Powers of the Psalms

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a Psalms 9 and 10 together follow an acrostic pattern, each stanza beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the LXX they form one psalm. While many of the psalms contain attributions to the name of King David and other Biblical figures including Asaph, the sons of Korah, and Solomon, David's authorship is not accepted by most modern Bible scholars, who instead attribute the composition of the psalms to various authors writing between the 9th and 5th centuries BC. The psalms were written from the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan to the post-exilic period and the book was probably compiled and edited into its present form during the post-exilic period in the 5th century BC. [5] Orthodox Christians and Greek-Catholics ( Eastern Catholics who follow the Byzantine rite) have long made the Psalms an integral part of their corporate and private prayers. The official version of the Psalter used by the Orthodox Church is the Septuagint. To facilitate its reading, the 150 Psalms are divided into 20 kathismata (Greek: καθίσματα; Slavonic: кафизмы, kafizmy; lit. "sittings") and each kathisma (Greek: κάθισμα; Slavonic: каѳисма, kafisma) is further subdivided into three stases (Greek: στάσεις, staseis lit. "standings", sing. στάσις, stasis), so-called because the faithful stand at the end of each stasis for the Glory to the Father.... Historical psalms, which take lessons from the history of God’s dealings with his people ( Psalm 78). Coogan, M. A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in its Context. (Oxford University Press: Oxford 2009). p. 369;

Prinsloo, Willem S. (2003). "Psalms". In Dunn, James D. G.; Rogerson, John William (eds.). Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802837110. responsorially (the cantor or choir sings or recites the verses while the congregation sings or recites a given response after each verse). Jesus used the Psalms in many of the ways described above. Christ was intimately acquainted with the Psalms and would have both prayed them and sung them. Jesus was fully God and fully man – this means that He knows the experience of the psalmists and is Himself the God described as a King we can take refuge in. b Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts and LXX do not include —hailstones and coals of fire ; see 2 Samuel 22:14. The Psalter is fundamentally the hymnbook of God’s people. It takes the basic themes of OT theology and turns them into song:Wherry, Elwood Morris (1896). A Complete Index to Sale's Text, Preliminary Discourse, and Notes. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co. with 1 Samuel 19:11; Psalm 56 is connected with 1 Samuel 21:10–15; Psalm 34 is associated with 1 Samuel 21:10–22:2; and Psalm 52 is linked with 1 Samuel 22:9). Perhaps the most important breakthrough in the study of the Psalms came in the work of Hermann Gunkel, a German scholar from the early twentieth century. Gunkel’s insight was that the Psalms could be broken down into various categories according to their form and content. Gunkel identified a number of types of psalms: Use them at the start of a service as a call to worship, for responsive readings, or as a response to a sermon. Your congregation will love how the rich imagery of Scripture speaks to their daily life and experience – and it will make their hearts sing! 4. Use the Psalms to cultivate a deep hunger for God.

Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (2004). "Psalms". In Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi; Fishbane, Michael A. (eds.). The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195297515. Until the Second Vatican Council the Psalms were either recited on a one-week or, less commonly (as in the case of Ambrosian rite), two-week cycle. Different one-week schemata were employed: most secular clergy followed the Roman distribution, while regular clergy almost universally followed that of St Benedict, with only a few congregations (such as the Benedictines of St Maur [ citation needed]) following individualistic arrangements. The Breviary introduced in 1974 distributed the psalms over a four-week cycle. Monastic usage varies widely. Some use the four-week cycle of the secular clergy, many retain a one-week cycle, either following St Benedict's scheme or another of their own devising, while others opt for some other arrangement. For the Orthodox Christian division into twenty kathismata, see below. An 1880 Baxter process illustration of Psalm 23, from the Religious Tract Society's magazine The Sunday at Home Sections [ edit ] Why do you think thatPsalms hasbeen so important for the last 2,000 years of Christian history?What have psalms provided that other parts of the Bible have not?The Psalms scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls has 155 psalms like the Peshitta, but they are not the same 155. Reading or singing the psalms corporately will shape individual hearts and minds in the congregation and help your church pursue a culture of worship. Psalms are usually identified by a sequence number, often preceded by the abbreviation "Ps." Numbering of the Psalms differs—mostly by one—between the Hebrew ( Masoretic) and Greek (Septuagint) manuscripts. Protestant translations ( Lutheran, Anglican, Calvinist) use the Hebrew numbering, but other Christian traditions vary:

the choirmaster. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” A Miktam a of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. The General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, 122 sanctions three modes of singing/recitation for the Psalms: Helen C. Evans; William W. Wixom, eds. (5 March 1997). The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 86. ISBN 9780870997778 . Retrieved 5 March 2018– via Internet Archive.Mitchell, David C. (1997). The Message of the Psalter: An Eschatological Programme in the Book of Psalms. JSOT: Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-85075-689-7. S. Haïk-Vantoura, La musique de la Bible révélée (Robert Dumas: Paris, 1976); Les 150 Psaumes dans leurs melodies antiques (Paris: Fondation Roi David, 1985). The book of Psalms is a deep source of lessons, songs, literature, praises, prayers, and even questions. It is also a full display of a wide array of human emotions. This is why a lot of people can relate to it, and find comfort and solace in it. It is time to delve deeper into all the best that the Book of Psalms can offer. What are the Best Psalms Several attempts have been made to decode the Masoretic cantillation, but the most "successful" is that of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura (1928–2000) in the last quarter of the 20th century. [50] Her reconstruction assumes the signs represent the degrees of various musical scales – that is, individual notes – which puts it at odds with all other existing traditions, where the signs invariably represent melodic motifs; it also takes no account of the existence of older systems of notation, such as the Babylonian and Palestinian systems. Musicologists have therefore rejected Haïk-Vantoura's theories, with her results dubious, and her methodology flawed. [51] In spite of this, Mitchell has repeatedly defended it, showing that, when applied to the Masoretic cantillation of Psalm 114, it produces a melody recognizable as the tonus peregrinus of church and synagogue. [52] Mitchell includes musical transcriptions of the temple psalmody of Psalms 120–134 in his commentary on the Songs of Ascents.

There are a number of further internal divisions or units within the book of Psalms. We find clusters of psalms that are known as the Psalms of Asaph, or the Psalms of Ascent; there is a segment, in Psalms 42–83, which is known as the “Elohistic Psalter,” because it appears that in these psalms the divine name Yahweh has been systematically replaced with the generic title Elohim, “God.” O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1) B.S. Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979) 511–18; J.L. Mays, '"In a Vision": The Portrayal of the Messiah in the Psalms', Ex Auditu 7: 1–8; J. Forbes, Studies on the Book of Psalms (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1888). As well as the five big collections you will also notice a number of smaller collections (like the Psalms of Ascent, 120–134). It is thought that these smaller collections were gathered together to make the larger collections that we now have.a This psalm is an acrostic poem, each stanza beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The book is an anthology of Hebrew religious hymns. In the Jewish and Western Christian traditions, there are 150 psalms, and several more in the Eastern Christian churches. [4] [5] The book is divided into five sections, each ending with a doxology, or a hymn of praise. There are several types of psalms, including hymns or songs of praise, communal and individual laments, royal psalms, imprecation, and individual thanksgivings. The book also includes psalms of communal thanksgiving, wisdom, pilgrimage and other categories. The book of Psalms falls into five sections or ‘books’. Eachends with a ‘doxology’ or hymn of praise to God (41.13; 72.20; 89.52; 106.48, with the last ‘book’ ending with a whole psalm – Psalm 150 – serving as a doxology).Some also argue that Psalms 1–2 act as an introduction to the whole book.