Psalms 130 Essay

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Psalms 130 In the following pages, we will first discuss the background of the collection of Psalms, after which we will look at one Psalms in particular, that of Psalms 130. At this point, a verse by verse analysis will be done in order to further understand the purpose and meaning of this Psalm as well as the author’s intent. In order to understand one Psalms in particular it is first of all important to understand the collection of the Psalms as a whole. To look at the development of the book of Psalms is to try and understand a book of the Bible that holds so much importance, not only in the times of the life of Israel, but also for the people of God today. When attempting to name a writer of Psalms, it is David’s name that surfaces the most. His name, specifically, is attached to more than 70 of the written Psalms. Recently, many commentators have come to believe that this association with David does not necessarily mean that he wrote this book of the Psalms. Though some are thought to be his very prayers, many think that the psalms were connected to David because of his status in the community as “patron and founder of temple music” (Mays 12). It is also obvious that the Psalms were all written by individuals with “brilliant poetic skills and religious learning” (Mays 9). Just as the Psalms were not all written by the same person, it is also believed that they were not all collected at the same time. The Psalms were all pieces of literature that were used within the Israelite community, therefore it is believed that they were collected over time and each Psalms that was selected to be part of the larger book of Psalms was chosen because of the importance in that community. This Psalms was written in the context of a particular community, that being the nation of Israel. They can be considered the nation of Israel’s “religious poetry” (Mays 8). The nation of

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