Psalm 1
Psalm 2
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 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 104
Psalm 136
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 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.
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.“