Boker Tov! This morning, as we gather here at Mishkan Katan, we are going to begin to explore the Psalms, in Hebrew the “Mizmorim”. The Psalms are also called “Tehillim”, which in Hebrew means “songs of praise”, although Tehillim is not a word that occurs in Biblical Hebrew. The Hebrew Bible is divided into three sections, with the third and final section being called Ketuvim, and today, Psalms is the first book in that section, though it was not always so.
In all my 11 years of teaching Bible over the internet, I’ve never taught the Psalms. My goodness, there’s 150 of them, and it would be quite an undertaking to go through each one, and it would take a long, long time. I think that, sometimes, when ministries like mine do that, the chaverim get restless and even bored. So, for example, I’d like to teach the book of Genesis in that way, but if I did, it would take at least two years. Well, anyway, I’m rambling a bit here...I think you get my drift. So, in our Psalms study, we are not to do that, plow through every psalm, verse by verse. However, I am going to touch on many of them, particularly emphasizing where they fall in the Jewish liturgy, while also doing a deep dive into some of the individual psalms themselves, ones that are particularly meaningful to me. Along the way, in these “deep dives” we are going to look at the actual Hebrew text. The last time I did this with you was when we studied the Book of Ruth together.
It’s a “tall order”, one that will stretch me personally, and also I hope, benefit you.
Of the 150 psalms, 100 of them are ascribed in their superscriptions, to a variety of authors. Moses is said to have written Psalm 90; seventy-three of them to King David (in the Septuagint eighty-three); two 72 and 127 to King Solomon; twelve to Asaph; one, #88, to Heman; one, #89, to Ethan; ten to the sons of Korah. King David appointed 288 Levites to work in the Temple as Temple musicians. As such, they sang, performed instrumental music and wrote music. These men, Heman, Ethan and Asaph were most likely among this group called “the sons of Korah.” We likewise find the sons of Korah mentioned in 1 Chr.9:19, Heman mentioned 1 Chr. 6:33-38, Ethan mentioned in 1 Chr. 15:17-19 and Asaph mentioned in 1 Chr 6:39-44. Our Elohim was endowed these men, along with King David, with the inspiration of His Spirit, so that they used those poetic and musical talents to produce lovely hymns of praise and contemplation, which we are blessed to be able to access today in our Scriptures.
Sixteen more psalms have other (most of them musical) headings. The 150 psalms can be broadly divided into 3 categories of function: praise, elegies, (a deep contemplation/grief over the sorry state of things, or a lament for the dead) and didactic psalms (ones that teach through advice or caution wisdom or ethics).
Jews are supposed to read Tehillim every day, and many Torah-observant people do this as well. The rabbis have divided the 150 psalms into seven sections, one section for each day of the week. Daily, at the Western Wall, devout followers gather to read that day’s section of the Psalms, with this also occurring in synagogues. Other rabbinical scholars divide the 150 psalms up into 5 “books”. They like to compare the five books of Moses with these “five books of David”. One of my morehs, John J. Parsons, of Hebrew for Christians, has published a 30-day guide, which divides up the psalms into 30 segments, so that all the psalms can be read each month. That amount of psalms per day would definitely be more manageable from the perspective of how much time you have to spend.
In addition, in Judaism, every specific occasion has a specific psalm or psalms attached to it.
The Hebrew of the Psalms can be challenging to interpret because the psalms are poetic in form. Some are acrostic, with each verse starting with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Others are designed in couplets. The psalms are designed to be sung. Each one has a specific cadence and sing-song chant or melody which has been passed down over the centuries. My rabbi has said that it is a mark of maturity, even an indication a man is ready to become a rabbi, when he is able to “sing” the psalms correctly. I thought that was interesting.
