Eekind’s Reviews > Psalms for Normal People: A Guide to the Most Relentlessly Theological Book in the Bible > Status Update

Chapter 16
Psalm 22 used in Gospel of Mark and Matt to emphasize Jesus’ suffering during the Stations of the Cross

Chapter 15
Psalm 51
Disagreements on interpretation of original sin psalm
Psalm 8
Ascribing Kingly status to humans under god / Christian pantheon
Psalm 139
Wonderfully made psalm used to limit reproductive rights

This historical reality has led some commentators to wonder if Psalm 72 functioned as "liturgical cover" for the king. The psalm offers the right words, it describes what the kings should have done, but it doesn't reflect the real intent of the king to actually care for the poor…The psalm reads more like a hope-filled prayer of the people that the king actually be equitable and good.

I'd say the images we have are due to the fact that the ancients believed God fought their battles. Many Christians today, for various reasons (Jesus being one of them), believe that God is not at the head of any battles. Both interpretive groups, the ancients putting the Hebrew Bible together and Christians

Psalm 137 about Israelites being humiliated by Babylonians, Temples being destroyed and Israelites wanting to bash Babylonian babies heads against rocks being used post 9/11.

Psalm tense is about evoking Gods wrath as God of Justice, taking agency out of the hands of the oppressed Israelites

1974 Liturgy of the Hours - removing three imprecatory psalms entirely (Pss 58, 83, and 109) and sections from twenty-two other psalms from the daily prayer resource. The removal of "troubling" lines from the imprecatory prayers might save participants in worship from the cognitive dissonance of comparing the psalmists' requests for divine violence and Jesus's teaching

Chapter 11
Invoking God during times of trouble, lament reinforces he can handle what we lay at Gods feet
Public practice of lament is not normalized in mainstream Christian spaces, often there is juxtaposition between praising gods goodness and cruelty in the world
Psalm 42+43: invoking gods actions from previous story’s and asking him to pursue justice on behalf of psalmist

Chapter 10
Psalm 136 & 107
Reminders of Gods Commitment to Israelites in form of Steadfast Love. Reinforces that God has helped Israelites in last, will redouble his efforts during the Babylonian Exile

Chapter 9
Psalm 104: God created Leviathan as pet, but also frames god as creating both positive and negative elements out of the chaos of the unformed earth in the form of the water constituting sea and sky
Psalm 74: Lamentation prayer saying if god killed sea creatures and leviathan before, he could kill them again for the destitute Israelites

Chapter 8
We can’t superimpose all of our religious baggage on psalms. They hold historical contexts like polytheism that doesn’t map onto our existing Christian thought. But we can find similar threads like Psalm 82s takedowns of lesser gods that stomp on the destitute and weak in their societies