Celebrating Scripture’s Other Psalms
Paul writes to the church in Colossae that they are to teach and admonish one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in their heart to the Lord (Colossians 3:16).
He writes a similar sentiment to the church in Ephesus: “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18–19).
The book of Psalms feels like an ideal place to start this quest.
Some people think of the Psalms as a collection of Hebrew poems. I like that. Others call it a prayer journal. I like this perspective too. Just as our prayers cover a range of styles and emotions, so do the Psalms. We can have Psalms (and prayers) of praise, lament, thanksgiving, and so forth. Some Psalms burst forth as a corporate hymn, while others seep out slowly as a personal prayer of anguish.
Whatever our mood or perspective there’s likely a psalm that captures our emotion and our heart. It’s no wonder, then, that people over the centuries have so treasured the Psalms.
The range of content addressed by the Psalms covers a wide array of themes. Bible scholars attempt to classify the Psalms by topic, but there’s little agreement in their groupings. The labels they use include hymns, laments, thanksgiving, praise, compassion, liturgy, prophecy, petition, and so on.
Yet not all the Bible’s psalms reside in the book of Psalms. Other psalms occur throughout Scripture from Exodus to Revelation. This book collects these randomly located passages to make it easy to find them and to immerse ourselves in them.
Compiling this list of psalms scattered throughout Scripture has been a time-consuming yet stimulating task. To create this list, I looked for passages of song and poetry that provided personal or community prayer and worship. This book contains those passages, with sixty-seven more biblical psalms for us to contemplate, commiserate, or celebrate. As we do, may God receive our attention and adoration.
Some of these psalms appear in paragraph form instead of as poetry. This is because of the translation used, not because these passages aren’t biblical poetry.
Regardless of the format, embrace each one as a psalm.
Given that Psalm 151 is in the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew, used in Jesus’s day), we’ll start our numbering of these additional psalms at 152. This is for convenience and structure, nothing more.
In exploring these other psalms scattered throughout the Bible, we’ll use the World English Bible (WEB) as our text. It’s based on the revered American Standard Version of 1901 and updated for today’s readers. Notable in the WEB is the use of the Hebrew name Yahweh (or sometimes just Yah) instead of Lord or Jehovah. It adds a sense of awe, connecting us today with our faith’s Hebrew heritage.
[Most versions of the Bible are under copyright, which prohibits their use in this book. The WEB, without copyright restrictions, is the ideal option for our exploration.]