My husband’s and my two sons ended up, although being 23 months apart in age, graduating from college one day apart. This made it super-convenient for me to plan a graduation party for both of them together. At the beginning, before the festivities began, my husband and I greeted everyone, and I read aloud Psalm 1. Although we are not certain who wrote it (majority opinions being either King David, King Solomon or Ezra the scribe) Psalm 1 is the “ayshet chail” for men. What does this mean? Proverbs 31 is recited every Shabbat, usually by the man of the house, to honor his wife. The Hebrew term “ayshet chail” means “woman of valor” or “woman of honor”. Most of you are familiar with Proverbs 31. Well, Psalm 1 is the counterpart for godly men. It is a short, succinct psalm, with beautiful imagery, likening the godly man to a fruitful tree that is planted by unpolluted streams of water. Let’s read it together. For this psalms study, I will be using the CJB version, David Stern’s translation, The Complete Jewish Bible.
How blessed are those
who reject the advice of the wicked,
don’t stand on the way of sinners
or sit where scoffers sit!
2 Their delight
is in Adonai’s Torah;
on his Torah they meditate
day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams —
they bear their fruit in season,
their leaves never wither,
everything they do succeeds.
4 Not so the wicked,
who are like chaff driven by the wind.
5 For this reason the wicked
won’t stand up to the judgment,
nor will sinners
at the gathering of the righteous.
6 For Adonai watches over
the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked
is doomed.
You will notice that Dr. Stern has made his translation more gender-neutral, which is interesting since the Hebrew plainly states that it is describing an “ish”, the Hebrew word for “man”. Here is verse 1 in the Hebrew:
1 אַשְׁרֵי־הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר לֹא הָלַךְ בַּעֲצַת רְשָׁעִים וּבְדֶרֶךְ חַטָּאִים לֹא עָמָד וּבְמוֹשַׁב לֵצִים לֹא יָשָׁב׃
Ashrei is the Hebrew word for “blessed”, and ashrei ha’eesh means “blessed is the man”.
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel or the advice of the wicked, those hostile to God, and in the way/path of sinners does not stand, and in the seat/dwelling place of the scornful/arrogant ones he does not sit/reside.
2 כִּי אִם בְּתוֹרַת יְהוָה חֶפְצוֹ וּבְתוֹרָתוֹ יֶהְגֶּה יוֹמָם
וָלָיְלָה׃
“Because-if" in the Torah of Yahweh is his delight and in His Torah he will meditate/moan/groan over day and the night.
3 וְהָיָה כְּעֵץ שָׁתוּל עַל־פַּלְגֵי מָיִם אֲשֶׁר פִּרְיוֹ יִתֵּן
בְּעִתּוֹ וְעָלֵהוּ לֹא־יִבּוֹל וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר־יַעֲשֶׂה יַצְלִיחַ׃
And he will be like a tree planted or transplanted upon rivers of water which his fruit he will give in his time, and his leaf/foliage not he shall languish/wither/droop. And, all which he will do/make he will prosper/succeed/be profitable.
So, here we have a picture of the godly man, who lives the righteous life described in Torah by avoiding the progression described in verse one. The entry point to ungodliness is to begin walking with ungodly people. It matters very much who a young man surrounds himself with. If he begins to walk along with people who have an anti-God worldview, soon he will find himself emotionally attached to them in friendship, which will make it harder to turn away from their ungodly philosophies. Soon, he will begin to listen to their advice, adopt their ways and stand with them in their anti-God positions/stances. The third and final stage of departing from the ways of God is to sit with such people. The verb “yashav” in Hebrew can mean either “sit” or “reside”. So, this final stage of departing from truth and corrupting his way, his walk is to actually reside with the ungodly, to make his home with them, to make himself AT home with them.
Verse 2 is interesting to me because it does not talk about passive reading of the Torah. No, rather, it describes reading and groaning over what is read, delighting in it and meditating on it.
Psalm 119:9-11 is a complementary passage to Psalm 1:2. Whereas Psalm 1:1 describes how a young man can go astray, verse 2 is “cut from the same cloth” as these 3 verses from Psalm 119.
