Themes from the Psalms

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Themes from the Psalms
Class 1
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Quote

• His purpose is not that you will do more for Him
• but that you will choose to be more with Him.
  
• Bruce Wilkinson

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Outline of the Class

• Introduction
• Types of Literature
• Translation of Poetry
• Parallelism
• Expressing Ourselves
• Religious Background (Mindset of the hearers)
• About the Psalms
• Themes
• Worship
• Inner Struggle
• Worthiness
• Shared Strength
• Protection
• Prophecy
• Conclusions

These themes are my choice find your own!
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Types of Literature in the Bible

• History give sense of purpose and plan
• Prophecy give sense of future
• Teaching show the will of God
• Parables
• Sermons
• Allegories
• Stories
• Use of imagery
• Poetry expression of feelings
• Like opinion it truly represents someones
  feelings
• How godly people respond to life and God
• How does this relate to inspiration?

Which type do you learn the most from?
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The Usefulness of the Poetic Form

• Memory aids
• rhyme
• meter
• music
• imagery
• parallelism
• also aids in memorization
• gives different ways of looking at things

Some people know the words to any song that they
have ever heard!
This is how oral traditions were passed on to
other generations
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Translation of Language (1)
Geard
Not a letter transformation or substitution
Not a word transformation or substitution
How do you translate idioms?
Example Snug as a bug in a rug.

• We had hot dogs and Coke for lunch fish and hush
  puppies for supper, and then sat around shooting
  the bull until midnight.

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Translation of Language (2)
Not a letter transformation or substitutionNot a
word transformation or substitution
A Mighty Fortress is Our God -- Martin Luther,
1529
God Weapons Emergency concerned enemy means cunnin
g is the same
Godfailingfloodprevailingfoewoegreathateeq
ual

• Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott,
• Ein gute Wehr und Waffen
• Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not,
• Die uns jetzt hat betroffen.
• Der alt' böse Feind,
• Mit Ernst er's jetzt meint,
• Groß' Macht und viel List
• Sein' grausam' Rüstung ist,
• Auf Erd' ist nicht seingleichen.

Slight rhyming problem
doesnt have to rhyme with anything
computer translation
Frederick H. Budge
Original German
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Translation of Poetry (1)
A Mighty Fortress is Our God -- Martin Luther,
1529
A mighty fortress is our God,A bulwark never
failingOur helper He amid the floodOf mortal
ills prevailingFor still our ancient foeDoth
seek to work us woeHis craft and pow'r are
great,And armed with cruel hate,On earth is not
His equal.
A B A B C C D D X

• Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott,
• Ein gute Wehr und Waffen
• Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not,
• Die uns jetzt hat betroffen.
• Der alt' böse Feind,
• Mit Ernst er's jetzt meint,
• Groß' Macht und viel List
• Sein' grausam' Rüstung ist,
• Auf Erd' ist nicht seingleichen.

pattern
Frederick H. Budge, 1852
Original German
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Translation of Poetry (2)
A Mighty Fortress is Our God -- Martin Luther
A mighty fortress is our God, A sword and shield
victoriousHe breaks the cruel
oppressor's rodAnd wins salvation glorious.The
old evil foe,Sworn to work us woe,With dread
craft and mightHe arms himself to fight.On
Earth he has no equal.
A B A B C C D D X

• A mighty Fortress is our God,A trusty Shield and
  WeaponHe helps us free from every needThat
  hath us now o'ertaken.The old evil FoeNow means
  deadly woeDeep guile and great mightAre his
  dread arms in fightOn Earth is not his equal.

sacrifice meaning for rhyme
no attempt to rhyme
Other Translation
Other Translation
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Translation of Poetry Variety
A Mighty Fortress is Our God -- Martin Luther
God victorious rod glorious foe woe might fight e
qual
A B A B C C D D X

• God
• weapon
• need
• o'ertaken
• foe
• woe
• might
• fight
• equal

Gott Waffen Not betroffen Feind meint List ist se
ingleichen
God failing flood prevailing foe woe great hate e
qual
A poem, by definition, is a pithy form of
expression that can never be accurately
translated. Robert Frost
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Parallelism

• Bible poetry rarely relies on rhyme or meter, but
  often on parallelism.
• Parallelism a balanced construction of a verse
  or sentence, where one part repeats the form or
  meaning of the other.
• This poetic form translates strongly without
  needed to paraphrase.

