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Our theme today will be based on the (Westminster) Shorter Catechism,
which asks about the chief and a man, "Man's chief and is to glorify
God and enjoy Him forever," and that is
one other purposes for which the Triune God made us.
Part of the enjoyment of God in the enjoyments
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the enjoyment
of the Psalms. And so what I wanted to look at as how
the Psalms are truly enjoyable, and it is my prayer
that by God's grace the more you joy in them
the more you will glorify God, and the more you will glorify Him
with his word and the singing up the Psalms.
I would like to start this
this morning by pointing out that there's a universality to poetry
and that poetry, of course, is not only found in
the Bible, but it's found in all ages and in all different cultures.
And while you need the Holy Spirit to illumine
the meaning of the Word of God, there are certain aspects to poetry
that are true universally. There are certain aspects
to poetry that are true for the Bible,
and there are aspects that are true
wherever you look. And so I'd like to begin
with the following poem. This is by Billy Collins
and Billy Collins was appointed as Poet Laureate
of the United States from 2001 to 2003.
So here's our nation's Poet Laureate
kind of like King David was the Poet Laureate
of the church. Billy Collins has a helpful poem
and this will help us think about the enjoyment of poetry and the enjoyment
of God's Word.
And he has a poem called "Introduction to Poetry."
And in the "Introduction to Poetry" he
writes, "I asked them to take
a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to water-ski across the
surface of the poem
waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem
to a chair
with a rope and torture a confession out of it.
They began beating it with a hose to find out
what it really means. So as we think about poetry
Billy Collins reminds us it can be like pressing your
ear against a hive. You can listen
for the difference sounds, the different meters of
the words. You can taste the honey inside
the honeycomb—like the Law of the Lord
being sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.
He says, "I want them to ski
across the surface of a poem waving
at the author's name on the shore." And this reminds us of
the author of the the biblical poetry of the Psalms.
It is the Triune God that David was inspired
by the Holy Spirit. There's a relationship between the reader/
singer and the author.
Billy Collins also reminds us that sometimes when we look at poetry
that all we want to do is tie the poem
to a chair with a rope and torture
a confession out of it, "What you really mean?
Tell me the meaning of it." Of course scriptorture
and torture are not reliable ways
of coming to the truth. Torture is not a very good way for building a
relationship
with another person. It's the same with the Triune God.
We also reminded about poetry that is ChristoCentric.
I think this is probably a tortured meeting up Billy Collins poem,
but he reminds us that you can take a poem,
and you can hold it up to the light like a color slide.
As Christians, we understand that Christ is the light.
He is the one through whom we look at and interpret
the Psalms of Scripture. There's an aesthetic beauty
of the Psalms—the Word of God—
that reflects God's glory. There's an aesthetic beauty
in general revelation. You look all around. Psalm 19,
"The heavens declare God's glory. The skies proclaim
the work in his hands." We are reminded that the further out into the universe
that we look
the bigger it is, the more beautiful, the more
colorful, and the more wondrous. The closer that you look at God's
creation—say one of the trillions of cells in your body—
the more you look at them under big microscopes,
the more and more majestic and glorious
God's creation is. The same is true
for the Scriptures. God created everything by His Word,
and now He has revealed Himself to us
in His Word. As we think about biblical poetry,
Mark Futato, in his book, "Interpreting the Psalms"
says "Hebrew poetry is a type of literature that communicates with terse
lines
employing parallelism or imagery
in high frequency." So it's employing a parallelism
and imagery in high frequency.
He goes on to remind us that, "[T]he more you appreciate the poetry of the
psalms,
the more you will get their message."
That's also what Billy Collins brings out in his "Introduction to
Poetry." The more the relationship, the closer the relationship that you have
to another, or to the Triune God,
the more you will understand His Word.
Again, it is relational..."but all they want to do (and there's a danger) all they
want to do is tie the poem
to a chair with a rope and torture a confession
out of it. They began beating it with a host to find out
what it really means."
