Survey of the Old Testament Poetic Books

All right, good evening we are in lecture four tonight survey of the poetic books and As we do each week like to start with a little pop quiz now, you don't have to write this one down. We'll do this one by show of hands.

We'll see who remembers. This is my question from last week's lesson last week we looked at the the historical books from Joshua to the book of Esther and we said that those books can be broken down into three historical Categories by show of hands, please.

Don't just shout out the answer but by show of hands. What was the first category? Yes, sir the theocratic Period now, what does theocratic mean? Well, it's the word ruled by God. That's right. Cory. It's it's the God God ruled is what theocratic means.

Okay, so that was number one that was during the time of Joshua and Judges and Ruth. Now the next period is referred to as what? Caleb. Monarchial yeah, yeah and that means That's right, yeah, that's right.

It's the time of the Kings. So we have first and second Samuel first and second Kings and first and second Chronicles make up the monarchial period alright, so. Then we have the third category. What is the third category?

What is it? Miss miss Daisy? You look like, you know. No, no, what's the third category? You look like you know, what's the third category? Yes, Rebecca. Yeah restoration period very good. The restoration period includes Ezra Nehemiah and Esther so if you remember we had a chart on the board and it had the three sort of broken out in three three Categories, that's the easiest way to sort of remember what's going on when when you're reading through these books understanding sort of the the Chronological breakdown going from the time where they were ruled directly by God through judges which were deliverers people who were risen up by God to deliver them out of the situations that they put themselves in by being disobedient to God and then of course the monarchs of the Kings starting with Saul and David and Solomon and then the sons of Solomon that divided the kingdom and then of course the Time of the Exile with Nebuchadnezzar and the bringing back after the exile under the time of the restoration under Cyrus.

The Wisdom Books in Israel’s Story

All right. So tonight we're going to be looking at the poetic literature that will be Less books, which is good. Because we can dig a little bit more into each book because we have less to get through.

The survey of the poetic books also known as the wisdom literature if you want to you want to put that Just a side note. They're poetic, but they're also considered wisdom literature. That is Job. It's a song of Solomon.

Job's the first one in that class and then you have Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes and song of Solomon which totals Five books in the English or the Western Canon. All right. These books are unique within the Canon.

Because they do not necessarily attach themselves to a specific period in Israel's history. The wisdom and stories they contain are timeless for instance. We don't know when Job lived there's a lot that has been said about Job Being the earliest book of the Bible that was written.

There have been whole books arguing for Job's Predating of Mosaic writing that Job has been around actually longer than Moses and that Job would have lived during the time period of Abraham in that particular period and.

And I have not done enough research to know whether or not those arguments are are Legitimate, but I know that they're out there and and I think it's safe to say that at least that is a contention that that we Should recognize that some contend that Job is the oldest book of the Bible by virtue of when it was written so with that being that being the case Job would would then be put in the patriarchal period and.

And Then you got the books of Psalms and Proverbs which seem to be written over a long period of time and They include writings from many different authors. We're going to look at this later tonight. There are Psalms that were written by David and often think of them as the Psalms of David.

But not all of them are written by David. There are Psalms that are written by other writers including Moses. There's a Psalm written by Moses. So you have various writers at various time periods so the Psalms would have been written over periods of time and Collected into the book of Psalms that we have now same with the Proverbs.

But as I said, these are not tied to a specific time period in Israel's history, so that's okay. The history contained in our previous study and what we're going to see in our next study with the prophets is Important chronologically, but these books are not important in that same way.

These books are not about finding historical information. These books are about gaining insight into God's wisdom and God's world and something else We need to note and this isn't it there isn't a screen for this, but if you may want to write this down poetry As a form of literature is is not the same as history.

Now you may say that's that's simple. I don't need to write that down. Well, you may you may think it's simple but when it comes to how people interpret it. It's one of those things that it shouldn't need to be said but it does need to be said because you'll you'll you'll be in conversations with people or you'll be in Bible studies with people and they will try to Interpret the Psalms or interpret Proverbs in the same way that they interpret Paul's letter to the Romans and it's just not the same form of literature and it comes with its own rules for interpretation.

Persons places and events in Historical narratives are meant to be seen as actual and that's why we believe in a real Adam and Eve because they come to us in a historical narrative. That's why we believe that Jonah actually did get swallowed by a fish because that comes to us in a historical narrative but when we get to the poetic books we're dealing with books that are highly symbolic and a lot of language of symbolism is used and It's generally recognizable when the Bible talks in the Psalms about the trees clapping their hands.

