The Secret Language of the Psalms

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]We're learning how to pray the Psalms.

[00:00:02]We're learning how to pray from the Psalms.

[00:00:05]And today's a bit of a one-off. The main thing I want to talk about today is how to pray the Psalms. And I can do that in a single word. And the word is slow.

[00:00:16]And this will get us into the nature of the Psalms a bit.

[00:00:28]Start in Psalm 90. This is the one psalm that's uh attributed to Moses where he says, "Teach us to number our days." We have a problem numbering our days. But here's what he says in verse three.

[00:00:42]Lord, you turn people back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, you mortals, a thousand days in your sight.

[00:00:53]Sorry. A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by or like a watch in the night. Now living in the day in which we do where time is in fact money. We're apt to read something like that and say, "Can't you just say it? Just say it one time. A thousand years in your size like a day that has gone by or a watch in the night? Really?

[00:01:16]Do you have to add the watch in the night thing?" And of course he does. And this is uh part of what it means that the Psalms in particular some parts of the Bible but supremely the the Psalms are not part of pros. They're actually poetry.

[00:01:33]And as you may well know to talk about this a little bit today, what marks Hebrew poetry primarily is what was called parallelism.

[00:01:42]And at the heart of it is you will have one thought and then that thought expressed somewhat similarly. Um, initially up until about the year 1750, apparently Trevor Lman writes about this. The rabbis figured um, God will always economize words. So if something is said twice, the second time around it's got to mean something different. So they took this statement where it talks about uh, uh, God did what he said for Sarah and he blessed her according to his promise. Those must mean two different things. So did what he said, he gave her a child, but then blessed with the promise. That must be did he give her milk when she was nurser? Well, that's kind of a little bit of a stretch.

[00:02:23]So about 1750, uh, an Oxford scholar by the name of Robert Loath said, "No, really what parallelism is at its heart is you say one thing and then you say it again." So it's the most basic form is you're saying the same thing twice. And Ter notes that CS Lewis back actually repeats that in uh his book on the Psalms. But more recently there is a uh more accurate understanding and the idea is in parallelism uh you might say a word you might say a thought in a certain way and then the way that you express it in the next line uh has a way of carrying the thought forward or the way that it is shaped. the words that are used a little bit differently are moving it a little bit further are doing something a little bit more. So um it is poetry. I have a group of good friends and and one of them wrote uh quite a lovely and deep poem but somebody else in the group who is a Philistine who is a trogodite you know what you who you are said no no no it doesn't rhyme it can't be a poem if it doesn't rhyme a good poem roes are red v okay so uh poetry say something else about this this is from Eugene's uh Peterson's book about how uh the psalms are tools for prayer. Poetry is language used with personal intensity.

[00:03:52]It is not, as so many suppose, decorative speech.

[00:03:58]Poets tell us what our eyes blurred with too much gawking and our ears dulled with too much chatter missound and within us. Poets use words to drag us into the depth of reality itself.

[00:04:12]They do it not by reporting on how life is but by pushing pulling us into the middle of it. Poetry grabs for the juggler. He goes on to say, "Prayer is not particularly nice.

[00:04:25]There is recognition in prayer of the fiercer aspects of God. Is there anger to be expressed? Are there judgments to be reckoned with? What words are available to say them? that God slaps cheeks and breaks teeth is not theological dogma but prayed metaphor images that connect experience with esquetology the God pull into God's future. So I think part of why the um psalms express prayer, they are prayer, they speak to God uh in parallelism, it has a way of slowing us down. And so now just a little bit just a word or so about a couple of different ways that parallelism works. um uh essentially it'll be kind of AB and then the second line will say something similar but in a little bit of a different way. So in Psalm 6 for example the psalmist says Lord do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Rebuke is something you do with words. Discipline ah that gets a little gnarier. So he's carrying that thought a little bit further. So that's the idea of uh what parallelism is. And then there'll be other ways it can just be kind of meaningful, delightful, uh connect me uh heart-to-heart with God to understand different ways that parallelism is used. Sometimes you'll find um a a statement is repeated at the beginning of a section and then at the end the beginning of a psalm and the end of a psalm. Psalm 8. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

[00:06:08]And then it comes back again in verse 9 after reflecting. We kind of go on a journey together. And then once again, Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name and all the earth. But now we've considered the earth. So um we've been on a journey. George Carlin used to talk about the difference between scoring in football and baseball. Football uh you combine a fierce ground attack with aerial bombardment. You march into enemies territory and penetrate the end zone. In baseball, you come home.

[00:06:40]That's where you start is home. And that's where you end up as home. And sometimes in the Psalms, the poetry is kind of like that.