So poetry is a conversation. You have to sit down,
and you have to take the time to meditate and to know
the Psalms. They become good friends. Solomon says in Proverbs chapter 7
that we're to say to wisdom "You are my sister"
and call understanding your "intimate
friend." So again, the more you appreciate the poetry (and this is why this is so
important for us)
the more you appreciate the poetry of the Psalms, the more you will understand
their message. The more you understand that message the more you
will
grow in your love for the triune
God. Jonathan Edwards helpfully reminds us that, There's a difference
between having a right speculative notion
of the doctrines contained in the Word of God and having a due sense of
them
in the heart." Here's another way of looking at what we've
already touched upon. There's a difference between having a head
knowledge
of God's Word and a heart,
a life, thoughts, words, deeds,
motives. There's a difference between the two.
Again, Jonathan Edwards is bringing out the importance of covenants, he's
bringing out the importance of New Covenant, he's bringing out the
importance
that you must be born from above. You must be born
of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit must write
the Law of God and the Word of God upon your heart, so that we treasure—
as the psalmist says—we treasure the words of God
in our hearts. A significant percentage at the Old Testament
is poetic. Some commentators and scholars
say that as much as 40 percent of the Old Testament
is a type of poetry. Now forty percent maybe on the high end
and it may be something lower like 30 percent,
but you'll find poetry in
of course the Psalms, you'll find poetry in the Law of Moses.
You'll find poetry in the prophets, and you'll find poetry in the other writings
such as Job
and Proverbs. Again, about 30 percent.
You might be asking yourself well, "Why is poetry
so prevalent in the Scriptures?" I think one of the reasons you
find so much poetry
is because poetry is covenantal.
Poetry is relational. There's a relationship between God and His people,
"I will be your God and you
will be my people." It's in the words of Jonathan Edwards,
"having a do sense" of God's Word on our heart.
You'll remember of course that the first recorded words of Adam
in Scripture are poetry.
Do you remember how God put the first Adam into a deep sleep,
and he fashioned from his rib
the woman? God then brought the woman
to the man, and Adam said—
his first recorded words—"This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called
woman because she was taken out
man. That is poetry.
That is the quintessence of poetry, "She shall be called woman." In the
Hebrew it's ishshah.
"Because she was taken out of ish (Hebrew: man).
That's relationship and those are the very first words. Poetry is covenantal.
It's love. It's relational and we'll be coming back to this
and at the end of the lecture in Psalm 45.
When I proposed to my wife (fiancée), it was in the context of poetry.
I love my wife. When I proposed to her I memorized Shakespeare's Sonnet
number 116, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit
impediments." I went to a renaissance festival. I talk to the man was playing
Shakespeare.
I worked it all out into his play where he would say, "Young man
you look like you know something of love and are in love. Do you have
anything to share with us?"
I stood up, and I I got in front of my wife. I got down on my knee and
I recited
Shakespeare to her. I said, "Heidi will you marry me?"
As I was reciting the sonnet, she kept saying,
"Aaron, sit down! Sit down! You're embarrassing yourself!"
Of course, I was willing to do anything for her love.
She said at the very end when I said, "Will you marry me?"
She said, "Okay." She didn't really know what to say.
It's an expressive love. Shakespeare is one of the greats.
About a year later when we got married, in the presence of God,
we swore faithfulness until death do us part.
We also sang Psalm 45 at our wedding.
Zephaniah 3:17 says that, "God exalts
(or he sings) over his people
with joy." God has revealed Himself as a God of love,
and so it should not surprise us that there's a lot of poetry
in the Old Testament. As we grow in our appreciation of that poetry,
we will grow in our understanding of God's love for us and the Lord Jesus
Christ
as he is poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit
and as we understand that love we will be growing
in our love for Him and
for His kingdom. I'd like to first talk a little bit about
imagery. Remember that we noted, "Hebrew poetry is a type of literature
that communicates with terse lines employing parallelism
and imagery in high frequency."
