The Book of Psalms & the Torah

"We go to a Bible-based church." You've probably heard this statement before if you've hung out much in Christian circles. But what does it mean exactly? Does it mean that the church is centered around Bible studies and other similar types of Bible education opportunities? Or that the church holds to a conservative statement of faith that is grounded in the Bible alone? Or that the church is committed to living out the mission and precepts of the Bible? Or that the sermons on Sunday morning are expository (and NOT topical) in nature? To be honest, different people mean different things by this statement. And so the statement ends up becoming nothing more than a familiar Christian cliche devoid of much meaning.

But the Psalms make it clear that God does, in fact, desire His people to be TORAH-centered and His churches to be TORAH-based. The word TORAH literally means "teaching." And so the TORAH is simply referring to the teachings of the Bible (and sometimes it is limited to the teachings of the first FIVE books of the Old Testament). But God doesn't just want us to UNDERSTAND the TORAH. NO. He also wants us to OBEY the Torah. In fact, we show our delight in God's TORAH when we delight in doing God's WORK. But what does delighting in God's WORK look like (as presented in the Psalms)? Let's find out...

ANSWER #1: DESIRING TO RETURN GOODNESS BACK TO GOD
Did you know that the Book of Psalms has a repeated CHORUS? It does. And if you know anything about a CHORUS in a song, you know that it summarizes what the other lyrics in the song are trying to communicate. This is true also in the Bible. The book of Judges repeats the CHORUS, "And they did evil in the eyes of the Lord." The Song of Songs repeats the CHORUS, "Do not awaken love before it so desires." These CHORUSES give us hints as to the main message the author is wanting to communicate throughout the entire book.

So what is the CHORUS of the Psalms? "BLESSED be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting." This chorus is repeated FOUR times and comes at the end of each of the major divisions in the Psalms (41:13; 72:18-19; 89:52; 106:48). So what does this CHORUS mean? "BLESSED be the Lord" is an expression of our DESIRE to return BLESSING back to God. But don't be confused. It is NOT an expression of human PRIDE claiming that God needs us for Him to be blessed! NO. God is not dependent on us! But out of an overabundance of caution that the statement "BLESSED be the Lord" might be misunderstood in this pride-laden way, the NIV translates the phrase as "PRAISE be to God." But the two statements mean different things! We PRAISE God when we call to awareness God's greatness through our WORDS. On the other hand, BLESSING God is much more ACTIVE than this because it involves ACTIONS.

So how do we ACTIVELY show our DESIRE to BLESS God?

ANSWER #2: OBEYING GOD'S TORAH
The FOUR choruses divide the book of Psalms into FIVE separate sub-books (Pss. 2-41; 42-72; 73-89; 90-106; 107-145 with Ps. 1 and Pss. 146-150 serving as the introduction and conclusion, respectively). But is there significance in dividing the entire book into FIVE sub-books? YES. The TORAH (in the most limited sense of the term) consists of FIVE books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). And so the editor of the Psalms is trying to emphasize the centrality of the TORAH in the book of Psalms. And if you combine the editor's structuring of the book of Psalms (around the FIVE books of the TORAH) with the repeated CHORUS ("BLESSED be the Lord") you begin to see the main message of the Psalms: God is BLESSED when we OBEY the TORAH!

But what is at the HEART of OBEYING the Torah?

ANSWER #3: TRUSTING in God alone.
When we dig deeper into the content of the Psalms, we see a clear progression of thought from beginning to end. In the first two sub-books (Pss. 2-72), God's PROTECTION to David is celebrated. This PROTECTION is grounded in the covenant promise that God made with David that He would PROTECT David's dynasty and that a king from David's line would never cease to sit on the throne over God's kingdom (2 Sam. 7). And so in Psalms 2-72, words are repeated that communicate God's PROTECTION: refuge, salvation, redeemer, shield, deliverer, and vindicate.

But then in Psalms 73-89 (sub-book THREE), Israel's sin and God's judgment are lamented. The kings from David's dynasty prove to be rebellious (more times than not) and this instigates God's discipline and judgment. Psalms 73-89 mirror the unfaithfulness of Israel and God's response as documented in the historical books (Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles). And so words associated with Israel's UNFAITHFULNESS and God's JUDGMENT are prevalent in this section: fear, anger, judgment, iniquities, silence, wrath, troubles, rebellion, and sin. And then in Psalm 89, the Davidic covenant and dynasty come to their final demise and God's people are taken into exile. The Davidic dynasty had failed because of human rebellion!

But God still stands true to His promises! And so in light of God's faithfulness, the exiles raise the question, "How long O Lord?" and the Psalmist provokes God's people to place their trust NOT in human institutions (like the Davidic dynasty) but in God ALONE. And so we see in the final TWO sub-books that reliance and praise to God alone are prompted. And so words associated with DEPENDENCE and CELEBRATION are prevalent in this section: wait on the Lord, trust, praise, worship, thanks, joy, bless the Lord, and hope in the Lord.

THE BOTTOM LINE
And so God's people learned the hard way that trusting in humans as king (hb: malak) leads to lament while trusting in God as King leads to celebration. In fact, the flow of the psalms bears this fact out: The psalms of lament are concentrated in the first three sub-books of the Psalms while the psalms of praise and celebration are concentrated in the last two sub-books of the Psalms.

God wants our lives to be a celebration! But this will only happen when we make God King over our lives and delight in doing His WORK. And so as you grow in your DESIRE for God, OBEDIENCE to God, and TRUST in God may you find delight in doing God's WORK. And as a result may you experience God's GOODNESS. This, after all, is what being TORAH-based and TORAH-centered is all about!