Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 9 – The Prophets and writings
Songs and reflections of the heart
[Bible references: Psalm 1, 2, 3, 8, 11, 32;l Song of Songs]
As creatures made in the image of the Creator, it is self-evident that we cannot avoid creating. We are also creatures that are born to worship, as evidenced by our popular culture. When we put those together, we get a work like the Psalms,[1] a book of poetry which was set to music. The psalms are a collection of praise songs written by various people, songs that reflect the thoughts of those people experiencing life with all its emotions in a broken world.
In addition to musical notations, several psalms have notations indicating the events which inspired the writing of those psalms or the kind of occasion that the psalms are used for. As poetry, the psalms use various poetic devices such as parallelism, acrostics, and figures of speech.[2]
The Psalms express various themes such as the character of God, the experience of people, the worship of God, lament, petitions for help, confession of sin, praise and thanksgiving, expressions of wisdom.[3] The emotions expressed in the Psalms are sometimes very raw with feelings of abandonment, questions of God’s provision, hatred, and vengeance. The inclusion of the full range of human expression is an acknowledgement of the reality of the human experience and an affirmation of being honest with God about our feelings while placing all of that in the context of a just and merciful God who is worthy of praise.
The Psalms are not the only place where poetry can be found in the Old Testament. There is poetry that can also be found in various portions of other books of the Bible. There is even one book of the Bible that is entirely a poem/song, The Song of Solomon (aka Song of Songs) which is a positive and passionate expression of marital love.
In addition to the expressions of wisdom that are found in the Psalms, there are other places where expressions of wisdom are found. The pair of books, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, show the benefits of and limits of wisdom. Solomon was the author of Ecclesiastes and was the primary author of Proverbs. In 1 Kings 3-4, Solomon requests and is granted much wisdom to rule the nation of Israel. That wisdom is reflected in Proverbs as a collection of rules to live a good life. On the other hand, Ecclesiastes reflects the limits of wisdom in finding the meaning of life.
[1] The Hebrew name of the book is Tehillim, which means praise songs.
[2] Cole, Steven J. “Psalms An Overview: God’s Inspired Hymnbook;” Nally, Joseph R. “Overview of the Book of Psalms” Bible.org bible.org/seriespage/psalms-overview-god%E2%80%99s-inspired-hymnbook
[3] Postoff, Matt. “Categorizing the Psalms” Fellowship Bible Church of Ann Arbor 21 Nov 2014 fbcaa.org/MAPBlog/PsalmsCategories.pdf
Reflect
In this day, we create songs and books of wisdom. We may not be writing scripture itself, but we are expressing ourselves in worship in the way that God has designed us. How do you express yourself to God?
Observe
Read Song of Songs. This passage is not discussed much in the church while our culture defines sexuality on its own terms. How can the church use this book?
Dancing In The Kingdom 