[00:06:48]Sometimes in parallelism, there'll be uh what can be thought of as a kind of a pivot where I'll have a thought that leads to another thought and then that thought also becomes a pivot to lead into the next thought. So for example um in the 23rd Psalm, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. So there it's a concessive. There's kind of a I'm going to grip my teeth. Even though I'm walking through this, I will fear no evil.

[00:07:23]I will fear no evil because you are with me.

[00:07:28]So that little pivot phrase, I will fear no evil. even though I'm doing that, I will fear no evil for a reason, not just because I'm tough, but because the Lord is with me. And so it will kind of uh uh be a way of emphasizing um what that pivot is. Sometimes there will be um an omission uh an ellipsis where something gets left out. So for example in Psalm 88, Psalm 88 is a psalm of great anguish. And again, poetry, imagery, metaphor has a way of pouring out the heart a lot of times in a way that more clinical lists just don't do.

[00:08:10]So uh in um Psalm 18 where it talks about you have put me in the lowest pit in the darkest depths. Now in that case you have put me that's the a that's the first part in the lowest pit and then this doesn't get repeated it just goes here and that's a way of emphasizing how miserable I am that's a way of binding these two together and uh Psalm 88 does this in real deep ways in fact it's the one lament where it never takes a turn towards hope it just ends you have taken from me friend and neighbor darkness my closest friend is darkness Okay. So, um those are a few of the different ways that um that poetry can use. Again, the main thing I want to say is in going through the Psalms, just don't be in a hurry.

[00:09:06]Um teach us to number our days.

[00:09:11]And one thing that helps me when I think about the Psalms is to remember that the master of the Psalms is Jesus. And if you ever get frustrated by that idea of parallelism, you might keep in mind that Jesus who was formed and shaped by the Psalms used it too.

[00:09:27]So in the sermon on the mount, Matthew 7, judge not, lest you be judged.

[00:09:34]For in the same way that you judge, you will be judged.

[00:09:39]And then here's the parallel part. And with the measure that you use, it will be measured to you. So if you get judgmental on somebody, judgmentalism will come back to you. And then he broadens it out just a little bit and with the measure that you use. Now that could be the measure of judgment and criticism and self-righteousness could be a a measure of generosity.

[00:10:00]And then one last note about how Jesus goes on then uh in a very near statement to use that kind of parallel that expresses a little progression in thought. My friend Ron told me about this years ago. one of his most famous statements he says um seek and you will find ask and it will be given to you knock and the door will be opened teaching there about the nature of God and the nature of the universe and the request is at the form of that prayerful community and the way that we honor the kingdom the will of each other as well as God is is through request there's something beautiful about that would you could I ask you a favor? But now there's also a little resilience, Nitty. There's a little progression here. So seek and you'll find there it is. It's right there. I saw it and I found it.

[00:10:56]But maybe I can't find it. And so what I have to do then is to ask, have you got one of these? Would you help me look for it, God?

[00:11:05]And maybe even asking isn't getting me there. So I got to go up to the door and anybody home?

[00:11:15]And of course God himself does that. I stand at the door and knock.

[00:11:21]So teach us to number our days as I come now to praying the Psalms.

[00:11:28]Remember this is poetry because it's the language of the soul. It's the language of the heart. and to take time to just notice the artistry, to kind of play with it. Doesn't have to be technical at all. And to recognize part of why that's theirs. Um, uh, poetry was not designed for speed reading. Evelyn Wood speed reading course. Do they still do those?

[00:11:53]I actually took that. It's not a bad thing for certain stuff that you want to get through. Going through a recipe, you want to go through it fast. Uh, manual on how to put some object together. I want to go through that as fast as I can. This is not a manual like that.

[00:12:08]This is the language of the soul.

[00:12:11]God meets us, teach us to number our days.

[00:12:15]So now as I walk through this day, God is right here. Seek, you'll find.

[00:12:22]Ask, it'll be given.

[00:12:30]See you next time.

[00:12:33]Hey, if you enjoyed that teaching by Dr. John Orberg, be sure to subscribe if you're watching on YouTube or follow us on podcast. You can find more information about this ministry at becomenew.com. You can find more information about John at johnorp.com.

[00:12:49]Or if you remember, John mentioned uh Old Testament scholar Trumper Longman III earlier in this video. We actually sat down and did a long form interview with him about the Old Testament and some of the hard things about the Old Testament. If you want to check out that interview, you can go to formationpodcast.com.

[00:13:08]That's another podcast that we provide and it's with long conversations John has with experts in different fields about spiritual formation. So, you might find that interesting. I'm Tim at Become New. distribute 10 to 12 minutes of teaching just like this every weekday to help you grow spiritually in Christ one day at a time. We'll see you later.