I think we all recognize that trees don't have hands and trees also don't have the Cognizant wherewithal to clap in the same way that humans do so we have to understand that poetry. Contains elements and there's a screen for this poetry contains elements which are intended to convey Information figuratively now this.

Some people are allergic to that you start talking about figurative language in the Bible and people get all excited. Excited because what they think that you mean is they think that you mean that the Bible is not true.

That's not that's not the same saying that something is a figurative Statement is not saying it's an untrue statement. You know y 'all get what I'm putting down you pick up on it because people some people again.

They'll say well if you say that any part of the Bible's figurative you're saying it's not true. No, we're saying that it's conveying truth in a way. That's intended to to be figurative and So we have to understand it and what I've given you on the board is I've given you four examples a figurative language which are found in the poetic literature.

And I'm gonna I'm gonna break them down for you even though I've got them on here. I want to I want to I want to get a little more specific. Well, we talked first about the word parallelism brother Andy and I Have decided that once I'm done with the little letters.

Which he's actually I'm gonna for those of you don't know Wednesday night. I've been teaching through the little letters the second third John Jude and Philemon. I'm actually going to finish Jude over the next few weeks and then brother Andy's going to pick up and finish Proverbs 3 so instead of going back and forth every week.

We're going to both finish out some things and then we're both going to do some Proverbs together he's gonna do some. I'm gonna do some and One of the things that I'm looking forward to when I'm teaching on Proverbs in that in that on that Wednesday night is to talk about the concept of parallelism because parallelism is.

It's such an important concept in Hebrew writing and we see it particularly in the Proverbs. But we see it also in the Psalms as well. And what is parallelism well parallelism is is Is is rhyme but not rhyme like we think of rhyming like if I say roses are red violets are blue.

You're wearing a hat and I are too I don't know that's a very bad day. But that was a rhyme right and in English when we think of when we think of rhyming we think of sounding the same. That's what a rhyme is, you know songs are based upon rhyme and Poetry is based upon right?

In fact, you ever listen to a poem that didn't rhyme sounds weird. Somebody says I wrote a poem and they start reading and there's no rhyming words. You said that's not a poem. But it is but in our in our Minds we think of poetry and rhyme.

Well in Hebrew, it wasn't about rhyming sound. It was about rhyming thought. It was about rhyming ideas. And so you have in in the book of Hebrews I'm sorry in the book of Proverbs specifically you have what are known as synonymous parallels.

Synonymous parallels where it says the same thing twice then you have the antithetic Parallel and That is where it says something Different it says one thing and then it says something that is contrasting that thing and Then you have what's known as a synthetic Parallel now, we're going to look up each of these real quick.

If you have your Bible or if your phone has your Bible Turn to somebody turn to Proverbs. I'll just call it up Chuck Proverbs 12 8. I'm sorry 12 28 Proverbs 12 28 Frank Psalm 1 6 and Mike Psalm 23 Psalm 23.

Okay, so Chuck your first Proverbs 12 28. Okay, say that again. Okay, I'm not sure what translation is that is it okay, that's fine. It's. Yeah, the point is you got two concepts here. No, that's synonymous synonymous because it's life and No death.

Yeah, so what is it? It's life and no death in the path of righteousness is life and in that path There is no death. So so it's saying the same thing twice. It's the idea of life and no death. It's it's it's it's the same Concept twice so it's a rhyming thought.

Okay, so that's an example of a synonymous Parallelism. All right. So now an antithetic parallelism you have someone six. Yes, okay, so you've got two ways you've got the way of the righteous. And you got the way of the wicked you got the way of the righteous is overseen by the Lord and you've got the way of the wicked which leads to Ruin, right?

So that would be a contrasting or an antithetic because it's giving you two cocks two ways. My brother Andy often in his when he's talking in Proverbs. He talks about the way the wise the way the fool the way, you know.

And that's that's an antithetic idea and we see that throughout the Proverbs, right? There's two ways. There's there's the right way in the wrong way the wise and the fool those those things. Hi, Rebecca so we've got and.

And again, you honestly a fun activity is just to take the Proverbs and just go through what is this? Is this saying the same thing twice? Is this saying this one thing and then the other thing and making it the opposite?