I want to give a quote from Athanasius who has already been
mentioned (earlier in this conference). Athanasius writes, "In other books one hears
only what one must not do...
But in the Book of Psalms, the one who hears,
in addition to learning these things, also comprehends
and is taught in the emotions of the soul,
and, consequently...he is enabled by this book
to possess the image deriving from
the words." So there's a mention of
the image. Athanasius is reminding us
that the Psalms contain a lot of
imagery. Take for example Psalm
104. In the first four verses
of what Psalm you have eight images.
We praise and worship the Lord singing, "You are clothed with splendor
and majesty." That's an image. God wears clothing.
It [His clothing] is splendor and majesty. "He covers himself with light
as with a cloak. He stretches out heaven
like a tent curtain. He lays the beam of His
upper chambers in the waters." God is a builder.
That is an image of God building and structuring
the creation of the world. As you look up into the skies the psalmist reminds us
in Psalm 104 that "He makes the clouds His
chariot." God travels. He "walks up on the
wings of the wind. He makes the winds his messengers,
Flaming fire His ministers."
Of course there are many other images. There is the imagery of the tongue.
You might think of your own favorite images from the Psalms.
You might think the shepherd. There's a lot of agricultural
imagery in the Psalms. We have trees and flora and green pastures.
"You will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water
which yields its fruit in season and its leaf does not wither
whatever he does prospers. Psalm 92 also contains this
agricultural Edenic imagery going back to Paradise.
(Psalm 92) speaks about about you and me planted in the house of the LORD,
"They will flourish in the courts above our God.
They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap and very green,
To declare that the LORD is upright;
He is my rock (there's another image. He is my rock) my rock
and there is no unrighteousness in Him."
You have a lot of imagery of animals
in the Psalms (the fauna). You have sheep and goats.
You have leviathans swimming around
in the sea. You have the imagery of deserts and thirst
and water. You have the imagery of mountains. Psalm 125, "Those who trust in
the LORD
Are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the LORD surrounds His people
From this time forth and forever. You also have in the Psalms the imagery
of anointing, which also is Messianic.
You have the idea of the anointing and the Spirit of God coming down
upon God's people. You have scepters,
you have the sun, you have the imagery of the "way,"
paths, and walking. "How blessed is the man who does not walk
in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way (path)
of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers
but his delight is in love the LORD, And on his life he meditates day
and night. The imagery of traveling,
you have the imagery of the stars, God's right-hand,
you have the faulty bow in Psalm 78,
"So He brought them to His holy land, To this hill country
which His right hand had gained."
As God's people are entering into the Promised Land
and driving out the Canaanites they turned
and acted treacherously. God then turned them aside like a treacherous bow.
So we reminded that just as the Canaan nights were driven from the land in
Psalm 78 ,God's people were driven from the Promised Land because of their
unfaithfulness,
their lack of love, their lack of relationship with the LORD (covenant unfaithfulness),
and they turned aside like a treacherous bow. A bow that is not
reliable. The Psalms have the imagery of refuge in God's wings,
the shadow above the Almighty. Psalm
36, "How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
And the children of men take refuge in the shadow
of Your wings." So again there's so much
imagery that the Psalms are very concrete.
One author, Luis Alonso Schökel, reminds us
about the importance of imagery. He
even ties this in with a Cristocentric an incarnational
understanding. He writes, "Let us not think that
only metaphysical analogies say something valid
or make it possible to understand authentic
aspects of God; poetic analogies
are no less valid. Metaphysical preaching by analogy attributes
abstract concepts to God: God is being,
power, wisdom. Poetic analogy preaches through the concrete:
God is a rock, a citadel a bulwark...
When God is refracted in multiple images
of poetic language, we are given the pleasing,
silent impression up realism. It is
as if God were already incarnate
in the poetic word [Remember the Word became flesh
and tabernacled among us John 1. But in the Psalms] it is as if God were already
incarnate in the poetic word before
becoming incarnate in flesh and blood.
