Let the Psalms Be Your Inspiration...a small excerpt from Life Catalyst Seminary course on Psalm.

Studying the Psalms In the past I felt that the Psalms, while wonderful expressions of adorations to God, were apparently disjointed and unassociated one with the other. Most were magnificent praises that David, and others, expressed to Almighty God, while others expressed confession, repentance, regret, even prayers of retribution upon enemies. After searching inquisitively, taking a closer look into each Psalm, I found what others must have known down through the years. I learned that each Psalm had a message to teach and that there was far more connection and relationship between the Psalms than I realized. I discovered that the Psalms were actually “songs” written to be sung by the Old Testament Hebrew saints, and the early New Testament Church. In fact, they were the songs Jesus sang when He lived on earth.

The purpose of this study is to provide a brief summation of each Psalm, an annotation for each chapter, to be read prior to the reading of a Psalm. Hopefully each synopsis will provide a deeper understanding of why a certain Psalm was written–under what circumstance was it penned–and what message it has for the Church–and us, personally–today!

The Psalms were written in Palestine and Babylon from about 1,500 to 450 B.C. 100 of the Psalms have names prefixed to them. They are: Moses (1); David (73); Solomon (2), Asaph(12); Heman (1) Ethan (1), and the sons of Korah (10). David and Solomon wrote several of the remaining 50 without authors’ names, as is shown in the notes. Authorship of others cannot be determined. Ezra is perhaps the collector and compiler of the Psalms in their present form. The Hebrew title of Psalms is “Sepher Tehillim,” meaning, “The book of Praises. ”The English Psalms is from the Greek title “Psalmoi,” meanings, “songs.” This word is translated “psalms” 7 times in the New Testament–(Luke 20:42; 24:44;Acts 1:20; 13:33; 1 Corinthians14:26; Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16). The word “Psalter” is from the Greek, “Psalterion,” meaning “a harp,” or other stringed instruments.

The Psalms divided by subjects:

1: 9 Psalms of the righteousness: 1, 15, 84, 91, 92, 101, 112, 128, 131,

2: 19 Messianic Psalms: 2, 8, 16, 21, 22, 23, 40, 41, 45, 46, 47, 48, 68, 69, 72, 89,102, 110,118

3: 20 prayers of distress–3, 4, 6, 12, 13,17, 25, 27, 31, 38, 43, 56, 57, 70, 80, 109,120, 123,130, 143

4: 1 Psalm of judgment–50

5: 11 prayers for judgment: 5, 7, 28, 35, 58, 59, 79, 82, 83, 94, 140 Studying the Psalms 81

6: 24 Psalms of praise: 29, 65, 66, 75, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 103, 104, 105, 107,117, 134,135, 136, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150

7: 11 prayer-praise Psalms: 9, 19, 30, 33, 64, 67, 71, 86, 106, 138, 144

8: 6 Psalms of trust: 11, 20, 61, 125, 127

9: 2 Psalms of the wicked: 10, 36

10: 4 Psalms of deliverance: 18, 34, 124, 126

11: 8 Psalms of God: 24, 93, 111, 113, 114, 115, 121, 139

12: 6 Prayer-testimony Psalms: 26, 39, 116, 129, 137, 142

13: 20 Psalms of instruction: 14, 32, 37, 42, 44, 49, 52, 53, 54, 55, 60, 73, 74, 76,78, 81, 108,133

14: 4 prayer Psalms: 51, 85, 90, 141

15: 3 Psalms of Zion: 87, 122, 132

16: 1 Psalm of the Word of God–119