• Laments, continued:
    • Element 1: Invocation
    • Element 2: Complaint
    • Element 3: Petition
    • Element 4: Conclusion
    • Key features:
      • Besides “lament,” what other terms could be used to describe this type of Psalm? A plea or prayer.
      • Is it to try to “reason” with God to convince Him to do something?
        • Yes, it is. This happened several times in the Old Testament. Moses did this in Exodus 32:11-14, for example.
        • “For”: reasons in the Psalms
          • God’s character – Psalms 5:4-6,10
          • God’s past actions – Psalms 3:7; 106:44-46
          • Actions of evil ones – Psalms 10:3-4
          • Vindication of the righteous – Psalms 26
          • “Lest” - consequences of God not responding – Psalms 6:4-5; 35:24-25
          • “That” - positive outcome of God responding – Psalms 9:13-14; 35:9-10; 27:28; 107:47. (In a sense, this vow to praise is fulfilled in the psalms of praise.)
        • Examples of people who tried to convince God to act in a certain way:
          • Genesis 18:20-26,32,19 – Abraham interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah.
            • Reason: punishing the righteous with the wicked would be unjust
            • Outcome: God qualified His decision
            • Outcome: God did not relent, but did preserve Lot
          • Exodus 32:12-14 – Moses interceding for Israelites
            • Reason 1: Protesting God’s name among the Gentiles
            • Reason 2: Remembering the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
            • Outcome: God relented
          • Matthew 15:22-28 – The Canaanite woman
    • Examples
      • Psalm 22
        • Speaker and addressee
          • Individual point of view to God
          • Addresses those who fear the Lord
          • General declaration (refers to God in third person)
        • Specific events under consideration
          • Not in context
        • Setting of the Psalm in Hebrew worship
          • To the choir director
        • Use of divine names and descriptions of the relationship between the speaker and God
        • Repeated terms of phrases
        • “Loaded” or powerful terms
        • Figures of speech
        • Parallelism
        • Word play