It is as if the 'many and various ways' (Hebrews 1:1)
of that word were an imaginative rehearsal
for the future historical incarnation."
So there's the importance of
imagery. But I wanted to move and talk more about
the repetition or the parallelism,
which is one of the chief characteristics of Hebrew poetry.
Repetition is one of the characteristics, actually, of
all poetry, whether biblical or non-biblical
poetry. One writer says in the New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and
Poetics
that, "Repetition of sound,
syllable, word, phrase, line, strophe,
metrical pattern, or syntactical structure lies at the core
of any definition of poetry."
The reason I bring this up is because this is universal to all of poetry:
repetition. What we're going to be looking at is repetition of
lines
and words in the Psalms of God.
In fact, I've printed out for you, and I think Pastor Brad handed out a a color
printing of Psalm 49 (http://goo.gl/83Wf0g),
which we will be looking at, Lord willing, this evening. And a color print out a
Psalm 51.
That's just for your own looking at the parallelism
and the repetition of words even within
single Psalms. Of course, as we think about the repetition of words this is
one of the easiest ways
in which you can see Hebrew poetry. Take for example Psalm
136. I think Psalm 136 is one of the classic examples
of repetition in Hebrew poetry.
Does anyone know what the repetition is
in Psalm 136?
"His mercy/lovingkindness is
everlasting." You'll find it 26
times. So in a single psalm
for twenty six times. A lot of people get tired
singing Psalm 136 and will break up Psalm 136
and maybe sing it in two parts or three parts. Why?
Because we get tired of saying, "His mercy/lovingkindness is everlasting.
His mercy
is everlasting." But of course that is
the grace of God. That is that at the very heart
of the covenant. God's love. His mercy.
His hesed (Hebrew for lovingkindness). We will sing about that
forevermore. Psalm 136 is a reminder.
There's poetry. There's the repetition, and there's the repetition
of lines. Another example of repetition would be Psalm 119.
Psalm 119 you have the repetition for God's Law.
In fact, in Psalm 119 you have several
different Hebrew words that are used for
God's law. Eight different Hebrew words
and they are found in all 176
verses of Psalm 119 with the exception of four.
Only four verses don't contain any reference
to law, testimonies, precepts,
statutes commandments, judgments/ordinances,
word/promises/
sayings. Over and over you find in Psalm 119—all 176
verses—this emphasis on the beauty,
the glory, the loveliness, the desirability
of the Law of God.
As you come to the very last
verse,
"I have gone astray like a lost sheep
seek your servants for I do not forget
your commandments." So in all the love for the Word of God,
we are in need for the Word to become flesh
and take upon Himself the obligations of the law
for our righteousness. And so there
at the very end of Psalm 119, in a very lovely poetic way,
we have not a former legalism! It's a form of love!
But it's looking to the covenant love of God in the sending
of Jesus to live for our righteousness
and to die for our unrighteousness.
As we think about the poetry and the structure of the Psalms,
this is probably something that I don't know if you ever noticed
it before but if you look in your English Bibles and you open them up
to Psalm 1,
you'll see that the Hebrew poetry is
actually formatted in your English Bibles.
You'll notice that the way in which it is formatted
is that you have usually two lines
and you have one line and then right under that line,
and you can see that in Psalm 1, it will be
indented. So the second line will be indented. So if you look at Psalm 1
and the way in which is printed in some English Bibles you have, "Blessed is
the man.
Okay that would be half of a line, and then there's an indentation
and that's what your English Bible is drawing you to.
The Hebrew poetry, "Blessed is the man" and then the indentation
"who walks not in the counsel of the wicked".
You can go through all 150 Psalms.
If you take careful note you'll see maybe something
that you never saw before. Each and every
verse and line is indented. That's to remind you
and to encourage you to read the Psalms as poetry.
