The Book of Psalms: a Personal Spiritual Commentary and Meditation

By Andrew J. Schatkin

This book is a personal, spiritual, devotional and scholarly exposition and commentary of the Book of Psalms in the Bible. It will appeal to persons of all faiths, ideas and opinions, Christians and non-Christians alike. The Psalms are the expression of Hebrew lyric religious poetry. John Donne, one of the greatest of English poets, said it all when he said that the Psalms were the manna of the church.
It is my fond hope that this book will appeal to all age groups since I have read the Psalms for many years and they represent the ultimate output of Jewish religious poetry and thought. I treasure the Psalms in every way and I am confident that when people read this book and go back to the Psalms in the Bible, they will be deeply affected by exposure to this great work of poetic literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781663223944

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Copyright © 2021 Andrew J. Schatkin.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-2393-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-2394-4 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 05/28/2021

CONTENTS

Preface

General Literary And Theological Introduction

Psalm 1: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 2: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 3: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 4: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 5: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 6: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 7: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 8: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 9: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 10: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 11: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 12: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 13: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 14: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 15: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 16: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 17: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 18: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 19: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 20: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 21: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 22: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 23: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 24: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 25: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 26: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 27: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 28: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 29: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 30: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 31: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 32: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 33: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 34: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 35: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 36: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 37: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 38: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 39: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 40: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 41: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalms 42 And 43: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 44: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 45: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 46: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 47: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 48: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 49: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 50: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 51: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 52: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 53: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 54: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 55: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 56: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 57: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 58: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 59: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 60: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 61: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 62: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 63: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 64: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 65: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 66: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 67: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 68: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 69: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 70: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 71: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 72: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 73: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 74: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 75: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 76: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 77: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 78: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 79: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 80: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 81: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 82: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 83: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 84: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 85: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 86: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 87: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 88: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 89: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 90: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 91: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 92: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 93: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 94: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 95: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 96: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 97: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 98: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 99: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 100: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 101: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 102: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 103: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 104: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 105: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 106: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 107: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 108: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 109: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 110: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 111: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 112: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 113: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 114: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 115: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 116: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 117: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 118: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 119: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 120: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 121: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 122: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 123: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 124: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 125: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 126: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 127: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 128: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 129: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 130: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 131: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 132: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 133: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 134: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 135: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 136: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 137: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 138: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 139: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 140: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 141: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 142: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 143: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 144: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 145: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 146: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 147: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 148: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 149: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Psalm 150: An Analysis And Some Reflections

Appendix

Conclusion And Acknowledgements

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PREFACE

Ever since I was a very young person sent to Sunday School in the Methodist Church, I have been reading the Psalms. I recall reading the Psalms and hearing the Psalms read in church and in high school. I memorized, in my youth, the first Psalm and the 23rd Psalm. When I attended Princeton Theological Seminary for three years, I not only read all of the Psalms in English, but I read many of them in Hebrew. When I read the Psalms and hear the Psalms read, I feel that I am closer to the eternal God, who is speaking to me. One might say that the Psalms are the songs of God and Christ to all mankind and for all mankind.

The Psalms are lyric poetry and many of them were ascribed to King David. They can certainly be seen as hymns in a sense, and hymns are a form of poetry. For those who have some familiarity with classical literature, there are hymns called the Homeric Hymns extant and available. The Psalms are addressed to the ear, not the eye, and when I read the Psalms I never cease to be moved by their great beauty and I always have the sense that in the Psalms, God and Christ speak to me. For thousands of years, the Psalms have been commented upon, read, and absorbed. Many of the sermons of John Donne, the great English poet, have as their subject the Psalms.

The book of Psalms consists of 150 texts ranging from two verses, in Psalm 117, to 176 verses, in Psalms 119. The Psalms were written over the course of many centuries. Although many were ascribed to King David, some are attributed in headnotes to Solomon and Moses (Psalm 72 and Psalm 90). There are Psalms of praise, blame, cursing, lamentation, joy, end exaltation. John Calvin, the great reformer, called the Psalms an anatomy of all of the parts of the soul in as much of a man shall not find any affection in himself, whereof the Image Appeareth not in this glass. Richard Hooker said, What is there for man to know that the Psalms are not able to teach? John Donne preached that the Psalms were the manna of the church. John Donne further stated that just as manna tasted to every man like that he likes best, so do the Psalms administer instruction, and satisfaction to every man in every emergency and occasion.

