Why the Psalms are Beautiful

The Scriptures contain different styles of writing. It's not all full of historical narrative that moves a plot along, like the way that the book of Exodus tells about Moses leading the people out of Egypt. Indeed, much of the Old Testament consists of poetry, which needs to be read and understood in its own way. When reading the Psalms in particular we realize that much of the language is very beautiful. Why is that?

Any kind of art, such as poetry, communicates through a "surplus of meaning." Jeremy Begbie writes in Resounding Truth that this happens whenever we make comparisons between two things. One common way of making comparisons in poetry is through metaphors, which the Psalms are full of:

But you, O LORD, are a shield around me.  Psalm 3:3a (NLT)

Of course the Lord does not take the physical form of a shield when protecting us. But considering how the Lord is like a shield allows us to bring many images -- both intimately personal memories and shared collective experiences -- to understand this truth. Comparing these two things allows these images and memories to create a "snowball" effect, in which a host of ideas comes together into a meaningful and beautiful understanding of God. And to make things more interesting, each reader brings her own experiences, beliefs, memories, and understandings to each verse. This is the essence of beauty. "Straight" writing is in some ways the opposite of beautiful. When we write something in which we want to be very clear -- think of contracts and instruction manuals -- there should not be a surplus of meaning. No imaginative interpretations are desired for a real-estate deed! These kinds of documents are not beautiful precisely because they use words that cannot contain a surplus of meaning.

The structure of most Psalms adds another level of comparison. In addition to the metaphors and images like Psalm 3:3, almost every verse in the Psalms is composed using parallelism. This means that statements are restated in a slightly different manner. At first this structure may seem very repetitive. However, by bringing two similar thoughts together, the psalmist draws us into the beauty that arises out of comparisons:

He made us, and we are his. 

We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

                                                                                     Psalm 100:3b (NLT)

In a very few words, we are invited to reconcile the ideas of a God who is both our creator and our shepherd. These two roles are not unrelated, but they are not exactly alike. A creator-shepherd is an image that we could have much fun expressing through music, sculpture, literature, and painting. The possibilities of human creativity that could arise from this one simple comparison are almost endless.

How does this apply to our corporate worship? Many churches read the Psalms aloud. Speaking them in unison takes longer than reading them privately. By slowing down, worshippers are forced to take the time necessary to contemplate the beauty of the scriptures. You wouldn't walk through an art gallery at the same pace that you rush through the grocery store. In the same way, the Psalms should be read deliberately and slowly. Saying the Psalms is one way we can worship in meaningful ways.