The End of Exile is Praise for Yahweh’s Covenant Love: Book 5 of the Psalms

As I’ve worked through the book of Psalms, I’ve shared with you the fruit of my labors on Book 1 (Psalms 1-41) and Books 2-4 (Psalms 42-106). Now that I’m near the end of my study, I’m ready to share some reflections on Book 5 (Psalms 107-150).

Themes

As far as the themes of Book 5, the following topics are constantly repeated:

• Return from exile (such as Ps 107:1-3, 120:5-7, and 137:1-6)
• Reinstatement of the king (such as Ps 110:1; 116; 118:10-13, 22;)
• Remembrance of Yahweh’s eternal covenant love (such as Ps 107:1-3, 43; 118:1, 29; 136)
• Request for others to join in worship (such as Ps 111:1, 112:1, 113:1, 117:1-2, 118:1-4, 145:21, 146-150)

Structure

The prominent calls to praise appear at key moments to signal climaxes in each section, or transitions to the next section.

• Ps 111:1 opens a section of praise poems (Pss 111-118) that appear to respond to what God did in Pss 107-110.
• Ps 118 describes a parade of worship moving from the battlefield into the temple.
• The songs of ascent (Pss 120-134) describe pilgrimages toward the temple, culminating in Psalm 136, which celebrates Yahweh’s eternal covenant love in every verse.
• Ps 145 concludes a group of poems where the king offers his own praise, and it invites the rest of creation to join that praise—which they do in Pss 146-150.

These patterns yield four primary sections within Book 5:

• Pss 107-110: Yahweh’s mighty deeds to redeem his people and their king
  • Pss 111-119: Outburst of praise on behalf of both king and people
• Pss 120-137: Yahweh raises up the king and people from exile, specifically so they might worship him
  • Pss 138-150: The king now leads the people in the worship of Yahweh

For Further Study

I commend this masterful book of poetry to you for further reflection and consideration. You may want to consider some of the following questions:

1. What role does Ps 119 play as both the conclusion to the praise of Pss 111-118 and the catalyst for the reflections in Pss 120-137?
2. Why role does Ps 110 play in the structure, and why is this role conducive to the apostles’ quoting of this poem more than any other psalm?
3. How do the psalms of ascent (Pss 120-134) fit together? And why might we think that Pss 135-137 are connected, as a conclusion, to them?
4. How does Ps 145 transition from the king’s praise to the people’s praise? How can we use this psalm to assist our own praise?

I have updated my Psalms spreadsheet with my thoughts on this last part of the book. I also added a second tab, where I try to capture the main idea of each stanza of Psalm 119. You can always find this spreadsheet on the blog’s resources page to assist your further study.