The Psalms were written in parallelism but not rhyme. We do know that this principle of formal parallelism was the format of Hebrew poetry. The Bible for much of the modern secular world perhaps has irrelevance. I challenge, however, anyone to read a translation of the Psalms in English and then read a translation of a modern work and find which he would tire of first.

In this book, I present my meditations on the Psalms. Each Psalm will be presented and following the Psalm will be my meditation and thoughts on the meaning, and if you will, depth of meaning, within that Psalms. Perhaps I flatter myself that my meditations and thoughts on the Psalms have any value at all to anyone. But I say this, that each time I read the Psalms, each time I am more moved, and more enlightened as to ultimate truth. I hope that this book will provide in these meditations some insight and spiritual depth and direction for those who choose to read this book. If anything, my object is to bring the reader back to the Psalms, and if this book can accomplish that, then this book may have some value for the world.

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GENERAL LITERARY AND

THEOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION

Modern scholarship has shown that the Psalms are collections of small units of material. The Psalms are also a collection of collections. The Psalms are collected in a five-fold division attributed to Moses: 11-41; 42-72; 73-89; 90-106; 107-150. Each ends with a doxology. Book l uses the name Yahweh (Lord) and its superscriptions contain the expression of David. The exceptions are Psalms 1, 2, and 33 which are not ascribed to David. Psalms 2-32 and 34-41 form a Davidic Yahwistic collection. In Psalms 42-83 the word Elohim is used. Within this Elohistic collection there are subdivisions: 42-49; 51-65; 68-71; 73-83.

It is difficult to trace the history of these collections nor can we date the completion of the entire collection. The great majority of the Psalms have superscriptions. There are terms which seem to indicate the authorship or source of the Psalm. One of the most frequent of these terms are references to David. Other Psalms are associated with Asaph; the Sons of Korah; and the choirmaster. There are terms that describe the character of the Psalms; there are terms that refer to instruments or tunes; there are terms that indicate cultic or choral use. The term Selah occurs 71 times in the Psalms, almost exclusively in Books 1-3. As to the dating and classifications of the Psalms, Psalms 72 and 110 have been related to persons and events in the Hellenistic age; Psalm 46 to the raising of the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C.; and Psalm 74 to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

With respect to the types of Psalms and classification, the first and simplest is the Hymn; the second is the Communal Lament; the third is the Royal Psalm; the fourth is the Individual Lament; the last is the Individual Song of Thanksgiving. Other types are Wisdom Poems; Torah liturgies; Pilgrimage Songs; Communal Songs of Thanksgiving and Liturgies.

The Psalms had most probably a cultic connection but were produced in pietistic circles. One group of Psalms were hymns connected with Yahweh’s enthronement: 47-93, 95-100. The enemies frequently mentioned in the Psalms may be the Jews who persecuted the faithful in the post-exilic era or foreign enemies.

The Psalms are essentially an Israelite collection celebrating the God who brought his people out of Egypt; made a covenant with them; gave them his law; brought them into the land which he had promised to their fathers; raised up David and his house to rule over them; and established his sanctuary in Jerusalem and made himself known in deliverances and chastisements.

The Psalms express a number of feelings and thoughts: 1. praise, 2. faith, 3. moral obligations, and 4. joy. Some Psalms denounce enemies and invoke vengeance, such as Psalms 137:7-9; 56. Some Psalms deny the meaning or worth of any existence beyond death: Psalms 6:5.

This concludes a short summary and literary and theological introduction to this book of meditations and analysis of the Psalms.

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PSALM 1: AN ANALYSIS AND

SOME REFLECTIONS

This Psalm is probably an introduction to the entire Psalter. There is a focus on faith in God and Righteousness. It is a psalm of piety and teaches the reward of the righteous and punishment of the wicked. There is an emphasis on the written law. The psalm is divided into 1-3, the wellbeing of the righteous; 4-5, the ruin of the wicked and the divine ordering of human life. The first verse uses the term blessed which is best understood as happy, and we are told that blessed or happy is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but delights in the law and meditates, or rather studies it, day and night. We are told that the righteous man is like a tree that yields fruit; its leaf does not wither and so the righteous man like the tree prospers, as the tree grows and yields fruit planted by the streams. The Psalmist says the wicked are driven away like chaff which the wind drives away and cannot withstand the judgments nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. The Psalm ends with the statement that the Lord knows the way of the righteous but cautions the way of the wicked will perish.

