Grace Institute: The Writings : Psalms Part 8

Psalms Survey of the Old Testament: The Writings Fall 2006

Descriptive Praise Psalms

Structure

The structure of the descriptive praise psalms are closely related to the declarative praise psalm. It begins with a call to praise and usually ends with a renewed call to praise. However, the reason to praise God is not what he has done for us, but is because of his character. The greatness of God is alone enough reason to praise God, even if he never delivered us from our afflictions.

Style

Royal/Enthronement Hymns

A subset of the descriptive praise psalm is the royal or enthronement hymns. These psalms were sung at the coronation of Judahs new king. Even after the end of the monarchy, the Israelites still sung these songs with God ultimately as their King and in looking forward to the day when the Messiah would come and be King over all Israel.

Songs of Ascent

The songs of ascent were sung as people would climb up the mount to Jerusalem and the temple as they entered for holy days. Like the Christmas carols of today, these were holiday songs, which when sung would remind the people of the reason for the celebration. They were sung to get into the mood of the festival.

Hallel Hymns

There are two sets of Hallel or praise hymns. The first are called the Egyptian Hallel hymns (Psalms 113-118), because they look back at how God rescued Israel out of Egypt (Psalm 114:1). The second group of Hallel Psalms are found in 146-150 which are songs which call upon the people to praise God for his character alone.

What distinguishes a Hallel psalm is phrase used in the call to praise: Praise the Lord! In the Hebrew, this is the term hallelujah. This is a compound Hebrew word, consisting of Hallel or praise and Yah, meaning Yahweh the covenant name of God. The Hallel psalms call on us to praise Yahweh for his greatness.

Significance

Whereas Book IV emphasizes declarative praise psalms, Book V is dominated by descriptive praises. The compiler of the Psalter has brought the reader through the laments to a point of understanding Gods lovingkindness in light of our own sinfulness (Book IV). Now in the last section of the Psalter, the Psalms become much more positive. Now we praise God not just because of His interaction in our lives, but because as God, He deserves our praise. Repeatedly in Book V we are told that there is none like God and therefore he deserves our praise.

[Sample Descriptive Praise Psalm: Psalm 113-118]