The Theme of the Psalms
Do the psalms have a theme? Is there a key figure in this book? Of course.
I said yesterday that everything in the Psalms points to Christ. Why would I say that? Where would I get such an idea? Well, let's consider the words of Jesus himself, who had such a high view of the Psalms that he declared this in Luke 24, after his resurrection, speaking to his disciples in the upper room,
Luke 27:44 ESV - “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
In John 5 Jesus is recorded as saying this:
John 5:39 ESV - You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
Clearly Jesus believed the Old Testament was about him, including the Psalms. Have you ever thought about how audacious that is? And yet he declared it to be so. According to Jesus he is the theme of the Psalms. And we know that the only way to the Father, to communion with the Father, is through Jesus Christ. So the Psalms are an important book, perhaps the most important book in the Old Testament, because they show us what worship is like. They teach us to trust in God.
Martin Luther called the Psalms, “…a little Bible and the summary of the Old Testament.”
Basil (of Caesaria) the early church father, called the Psalms “a compendium of all theology.”
No less notable a stalwart than Athanasius called the Psalms “an epitome of the whole Scriptures.”
Indeed, the Psalms can be viewed as a Bible in miniature. Obviously the book of Psalms by itself is not a sufficient revelation of God to humanity, or God would not have bothered to give us the other 65 books. Nevertheless, the Psalms serve as a wonderful book, showing us the Christian faith, pointing us to Christ, and teaching us what worship is about.
Pick up a Bible, hold it in your hand, flip it open to the middle. Where do you find yourself? Probably in the book of Psalms. It occupies the central portion of your Bible, and probably should occupy the central portion of your life. If we were made for worship, and if the psalms are about worship, then the psalms should be one of our most valuable resources for what it means to walk in communion with God.
With that in mind, I've asked a couple of important questions about the book of Psalms, questions which I will attempt to answer over the next few days. The goal is to prepare you for our future studies in this book, but more importantly, to prepare you for an eternity of communion with God. That's the goal of Christ's work of redemption, and this is my goal in this series as well. So let's ask and answer a few questions. The first one we will tackle, beginning tomorrow, is this:
“What are the Psalms? Who wrote them? How old are they?”