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Readings 25-32 from The Books of the Bible (TBoTB)
We now come to the Book of Psalms. The authors of Psalms stretch across the panorama of the Old Testament. The traditional 150 Psalms are divided into five books. For reading help, they are written in parallelism, a Hebrew form of thought-rhyme. The most common form of this kind of writing is synonymous, which means that the second line of in the poem says the same thing as the first line using different words to express the same thought. Where we get tripped up, is that we read the Psalms with a steady pace without giving the vocal or mental break that is due each line. And because we most likely read like Westerners, we think that they should be read like we read anything, one sentence after another, where the second sentence often expands the first sentence but does not say the same thing. So we often read two lines of a Psalm and then exegete it as two different thoughts instead of one thought expressed two different ways.
Example
The ox knows its master,
the donkey its owner’s manger,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.”
The first two lines say the same thing only differently. The second two lines also say the same thing only differently.
While there are other kinds of parallelism in the Old Testament, this one will get you a long way in reading, not only here in the Psalms but also in the Prophets which have long sections that are poetry.
C. S. Lewis once said, “The Psalms must be read as poems; as lyrics, with all the licenses and all the formalities, the hyperboles, the emotional rather than the logical connections, which are proper to lyric poetry” (God’s EPIC Adventure, 131).
Psalms Book 1
- Reading 25: 923-946
- Reading 26: 947-965
Psalms Book 2
- Reading 27: 966-986
- Reading 28: 986-998
Psalms Book 3
- Reading 29: 999-1020
Psalms Book 4
- Reading 30: 1021-1040
Psalms Book 5
- Reading 31: 1040-1066
- Reading 32: 1066-1084
Thought To Contemplate
God is interested in our worship. There are many ways to worship him that go beyond praise. Israel had a category of worship in the Psalms called “Complaint Psalms,” corporate and individual. Complaining to God as a form of worship is something one should try, and without guilt, I might add.
Reading Guide
You can read using the following guide and take your readings a bit slower. To read at a 100 day pace, read the page numbers in the 100 Day column. To read at a 200 day pace, read the page numbers in the 200 Day column. To read at a 300 day pace, read the page numbers in the 300 Day column. You create the days of the week you want to read.
On average, the 100 day column is about forty-five minutes to an hour. The 200 Day column is about thirty minutes. The 300 day column is about fifteen-twenty minutes. Remember, some folks read faster and some folks read slower and the times above are built on an average of about 250-300 words a minute. Of course, this is pure reading time, not reading and stop-to-think time or meditating time, not reading and discussion time, and not reading and sharing in the Comments section below. It is just reading time!
| 100 Days | 200 Days | 300 Days |
|---|---|---|
| Psalms Book 1 | Psalms Book 1 | Psalms Book 1 |
| 923-946 | 923-934 | 923-929 |
| x | 935-946 | 929-940 |
| x | x | 940-946 |
| 947-965 | 947-958 | 947-953 |
| x | 958-965 | 953-958 |
| x | x | 958-965 |
| Psalms Book 2 | Psalms Book 2 | Psalms Book 2 |
| 966-986 | 966-980 | 966-972 |
| x | 980-986 | 972-980 |
| x | x | 980-986 |
| 986-992 | 986-992 | 986-992 |
| x | 992-998 | 992-998 |
| Psalms Book 3 | Psalms Book 3 | Psalms Book 3 |
| 999-1004 | 999-1011 | 999-1004 |
| x | 1011-1020 | 1004-1016 |
| x | x | 1017-1020 |
| Psalms Book 4 | Psalms Book 4 | Psalms Book 4 |
| 1021-1040 | 1021-1033 | 1021-1027 |
| x | 1033-1040 | 1027-1033 |
| x | x | 1033-1040 |
| Psalms Book 5 | Psalms Book 5 | Psalms Book 5 |
| 1040-1066 | 1040-1052 | 1040-1047 |
| x | 1052-1066 | 1047-1061 |
| x | x | 1061-1066 |
| 1066-1084 | 1066-1078 | 1066-1071 |
| x | 1079-1084 | 1072-1078 |
| x | x | 1079-1084 |
Topics: All Post, Readings 25-32 |
