The Songs of Jesus

Ten years ago Timothy and Kathy Keller wrote the book, The Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms. We tend to forget that the Psalms written in antiquity were part of the Hebrew Scripture which Jewish worshipers would have known well. They were the contemporary music of Jesus’ first-century world. Just as we have songs connected to the Christian holiday seasons today (e.g., Advent, Lent, Easter, etc.), so did they.

What immediately comes to mind are the Psalms of Accent (Psalms 120-134). These are Psalms that the people sang as they ascended up into Jerusalem to annually attend the three mandated festivals (Passover, Pentecost [or Weeks], Booths [or Tabernacles]). Jesus and his fellow Israelites would have known many (if not all) 150 Psalms by heart as they were incorporated into regular times of worship. Keller’s book was designed to draw us to the same songs Jesus sang.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, I have been in the habit of reading and praying the Psalms for close to 30 years – sometimes one per day or one per week. Or, as with the past couple of years, I park on a Psalm for a time, gleaning what I can, then moving on to the next one. I just spent a week in Psalm 82, a relatively unknown but significant song.

As you may know, the 150 Psalms are really a collection of five books as follows:

1. Book 1 (Psalms 1-41). Primarily attributed to David, these psalms focus on covenantal faithfulness.
2. Book 2 (Psalms 42-72). The psalms of Book 2 focus primarily on a hope for a Messianic kingdom.
3. Book 3 (Psalms 73-89). Attributed to Aspah, the psalms in this section of songs are a mix of communal lament and post-exilic Messianic hope.
4. Book 4 (Psalms 90-106). The focus? Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the true King of all creation, who can thus bring healing justice to his rule, his Kingdom.
5. Book 5 (Psalms 107-150). This final book includes psalms of thanksgiving, praise, and celebration. It concludes with a series of Hallelujah psalms (146–150), each beginning and ending with “Praise the Lord” (Hallelujah).

Interestingly, each book ends with a doxological prayer, blessing the God of Israel, the everlasting Lord. Example: Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen. (Psalm 72:18-19). See also, Psalm 41:13; 89:52; 106:48; and Psalm 150)

Psalm 82 is in the middle of Book 3. Amid psalms of lament related to exile and pleas for God to come to the aid of his people, we find this seemingly free-standing song. The psalm contains concepts that have perplexed theologians for centuries. But the main thrust of the psalm seems to be absolutely clear: Yahweh is the God of all “gods” and he expects nations and societies to operate justly. And if they don’t, they will have him to contend with…

² “How long will you [plural] defend the unjust
    and show partiality to the wicked?
³ Defend the weak and the fatherless;
    uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
⁴ Rescue the weak and the needy;
    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

In the world of the ancients (Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, etc.), deities and nations were entwined. Other nations knew that the national god of Babylon was Marduk; Egypt was Ra; and, of course, Israel was Yahweh, the one true God. The people of the exile lamented because, to the watching nations, it appeared that Marduk was more powerful than Yahweh. Yet, we don’t hear much of the Babylonians these days. Nor their God, Marduk. Why? Because…

⁵ “The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken… ⁷ But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.”

The gods were tried and found wanting. The criteria for Yahweh’s judgment of the gods was justice. The national gods supported imperialistic domination and cruelty imposed on the conquered people. Weak, fatherless, poor, and oppressed people are a natural outcome of national domination. “Psalm 82 tells us how we are to be judged by God but also how God wants to be judged by us. Everything else that God says or does in the Bible should be judged by that job description.”¹ Social justice that is basic to Yahweh, the God of the Bible can be seen in Jesus, God in the flesh. Luke 4 immediately comes to mind…

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

“Everything else that God says or does in the Bible should be judged by [this] job description.”

¹ Crossan, J. D. (1998). The birth of Christianity: discovering what happened in the years immediately after the execution of Jesus (1st ed). HarperSanFrancisco.