But the third one is a little harder to. It's a little harder to understand because when you talk about a synthetic parallelism synthetic parallelism the best way I can describe it is. Like in music where we have the concept of the crescendo.

You guys know what a crescendo is in music. Playing music you'll see that symbol and what that means is to get louder. Right, so the crescendo and then you have the day crescendo which is get softer right and looks like that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it looks like that. It looks like the greater than sign or the less than sign. So this one means get louder this remaining get softer. Well, there are there are Psalms and Proverbs that do that they build up in us in a synthetic sense.

They get greater. Frank. Would you wouldn't close that door? I'll think about system. So Mike with that in mind Read to us just the first few verses of song you have to read the whole thing. But Psalm 23 is what I think is a synthetic parallelism and I'll explain why when you read it.

Perfect that's good enough. So so it starts out the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want he maketh me this. He maketh me that and it just keeps getting greater and greater until it gets to the end where and yay.

Though I walk through the valley of the show I will fear no evil for thou art with me and it's like it just keeps getting greater and it Builds and builds and builds to this moment where I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and like that.

So it's it's it's it's it's still rhyme. It's but it's not again. It's not rhyme and the thing the way we think of rhyme. It's poetic crescendo Building and we see this in the Proverbs as well. We see this in Some of the other wisdom literature, so that's parallelism.

This is a this is an important. They're actually. They're actually large sections of parallelism in Hebrew literature that we find where where chapters will parallel other chapters and we've talked about the The remember the letter I showed you guys before.

Looks like this and we call it the chiasm where it builds to a point and then builds back out. Well, that's a form of parallelism because this one is parallel with this one and this one is parallel with this one and this center point is the focus of everything and This is a long extended version of parallelism.

Okay, you know and so all of this is when you begin to look at the structure of the of the writing. Right. It's intended to I'll give you a good example and this isn't in the poetic literature. But but a good example of this is in The six days of creation now.

I am a six day creation guy I believe six literal creation days. But there is still a literary framework because the first three days are about forming the world. He forms light and darkness. He forms the earth the sky the waters above the waters below and he forms the Separates the water from the earth.

That's the first three days. But then the next three days he fills on day four what he formed on day one and day five. He fills on day five what he formed on day two and on day six He fills what he formed on day three.

So there's an actual parallel between one and four two and five and three and six. And so there's a literary parallel between what God does this time and how God's filling it. Makes sense because on day one he created light and darkness on day four He creates the Sun Moon and stars that which hold the light in the darkness.

On day two He creates the waters above and waters below sky and sea and then on day four He creates birds and fish birds go in the sky fish going to see on day three. He creates dry land. On day six he creates the beasts and the humans that go on that dry land so there's a Parallel in the action now some people see this and they say well then it's it's all literary figures.

It's not real. No, that's not true. Just because it's in a literary structure doesn't mean it's not literal doesn't mean didn't literally happen but there is a structure that when you begin to see you see the majesty of how God put this together and you start seeing It had more than just the hand of man, but the hand of God and putting this together.

When you see things like this not just in three sentences. But in three chapters when you see that this whole system actually the whole story of Noah in the flood actually creates a chiasm in chapter six seven eight nine of Genesis and It's all in there and when you start seeing that that flow you start saying this had to have been More than just some some random Guy in the Middle East 1 ,500 years ago that had to be the hand of God.

All right, so there are 3 ,500 years ago. Yes. That's right, that's the way that. Yeah, so you've done that you've seen this before and it's neat isn't it to see that that how these all work together.

Absolutely. So that's that's parallelism and these are examples of how it could work. The next one is is literary figures. Literary figures. I'll give you a few now again. We're going to get to the books I promise but I think these are important for interpreting books.

So literary figures would be What we might call today figures of speech so the first one would be Comparisons, what are the two primary ways that we compare things? What's that. If then well not exactly what I'm looking for.

I know what you're saying. But we we normally either use similes or metaphors, right? So the first will be a simile and The second one would be a metaphor. Now what's the difference? Simile. Simile. What Simile uses like or as.

So if I say Frank is like a rock because he's steadfast and immovable, right? So that's if I use the word like or as Frank is as a rock. That's a simile. But if I use if I don't use like or as that becomes a metaphor if I say Frank is a rock.

Now it might mean the same thing because it's a comparison. But I'm using two different forms of speech if I say if I say you are like this. That's a simile if I say you are this that's a metaphor, right?

