Category Archives: Psalms

Moses’ Psalms – Part 2

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In Part 2, I will look/focus on Moses’ Psalms or Songs outside of the Book of Psalms. I believe that Moses and his Chief Songwriter, the Holy Spirit, crafted these songs to help the people reflect where he and they had been and where they were going. In Part 1 I focused on his songs that were in Psalms.

One way to read the works of Moses (Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and his songs) is to see his personal growth, victories, and failures in his writings and songs. In the first third of his life, he knew his history but was trained in the ways of Egypt. In the second third of his life, he had the influence of a priest of Midian, so who knows what he heard. His final third starts off with a burning bush and a showdown with the Egyptian court that raised him; all of that in less than two years.

Exodus 15 – I have to wonder if lines and verses of this song started coming to him as soon as he got word from Pharoah to leave. Hear the joy in this song but do not miss his personal vindication as he shouts, “He is my God, and I will praise Him”.

The mighty Egyptian army was crushed by the very thing that saved the people, the Red Sea. Moses stresses God’s mighty right hand and His arm, both symbols of strength. He is given a prophetic element in verses 14 and 15 against the people they are going to conquer. This song ends with a vision of the good land to come.

Miriam, his older sister, quickly grabs a small part of the song and turns it into a catchy dance tune.  

Numbers 21:17-18

17 Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, well—sing to it!
18 The princes dug the well; the nobles of the people hollowed it out
with a scepter and with their staffs. (HCSB)

I am giving Moses credit for this song. You will need to give some leeway on this song and the “well”. Either there was an unrecorded water source, or this is the water from Exodus 17:6. If it is Exodus 17, verse 18 has a lot of imagery and imagination in comparison to what we think happened. I have a feeling that it was sung every time they came to a water source.

This is near the end of the years of wandering. Moses had just made the bronze snake and the defeat of Sihon and Og was about to take place, followed by a huge test that was orchestrated by Balaam and the Midianites.    

Psalm 111

Before you rush to write a “wait a minute” comment, please let me explain. Book V in Psalms (107-150) was possibly assembled to reflect Moses’ fifth book – Deuteronomy. It has songs of ascent (121 to 134), the longest Psalm (119), and the shortest Psalm (117), some are read during Passover (113 – 118), and many have no author. A footnote in the NIV has Psalms 98 and 111 as being quoted in the Song of Moses and the Lamb in Revelation.

Read this Psalm; you can hear Moses singing this to teach Israel about its God. (See Part 1.) He uses many ideals past and future to strengthen the people’s faith in their God. It is an acrostic psalm, which is another excellent way to teach people.     

Deuteronomy 32

I believe this is Moses’ opus reflecting on the last forty years of his time with Israel and his time in the physical presence of his Rock. You can’t help but hear the regret in this song about him not speaking to the rock.

Before you read Chapter 32 it would do you good to read 31:19-22. Moses wrote this song as a testament against Israel in the future. These are not a “light” read but the song has plenty of God’s thoughts for and about His people.

Revelation 15:3 and 4

3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. 4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest. (KJV)

Phrases in this song are drawn from Psalm 111:2,3; Deut. 32:4; Jer. 10:7; Psalms 86:9; 98:2. All of the verse below are from the NIV. The footnote is in Revelation 15 in Bible Gateway.

Psalm 111: 2 Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. 3 Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.

 Deut. 32:4  He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
    and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
    upright and just is he.

Jer. 10:7  Who should not fear you,
    King of the nations?
    This is your due.
Among all the wise leaders of the nations
    and in all their kingdoms,
    there is no one like you.

Psalms 86:9  All the nations you have made
    will come and worship before you, Lord;
    they will bring glory to your name.

Psalms 98:2  The Lord has made his salvation known
    and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

The placement of this song in Chapter 15 is interesting. The people who sing it have conquered the beast and his image. After they have sung the song, the Tabernacle of the Testimony is opened, and the final seven plagues will be released. (This Tabernacle is what Moses saw to make his copy for Israel.)

Following the Trail of NIŠ·BĀ·RĀH

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While studying sacrifice, I found niš·bā·rāh in Psalm 51:17. That form of the word is only used three times according to biblehub.com. (It has a lot of cousins.) In the Strong’s it is H7665.

Hebrew Concordance: niš·bā·rāh — 3 Occurrences (biblehub.com)  

The three places it is used are – Psalm 34:20, Psalm 51:17, and Jeremiah 48:25. As I focused on the verses, I realized that broken bones and spirit told a story for those who would seek God.

Psalm 34:20

David wrote this psalm as a praise and thank you to God for delivering him from a bad situation. That story is in 1 Samuel 21:10-15.

The way I like to read Psalm 34 is the Father is speaking to His children starting at verse 11 and ending at 20. Verse 20 is a prophecy about Jesus that is fulfilled in John 19:36. Not one of Jesus’ bones was broken during His crucifixion.

Psalm 51:17  

David is calling out to God again in this psalm. This time he is in grief because of his sin and a wrong that he committed against God. This story is in 1 Samuel 11 + 12. He realizes that what the Father wants is a broken spirit and a heart that is broken and can only be fixed by fellowship with God again.