What is happening and going on here is a kind of parallelism.
Now I don't think, I haven't found over the years the
formatting of Hebrew poetry in our English Bibles very
helpful. What I've done is I've tried to format it
in parallel columns. You can see behind me
that there are at two columns for Psalm 1. In fact, there's three
columns in the very first verse.
You can see now visually the parallelism
of Psalm 1. So in the first column,
sometimes these are called cola. We'll just say column for now.
One column would be a cola. Two columns would be a bicola.
You do have three columns in about 12%
of the Psalms. That would be a tricola.
You never have four though. You either have
two or three columns. Notice that the first verse has three
columns,
"How blessed is the man who does not walk in the council the wicked
"nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat
of scoffers; But his delight in in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day
and night. Notice again the two columns.
We'll look at what that means and how we're too
begin looking and enjoying that. But I want you to
initially see that even the way English Bibles are formatted
that poetry is there. Then we'll be looking at how we are to look at it
and interpret and appreciate it.
The other thing I wanted to point out to you about Psalm 1
is the repetition.
Not only in the poetry do you have parallelism,
but you have the repetition of words. You might have noticed here in Psalm 1
the repetition. The Psalm begins with the blessedness so the man who
walks not in the council
of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners.
The Psalm begins not standing
in the way of sinners. Now notice that the very
end, which I've highlighted in green in verse 6. You also
have "the way" Verse 1 begins with
"the way".."the blessedness the blessed man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the way of sinners
nor sitteth
in the seat of scoffers" and then as you look at as I've colored this
there's repetition at the very end, "for the LORD knows the way
of the righteous, but the way
of the wicked well perish.
What's going on? There are two ways.
Christianity is called "the way." Jesus said, "I am
the way, the truth, and the life."
So as you begin looking at and appreciating the repetition and there's
more repetition in Psalm 1
than "the way," but it's very Christocentric.
You begin to realize that as the Psalter begins
it's ultimately about the blessed man.
My blessedness is not because I've always walked
according to the law of the LORD. I haven't. I've sinned. I've fallen short
of the glory of God. But there is One, "The Blessed Man"
Who has walked according to the law of God. Jesus who could say, "I
always do the things that are pleasing to the Father."
The blessedness for us in Psalm 1
is the blessedness that is found in Jesus Christ.
And so again, as you appreciate the poetry of the Psalms, and this is again
what we're getting at,
the more you will get their message.
As you begin to look at what's happening in the Psalms, you're going to
say, "Oh
okay. Now I see what is happening." Psalm 1 begins with blessedness.
Psalm 2 (Psalm 1 and 2 are sister Psalms). It ends ends
"How blessed is the one who puts their trust
in the LORD's anointed." There's that repetition
highlighting for us one of the main things:
Jesus Christ and our need to put our faith
and trust in Him. He is our blessedness.
What I'm talking about here is not anything
new; although, it may be you've never really paid attention before to the
formatting of the Psalms in your Bible.
One of the oldest examples
I know of comes from the most complete Hebrew manuscripts
of the Bible known as the Aleppo
Codes. The Aleppo Codex and I've give you
a snapshot from the aleppocodex.org,
and what you're looking at is the Hebrew text
from the oldest and most complete
Hebrew manuscript that we have.
Here's the text of Deuteronomy chapter 32.
You can see that Deuteronomy 32 this is one of the final sermons
of Moses as the book of Deuteronomy, the book of the Law, comes to a
conclusion,
the Torah. Deuteronomy 32 begins, "Give
ear O heavens, and let me speak; And let the earth
hear the words of my mouth."
As Moses is recounting the history of Israel,
he breaks off into a song.
In Deuteronomy 32 Moses
gives a song to Israel about the latter days. It's actually about the time of
Christ,
which they are to learn. Notice what's happening in the Hebrew text.
You're going along
and this is the narrative. This is the sermon of Moses.
As Moses goes on, and you can see
in the manuscript there's a breaking off into columns.
