundings in the
Theology of Psalms.

Structure:3
Psalms of Praise
1. A call to praise
2. Reasons to praise
Examples: Psalms 100, 148
Prayers of Help (Lament)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Address to God
Complaint- (often I, you, they structure)
Petition requesting help and reasons urging God to answer
Expression of confidence and trust
Promise to praise the Lord in the future
Examples: Psalms 13, 22

Psalms of Trust
1. A description of the crisis, usually in metaphorical terms
2. Expression of confidence and hope
Examples: Psalms 23, 27
Psalm of Thanksgiving
1. Call to praise
2. Recollection of past crisis (literal or metaphorical)
3. Recollection of past prayer for help
4. Renewed call to praise, often including an appeal for the community
to join in praise
Examples: Psalms 30, 118
3 Descriptions were taken from NICOT: The Book of Psalm

Learning Outcomes:
Participants will learn the diversity of Psalm genres, including psalms of
praise, thanksgiving, trust, and prayers for help. Participants will also be
equipped with basic skills to read Hebrew poetry, including an introduction to
parallelism and psalm structure. This brief section is intended to equip
participants to more fully engage the psalms as part of their own journey of
faith.

Part I: Introduction- Where have you encountered psalms in your life? Do you
have a favorite psalm?

Learning Outcomes:
Participants will learn the diversity of Psalm genres, including psalms of
praise, thanksgiving, trust, and prayers for help. Participants will also be
equipped with basic skills to read Hebrew poetry, including an introduction to
parallelism and psalm structure. This brief section is intended to equip
participants to more fully engage the psalms as part of their own journey of
faith.

Ricoeur Life as a dialiectic movementhumans struggle to maintain a kind

of equilibrium in their life. 1) two movement especially important
1) Deep reluctance to let loose of a world which has passed away
2) Capactiy to embrace a new world which is given