The Psalms: Three Types
The Psalms mirror the soul and give expression to our intense feelings of praise and worship. They express our confidence in God (Psalm 23), or our desire to worship him (Psalm 100), or our devotion to his ways (Psalm 1). But they also express our deepest moments of despair, doubt and questioning. They confess sin (Psalm 51), or question God about his faithfulness (Psalm 44), or call down God’s wrath on enemies (Psalm 94). The Psalms are a collection of diverse hymns, songs, and prayers which reflect the continuum of the life Israel had with their God. They move from confidence to lament to praise. They retell the history of God’s people, pray for God’s deliverance and offer thanks for God’s redemptive acts. The Psalms are the hymnbook and prayerbook of Israel. They have sustained the people of God through triumph and despair, through the good times and the bad.
Walter Brueggemann has provided a helpful schema for categorizing Psalms.[1] He divides Psalms into three groups: (1) Orientation, (2) Disorientation, and (3) New Orientation. Orientation Psalms are written in the context of “satisfied seasons of well-being that evoke gratitude for the constancy of blessing.” They “articulate joy” in the light of God’s creation and governing law. They are faithful professions of faith. They confess confidence in God’s presence, his sustaining law and his good creation. They rejoice in God’s faithfulness and his goodness. These are psalms about God’s creation (8, 19, 33, 104, 145), or his law (1, 15, 19, 24, 119), or his wisdom (14, 49, 112), or they express a confidence in God’s enduring presence among his people (11, 16, 23, 46, 121, 131, 133).
Disorientation Psalms are written in the context of “seasons of hurt, alienation, suffering and death” which “evoke rage, resentment, self-pity and hatred.” The sense of well-being, so evident in the Orientation Psalms, has been overwhelmed by the fallenness of the world. These psalms face the reality of the world’s fallen character and they seek to bring that fallenness before the throne of God. They boldly enter God’s presence by bringing questions, doubts, and despair before it. They respond to the hurt and pain caused by the fallen character of the world. They are offered in the middle of suffering, persecution, sickness and prospective death. The fallenness of the world shakes the faith of God’s people. They are bewildered, confused, and angry, so they cry out to their God who is sovereign over fallenness. In the midst of suffering, believers often become disoriented, but they nevertheless offer their prayer to God. In Scripture, these are the psalms of lament (3, 7, 9, 13, 22, 38-43, 52-57,86, 88, 90, 123, 126, 129, 143), of penitence (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) or of imprecation (35, 48, 69, 82-83, 94, 109, 137). Through these prayers, the people of God lament their suffering, confess their sinfulness and call for God’s justice upon their enemies.
New Orientation Psalms are written in the context of the surprising works of God where the people of God “are overwhelmed with the new gifts of God.” God has responded to the laments of his people. God has acted and the petitioners are transformed by his response. This transformation evokes praise and thanksgiving. God intrudes into the fallenness of the world to work new, surprising things so that joy breaks through the despair and the petitioner moves from suffering to glory. All these prayers and songs bespeak the intervening action of God to give life to a world where death reigns. God is praised, honored and blessed because God has acted within the fallen world to transform it for the sake of his people who have petitioned him. These psalms express praise (66, 68, 95, 113-114, 146-150), thanksgiving (18, 21, 30, 75, 92, 107, 116, 118, 124, 129, 138), retell the story of God’s redemptive acts (78, 105-106, 135-136), exult in God’s promise to dwell among his people in Zion (e.g., the Songs of Zion, 46, 48, 76, 84, 87, 121-122) and rejoice in God’s promise to the royal house of David (e.g., the Royal Psalms, 2, 29, 45, 95-99, 101, 110, 132, 144). They celebrate the redemptive works of God in history.
Given the current make up of our hymnals, it surprises most people to discover that almost half of Psalms is lament. The emphasis in modern worship falls heavily upon orientation and new orientation songs, that is, upon confidence, praise, thanksgiving and joy. Little appears in our hymnals that is genuinely lament or disorientation, except for some penitential or confessional hymns. Modern Christians are uncomfortable with lament. It is too bold, too daring and involves God too intimately with his world. It is a cry to God about fallenness and modern Christians want to keep God at a distance from fallenness. God must not get his hands dirty. Yet, approximately half of Psalms are laments and the largest single grouping of Psalms is that of individual lament. When fallenness breaks into the lives of God’s people, they call upon their God. They invoke God’s faithfulness, steadfast love and sovereignty in order to complain to him, petition his intervention, and ultimately praise him.
[1]Walter Brueggeman, Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984), pp. 16ff. The following paragraphs are heavily dependent upon his work.