The commentary posts on each psalm are to be read with the translations referenced in the Psalter kata Bob page. This is a work in process.
It is the thesis of this reading that the Psalter was designed to be read in sequence as a book is read. So we must begin at the beginning and read through to the end. We will note the concepts and the characters as they are introduced and developed, and see if there is a plot.
Why study the psalms? Suppose for a moment we divide the world into three: First, there are the myriad of those called Christians, who believe in Jesus, a child of God with a fulness of anointing. By these tribes of Christendom, he is called Son of the Highest. The capitalization indicates uniqueness. The dialogue between the Father and the Son in the Epistle to the Hebrews is comprised of words from the psalms. What better reason would Christians have than to learn how Jesus, as incarnate child of the Most High, reads the Psalter. What was that first-century preacher, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, doing?
Second, there are those who are under the anointing and promise of Tanakh, those books of the Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim, the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, that Christians, in a different sequence, call the Old Testament. These prayers and praises came from your experience and belong to you first. It is to be noted that Israel also is called 'son' and 'anointed'.
Third, there are those of other traditions who fear God. These poems are filled with the drama of human experience. The reading of poetry, seeing and hearing its structure, is an intriguing study. Can one communicate across 2500 years with an ancient mind? And we might ask how the writers of the New Testament or the scribes of Qumran read the psalms. Did the psalmist have a similar human experience to these interpreters of the inter-testamental period? Do we and other later interpreters share such an experience?
If the psalms are conversation between God and the elect, then who is the elect but one who is chosen to read them? The one who is written about first in psalm 1 is the individual who loves to be taught. Also addressed in the psalms are Israel, individual tribes, the priests, the anointed king, and any individual who fears God or who engages and perseveres in the conversation.
That is why, in a nutshell, the psalms are so important. Though they are ancient individual and corporate prayers, they become by our reading, a word from God for us, to us, and in us. Besides this, they also include the full gamut of every human emotion and trouble.
for more from this introduction see here