Jeremiah 48:25

The entire chapter is a message against Moab. Moab is the nation descendant from Lot and his oldest daughter (Genesis 19:30-38). That makes them famies (family enemies). Through the centuries it has been a curious relationship. In Deuteronomy 2 God is “protecting” Moab but by the end of the wandering they are with Balaam in corrupting Israel. Ruth the grandmother of David and Jesus is from Moab, so Lot’s bloodline is not to be dismissed.

In this verse, Moab’s horn or strength is cut, and his power or his arm is broken. They did help the Babylonians when Jerusalem fell.    

The Trail of NIŠ·BĀ·RĀH

As I pondered these verses, this path in the Way took shape.

Because righteous Jesus was not broken on the cross, we can bring our broken hearts and spirits to Him. He will create a clean heart and renew our spirit so we can fellowship with Him. Now that we walk with Him, He will break the power of our sinful flesh (Moab).

  Psalms the Fourth Book

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The fourth book within the Book of Psalms contains #90 to 106. I am going on the idea that they may have been organized to reflect the Five Books of Moses. If that is factual Book IV corresponds to Numbers. It may be that David started this organization, but I feel that Hezekiah could have authored Psalm 102. So, we do not know who did the final editing of Psalms, but it has been this way for a very long time. More mysteries that we get to search out.

As I muse on the Books of Moses, I see them this way:

  1. Genesis is the creation of the world and the Hebrew people.
  2. Exodus is about freeing the people from Egypt and introducing how to be in the presence of God.
  3. Leviticus is for the priest to be able to help the people.
  4. Numbers, well, is numbers about the people and the numbers in the history of the trip.
  5. Deuteronomy is the second telling of the Laws and the trip.

Psalms 90 to 100 are thought to be from Moses and reflect what the former slaves needed to learn and remember. Psalm 100: 6 includes the name Samuel, which throws people into a tizzy. If Moses wrote these, Samuel could be one of many leaders that are not named in the Exodus.  Psalm 101 is written by David. Psalm 102 is a prayer of an afflicted man; I think it was written by Hezekiah during /after he was healed. Psalm 103 is by David. Psalms 104 to 106 are unnamed, but they tell the history of creation (104) and 105 and 106 are very good recaps of the Exodus. Psalm 106 adds details that seem to be written after David, verses 40 to 48. I can hear this coming after Jeremiah, more likely it was written by Ezra or Nehemiah or beyond. The fourth book of Psalms does a good job of covering the history of Israel.

Book Three in Psalms 

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“Book Three in Psalms” may be a new concept for some people depending on your personal Bible and the translation you read. At some point in the distant past someone gathered psalms and organized them into five separate books (It may have been under King David’s watch and could have been his praise team.) There are theories that the five books shadow the Five Books of Moses. I personally have been exploring this idea by trying to match the content of the books in Psalms by content, ideas, or themes with what is in the books of Moses. I am still working on that.  

Book Three (# 73 to 89) is an easy match on one level. Leviticus contains many of the 613 laws you always hear about, but it is for the Levites (priests) to do their ministry. I will take a different approach in my matching. Most of the psalms in Book Three are attributed to Asaph, followed by the sons of Korah, then individually named Levities. Psalm 86 begins with “A prayer of David” and is the only psalm written by a non-Levite. Please see my Sons of Korah post here on WordPress. Asaph and Korah are descended from Levi, thus the association. 

An idea I am still working with is many of these psalms carry the thought in 74:1, “Why have You rejected us”. Psalm 74 does not place well in the life of David, so I am not sure why this idea is repeated several times in this collection of Psalms. I know that there are scholars who think there may have been two Asaphs. One is with David and the other one is after Jeremiah, but I have not found the second one in the Scriptures. I have no doubt that he may have existed because repeating names within a family was/is a big deal. (PS, I like and use the NIV.) This thought of rejection may come from the sin/judgments mentioned in Deuteronomy 28: 15 – 68; it could be a reminder to follow the Law. 

Because the sons of Korah are musicians (and gatekeepers), it is not surprising that many psalms in Book Three have titles with directions for who and how they are to be played. Terms like maskil and selah are unknown to us today but were important then. Psalm 75 is a “cover” for another tune, probably with words, but it does say “tune”. 

David’s music team in 1 Chronicles 15: 19, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan have several jobs and are highlighted to play certain instruments. There are other names like Jeduthun that appear as leaders; a study to hunt them down in Scripture is always good.   

My study to link the Five Books of Psalms with the Five Books of Moses is on-going but Book Three is a nice start for me. 

Bible 911-Psalm 91:1

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Psalm 91:1 (KJV) He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

This Psalm and verse has been a comfort to people in trouble for a long time. It took on a new roll when the terrorist attacked New York on 9/11. I know, I say a version of verse 5 and 6 when I go out in public because of the pandemic.

I view Psalms 90-100 (Book IV) as having been written by Moses. I can see teaching and encouragement in these psalms for a people who have come out of Egypt and years of bondage. Putting a psalm into a scriptural context helps me see the Father better and how He deals with us. This psalm could have been written after the Amalekite attack in Exodus 17.

For this Bible 911 series I focused on the “secret place” and the “shadow of the Almighty”. I believe the “shadow” refers to the pillar of cloud that shaded the Children during their forty years of wandering in a very hot desert. The secret place of the Most High God could be His Mercy Seat, that is part of the Ark. It was here that Aaron would put the blood of the sacrifice to roll back judgment for another year. The heavenly one is where Jesus put His blood when He finished His work and went to the Father.