The heavens tell Gods glory, The firmament shows
his handiwork. Day to day utters speech, Night to
night reveals knowledge. Psalm 191-2
First two lines similar pair Next two lines
contrasting pair
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Types of Parallelism

• Synonymous
• The second line repeats the first idea in
  different words
• Synthetic
• The second line adds to the thoughts of the first
• Antithetic
• The second line contrasts in theme with the first
• Climactic
• Successive lines build to a climax or summary

Parallelism is not limited to pairs of lines
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Other Literary Devices

• Switching between figurative and literal forms
• No formal parallelism, but lots of echoes
• Questions and answers
• Imagery
• Acrostic (first word, each letter of the alphabet)

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my
soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for
God, for the living God. When can I go and meet
with God? My tears have been my food day and
night, while men say to me all day long, "Where
is your God?" Deep calls to deep in the roar of
your waterfalls all your waves and breakers have
swept over me. Psalm 421-3, 7
Imagine the craving!
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Expressing Ourselves (1)

• Have you ever written a poem?
• Have you ever written one to God?
• Life causes it to pour forth
• birth of a baby
• true love
• great loss
• Modesty forbids
• Next weeks assignment write one

How about just changing the standard Roses are
red, violets are blue (but it doesnt have to
rhyme)
Skunks stink, and so do you! (grammar school)
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Expressing Ourselves (2)

• It is one thing to just repeat what someone else
  has said and try to feel it in our hearts.
• It is quite something else to have the words pour
  forth from our heart, in our expression of our
  love and need for God.

Be a voice, not an echo Kahlil Gibran
Who says that men dont express their feelings?
It is useful to have someones thoughts to guide
us, but True worship is worship from our heart,
not just repetition by rote of someone elses
words.
The Bible is seed material for our own
expressions of worship (within proper bounds).
That is why we should keep writing stories and
songs, keep exploring, probing, and thinking.
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Expressing Ourselves (3)
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Sing your own Song!

• Releasing your own personal song
• No one knows about your soul, really, but you and
  God
• Release of tension something within that needs
  to find a way out
• Self-creed, a definition of self
• The encapsulation of personality
• What is the core of your being?

Everyone needs to write a poem or song or create
an image
Death song (what the American Indians used to do)
Gods infinite depth allows the variety of all
our personalities
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The Psalms and Honest Worship (1)

• Psalm 137

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we
remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung
our harps, for there our captors asked us for
songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy they
said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
(1-3) How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land? If I forget you, O
Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I
do not remember you, if I do not consider
Jerusalem my highest joy. (4-6)
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The Psalms and Honest Worship (2)

• Psalm 137

Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did on the
day Jerusalem fell. "Tear it down," they cried,
"tear it down to its foundations!" O Daughter
of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he
who repays you for what you have done to us he
who seizes your infants and dashes them against
the rocks. (7-9)
This shows brutally honest feelings poured out to
God are OK
You may want to scream!
God would rather have true love than lip service
(being right) The people honor me with their
lips, but their heart is far from me!
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The Psalms and Honest Worship (3)
From Psalms I have learned that I can
rightfully bring to God whatever I feel about
Him. Philip Yancey
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The Psalms and Inspiration

• Question What is your favorite color?

What if I judged your answer wrong?
Your opinion is truth The Psalms contain
peoples feelings and opinions, But they contain
inspiration as well! How does this relate to
prophecy in the Psalms?
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The Psalms with Music?

• Psallo a Greek word indicating songs sung to
  the accompaniment of stringed instruments
• What if we were told that we could only read the
  words of our songs, but not sing them?
• Bob Brinkmann We can sing psalms such as Ps 98
  (see vss 4ff) but we (speaking as a member of
  traditional Church of Christ) cannot do what they
  say.

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst
into jubilant song with music make music to the
LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound
of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the
ram's horn-- shout for joy before the LORD, the
King. Psalm 984-6
My heart is steadfast, O God I will sing and
make music with all my soul. Psalm 1081
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The Psalms with Music (Legalism)?

• Where do we draw the line on considering the
  Psalms as inspired and authoritative literature?
• Legalism drives us to exacting (and painful)
  detail.

Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous it is
fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise
the LORD with the harp make music to him on the
ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song play
skillfully, and shout for joy. Psalm
331-3
How many strings does your lyre have?