As you might have already guessed by the title, I didn't know what a Psalm was before reading this. You might call me ignorant, but that is just the way it is. Just for if someone reading this doesn't know what it means either, you can check the definition, which is one of the songs, hymns, prayers, or poems contained in the Book of Psalms. Because we were asked to read 4 different psalms not in chronological order, I will talk about each of them separately.
First came Psalm 23. I feel that David is very happy with being preferred by the Lord. In the First Book of Samuel you can see how the Lord prefers David over Saul, and makes everything he wishes for happen. If I was David, I probably would also be as grateful and write him a poem. I hope his optimism is apt, because if this isn't satisfied, David will be in great trouble: "23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."
The next Psalm I was asked to read was Psalm 42. In this psalm I have to say that as a reader you have to start wondering why God doesn't help normal men as much as would be expected from a creator. Always in history we have seen examples of people suffering who dedicate their lives praying to God that all will be better, but as far as I know in the majority of the cases nothing happens. For example, during the Holocaust, many innocent people who prayed to God every day died suffering.
We can see this a little when it says: "42:11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." I don't want to believe it, but something tells me that he won't receive what he is looking for.
Next up: Psalm 51. In my opinion, this has been the most boring psalm yet. It was all about David saying sorry and asking God to forgive me, but I didn't like it. Always when this happens, I am not sure if people are just doing it to be on God's good people list, or if they really mean it. "51:14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness." Is this really true? I don't know but David might just come out, turn around, and go kill someone else. Although coming from a time period when God just appeared in front of everyone and did whatever he wanted, it might be that people took religion a lot more serious than they do now.
The last psalm we have to read is Psalm 137. Why we skipped so much I don't know, but I'm not going to argue. Because this is the first psalm that doesn't include a description before it, I don't understand much. Without the background info, I don't think I get what this psalm is about.
What I was able to recall was that it was about this people who had been asked to sing a song of Zion, and they did. It said that if they forgot Jerusalem many bad things could happen to them, and then it remembered the day when the army of Babylon captured Jerusalem. I don't understand its point, but it wasn't that bad.
I think I like the psalms, mostly because they are short and easy to understand. I like how in most cases they give background information so that you can know what they are talking about. I also liked how they talk about many different parts of the Bible. Even though it was interesting, thank God we are almost done with the Bible (Ironic, huh?)!
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