Back to Course

Psalms and Song of Songs

  1. Lesson One
    Overview of Poetry
    31 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  2. Lesson Two
    Poetic Structures
    22 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  3. Lesson Three
    Praise and Lament
    24 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  4. Lesson Four
    The Diversity of Psalms
    28 Activities
  5. Lesson Five
    Song of Songs
    20 Activities
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

Participants 24

Show more
Psalms and Song of Songs Praise and Lament In | Life in YHWH
Lesson 3, Activity 10

In | Life in YHWH

Lesson Progress
0% Complete

The psalmists’ sober appraisal of mortal flesh is offset by their faith in YHWH and His promises of life. Their attitude recalls lines from a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the former Poet Laureate of Great Britain, where he addresses God with a similar plea:

Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:
        Thou madest man, he knows not why,
He thinks he was not made to die;
        And thou hast made him: thou art just.

Source: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “IN MEMORIAM A.H.H., OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII,” The Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1884, p. 247.

In spite of the frailty of human beings, the psalmists are convinced that mortal flesh is not a burden but an opportunity for ongoing life in the presence of God. The psalmists’ convictions are based not only in an appetite for life that transcends mortal life, as in the Tennyson poem, but in the concrete historical promises that God had made to their spiritual ancestors:

For with you is the fountain of life;
    in your light do we see light.
Psalm 36:9 (ESV)

 

By day the LORD commands His steadfast love,
    and at night His song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42:8 (ESV)

Dr. Kraus offers a helpful summary:

(In Psalms) life is not a power that proceeds from itself or is grounded in itself. Those who offer their prayers in the Psalms know that they are “absolutely dependent” on Yahweh. All life comes from him. The place where Yahweh is present is designated as the “source of life” . . . 

 

For the individual, the life which he has received from Yahweh is the epitome of His honor (Psalm 3:3; 7:5). A person’s invaluable reputation, the dignity of His appearance, stands or falls with life. Every diminishing of life . . . brings totally into question the life and thereby the honor of the individual. Therefore the “poor,” those who are needy, join in with the chorus of those who pray, “Give us life” (Psalm 80:18). Whenever anyone’s life is threatened, that person is concerned that Yahweh will turn to Him in mercy and do good for Him so that he will be revived again (Psalm 119:17, 77, 116; 22:26; 69:32). In the face of attacks and persecution Yahweh is the “stronghold” of His life (Psalm 27:1). Life is protected and renewed by Yahweh. Yahweh shows the “path of life” in which “fullness of joy” is to be found (Psalm 16:11) . . .

 

Decisive, however, is the direction of one’s life, its openness to Yahweh. The proper way of life for the men and women of Israel is one in which they call on Yahweh and praise him. Indeed, “praise becomes the most elementary ‘token of being alive.’” Whoever praises Yahweh lives. He or she expresses himself or herself as one dependent on the “source of life,” and therefore especially alive. “I will bless the LORD at all times” (Psalm 34:1).

Source: Hans-Joachim Kraus, Theology of the Psalms, 1992, pp. 162-164.

While the Psalms don’t provide a highly-developed view of the afterlife like we find in the New Testament, the foundation for those New Testament views are in place in the Psalms. “Life” is redefined in the Old Testament as “relationship with YHWH,” or as Walter Brueggemann puts it: 

Life in the Bible means relatedness. Consequently death is to be unrelated. Thus the Bible calls into question two of our dominant presuppositions: (a) that life is concerned primarily with biological functioning and (b) that life concerns a personal unit in and of itself.

Source: Walter Brueggemann, The Bible Makes Sense, 1977, p. 109.

We’ll look at this view of God as our source of life more when we get Behind the Text.