THE SECRET OF THE PSALMS

IS THE BOOK OF PSALMS just a jumbled collection of ancient religious lyrics? Or does the sequence of its 150 songs contain a secret message? Saint Augustine of Hippo thought so. He said, “The sequence of the Psalms seems to me to contain the secret of a mighty mystery, but it has not yet been revealed to me.”

Some years ago, I sat down to ponder the secret of the Psalms. Other folk had puzzled the same problem. They had concluded that the Book of Psalms contains a “meta-narrative,” a hidden “story-line” underlying the sequence of its lyrics. And they said that this meta-narrative was about the rise and ultimate fall of the historical House of David.

I could see that there was a meta-narrative. And I agreed the House of David figured prominently. But I proposed that it was not at all about the rise and fall of the House of David. Instead, it was about the coming of the Messiah who would fulfil the promises made to David and all Israel. The Book of Psalms was not history but prophecy.

I showed very clearly why I thought we had to read the Psalms as prophecy. For a start, they claimed to be prophecy, and all Israelite and Christian tradition had always read them that way. Then I showed why the historical meta-narrative view was mistaken. I proposed that the editor of the Book of Psalms arranged its 150 songs so as to reflect a programme of anticipated events like that of Zechariah 9-14. These events include the ingathering of exiled Israel by a bridegroom-king; his establishment of a kingdom, followed by his violent death; the scattering of Israel in the wilderness, and Israel’s subsequent regathering and further imperilment; their rescue by a king from the heavens, who establishes his kingdom from Zion; the king brings peace and prosperity to the earth and receives the homage of the nations; then the whole collection concludes with songs of praise.

In 1997, I published my proposals in The Message of the Psalter. I’m grateful that the secret of the Psalms which I revealed back then is now the dominant theory in Psalms scholarship. A lot of folk have since written along the same lines. But if you want to read the book that first revealed the message of the Book of Psalms, then you should read The Message of the Psalter.