I give one of the greatest examples and again, we're not we're not in the literary books or the wisdom books, but they're still there. Think about when Jesus held up the bread. Right. This is my body.

Now that's become one of the greatest arguments in the history of the church was he saying this is literally my body or. Was he saying? This is my body in the same way if I took a picture out of my wife and I showed you the picture and I said This is my wife.

You wouldn't think I was married to a piece of cardboard with ink on it, right? You'd know that this is a picture of my wife. I'm just saying that this is this is the where we get the concept of metaphor, right?

And and this was a great debate between Luther and Zwingli because Luther saw it as literal as this is my body and Zwingli saw it as a metaphor this represents my body and They had that great argument at the Marlboro colloquy.

I always call it the Marlboro colloquy, but they weren't smoking. But but the Marlboro colloquy was where they debated 15 doctrines and they came away agreeing on 14. The one that they couldn't agree on was whether or not Jesus's body was physically present in the bread.

Luther believed it was. Zwingli believed it wasn't but that was a point of contention. So the point though that I'm making is the the question is is that or is that not a metaphor? Certainly, it's not a simile because he didn't say this is like my body.

He said this is my body. So if it's using if he is comparing it, he's comparing it in in that way. All right. The next one is Alliteration what is alliteration you may know by off-chance alliteration?

Not illiterate now that's close because it's got to deal with letters, but it's not not exactly alliteration with the a at the beginning means when we Intentionally cause sounds to be the same when we're using things.

So for instance like this morning all of my points and my sermon started with the letter D. The desire the destruction the division they were they were all started. I did that because that well it's very MacArthur esque.

Yeah, I did that because every once in a while that's fun to do. I don't try to do it every week because it would just be too big. It's not it's not always doesn't always give itself to that but an alliterated sermon will usually have the first letter or they'll end with that like shun like a Contraction an opposition a proposition something like that with that shun sound something that makes it work that way now.

Here's an example of this psalm 119 psalm 119 is the Hebrew alphabet and Every every verse of psalm 119 begins With the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet and so or not every verse but every section comes and it breaks down to olive bet Gamma, or I'm getting Hebrew and Greek message olive bet gimel doll if that's the the Hebrew alphabet and it's breaking down Each one of those so that's easy to remember.

Why do we do things like that? Because it they can now remember that song because it's it's broken down that way and again Shows the hand of God in there. I do this a lot dads and dudes. That was a group we used to have here conversations with a Calvinist you know, I'm a big alliteration guy, so I I like it.

The bad thing about alliteration is we don't read Hebrew most of us. So it's hard sometimes to see it in English. It could be there and we not know it because we're not looking at the original language.

Good Mike. You have your hand. Yeah. Okay, yeah so right there and this again you might might not think of alliteration but that is essentially Alliterate and we could say alliteration slash acrostic Could be the same thing because that's more of it.

That's what I'm talking about. There is somewhat of an acrostic where where you're getting Alphabetical order or you're getting it. It spells something out. Yes, sir. There you go, that's that's a that's a Alliteration.

Yep. Yep. All right, so so we have looked at Parallelism we've looked at literary figures of comparison alliteration acrostic. Another thing we see in the wisdom literature is called anthropomorphism.

Anthropomorphism Comes from the prefix Anthropos, which means man and Morphos Which means form so anthropo means man. Morph means form. So an anthropomorphism is a is a man form. Now if I same thing I said a zoo morphism Would be an animal form.

So the Bible talks about God gathering us like a brood right like a Having us under his wings. We'll go ahead. Yeah, God doesn't have feathers right but that's the that's where we get the the idea of a zoomorphism or an anthropomorphism the same thing when God's hands Jesus said in John chapter 4 very clearly That God is not a man.

He didn't have body like ours. He is spirit. You must worship him in spirit and truth, right? So the idea that God has hands in the same way we have hands is Not correct. Now Jesus has hands because Jesus is the God man, but in when we talk about God's eyes God's ears God's Hands all of those are anthropomorphism their expressions of Man qualities or man forms and ascribing them to God there's also one other one, but I think this one you have to be a little careful with is as an anthropopathism and Anthropopathism is again man.

And the word pathos means emotion. You think of or a passion where we get the word passion? And and we could talk about the fact that God refer the Bible does talk about God's being grieved. The Bible talks about God being delighted, you know delight yourself and the Lord talks about God's delight in us and these different things.

