The Psalms are first of all poetic song. As such, they incorporate many of the features of poetry and music, including picturesque language, a principle of the correspondence of lines, metrical patterns, and instructions for performance.
Metaphorical Language
Psalmic poetry shares with other biblical poetry, and indeed with that of all cultures and eras, the use of picturesque and metaphorical language. “The Lord God is a sun and shield” (Ps. 84:11); “He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind” (Ps. 104:3). The worshiper’s enemies are “bulls” or “dogs” (Ps. 22:12, 16); they are “lions, … those who breathe forth fire, … whose teeth are spears and arrows” (Ps. 57:4 NASB). Celebrating Israel’s deliverance in the Exodus from Egypt, the psalmist addresses natural features as though they were persons:
Why was it, O sea, that you fled,
O Jordan, that you turned back,
You mountains, that you skipped like rams,
You hills, like lambs? (Ps. 114:5–6)
Pictorial comparisons occur frequently. The wicked are “like chaff that the wind blows away” (Ps. 1:4); they are venomous and dangerous, “like that of a cobra that stopped its ears, that will not heed the tune of the charmer” (Ps. 58:4–5). The rule of the righteous king is “like showers watering the earth” (Ps. 72:6). Children, given by the Lord, are “like arrows in the hands of a warrior” (Ps. 127:4). The unity of family and community is celebrated in a beautiful image of the priestly anointing:
It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Running down upon the beard,
Upon the beard of Aaron,
Running down on the collar of his robes! (Ps. 133:2 RSV)
Parallelism
Poetry generally employs some principle of correspondence for successive lines; in conventional English poetry, for example, lines are usually matched through rhyme. Biblical poetry does not use rhyme, but rather uses parallelism or the correspondence of ideas. There are three main types of parallelism: antithetic, synonymous, and synthetic. In two lines of antithetic parallelism, the second states a concept that is the opposite to that stated in the first:
For evil men will be cut off,
But those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. (Ps. 37:9)
This contrasting parallelism, very common in the book of Proverbs, is not used much in Psalms. The psalmists prefer synonymous parallelism, in which the second line of a couplet restates the idea presented in the first, using different words:
It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
And to sing praise to Thy name, O Most High. (Ps. 92:1 NASB)
“It is good” is not paralleled in the second line, but “to give thanks” (the Hebrew verb actually means “to confess”) equates with “to sing praise,” and “thy name, O Most High” corresponds to “the Lord.” The frequent use of synonymous parallelism in the Psalms helps us to understand theological terms in their fuller sense:
Loving-kindness and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. (Ps. 85:10 NASB)
Obviously, in the psalmist’s thinking, “loving-kindness” (ḥesed, “covenant love”) must be understood to include “righteousness,” while “peace” (salvation or wholeness) must incorporate “truth” (’emet, “reliability”).
A third form of parallelism in the Psalms is called synthetic parallelism because the successive lines correspond through development or synthesis:
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
Or stand in the way of sinners
Or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in season,
And whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers. (Ps. 1:1–3)
Here the psalmist develops a picture of the righteous worshiper through successive clauses that build on the ideas previously presented.
Refrains in the Psalms
An additional poetic feature of the Psalms is the use of the refrain, a recurring phrase that marks off the stanzas of a psalm. The four central stanzas of Psalm 107 each conclude with the same refrain:
Let them confess to Yahweh because of his covenant love,
And for his mighty acts in people’s behalf! (Ps. 107:8; repeated in verses 15, 21, and 31)
Other examples include Psalms 42–43, actually one psalm linked by the same refrain (Pss. 42:5, 11; 43:5), Psalm 46 (verses 7, 11), Psalm 57 (verses 5, 11), and Psalm 67 (verses 3, 5).
Acrostic Psalms
Several psalms (Pss. 34; 111–112; 145) are constructed as acrostics; that is, each couplet begins with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The skill of the psalmists is evident in the fact that this artificial device (included in the category “learned psalmography” by the great psalm scholar Sigmund Mowinckel) in no way detracts from the beauty and flow of the psalm:
I will bless [’varkhah] Yahweh at all times;
Ever his praise will be in my mouth.
In Yahweh [bYahveh] shall boast my soul;
Shall hear the humble, and shall rejoice.