בַּמֶּה יְזַכֶּה־נַּעַר אֶת־אָרְחוֹ לִשְׁמֹר כִּדְבָרֶךָ׃
בְּכָל־לִבִּי דְרַשְׁתִּיךָ אַל־תַּשְׁגֵּנִי ממצותיךָ׃
בְּלִבִּי צָפַנְתִּי אִמְרָתֶךָ לְמַעַן לֹא אֶחֱטָא־לָךְ׃
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
don’t let me stray from your mitzvot.
11 I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I won’t sin against you.
“Groan over”, “treasure”, “meditate on” - - all of these are active verbs, actions with deliberate intent. It takes deliberate action to counter the evil influences of this fallen world, influences which our young men, raised in the ways of Yahweh, are daily exposed to.
Verse 3 of Psalm 1 gives a mental picture, an analogy to describe the fate of the godly man. He is likened to a healthy, productive tree, one which is nourished by a clear, life-giving stream of water. As the healthy tree will not wither and lose its leaves, so too the godly man will find success in his endeavors, because God’s ways of living give life, spiritual life. This is the blessedness of the life that is anchored in the precepts of Elohim, His mitzvot/commandments.
The psalmist then pivots to contrast with the tzaddik (Hebrew for righteous man) with the ra’ashim, the evil ones, the “ungodly” it might say in your translation. Here is verse 4 in the Hebrew:
לֹא־כֵן הָרְשָׁעִים כִּי אִם־כַּמֹּץ אֲשֶׁר־תִּדְּפֶנּוּ רוּחַ׃
In verse 4, these people are likened to “chaff that the wind drives away”. The last word in this verse is “ruach”, which means either spirit or wind. It’s the same word in the Hebrew name for the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh). Most of us don’t live in an agrarian culture today. However, in ancient Israel, survival depended on the agriculture. At the time of harvest, a key step was in separating the kernels of grain from the husks, or the “chaff”. Here is how it was done. The heads of grain were separated from the stalks and then rolled to loosen the kernels from the chaff. Then, these would be spread on a cloth, which would then be tossed up into the air on a windy day. The chaff, the inedible part, would be blown away, while the kernels would fall to the ground, after which they would be gathered and stored. Verse 5 relates this separation to the last judgments. Here is verse 5 in Hebrew:
עַל־כֵּן לֹא־יָקֻמוּ רְשָׁעִים בַּמִּשְׁפָּט וְחַטָּאִים בַּעֲדַת
צַדִּיקִים׃
In a similar fashion, the LORD, the Righteous Judge, separates the righteous from the unrighteous. He never makes a mistake. Ultimately, this will be seen in the final judgment seat at the end of this earth age. As it goes on to say in verse 5, the unrighteous will “not have a leg to stand on”, so to speak, at the judgment seat, where our Mashiach will judge rightly. Verse 6 affirms that they will face only doom, eternally.
There is a precious promise for the righteous, however, in the first part of verse 6, namely that Adonai watches over our way. What a comfort! Here is verse 6 in Hebrew:
כִּי־יוֹדֵעַ יְהוָה דֶּרֶךְ צַדִּיקִים וְדֶרֶךְ רְשָׁעִים תֹּאבֵד׃
The Bible commentator, MacLaren, comments about the first words of Psalm 1, standing those up against the last words of Psalm 150. As we have seen, the first verse of Psalm 1 extols the blessedness of who walks in the ways of Elohim, as evidenced by the life of our Mashiach. The last verse of Psalm 150, which also has six verses, says this:
Let everything that has breath praise Adonai!
Halleluyah!
Let’s take a brief look at Psalm 2 now. Psalm 2 does not identify its author with a superscription, but the Talmud considers Psalm 2 to actually be a continuation of Psalm 1. We established earlier that Psalm 1 was likely written by either David, Solomon or Ezra. The New Testament, Brit Chadasha, tells us conclusively in Acts 4:24-26 that Psalm 2 was written by King David, which lends credence to Psalm 1 having been written by him also. The apostles referenced Psalm 2 and likened it to the persecution Yeshua endured from the Jewish religious leaders of his day. Let’s begin by looking at Acts 4:23-31. Reading from TAW:
23 And when they were freed, they went to their brothers and related to them everything that the priests and elders had said.
