Psalm 1
Psalm 2
Psalm 10
A Psalm questioning why God lets the wicked prosper. The wicked do not obey God, and think their wickedness shall not be punished. The Psalm ends recognizing how the Lord will help the oppressed and asking God to punish the wicked.
Psalm 16
Moral sense:
- Psalm 16:11 God teaches us how to live, and we become happy by following Him.
Anagogical sense:
- Psalm 16:9-10 God didn’t abandon us in Sheol, He opens the gates of heaven for us.
- Psalm 16:11 God rewards with eternal pleasures those who walk with Him (heaven).
Psalm 17
Anagogical sense:
- Psalm 17:15 Only the beatific vision can fully satisfy our desire for happiness, can fulfill our ultimate goal, what we were made for. Saint Augustine: *“Fecisti nos, Domine, ad Te, et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in Te.”
Psalm 19
Psalm 33
A Psalm praising God’s might, righteousness, and justice. Our heart is glad because we trust in Him. Our hope is in Him.
Psalm 44
It is composed of two parts:
- Thanking God for being with them and giving them victory in their military conquest.
- Begging God to help the people, because right now the people are suffering and afflicted.
Questions:
- Who are the sons of Korah?
- About what period in Israel’s history this Psalm is about?
Psalm 45
Maybe messianic text?
- The King being revered is Jesus
- The bride is the Church
Psalm 46
Do not fear changes and trouble, because God is our refuge and strength.
Psalm 47
Praises the Lord as king of over all the earth (Ps 47:2).
Allegorical sense:
- Ps 47:6 Prefiguration of Christ’s ascension.
- Ps 47:10 Prefiguration of the Church, the Kingdom of God, where jews and gentiles are gathered together
Psalm 48
Psalm of praise to God for the liberation of Israel.
Psalm 49
Allegorical sense:
- Ps 49:15 God will liberate the soul of the just from “Sheol”, where the dead went before Christ opened the doors of heaven.
- Ps 49:19 The wicked will never more see the light.
- Clear prefigurations of heaven and hell, judgement of the souls after death: liberation for the just, privation of the light for the wicked.
Psalm 50
The outward signs of religion (sacrifices in this case) must be accompanied by an interior act of thanksgiving and prayer, and of following the commandments.
Psalm 53
Ps 53:1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God”.
The unbelievers are easily corruptible, they work evil without understanding the consequences, and become depraved. God will punish them, for whoever rejects God, God rejects them (Ps 53:5).
Psalm 71
Psalm to praise God and deliver your hopes unto God because He is great, and He will not forsake us and will bring us back up. Sufferings and injustice shall not make us stop praising the Lord, because He is great. He is indeed all-powerful and all-just. Who is like Him?
Psalm 73
Remembers the book of Job. Questions why the wicked prosper and the just suffer. In the end, the psalmist puts his hope in God, knowing that He will deliver final justice to all.
Psalm 74
The psalmist is afflicted that the enemies have come and desecrated God’s temple. He knows that God has the power to fix the situation, and pleads for Him to do it. Ps 74:1 In long afflictions, it is easy to think God has abandoned us.
Psalm 75
A thanksgiving Psalm to God, for He is a just judge, and He will bring justice to the just and to the wicked.
Psalm 76
A Psalm admiring God’s power and majesty, and how He alone is able to utter judgement and save the oppressed.
Psalm 77
The psalmist expresses a longing for God. He currently is going through an affliction and wants again the presence of the Lord in his life. He praises the Lord and his deeds, but he is not seeing them in his life right now. He recognizes that the Lord is the greatest and the most powerful.
Allegorically, it represents the longing we all have in our hearts for the ultimate happiness, beauty, good, and truth that is God, that moves all people towards religion.
Morally, we can be honest to God that we miss Him, and in this time of trouble we can’t feel His presence, but we must always meditate upon His greatness and remember all that He has done for us.
Psalm 78
Wow! Great Psalm.
Celebrates God’s might and deeds, and shows how Israel was unfaithful to Him, spite all His glory and all that He has done for them (us). But in His infinite mercy, He accepts our imperfect repentance of our terrible misery.