But while I would I would be careful. Some people would say God has no Distinction in his and his emotion. And that's that is that's that's called impassability. That's the big 50-cent doctrinal word I think that we have to be careful with that I think we have to be because we begin to flatten God out to a to a deity rather than a God who we can relate to and God does relate to us in the way that we understand as God is pleased and God is displeased God is He is Grieved and he's Delighted, you know, these are things that the Bible tells us but we do have to understand that his pathos is not the same as our pathos his.

Then the same way as his being is different than our being and that's where we have to be distinct God when the Bible talks about God's wrath. It's not like our wrath. It's a holy pure and perfect wrath.

When the Bible talks about God changing his mind and the Bible does say in several places and the Lord changed his mind we understand that from this from the point of eternity that God knew from all eternity what he was going to do and Therefore God doesn't just say oh, well that didn't work I got to change my mind and that's the way we the reason why we change our mind.

And so when we talk about God's immutability, that means his Unchangingness that is speaking from his eternal nature. God knows with certainty the end from the beginning but yet within the story of creation He's he works with us and he relates to us in our condition.

And that's how we experience his pathos. That's how we experience those things. Does that make sense? Because what I'm saying we have to be careful not to not there's a ditch on both sides, right? There's the ditch of well God's just like me and he's going through the same emotions.

I'm going that's not true but then there's the other side which is God doesn't have any of that and he's totally flattened out and there's no way that he Experiences anything and it's like okay. Well now, you know, how am I to relate to such a God?

So we have you know, I hope I didn't get into a ditch there I'm not sure how that I'm not sure. I'm not sure how that relates. I'm sorry. I don't I'm not quite because I'm not even sure how Christ used that word.

I have to look at the verses you're talking about. Well when I said deism Deism is a is a philosophical belief that there is a being who created all things. But that he is detached from his creation and unable to unable to relate with his creation.

He's unable to engage. So that's the idea that something created the world. We don't know what it was. We don't know who it was and we can't. That's deism. That was actually the belief of some. Some and I have to say some because people get mad at me if I say all it wasn't all.

But some of the four four fathers of our nation I would say Thomas Jefferson was probably a more of a deist than a theist if you look at his the Jeffersonian Bible where he took out much of what the Bible said and Sort of replaced it with philosophy and things like that.

That's that's a that's a wrong view of God. And it's more of a deistic view that he had all right, uh, so yeah anthropomorphism zoolomorphism and then personification personification is when an Object or a quality is treated like a person.

Probably the best example of this is is Proverbs. What does Proverbs treat personally? Wisdom wisdom is given the quality of personality right. And and and so that is a personification. Sometimes sin is given a personification.

Sin is talked about like it's a thing. Sin is not a thing not in the same not in the idea of something that's created a created being. But sin is given that personification as being something that's that's Overtaking us or coming toward us or something like that.

And those are all terms which are personifications. You're offering up an idea How to see something all right. So that leads us to now our books. We're going to go through the five books now that we've talked a little bit about how they are.

Some interpretive grids. Let's look first at the book of job. I'm just kidding. It's job. I always like We look at the book of Job I Have as our little tagline here and by the way. This pink tab what the tagline that I have on every book and you'll have one for every book.

Because I've had one everyone so far and I send you the screens that little pink tagline is really When I said earlier in the class I said my goal for you is at the end of the class to have at least one sentence to remember.

Sort of the overall idea of the book. That's kind of what that pink sentence is. It's sort of the basic overall the book when good people suffer now. Back off Calvinists because I know the first thing people say when I say when good people suffer the first thing a good Calvinist Says now wait a minute pastor.

There's none good no not one there's none who understands there's none who seeks after God. We know that. But we also understand That the Bible does make a distinction between Those who are righteous by faith and those who are wicked and unbelief and Job was Righteous by faith.

He believed in God. In fact, God says consider my servant Job. So God considered him to be a faithful believer. So when I say good people, I'm referring to the to that that use of the term Job stands unique and in the Bible because it provides a grand narrative account filled with dialogue written almost completely in poetic form and It contains what I believe to be one of the most enigmatic stories in the Bible enigmatic meaning confusing.

