The Path to Life

We begin a study in the Psalms to highlight the introductory sections to each of the 5 Books into which the collection of Psalms is organized.  You may have noticed Roman numeral headings in your Bible at Psalms 1, 43, 73, 90 and 107.  Though most of us have favorite go-to Psalms like 23, 46, and 100 to name a few, there are indications of the arrangement of the Psalms as something more than merely random Psalms.  Our purpose for the next few weeks is to highlight the psalms introducing each of the 5 books, hopefully giving us a beginning sense of the flow of the whole.

As a quick overview, Book I leans toward the foundations of faith, and particularly from the perspectives and struggles of King David.  Book II broadens the faith mission to the nations trending into more conflict.  Book III reflects the lowest phase of the OT kingdom struggles, and Book IV begins moving upward toward the Grand Finale Hallelujahs of Book V.

I’ve titled this series Psalms: Prayer & Praise because the Psalter is the Bible’s prayerbook and hymnbook.  Each of the 150 Psalms draws us to the glory of God and Jesus who is King of Kings.  Every psalm leads into prayer and praise, through divinely inspired poetry taking us into the presence of God.  We begin with the introduction to Book I, Psalms 1 & 2.  We will read these psalms and see what each has to offer to draw us to the Lord, and then we will end up with a comparison and contrast of them to show how they are in fact foundational to our faith.