Psalm 78:34–38: 34 When he slew them, they sought for him; they repented and sought God earnestly. 35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer. 36 But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues. 37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not true to his covenant. 38 Yet he, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often, and did not stir up all his wrath.
Allegorical sense:
- Attrition / imperfect contrition.
Psalm 79
A Psalm lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem, and asking for God’s mercy for the people and punishment for the enemies.
Psalm 80
A Psalm asking for God’s mercy in Israel’s restoration. It remembers God’s deeds in liberating Israel from Egypt, and asks God to do it again.
Psalm 81
Starts as a praise Psalm. Then God speaks, remembering all He has done for Israel, and lamenting how Israel is not listening to His voice, and instead, going their own separate way, and this is causing suffering for the people.
Psalm 82
God, stands up in the divine council (?), and judges the gods (apparently, judges and people in positions in power), because they only judge the weak and the sinners, and not the powerful. But the “gods” will die and fall as normal people.
Psalm 83
A plead to God to not keep still and do something about the enemies of Israel that seek to destroy it.
Psalm 84
A Psalm of praise, exalting God, and how good it is to have God’s presence in one’s life. Blessed are the ones who put their strength in God. It is better to be little in the Kingdom of God that big in the world of wickedness.
Psalm 85
Starts by recognizing how the Lord was favorable in the past, restoring the fortunes of Jacob, forgiving iniquity and sin, and withdrawing His wrath. Then, asks for God to do it again, contemplating the good results of it, and ends in a hopeful feeling.
Psalm 87
A Psalm praising Zion, the city of God. I don’t understand “this one was born there”.
Psalm 88
The Psalmist is in the depths of despair, but perseveres in prayer. He is anguished that the Lord let him (makes him) suffer.
Psalm 90
A Psalm reflecting God’s creative power, and might. And asking for God to remove the people’s affliction.
Some notes:
- God’s time is different from the creation time (Ps 90:4)
- Number our days: reflect on our finitude to gain wisdom (Ps 90:12)
- Being satisfied with God love leads to lasting happiness (Ps 90:14)
Psalm 91
A Psalm exalting God as the protector and refugee for everyone who trusts in Him.
Ps 91:2 “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.”
Psalm 92
A Psalm praising God because He is good and mighty, and has delivered justice to the Psalmist, exalting him and defeating his enemies.
Psalm 93
A Psalm on Divine Sovereignty. God is eternal and rules the creation. His power is greater than the mighty natural forces (floods, sea, thunder, etc…).
”Thy decrees are very sure” (Ps 93:5) (highlights sovereignty of divine decrees)
Psalm 94
A Psalm asking for Divine judgement on the wicked. The psalmist is certain that the Lord will stop the iniquity, and puts his trust and refuge in the Lord.
Psalm 95
A Psalm praising praising the Lord and calling to worship him. Themes of joyfulness and thanksgiving to God, our maker and our savior. Call to conversion, and not hardening our own hearts, like the people of Israel did, testing God and not trusting in Him, even after seeing his works.
Psalm 96
A praising Psalm that calls to ascribe greatness and glory to God, the one true god, as the other gods are idols. But God is the one that made the world, and the nature glorify him by its existence (Ps 96:11-12). A call to spread God’s word, declaring His glory and telling the story of salvation. The Lord reigns and will judge the earth and its people with His truth.
Psalm 97
A Psalm praising God’s reign over all the nature and Him as a supreme judge, that punishes evil and wickedness and protects His saints and gives joy to the righteous in heart. Again, the theme of God’s might represented as natural forces (clouds, fire, lightnings, mountains, heavens)
Psalm 98
God as a victorious king, who is loving and faithful to Israel. The whole world should sing for Him, as He comes to judge the world with righteousness and equity.
Psalm 99
God reigns as a mighty King over all creation and executes justice. He is a forgiving God, but also an avenger of wrongdoing.
Psalm 100
A thanksgiving Psalm, not for any good He has done particularly, but because He has created us and is good, loving and faithful.
