2. Background to the Psalms

A. Authorship: The King & The Priests

• Half of them written by David & Solomon
• All the other named ones are priests

B. Theological

• All based on the covenant relationship with God
• Without the covenant, they would be meaningless
• Particularly in the laments, the pleas are on the basis of the covenant
• The most important word to understand in this context is: chesed
  • hard to translate: (KJV “lovingkindness” or “mercy” are poor translations)
    • faithful-love,
    • loyal-love
    • love that will never let you down and never give up on you but will hang on to the end
• It is possibly the most beautiful word in any human language
• It is a fundamental theme of the Psalms and the main thing God is praised for

C. Historical

• Two basic types of sacrificial worship
• We must distinguish the burnt offerings from the sacrifices

1. Burnt Offering: Totally burned—all goes up in smoke. Demonstrates total commitment to God
   • Lev 1: burned offering, an animal, or Lev 2 grain if you are a grain farmer
2. Partially sacrificed to God. Really a communal meal.
   • The priest ate his part, the offerer his/her part & God’s part was burned.
   • These were offered for three reasons (Lev 7:11-12, 16)
     
     1. Thanksgiving. (No concept of private thanksgiving in the O.T.)
        • You offered a sacrifice and a song.
     2. Vow answered by God
     3. Voluntary, freewill offering—just to express your love for God

• 1 Chron 16:37-43 describes the organization of music and song to go along with the sacrifices.
• Many of the Psalms were in this category
• These songs were designed to be sung “with smoke” (Waltke)
• e.g. Ps 66:13f
  • Selah —what does it mean. Literally “to lift up”
  • untranslatable: “Selach” like hip-hip-hooray. Just a cry of praise!
• another example: Ps 116:12-19