Songbook Sequence?

Suggestions for reason behind the order of the prayers and praises of the final canonical Psalter are legion. While there is much to be gleaned from consideration of various views, is there one that is more convincing, and carries more weight, than the rest?

None

Much ink has been spilt in commentaries on the Psalms to advance the opinion that, when it comes to the Psater, the Holy Spirit was not a God of design or deliberate order (a strange thought indeed, though of course the thought is not explicitly stated). Others have a hunch that there is purpose to the arrangement of God's songbook, but as to the intention of the Divine Author, they remain mystified and clueless. While we appreciate that a coherent answer to such a complex question can appear daunting at first, the hints we get by positioning of acrostics, torah-messiah pairs, collections of Korah, Asaph, David, or theming into Yahweh Rules, Ascent Songs, & Hallelujah Groups, all make the likelihood of random chaotic or chance evolution of the Hymnbook of the Church look like a fairly remote possibility. In other words, the belief that there is no intended order in the Psalms of David ought to be dismissed.

Law

One common notion is that introductory Psalm 1 sets the mood & tone for the whole of five books, which are obviously patterned on the Mosaic Pentateuch (or five scrolls of Moses). Certainly, meditation and instruction is strongly advocated, and held out as a day-and-night ideal, in Psalm 1, if readers want to profit from this book by producing all-season fruit. That being said, the obvious question that springs when that view is advance is to ask: "instruction about what?" There must be more than just meditation, so to stop at Torah is simply too reductionistic.

King

Another idea that is less-easily written off is that the Psalter was intended primarily for royal readership. For sure, Moses counselled later rulers to write out their own personalized copy of the Torah: this was with a view to keeping them grounded in the government of God's people (Dt. 17:14-20). Given the fact that two untitled Psalms begin God's book of praise, and that we know from the New Testament that the second was penned by David (Acts 4:25-26), this strongly points in the direction of a self-consciously initiation kingship combo introit. This royal claim is fortified by the fact that Torah-Messiah pillars occur at decisive turning points in the sacred anthology of Spirit-given songs, namely in Psalms 1/2, 18/19, and 118/119. It seems hard to not to conclude, what seems prima facie obvious to most students of the Psalter, that since the majority of the psalms (even some that are formally anonymous) are attributed to Israel's sweet singer, that Covenanted Israelite Kingship is integral to the Hymnal of the Jews. Without doubt, any of the Kings of Israel or Judah would have been well-advised to take this book to heart: each prince that arose was to make these songs his delight in private or public worship. Hezekiah was to hymn. If he was tardy, Manasseh eventually got around to meditation and mortification! Perhaps it was the very failure to cherish the songs of Zion that led many aristocrats to become "crash and burn" apostates. Yet two very obvious objections to the "royal praise-book" view that instantly spring to mind: first, the fact that the current arrangement of the canonical Psalter would seem to date to the time of the Exile and the editorial activity of Ezra (according to tradition and history in Ezra 7:1-28); second, that even as early on as Book III of the Psalter, the throne, dynasty, promise and covenant of David and sons, seems to be in jeopardy, if not in full-blown constitutional crisis, and the exile of Judah becomes a subject of lament (though as some have pointed out, not all of the Psalms that look like exile Psalms can definitely be pinned to the events of 601-586 BC - some may be related to other close-shaves at Shiloh or Zion). It is therefore probable that greater specificity is required to decode the Psalter sequence - in other words, if there is instruction concerning kingship in this liturgical material, the songbook will not depart from Judah until it comes to whom it belongs!

Christ

There are many reasons why we should dovetail options 1 and 2 with suggestion number 3, which is this: the Book of Psalms was designed first and foremost for Christ the Divine Messiah, and His Church - for both the Head and Body. There are just a few reasons why I suggest that this is the best solution to the sequencing of the songs and supplications of the Scripture question.

First, the whole message of the Bible is ultimately a revelation of God in the Person of His Son - Scripture has Christ positioned front and centre.