Psalm 102
It starts by asking for God’s intercession, for Him to hear his cry. Then, the psalmist exposes his dire situation, where he recognizes his finitude, fragility and mortality. Then, he contrasts his own insignificance with God’a greatness, that is timeless and survives all generations. The psalmist praises the Lord for having looked down from heaven and having created the earth.
It seems that it mixes the psalmist personal afflictions with Israel’s redemption.
Psalm 104
Psalm 105
A praising psalm that recounts the story of Israel from Abraham to Moses.
Psalm 106
A praising psalm recounting Israel’s sin and misery, and even how in the midst of brokenness and disobedience, the Lord stayed at Israel’s side.
Psalm 107
A psalm thanking God for deliverance from evil. (there could be a better description here…)
Psalm 111
A psalm praising God and his works. His work is full of honor and majesty, his precepts are trustworthy, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Psalm 112
A psalm blessing the upright man, and how his righteousness and generosity endure forever, while the wicked man accomplishes nothing.
Psalm 113
A psalm praising the Lord and the name of the Lord. No one is like the Lord, who is able to look down upon the earth and the heavens, and lift up the poor and the needy.
Psalm 114
The Psalmist refers to several miracles performed by God in Israel’s liberation of Egypt, while using a prosopopeia, asking the inanimate objects why they did the miracle.
Psalm 115
Contrasts God’s power, that is in heaven and does whatever He wants (Ps 115:3), with the idols that have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear, etc…, that are impotent, that have no power. And all of the ones that make and trust idols are impotent as them.
Psalm 116
A thanksgiving psalm for salving the psalmist’s life.
Trusting in the Lord, even in hard times. Remembers Job’s cry.
I kept my faith, even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted”;
I said in my consternation,
“Men are all a vain hope.”
Eucharistic prefiguration? Eucharist as sacrifice of thanksgiving:
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord,
Psalm 117
A really small psalm, praising the Lord, for his great love and faithfulness.
Psalm 119
Key themes:
- Damn, this guy really loves the Law!!
- TODO: I’ll have to revisit this Psalm, it is great and profound, and with a quick research I have already seen too much that I need to digest and dig deeper.
Psalm 120
A psalm praying for deliverance from liars and deceitful people, and that while he (the psalmist) is for peace, he lives around those who hate peace.
Psalm 121
A psalm trusting God as his protection and help in all evil, for all the time.
Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domine Que fecit celis et terrae comes from here? No, it comes from Psalm 124
Psalm 123
The psalmist recognizes his position of servitude towards God and asks for mercy, because he/they are being objects of contempt of the rich and proud. Symbolizes the oppression the godless inflict upon the faithful.
Psalm 125
A psalm recognizing the strength of those who put their faith in God, and how God protects his people like the mountains surrounding Jerusalem.
Psalm 126
The psalmist express happiness because God has restored its people, and caused them to be joyful because of it.
Psalm 128
The psalm blesses those who fear the Lord, and promises peace and happiness in this temporal life, especially concerning family matters like fertility and healthy children. (Figure of fruitful vine and olive shoots)
Psalm 129
The psalmist expresses relief that while he/Israel has been oppressed, they have been delivered from evil-evil has not prevailed and the Lord has exacted justice against the wicked.
Psalm 130
A penitential psalm. No one would stand with the Lord marked our iniquities. But through and with the Lord, we can have steadfast love and plenteous redemption.
Psalm 131
Hope in the Lord brings calmness and peace for the soul.
Psalm 132
Psalm 136
Psalm 149
A praising Psalm that can be divided into two parts. The first is vv. 1-3 that purely praises the Lord, and the second is vv. 4-9, about how the faithful people of Israel shall execute judgement through the sword on the nations.
Psalm 150
A praising psalm. Also can be divided into two parts: Where and for what to praise the Lord (vv. 1-2) and what (instruments, sounds) to pray the Lord with (vv. 3-6).
TODO
- Psalm 118
- 132
Reference
Ps 119:71 “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn thy statues”
Ps 119:176 “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments.“
Ps 91:2 “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.”
Ps 10:4 “In the pride of his countenance the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God””