And I say it's confusing because It's confusing. It's hard Reading the story of Job especially in the early chapters. You you you have an upright man who suffers greatly and We get a glimpse into the reasons why God is engaged in an interaction with Satan and Job's life as the focus God allows Satan to attack Job to demonstrate Job's faithfulness and Job's counselors eventually come along and Consider this to be some form of retribution for Job sins and Job questions the reasoning of God only to be reminded in the end that God is sovereign and In the end Job returns to his position of blessing, but not only not not without having suffered.

We don't know who the author was. Authorship is unknown. Possibly Job some people say it may have been Moses. I tend to think Moses was busy writing the Pentateuch, but it could have been Moses had five other books to write if Job wrote it and if Job wrote and lived in the time of Abraham then it was the earliest book written and it was most well preserved because it had to be preserved To make its way into the Hebrew Canon.

One of the reasons why we believe Job happened before Moses is because there is no mention in Job about the law. There is no mention about the the Mosaic Covenant or any of those things and So most people think that the setting of the book fits nicely within the patriarchal period sometime in the life of Abraham Isaac and Jacob now.

Some people question whether or not Job was a literal historical figure and. And in one sense, I want to I want to give way not to liberalism because liberals are Don't give an inch. But when it comes to theological liberalism, they try to make everything Figurative and try to even Jesus at times.

They try to make everything he did figures. They have to be careful but I do understand at least from the perspective of Near Eastern literature and the concept of parable how someone could read the story of Job and come away thinking.

This is not about a literal situation, but it's telling a moral story much like Jesus gave us parables such as the parable of the prodigal son or the parable of the Good Samaritan. There's those are stories that are intended to give a greater message.

And so some people do believe that Job is a story that is intended to give a greater message, but it's not about a literal man and for some people that satisfies them in regard to the question of why would God get into a Essentially a contest with the devil and there's a lot of questions that people have about that Initial interaction between the Lord and Satan and they try to satisfy that by saying well Job wasn't a real person.

This isn't a real this isn't a real tale. It's just a moral story about God's supremacy in all things. However, here's where here's where I take issue with that and if you want to write this down you can in Ezekiel chapter 14 verses 13 and 14 It says this Son of man when a lands when a land sends against me by acting faithlessly I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it and cut off from it man and beast by the way, and that sounds scary because it's kind of Supply lines dried up never get too much.

I Mean what I say when a land sends against me I cut off its bread. Oh, that's okay. And then it goes on to say Even if these three men Noah Daniel and Job were in it They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness declares the Lord God.

So notice who uses he says if there's a land that has sinned against me. Even if Noah who we know is a man righteous prior to the flood Daniel who was a man who lived a righteous life in the midst of cultural sin and Babylon and Job a Man who did not lose faith faith in the midst of terrible personal persecution.

So three men are given as examples and Ezekiel says if those three men were in the city They'd save their own lives, but the city wouldn't be spared. So the point of it is Why would we trust this text to be telling us about two people in one parable?

I think that this this this would indicate that this is a real person. Because it's addressing Noah who we know we believe is a real person. Daniel who we believe is a real person. So Job and I think the same goes for James 5 11.

James 5 11 says behold we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You've heard the steadfastness of Job and you've seen the purpose of the Lord how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. So James and James 5 11 uses Job again as a real person.

Here's a man. His name is Job. This was a real person. Okay, so I believe Job was a real person. I think that there's enough evidence to support that. All right, let's move on to the book of Psalms. Yeah, exactly consider my servant Job right not my fictional character.

That's funny. All right, the Psalms outside of the Gospel of John. There is probably no other book Beloved of script and more beloved book of Scripture than the song book of ancient Israel. Don't try to memorize the whole thing.

Just the song book of ancient Israel should be what's pink because that's that's if you were going to say What is the Psalms. The Psalms is the song book of ancient Israel. About half of them are attributed to David.

Others include Asaph Solomon and even Moses wrote one of the Psalms. The Psalms are timeless treasures of music for God's people which remain relevant for all times. They are often referred to as the Psalms of David.

But again, like I said, it's not always David Psalms. The writings of the Psalms seem to span about a hundred years. They consist of a hundred and fifty individual Psalms. And I say a hundred years if you don't count Moses because of course Moses would have been much much earlier than that but the bulk of the writings of the Psalms would have been within about a hundred and They fall into five five categories.

The hundred fifty Psalms are divided into five books and each book ends with a death a doxology. And the doxology is a proclamation of God's glory. Right, so you got book 1 is chapters 1 to 41 at the end of chapter 41.