How to Read the Psalms
We look to the Psalms to help us understand the life of faith from God’s perspective. In seeking to apply these Scriptures to our lives, we will find that there exists a broad gap between our own lives and David’s. David lived three thousand years ago on the other side of the world as a shepherd and then as the king of God’s chosen people. It is difficult to imagine a situation any more different than our current lives. How can we bridge this gap between ancient Israel and our own world? The answer begins with reading the Psalms along three horizons of interpretation. That is to say, we read the Psalms and consider how they connect at three levels: with David, with Jesus Christ, and with ourselves.
1. David. This is the historical reading of the Psalm. Here, we seek to understand the Psalms in their immediate context. We ask the question: How did the words of this Psalm apply to the life of David? As we read the psalm, we seek to make sense of it in light of David’s own life, examining the circumstances of its writing and the application to David’s life. Particularly relevant for this interpretation is our reading in 1-2 Samuel. As we read and make sense of the events of David’s life, we will be able to better understand his reflections on his life in the Psalms.
“The key question we need to ask is: How are the words of this Psalm even more true in Jesus Christ?”
2. Jesus Christ. The psalter is one of the most quoted books of Hebrew Scripture in the New Testament, and more often than not, these New Testament authors apply the Psalms to the life of Christ. Jesus, after all, is the Son of David (Matthew 1:1), the true and better king of God’s people. As we read the psalms, we see that there are certain things that could never be true of a merely human king but are true for the God-man Jesus Christ. As with all of the Old Testament, the Psalms do not merely record the past but they point forward to Jesus. When we read on this level, we seek to understand the Psalms within the context of all of Scripture. The key question we need to ask is: How are the words of this Psalm even more true in Jesus Christ?
3. Ourselves. Finally, we ask: How does this Psalm apply to our lives? We can only move from a historical understanding to personal application through Christ. Jesus bridges the Psalms from David’s life to our own. When we trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life, God the Father unites us to Christ through the Holy Spirit. By virtue of our union with Christ, what is true of Jesus is true of us. Through this union, we can apply the Psalms to our own lives. One word of caution is that we not make them personal to the point of isolation. The Psalms are true for believers personally, but together as the church, we are the body of Christ, so the Psalms are also true corporately. On this level, we seek to understand the Psalms for our daily lives.