This psalm is a Wisdom Psalm, and affirms that it pays to be good while the wicked will be paid back for their evil. In sum, the Psalm is an affirmation and statement of the moral nature and, if you will, set up of the universe. The Psalm uses many familiar images. Walking on the way is an image for pursuing right moral choices in life. There is a sequence of walking, standing and sitting with evildoers.

The image of the tree planted by the waters is a metaphor of success, fruitfulness and blessing. In a desert arid climate, a tree has to be near water to flourish and bear fruit and leaf. In contrast, the chaff is blown away in contrast to the well-watered, fruit-laden and leafy tree. The statement that he prospers refers no doubt to the man and not the tree. The psalm ends with the fate of the wicked who cannot withstand the judgment, probably in this life and not the next; nor can sinners be in the congregation of the righteous, and concludes that the Lord God knows like an x-ray the way of the righteous and that the way of the wicked will perish.

This is a psalm that speak to us of the essentially moral cosmos. Those whose life is righteous and focuses on the law prosper while the wicked will not be so, and will ultimately be punished and will perish.

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PSALM 1: A MEDITATION

This Psalm contrasts the fate of the wicked and righteous and is to be classified as a Wisdom Psalm. Verses 1-3 speak of the prosperity of the righteous saying the man is blessed who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked; nor stands with sinners; or sits with scoffers but he is delighted in the law of the Lord; meditates on that law day and night and like a tree yields fruit and his leaf does not wither but in all that he does he prospers. In verses 4-6 the disastrous end of the wicked is set forth who are like chaff which the wind drives away and concludes the wicked will not withstand the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous and the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish.

This psalm tells of the contrasting fates and ends of the wicked and righteous and uses a nature motif to point us to the ultimate truth.

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PSALM 2: AN ANALYSIS AND

SOME REFLECTIONS

This Psalm concerns the accession of a king and the revolt of those attached to him. The king rules by divine decree as the son of Yahweh. This Psalm has often been thought to refer to the reign of the messiah. The reference is nevertheless said to be to the reign of a king. The psalm consists of twelve verses. In verses 1-3 the uprising is described. Verses 4-6 speak of the failure of the revolt because of the position of the king in Jerusalem established and supported by the rule in heaven. In verses 7-9 the king quotes the divine oracle which supports and guarantees his position as son. He is a son of Yahweh anointed and adopted by God. Verses 10-12 seek submission by the rebels to God’s power and authority. Verses 11-12 are a warning to serve and worship the Lord with fear and trembling lest his anger be incurred and you perish. The last verse, blessed are those who take refuge in the Lord, means not blessed but perhaps is better rendered happy.

This psalm also seems to refer to an alliance of nations set to attack Judea or perhaps to rebel. The phrase kings of the earth transposes a local political uprising to a worldwide confrontation. The phrase his anointed clearly refers to the current heir to the dynasty of David. Verse 6 refers to Zion, God’s chosen city. In verse 9 the ruler’s scepter becomes some sort of battle mace destroying the enemies that assault Judea. Verse 10 tells the kings to be aware of the Lord’s great power which guarantees Zion’s dominion and power.

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PSALM 2: A MEDITATION

In Psalm 2 the Lord gives universal dominion for his king (a Royal Psalm) composed for a coronation. In verses 1-3 Israel’s subject peoples plot rebellion against the new king. In verse 2 the word anointed or messiah was one of the titles of the Israelite king and after the extinction of the monarchy became a name for the ideal king of the future and the hoped for restoration. In verses 4-9 the newly enthroned king quotes God’s promise of universal rule. In verse 7 the king becomes God’s son, and in verses 10-12 the rebellious rulers are warned to submit.

This psalm is a message to the rebels of the king; speaks of the newly enthroned king and his power derived from the Lord; and ends with a warning to the earthly kings and rulers to submit to his rule and power.

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PSALM 3: AN ANALYSIS AND

SOME REFLECTIONS

This is a Psalm ascribed to Davidic authorship and initially refers to when he fled from Absalom, his son. The poet then speaks of his many enemies who rise up against him and say of him that there is no rescue for him through God. There seems to be a tie-in with David’s flight after Absalom usurped the throne with the poet’s reference to being beset by his enemies. The word Selah is generally thought to be a musical or choral notation. In verse two the Lord is said to be a shield and when the poet cries out to the Lord, he answers from his holy mountain. The writer sleeps and awakes sustained by the Lord.

Despite the enemies and troops that beset him and are set against him and