That is a recognition that the song of Moses
is poetry. The way
in which ancient scribes copied the text of Scripture. Here is the oldest Hebrew manuscript
that we have.
Most complete. And they recognized the parallelism. This is what I already have
shown in Psalm 1.
They recognize that also in the Psalms. They're recognizing that
even in the Law of God as Moses
teaches Israel a song about the latter days. There are the parallel columns
again. After the song of Moses is done in Deuteronomy 32,
the scribes went back to the single column
of writing. The point I wanted to bring to your attention, is that what I'm
talking about
is nothing new. It's as old as the oldest and most complete Hebrew manuscript
that we have in the Aleppo Codes. Now the next thing I wanted to look at is
that repetition
and parallelism comes in different forms.
We've looked at some of the repetition of words.
I've introduced you to the parallel columns.
But sometimes repetition, I think this is another easy way of looking at it,
Psalm 136 another easy way and Psalm 119.
But another way to introduce you to the repetition
of Hebrew poetry, to understand its meaning a little bit better and to
appreciate and enjoy it
is what is called inclusio.
Inclusio is sometimes called bookends
or circular structure. Inclusio is a fancy term
for the idea that many times a Psalm will begin
and end the same way.
So one of the ways in which you are to read and study and
appreciate the Psalms is to say, "Okay, how does the Psalm begin?
How does it end?" You can learn a lot about the meaning of the Psalm by
looking at its beginning
and looking at its end. You can see all the examples I found of
inclusio. I don't think this is an exhaustive
list. In fact, is I was on the way here last week
I had to add Psalm 139. I couldn't believe that I had missed that but there's
actually
a very beautiful inclusio in Psalm 139.
I introduced you to inclusio in Psalm 1 about
the "blessed man" and "the way."
Psalm 8 is another
classic example of inclusio. Remember that Psalm
8 begins, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth."
It ends the same way. The exact same way.
Not all forms of inclusio begin and end the very same way.
Maybe they're parallel ideas or synonyms.
But Psalm 8 ends in verse 9, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name
in all the earth." So what do you think one of the main points of Psalm 8 is?
"O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth."
There another thing. I'm getting ahead of myself. The very center of Psalm 8
—you have the beginning and the end about the majesty of God—and the very
middle is another question, "What is man
that you are mindful of him? The Son of man that you should care for him?"
Beautifully, as you look at the structure
you begin to understand that the source of wisdom is the knowledge of God
and the knowledge of self. You've been introduced to the way in
which the Psalter
ends. It ends with a crescendo
of inclusio: "Hallelujah."
Psalm 146 begins "Hallelujah." It ends with "Hallelujah."
The same thing all the way through Psalm 150.
What do you think one of the main points is, as the Psalter comes to a
conclusion?
What's one of the the main points of the Psalter? "Hallelujah."
"Praise the LORD." That is inclusio. There
are dozens of examples
of inclusio in the Psalms. By the way,
there are many examples in other books of the Bible.
As you are learning how to look at the Psalms,
I'm also teaching you how to look at the Bible.
Take for example the book of Genesis. I'll just give you one
example outside the Psalms. There are many examples like this.
The book of Genesis, if you ever compare the way in which it begins and ends,
there are a lot of parallels. One of my favorite parallels (I'll give you two)
in the book of Genesis
is that the book of Genesis begins with the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil.
Remember that is the commandment that God gave to our first father Adam,
"From the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. The day in
which you eat of it you will
surely die you. Do you remember that at the very end of
Genesis, the wicked things that
Israel's sons had done against Joseph in selling him into slavery
in Egypt? Do you remember how Joseph said to his brothers in the context
of all the wicked things they had done to Joseph,
"You intended it for evil,
but God intended it for good."
Good and evil. That's how Genesis begins. It's one of the themes and how
it ends. Of course that is very Christocentric.
Isn't it? It's very purposeful for us because, we know that
in all things,
"God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to
His purpose" (Romans 8:28).
