Psalmcast S01E02: The Psalter’s Intelligent Design
The Psalter is not simply Israel’s greatest hits on shuffle, it’s more like the first concept album. Here are 10 evidences of its intelligent design. The Second episode in a series on reading the Psalms as a book.
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Episode NOTES
For an entry-level introduction to reading the Psalter as a book, I recommend O Palmer Robertson’s The Flow of the Psalms.
The ten design features of the Psalter with some examples below:
* Prologue (Ps 1-2)
* Hallelujah Epilogue (Ps 146-150)
* Five Books with doxologies
* Book I: Psalms 1-41
* Book II: Psalms 42-72
* Book III: Psalms 73-89
* Book IV: Psalms 90-106
* Book V: Psalms 107-150
* Five Collections of David
* Psalms 1-41
* Psalms 51-71 (or 72)
* Psalms 101-103
* Psalms 108-110
* Psalms 138-145
* Author Superscriptions
* Songs of Korah: Psalms 42-49; Psalms 84-89
* Songs of Asaph: Psalms 73-83
* Unnamed other collections
* Songs of Ascents: Psalms 120-134
* “Yahweh Malak:” Psalms 93-100
* Chiastic Collections
* e.g. Psalms 15-24
* Acrostic Psalms
* Royal Psalms
* Odd features
* Elohistic Psalter: Psalms 42-83
* Duplicate Psalms (e.g. Psalm 14 = Psalm 53)
Music by Teen Daze. Used with permission.