24 And when they had heard they raised their voice as one to Elohim. And they said, “MarYAH you are Elohim, He who made heaven and earth and the seas and everything that is in them.
25 And You are He who spoke through the Ruach haKodesh by the mouth of David your servant, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plan worthless things?
26 The kings of the earth have risen and rulers have deliberated as one against MarYAH and against His Mashiyach.”
27 For truly in this city were gathered Herodus and Peelatos with the Gentiles and the assembly of Yisra’el against the Set-apart One, Your Son Yeshua, He whom You haev anointed,
28 to do everything that Your hand and Your will foreordained to be.
29 And even now MarYAH, look and see their threats and give to Your servants, that they be boldly preaching Your Word,
30 While You extend Your hand for healings and mighty works and signs to be in the name of Your Son, the Set-apart One, Yeshua.
31 And after they had prayed and they had made supplication, the place in which they were assembled was shaken and all of them were filled with the Ruach haKodesh, and they were speaking the Word of Elohim boldly.
This is just not only a wonderful application and prophetic fulfillment of Psalm 2 , it is also a beautiful example of the Body, the Bride united in prayer. Look how the Spirit of Yahweh moved in their midst!
Ok, so, verses 25 and 26 here contain the direct quote from Psalm 2, although the spirit of the psalm is present throughout these verses. See if you can hear it as we look at Psalm 2 together.
Why are the nations in an uproar,
the peoples grumbling in vain?
2 The earth’s kings are taking positions,
leaders conspiring together,
against Adonai
and his anointed.
3 They cry, “Let’s break their fetters!
Let’s throw off their chains!”
4 He who sits in heaven laughs;
Adonai looks at them in derision.
5 Then in his anger he rebukes them,
terrifies them in his fury.
6 “I myself have installed my king
on Tziyon, my holy mountain.”
7 “I will proclaim the decree:
Adonai said to me,
‘You are my son;
today I became your father.
8 Ask of me, and I will make
the nations your inheritance;
the whole wide world
will be your possession.
9 You will break them with an iron rod,
shatter them like a clay pot.’”
10 Therefore, kings, be wise;
be warned, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve Adonai with fear;
rejoice, but with trembling.
12 Kiss the son, lest he be angry,
and you perish along the way,
when suddenly his anger blazes.
How blessed are all who take refuge in him.
My goodness, are not the nations in an uproar today?
One of the sages likened the heathen nations to “grasshoppers caged in a box who madly scramble to jump out, but fail.”
I would say that is a pretty good description. Today’s kings in general have worldviews that are contrary to the bibilical worldview, that of Father Yah and His anointed, with anointed as being the actual meaning of the title Mashiach, Messiah. Yeshua is Father Yah’s anointed one, His only unique Son. This is prophesied in verse 7 of this psalm where Father Yah is talking to His Son. In verse 8, yes, Father Yah has indeed made all the nations of this world the inheritance of His Son, our Mashiach. When Mashiach returns, he will return to rule and reign the whole earth.
In verses 10-14, the heathen nations are warned to make nice with The Son, the Only Begotten. To serve The Masters (which is what the name Adonai means. Elohim with a capital E similarly means our multi-faceted ONE God, in all his majestic revelations of Himself to us.) Serve Adonai with holy fear, reverence, trembling. Kiss the son is a reference to those nations submitting to the rule of the Only Begotten, Messiah Ben David, Messiah son of David, the conquering, eternal King. All who take refuge in Mashiach Yeshua are indeed blessed. He is THE only true, hiding place for the soul.
{Talk about the Tehillim volumes from Ms. Pat.}