Magnify [gaddlu] the Lord with me,
And let us exalt his name in unity. (Ps. 34:1–3)
The apotheosis of the acrostic psalm is Psalm 119. This psalm has twenty-two stanzas of eight verses each; in the first stanza, every verse begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet; in the second, every verse begins with the second letter, and so on for 176 verses, the longest chapter in the Bible.
Metrical Patterns
Like all poetry, psalmic poetry has a metrical structure. Meter refers to the rhythm of successive syllables. Conventional English poetry uses metric “feet” in various patterns, such as iambic pentameter: “A little learning is a dangerous thing” (Alexander Pope). Biblical poetry employs instead a pattern of stressed syllables, with an intervening variable number of unstressed syllables and no fixed rhythmic “beat.” Therefore, it can be translated into English without losing its Hebraic poetic character:
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And by the breath of His mouth all their host. (Ps. 33:6 NASB)
Here, each line contains four stressed syllables, a common metric pattern in the Psalms. The use of stressed syllables rather than metric feet renders the Psalms especially suitable for chanting or recitative-style musical performance. When the Psalms are set to music using conventional Western tunes with regular bar lines and a fixed beat, it is necessary to paraphrase them. Consider Psalm 100:1–2:
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before him with joyful singing. (Ps. 100:1–2 NASB)
Compare the following paraphrase to the “original” verses:
All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell;
Come ye before him and rejoice. (William Kethe)
Such paraphrases have produced great hymnody and occupy an important place in historic Christian worship. However, they disguise the Hebraic character of the biblical Psalms. While the contemporary Scripture song tends to retain more of the original word order, often avoiding rhyme, it too is usually sung to a tune with regular bar lines and so lacks the chantlike quality of psalmic poetry.
Antiphonal Psalmody
Some of the psalms are antiphonal or responsive in form, evidently intended to be sung by two or more groups of singers. The recurring phrase, “His love endures forever,” which forms the second half of all twenty-six couplets in Psalm 136, was perhaps sung by a choir responding to the statement of the first half verse. Psalm 24 is a dialogue between two groups of singers, one seeking entrance to the sanctuary, perhaps bearing the ark of the covenant in procession, and another standing guard at the gate:
Choir I:
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Choir II:
Who is he, this King of glory?
Choir I:
Yahveh tzva’ot [The Lord Almighty]—
He is the King of glory. (Ps. 24:9–10)
Three choirs seem to be involved in the liturgical dialogue of Psalm 118; they are “Israel,” the gathered covenant community; “the house of Aaron,” or the priests; and “those who fear the Lord,” perhaps Gentile worshipers of Yahweh. All three groups are invited in turn to give the response, “His love endures forever” (Ps. 118:2–4; cf. Pss. 115:9–11; 135:19–20). Both Psalms 124 and 129 begin with a leader inviting the assembly to join in the psalm:
“Had it not been the Lord who was on our side,”
Let Israel now say,
“Had it not been the Lord who was on our side,
When men rose up against us,
Then they would have swallowed us alive … ” (Ps. 124:1–3 NASB)
Directions for Performance
The superscriptions of some of the psalms are apparently addressed to the “director” or “choirmaster” (the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain). These instructions occasionally indicate the instrumentation to be used, such as stringed instruments (Pss. 4; 55; 67), the eight-stringed lyre (Ps. 12), or the clarinet or flute (Ps. 5). Many of the psalms mention instruments in their vow of praise or invitation to worship (Pss. 43:4; 57:8; 81:2–3; 92:3; 150:3–5). Although the translations are often obscure, some of the superscriptions appear to designate tunes or modes upon which the psalm is to be performed (’Ayyelet hashshaḥar, “The Doe of the Morning,” Ps. 22; Shoshannim, “Lilies,” Pss. 45; 69; Yonat ’elem rḥoqim, “The Dove on Distant Oaks,” Ps. 56; ’Al tashḥet, “Do Not Destroy,” Pss. 57–59; 75). It is regrettable that today we have little concrete knowledge of how psalmic music actually sounded, although some of the oldest liturgical chants of the church have been shown to have features in common with Yemenite Jewish music, which in turn may have been preserved with little change from biblical times.
The Selah
The term selah, occurring seventy-one times in the text of thirty-nine psalms, evidently derives from the verb salal, to “lift up” a song. It is most often interpreted to indicate an instrumental interlude; however, it could designate a point where free-flowing vocal and instrumental praise occurred, perhaps using a familiar refrain such as, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever” (Ps. 118:1).