I once said to a friend, “I’m reading the Psalms.” He replied, “I am living the Psalms.” My friend was a young preacher whose wife was divorcing him. He was going through deep waters and was finding comfort in the Psalms. David the main contributor to the Psalms wrote many of the Psalms out of great affliction, such as, when he was fleeing as a fugitive from jealous King Saul or dealing with the rebellion of his son Absalom.
I got the idea for “The Factual Data” sheet from reading Warren W. Wiersbe’s homiletic teacher, Lloyd Perry. Perry used a generic “Factual Data” sheet for all sermon preparation. I have adapted “The Factual Data” sheet to the different genres of Scripture instead of one size fits all. In addition to Hebrew Poetry, I have a "The Factual Data" Sheet also for Pauline Epistles, Narratives (Genesis, Joshua, and Mark), and Hebrew Poetry (Psalms and Proverbs).
Scott M. Gibson is the editor of a book entitled Preaching the Old Testament with one chapter on “Preaching from the Psalms and Proverbs” by Duane A. Garrett. Jeffery D. Arthurs has two helpful chapters on preaching from Hebrew poetry in his book Preaching with Variety: How to Re-create the Dynamics of Biblical Genres. In chapter three "Psalms, The Sound of Music," Arthurs stresses exegeting a psalm to find out "how the poem means as well as what the poem means" (This is a step beyond Cracking the Old Testament Codes which deals only with the genre and not the preaching of the unique genre). The form of the genre, in this case, Psalms, should influence the form of the sermon.
I. STUDY THE CONTEXT (Macro Hermeneutics)
A. What is the context of the genre of Hebrew poetry?
There are several characteristics unique to Hebrew poetry that would not be true of other genres such as narratives and prophecy.
1. The first unique characteristic is parallelism. There are synonymous (Ps 24:1) and antithetical (Ps 1:6) synthetic (Ps 29:1) parallelism. Parallelism forces the reader to meditate on the verses to pick up on these parallelisms. Arthurs writes that "Hebrew poetry is written not for speed readers or skimmers" (Jeffery D. Arthurs Preaching with Variety: How to Re-create the Dynamics of Biblical Genres, 43) Selah.
2. Another characteristic is wisdom literature. Proverbs especially provide wisdom for godly living as heard in Proverbs 1:7. We will talk more about wisdom literature later. Some other unique conventions of Hebrew poetry discussed by Jeffery Arthurs are intensification as demonstrated in Psalm 77, concrete images as observed in Psalm 23:1-3, and intense emotions as felt in David's cry in Psalm 22:1.
3. Hebrew poetry is a genre in Scripture that expresses emotions. A book of the Bible can have one overall genre but that same book can also contain different genres within it. Here are two examples. The first was the narrative genre in 2 Samuel which also had poetry in 2 Samuel 22 (repeated in Psalm 18), which was David's song of thanksgiving for deliverance. The second example was the poetry of Job which begins and ends with narratives.
I have read in different sources that Hebrew Poetry is called the language of the soul because one of its purposes is to express emotions. This seems to fit in 2 Samuel 22 where David is praising God for delivering him from his enemy Saul. Also, after the narrative beginning of Job, poetry is used by Job and his accusers to express their heated attacks and defenses throughout the cycles of debates. This would explain in part why sometimes the genre of poetry is used within the genre of narratives. Genres can help outline our sermons.
Job in the hands of Satan in Job 1-2 (Narrative which gives God’s perspective)
Job in the hands of his Critics in Job 3-41 (Poetry which is the emotional language of the soul and Job and his accusers)
Job in the hands of God in Job 42 (Narrative which gives God’s perspective)
B. What is the context of the book?
Next, we begin to answer basic Bible study questions such as what was the author's theme for each book in Hebrew poetry and the development of the theme of the book.
1. Psalms: God’s Devotional Book. The Psalms help us in our walk with God and our worship of God. We should interpret the individual psalms in that overarching context.