Second, as many reformed writers insist, the whole of redemptive history flows and grows out of the mother promise of the Gospel in Genesis 3:15: after Eden, the rest of sacred history contains the gradually unfolding and blossoming of the bud-like promise of a snake-crushing seed, which leads all the way through the sufferings of David, and the glories that would follow, to the Son of David.

Third, this ties in nicely with the obvious movement from sorrow to joy, humiliation to exaltation, suffering to glory, and lament to praise, as we move from Book I to Book V.

There are many other things that could be pointed out, but this should suffice to establish the point.

Therefore, we conclude that it was King Jesus with whom the giant-killer David was in union, of whom he was a shadow, and by whose Spirit the son of Jesse saw and spoke in anticipation of the Messiah par excellence: it is against Him who is the Son of God, supremely so, in the highest sense of the title, that the nations are ultimately aligned (Psalm 2), who was formed in Mary's womb (Psalm 139), and came into the world as an offering of sin in the body prepared for Him (Psalm 40); He is the One who occupied a throne before He came to earth, and who now enjoys His Mediatorial Reign, as exalted, glorified, God-Man (Psalm 8, 45, 110); if the shoes of Psalm 22 are far too big for David's afflicted feet, then gloating crowds, gambling troops, jutting ribs, dehydrated mouth, nail-pierced extremities, and derelict cries, belong to the King of the Cross, who then broke the bars of death, to regenerate souls on earth (Psalm 22, 16, 68) from His heavenly seat of power; it is the Crucified, Risen, Lord who gave Torah (Psalm 99), thunders with His voice (Psalm 93), will come to judge the world (Psalm 98), and avenge His foes at last (Psalm 94), before telling goats, who pretended to be sheep, to depart (Psalm 6); it was designed for Jesus to go up to the Feasts (Psalm 120-134), take comfort as he suffered for the truth (Psalm 119), to give thanks for redemption, anticipate communion and prepare for rejection (Psalm 111-118), as the Chief Cornerstone who Judas betrayed (Psalm 109), and authorities despised; there were prayers to pour out in Gethsemane or Mountain Top, with loud cries and tears; there were praises to express deep gratitude to the Father (Psalm 103), who would raise His King from death, to the reward of glorious, heavenly, life (Psalm 16, 21, 24, 102), as the light-robed Creator (Psalm 104) became law-obeying Redeemer (Psalm 19), to rid sin from earth (Psalm 104:31-35). No eyes ever spied the beauty of God's House so clearly (Psalm 63, 84, 87, 122, 117, 134) or voice songs of Zion so sweetly, as He did.

In other words, the hunt for the code of the codex of the collection used by the congregation ends in Jesus Christ!

Book

It is for this reason that Luther was correct in asserting that the Psalter was intentionally designed as a mini-Bible for the Church. And, if we set this Hymnal in its proper Second Temple, Post-Exile, Messiah-Expectant context, then we should be able to observe how the worship at Zion, particularly at the Feasts, was deliberately designed, by shadow and type, by song, sermon, and sacrifice, to focus the minds of the Jews on the Jesus to come. As Cleopas concluded, still suffering heartburn, the light of the Spirit, in all the sacred inspired writings of God's prophets, was always aimed at revealing Christ to the heart of truly-believing saints (Lk. 24:13-49).

Conclusion

Perhaps this explains why it is that when we come to worship with thoughtful, prayerful, Spirit-enabled, hearts, that Psalms comes to life and show us more of our Exalted Lord. He who, as Head, loved and gave Himself for His Body (as Good Shepherd of the Sheep in Psalm 23, 78:67-72, 80:1-3), sings with, for and in His Church, by His Spirit, as we sing to the LORD, and lift our hearts to pay homage at His feet (Psalm 8, 45, 110). Spirit-breathed, - inspired, -recorded, & -arranged worship in the Psalms, day and night, produces more delight in, and likeness to, the Law-Obeying Son, Suffering Messiah, and Living Word, in whom we bear abundant fruit.