Introduction to
Psalms of Praise:
Book 4 of The Psalms
The book of Psalms in the Old Testament divides into five books. For a brief general discussion of the Psalms, one can read the article on Psalms in Wikipedia (see below).
Book 4 has many exhortations to “sing to the Lord." These 17 psalms encourage the modern believer to exalt the Lord with our praises.
The Psalms are divided into five books, as follows:
Book 1 (Psalms 1–41)
Book 2 (Psalms 42–72)
Book 3 (Psalms 73–89)
Book 4 (Psalms 90–106)
Book 5 (Psalms 107–150)
This division into five books is not a new development but goes back to ancient times. A detailed discussion of Psalms' grouping into books is found in “The Canonical Shape of the Psalter," p. 25ff, in The Book of Psalms from The New International Commentary of the Old Testament (NICOT), deClaissé-Walford, Jacobson, and Tanner, 2014, Eerdman Publishing. The authors document that the five-book organization of the psalms found in the Septuagint (LXX) and the Dead Sea Scrolls dates to the time of Christ.
The methodology of study for this book:
The somewhat uniform length of chapters is to purposely encourage the reader to take one chapter per day for three weeks.
A few of these studies are in two parts so that each chapter's length would conform to a 15 to 20 minute read for each one, done at a leisurely pace to allow for prayer and meditation as you read.
Development of this writing project:
This project began in January 2020 on a training trip to Rwanda, Burundi*, and Uganda. Global Training Network (GTN) exists to bring training to Pastors and Church leaders primarily in the Majority World. Psalm 103 was especially helpful during the trip, and upon returning home was shared with a group of Ministry Partners at a report dinner. It then became a project to study all of the psalms in Book 4 (Psalms 90-106) because of their appropriate place in worship services.
Approach this book as both a study and a devotional resource. There are 17 psalms in Book 4, and if one were to read one chapter each day, it would take less than three weeks to finish the whole book. Reading it in this way might help focus attention on the Lord speaking through His word. A few psalm studies are in two parts, so please don’t be strict in the three-week timeframe. Let it be a guide, and go at your own pace. Libraries typically allow readers to check out a book for three weeks at a time, so this seems like a good time parameter for not rushing through it, but allowing the Lord to use it.
During these years with GTN, the Lord has led me to train in 30 cities in 11 countries** on five continents. In many of these cities, we have done multiple trainings, each about six months apart. I hope that this work will help everyone around the world see the wonder of emotions and thoughts found in the psalms of Book 4 to God's glory. The pandemic of COVID-19***, which swept the world in 2020, forced us all to stay at home. The outgrowth for me was this work.
Notes:
*I thought I contracted the COVID-19 virus while going through the airports in early January as I had a terrible fever while in Rwanda, but later testing did not show the presence of the antibody.
** The 11 countries, in chronological order of initial training: Brazil, Philippines, Tanzania, Thailand, Laos (as an advisor, only), Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Burundi. We have also recently, because of the virus, done teleconference with participants from Bangladesh and Pakistan.
*** COVID-19 = Coronavirus 2019, an especially virulent flu-like virus which was thoroughly tracked worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO) and by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the U.S., which led to the adoption of “stay at home," “social distancing," “masks and gloves," and “lockdown” policies throughout the world. Millions of infections were monitored country by country, with hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide, mostly from pneumonia-like complications. For about six months, there was virtually no international travel allowed.
The choice of the New American Standard Bible (NASB):
Throughout this study of Book 4 of the Psalms, the author has principally used the New American Standard Bible (NASB) as the English translation of the Bible. The choice of this translation is both technical and personal.
The NASB is a more literal translation than others, meaning it translates word for word rather than a phrase for phrase. Nor is it a conceptual translation, meaning idea for idea. For personal Bible reading and study, it is valuable for its accuracy in translating the words of the Scripture. For use in worship, the author prefers other translations that read more clearly when spoken aloud. The New Living Translation is one that flows more easily when read aloud by a congregation.
The NASB was brought to market in 1971 and was recommended to the First Baptist Church of Van Nuys, California, by its pastor, Dr. Harold L. Fickett, Jr. It became the de facto translation for use in that church. The author has used that translation in his private study since that time. Having completed both Hebrew and Greek language studies in seminary (three years each), the author feels comfortable working in original languages and prefers to use NASB in combination with original languages for personal Bible study.
NASB was selected for technical exactness of word for word translation and because of personal use for many years.
"Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission. www.Lockman.org"
Justification for the Extensive Use of Wikipedia.
Throughout this book, there are many quotations from the online tool, wikipedia.com, “the Free Encyclopedia." There are many reasons for using this tool:
1) Anyone in the world can access this tool.
2) Every article is peer-reviewed continually.
3) There are millions of articles, and more each year.
4) Many articles are translated into the world's common languages, even though the entire encyclopedia is in English.
5) In most countries of the world, university courses use English as the language of instruction.
6) It is free. Anyone with access to the internet has access to these millions of articles.
For all of these reasons, this tool is one of the most excellent in human history. Its value to the general population of the world is immense. Those who have little or no access to libraries have access to this tool.
For Bible study, this tool is especially helpful. Nearly every name, every place, every event mentioned in the Scripture has a useful article in Wikipedia to enable Bible students to more deeply understand the Word of God.
Anyone can refer to the footnotes to each article. These provide links to more in-depth articles if the reader chooses.
The author is aware of academics' arguments against the use of Wikipedia, but the benefits far outweigh the concerns about the scholarship of articles. For a general understanding, Wikipedia is amazingly thorough and concise. The articles are generally well constructed to give readers an overriding picture and then specific details of those ideas.
The accessibility of this tool to everyone in the world, and the general reliability of the articles, lead the author to quote it often and encourage its use in the Majority World.
Thank you.
My thanks to the readers and editors who have helped guide this project to completion.
I want to express my love and thanks to my beautiful wife, Mary Lou, and our lovely daughters, Gracie and Anna. They were also “staying home” during the pandemic crisis and were a tremendous support in the writing process.