Another one my favorite inclusios in Genesis, and then I'll move on because I
have to is
that the book of Genesis begins
in the Garden of Eden with life.
The book of Genesis, if you look at its very conclusion,
it ends with Joseph's bones. His
bones in Egypt, but with the hope that his bones will be brought out of Egypt
to the Promised Land. There's another strong theme
dealing with life and death.
I'd like to move on now and look at
some of the parallelism that we find within
lines. Remember Psalm 1 and how I showed you the parallel columns.
Now I'd like to help you to begin thinking, "How should I think
about this repetition? One verse says the same thing
twice." As we think about repetition, which is one of the chief
characteristics of poetry,
it leads to different kinds of parallelism.
It leads to synonymous parallelism.
It leads to antithetic parallelism. It leads to
synthetic parallelism. Now,
synonymous parallelism would be
lines with similar meaning and usually there's some kind
of development, but you need to think about what the
development is. I don't think anything is truly synonymous.
It's never just simply you can just read half for the psalm
and one side and you get it. There's always something happening.
Here's an example of what we might call synonymous
parallelism in Psalm 40, "For evils beyond number have surrounded me;
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see."
You have the parallel ideas: "evils
beyond number;" "iniquities overtaking me"
and there's a a progression: "I am not able
to see." Psalm 94 we have another example of
what we could call synonymous parallelism, "O LORD, God of
vengeance, God of vengeance, shine forth!"
Psalm 24, "The earth and its fullness are the LORD's,
the world and those who dwell in it."
Psalm 103, "He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities."
Psalm 42, "As the deer pants for water brooks,
so my soul pants for You, O God."
You have the simile of a panting deer and a panting soul, parallel.
So you have a "deer" and "my soul."
James Kugel has written that parallelism is like a
seconding in parliamentary procedure.
If you have ever been to a presbytery meeting or a Synod meeting,
if someone has an idea and they want to speak you need that's going to be
discussed on the floor
you need a second. It's kind of a seconding motion
that you find in parallelism, because that's part of the law, "On the testimony of
two or three witnesses
a matter is established. Now
that's synonymous parallelism. Here's another kind of parallelism that's
called antithetic parallelism.
We find antithetic parallelism throughout the Psalms. Also you find a
lot of antithetic
parallelism in the book of Proverbs.
Take for example Psalm 1 and the description
of the righteous man. Again that's our righteousness in Christ. It's not
a self-righteousness. It's our righteousness in Christ,
"But he will be like a tree fell firmly planted by streams
of water, Which yields its fruit in season. And its leaf does not wither; Whatever
he does, he prospers."
There is the righteous. But now look at the antithesis, "The wicked are not so,
they are like chaff which the wind blows away."
There is no substance, there is no root,
there's no foundation. At the Final Judgment
they will be blown away like chaff. There is another
antithetic parallelism in the very last verse, "For the LORD knows the way
of the righteous, but the way of the wicked
will perish." So the wicked who do not know
the LORD, who do not walk in the way God's Word,
and the way of Jesus Christ, they will
perish. Psalm 30
is another wonderful example of this
antithetic parallelism, "For His answer is but for a moment,
His favor is for a lifetime."
Notice what's going on. You have "anger"
and the antithesis to that is "favor."
You have "moment" verses a "lifetime."
"Weeping may last for the night,
But a shout of joy it comes in the morning." Notice the "weeping," the "shout
of joy," the "night,"
and the "morning." Now you probably can appreciate and enjoy the Psalms without
knowing
that this is called antithetic parallelism.
We already appreciate and see the beauty without me having to tell you
that scholars have actually given a name to this.
But you can also know that a tree is beautiful, if you don't know the name of
the tree.
Right? But if you want it know more about the tree,
you're going to learn everything you can about it. Now that's just a tree.
We're dealing now with the Word of God.