2. Proverbs: God’s Practical Manual for Living. In Proverbs 1-9, there are 15 Fatherly lectures of wisdom to his son In Proverbs 10ff there are scattered aphorisms or concise statements of moral principles.
3. Job: Why Do Christians Serve the Lord (1:9). The rest of Job answers that question: Not for health and wealth, not for the approval of family and friends, but for the pleasure of God.
4. Ecclesiastes: Life is meaningless without God.
5. Song of Solomon: God’s Theology of Marriage.
C. What kind of Psalm am I preaching or teaching?
Psalms are unique in that you have many kinds of psalms as the following list shows. One way to do a series from the Psalms, instead of preaching 150 sermons sequentially, would be to choose one chapter from the following kinds of Psalms and do a series of nine sermons. Come back next year and repeat the process using a different chapter from each kind of Psalm and do another series of nine sermons.
1. In the Enthronement Psalms (Pss 47; 93-99) the Lord reigns.
2. In the Songs of Zion (Pss 48, 84, 87) God dwells among us.
3. In the Songs of Ascent or Pilgrim Psalms (Pss 120-134) we are taught that God is praised in His temple. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. has an excellent commentary on just the Pilgrim Psalms: The Journey Isn't Over.
4. In the Royal Psalms (Pss 2, 20, 45, 72) God rules through man.
5. In the Imprecatory Psalms (Ps 109) the righteously indignant plead to the King for justice.
6. In the Wisdom Psalms (Pss 1, 12, 19, 119) the righteous and wicked are contrasted in God’s kingdom.
7. In the Penitential Psalms (Pss 6, 32, 38, 51) the righteous repent.
8. In the Messianic Psalms (Pss 22, 23, 24) God predicts the Messianic first coming and His coming back to rule.
9. In the Hallelujah Psalms (Pss 146-150) the King is praised.
D. Who is speaking or writing?
1. ____________ confessing his sin in Psalm 51.
2. ____________ is complaining at the beginning of Psalm 73.
3. ____________ writes two psalms in Psalm 72 and 127.
4. ____________ writes just one psalm in Psalm 90.
5. ____________ is sharing wisdom with his son in Proverbs 1-9.
E. To whom is the writer writing?
1. David is writing to ________ in Psalm 51.
2. David is exhorting __________ to praise God in Psalm 103.
3. Solomon is delivering Fatherly chats with his ______ in Proverbs 1-9.
The purpose of the book of Proverbs is to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young (1:4) .... Biblical proverbs give prudence by transferring wisdom/skill from parents to children: pride comes before the fall (Prov. 16:18); he who guards his lips guards his life (13:3); don't invest in get rich quick schemes (v. 11); honor the king (19:12); lazy men go hungry (v. 15); never stop learning (v. 27).
4. Solomon is writing to young potential _________ in Ecclesiastes (12:1ff).
5. Solomon is writing to his ________ in Song of Solomon.
F. Where was this Hebrew Poetry written?
Most of the psalms were written from Israel, but Psalm 137 was written from Babylon during Israel's captivity.
G. When was this Hebrew Poetry written?
1. The Song of Solomon was written when Solomon was young and in love.
2. Proverbs was written when Solomon was older and wiser.
3. Ecclesiastes was written when Solomon was old and repentant.
4. Psalm 90 was written when Moses was old.
5. Psalm 137 was written during the Babylonian Captivity.
6. Psalm 85 was written after the Babylonian Captivity.
H. What was the purpose for writing this Hebrew Poetry?
1. Psalm 51 was written to ____________.
2. Psalm 103 to ____________.
3. Proverbs 1-9 were written to teach ____________.
Since proverbs distill general categories of human experience, we must remember that they are not promises. The biblical sage has observed that the fear of the Lord adds years to life (9:11), but presumably, the same sage would agree that holy men and women have, indeed, been martyred" (page 136).
In Part Two, we will discuss studying the content of the passage or micro hermeneutics.