🎥 Video Lesson
📖 Course Notes
The full course notes for this lesson are available in the official course textbook, Cover to Cover: Old Testament (Village Schools of the Bible, 2022). Please download or view the PDF below to study the material for this lesson.
📖 Download / View Course Notes (PDF)
The Book of Psalms is a collection of 150 songs, prayers, and poems written by David and others over many centuries. It is the prayer book and hymnbook of God’s people, giving voice to the full range of human emotion before God.
📌 A Book of Worship
The Psalms express praise, thanksgiving, lament, confession, and trust. They teach us how to bring our whole hearts — joy and sorrow alike — honestly before God.
📌 Types of Psalms
The Psalms include hymns of praise, laments, thanksgiving psalms, royal psalms, wisdom psalms, and messianic psalms. Understanding these types helps us read each psalm rightly as Hebrew poetry.
📌 Structure
The book is arranged into five sections (or “books”), each ending with a doxology of praise, echoing the five books of the Pentateuch.
🔴 The Scarlet Thread of Redemption — Jesus Revealed in Psalms
The Psalms are among the most quoted Old Testament books in the New Testament, filled with prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
📌 The Suffering Messiah
Psalm 22 vividly describes the crucifixion centuries before it happened — pierced hands and feet, mocking crowds, and casting lots for garments.
📌 The Risen Messiah
Psalm 16 foretells that God’s Holy One would not see corruption, pointing to Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 2:25-31).
📌 The Reigning Messiah
Psalm 110 presents the Messiah as both King and Priest, seated at God’s right hand — quoted by Jesus and the apostles as fulfilled in Him.
📚 Key Scripture
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” — Psalm 23:1
📝 Study Questions
- How do the Psalms give us language to bring both our joys and our sorrows to God?
- What are some of the different types of psalms, and how does recognizing them help us read?
- How does Psalm 22 point forward to the crucifixion of Jesus?
- Which psalm speaks most personally to you, and why?
📝 Lesson Quiz
Test your understanding of this lesson. You must score 100% to pass — you can retry the quiz until every answer is correct.