So let's jump into another example in Psalm 37
of antithetic parallelism, because it it also speaks to us
about what we are to be living for in our lives.
There is a Day of Judgment. Psalm 37 reminds us that the
the wicked, they live for the here and the now,
but they will not have any future inheritance. We
live now waiting patiently on the LORD in obedience.
We will inherit the land. Notice in Psalm 37
the "evildoers will be cut off."
But "those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land."
so evil doers are those who are lawbreakers what does it mean to wait
for the LORD.
[Waiting for the LORD is] to obey the law even if there's a cost or a consequence
like there was for Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
They waited for the Lord by obeying God and seeking first His kingdom
and His righteousness. It seemed like they were going to lose everything,
but no they weren't cut off from the land. They inherited the land.
Verse 10, "Yet a little while and the wicked man
will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place
and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land and will
delight themselves
in abundant prosperity." So in the
parallel here in verse 10 of Psalm 37,
you have the "wicked man" versus the "humble."
You have the wicked man who will be no more. He is something now.
He thinks he's something great now, and he may be in the eyes of the world—
he "will be no more but the humble they will
inherit the land." "He will not be there" parallels
"he will have up abundant prosperity." Verse 16,
"better is the little of the righteous, than the abundance
of many wicked." Again, notice and appreciate
"a little" verses (parallels) "abundance. You may have a little now
but it won't always be like that. The wicked may have an abundance now,
but it will not always be like that.
"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world
are to lose/forfeit his soul?"
So as you're your meditating on these things, Jesus did the same thing—
when He took upon Himself flesh and blood—in His teaching.
Jesus had spent His earthly life
meditating on the Law of the Lord, because that's what the blessed man does.
That's why Jesus could answer, "It is written...It is written...It is written."
The Psalms were deep upon the heart of
Jesus (Psalm 40:7-8). They were foundational and fundamental
to His teaching. "The wicked borrows and does not pay back,
But the righteous is gracious
and gives." There is another kind of parallelism
called synthetic or constructive parallelism and
and parallelism works and all different types ways.
You you can read it, you can
begin to understand how the line works, and begin saying, "Well
what is the psalmist saying here? What am I saying
to God as I sing these Psalms and as as I praise Him?"
I want to point out to you Psalm 77
and verse 17. Very beautifully
there's a a description a violent rainstorm,
and the description is done poetically through repetition.
"The clouds overflowed with water; The atmosphere
resounded." I think I hear thunder.
"Thine arrows also issued forth."
So there is the lightning and again that's one verse,
three columns. They're building on each other. That repetition
is describing God's storm.
Psalm 93 is another
beautiful example of this (synthetic) parallelism.
In verse 3
you have three things happening. Three things are repeated and building
on one another. "The floods have lifted up, O LORD,
the floods have lifted up their voice,
The floods lift up their pounding waves."
Doesn't that sound like the waves coming into the shore
and crashing? Again the repetition, "the floods...the floods...the floods..."
"lift...lift...lift..." and it begins with, "O LORD."
"...their voice...their pounding waves..."
Psalm 18 is another wonderful example, and this is God's
appearance known as a theophany
on the battlefield coming to the aid of His people.
Look and listen to verses 7-8,
"Then the earth shook and quaked;
And the foundations of the mountains were trembling
And were shaken, because He was angry.
Smoke went up out of His nostrils, And fire
from His mouth devoured; Coals were kindled
by it." God's appearance to deliver
His people from the seed of the serpent (Genesis 3:15)
is a truly awesome image that we have
in verses 7-8. You begin on
and the battlefield. If you're a Philistine or an Ammonite or opposing
David
and the army of the Lord and you begin to feel the earth shake,
you'd better run. But there is no refuge, there is no place to run
from the wrath of God apart from Jesus Christ.
So the imagery here of God delivering His people
should again call us and as we meditate and enjoy it
how we need to take refuge and flee
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I will stop there and give you guys a break to
run around for a couple minutes, shoot baskets and we will continue.