Psalm 23 Exegesis Analysis

In the article “Faith and Resilience: King David’s Reaction to the Death of Bathsheba’s Firstborn,” David Bosworth writes to prove that David’s behavior in 2 Samuel 12:13-25 is because he is a resilient individual. I believe that Bosworth makes a well-supported argument to explain how David’s lack of mourning is because his faith makes him resilient in times of adversity (692). Bosworth breaks his argument down into sections discussing how David’s actions tie in with supplication, the concept of resilience, and various pathways to resilience. Bosworth’s goal is to “clarify how the strange behavior of David in this episode presents him as a man whose faith makes him resilient in times of adversity.”

This has 6 verses, at first he questions God then he calls God out. But then he worshiped God, he thanks God. For the things he have done for him. David was feeling hopeless, so he called on God. Just like in Carrie Underwood- “ Jesus take the wheel”. The young adult called for God when she felt powerless.

At this time in the ancient world a tent was used as God’s holy place, and this tent was located on the holy hill. The psalmist also asks in verse 1 who may go on the holy hill where the temple is located. It seems as though the psalmists would actually like to go to this holy place for themselves but is reserved about actually going because he knows that God has strict limitations as to who can actually enter the holy temple.

The author of Psalm 78 writes with intentions of giving hope to people after the Northern disaster in 721 BCE. He is attempting to get the people to not lose their faith in God. He does this by reminding his readers of three key things, the first being how much both they and their ancestors disobeyed God. This is an attempt by the author to show the people it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. You cannot continue to disobey God and expect him to keep providing for you. The second reminder is about Gods power. Throughout this Psalm the reader is reminded of Gods divine power, and the past miracles that have been bestowed on the Israelites. The third and final reminder comes at the end of the Psalm, where the people are reminded that God handpicked the tribe of Judah, and handpicked David. This reminds the people to never forget they are the chosen people and God handpicked them. All three of these themes combine to produce the authors message-- As long as we trust in God we will be ok, we are the chosen people, and we have the greatest and most powerful God there could be.

What is the historical context for the psalm? The historical background of Psalm 3 is described in 2 Samuel chapters 15-18. Verse 7 of the said psalm showed David's petition. He asked the Lord to save him.

David knew that no amount of good works he had done, could rectify his guilty state before God. His position of prophet and king did not obligate God to him. David’s longing to be reconciled to God was granted by God’s compassionate acquittal of David despite his guilt. Moo explains that, “David’s words from the psalm confirm Paul’s basic point…a person’s relationship with God comes not by works but by God’s gracious act.” A further examination of David’s proclaimed blessing reveals the state of “being fortunate, happy because of circumstances, favored, and privileged.” William Sanday represents this state of blessedness well by stating, “…David in Psalm 32 describes how God pronounces happy (in the highest sense) those to whom He attributes righteousness without any reference to work.” Paul’s focus on the blessed state of the forgiven sinner in verse 6 is qualified by his citing of David’s proclamation of blessing in psalm 32:

Smith, Mark S. “Setting and Rhetoric in Psalm 23,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 41, (June 1988): 61-66.

In Psalms, we see a collection of lyrical poetry, songs and prayers. Many of these were written by King David himself. The book covers almost the entire gamut of human emotion, from sorrow to joy, from doubt to faith.

In the Christian Bible, King David penned psalm after psalm filled with sadness and despair. Psalm 6: 3: reads, “My soul is in deep anguish”, and Psalm 6:6-7: “All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow”.

This psalm was written by David when he was in a distressful state, being chased by Saul who

The Psalm is written to inspire and to bring us closer to the Lord, as well as to demonstrate God's magnificent presence. "Who may climb the mountains of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place" (Psalm 24: 3). The Psalm continues with its parallel quality "Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies" (Psalm 24: 4). With the reflection being centered on more purposely in the next verse (Bullock, 2004). "They will receive the Lord's blessings and have right standing with God their savior" (Psalm 24:

This psalm is a difficult psalm to break down due to differences in structure but also in it’s nature. This psalm is about the creator of the

The passage starts with a symbol and heading written in lower case. In regards to that the whole passage in a small section talks about being obedient to God by knowing his Laws. Tauthor talked about believers of God will be blessed if they keep His commandments and will be rewards handsomely. However,there are three key verses that I would want to focus on understanding the structure and what kind of meaning have on Christians following the law of God.

The Book of Psalms is the Book of Prayer. Whoever wants to learn to pray let him pray to David and whoever prays with the psalms, David shall be a teacher for him, how he should pray as a father that shall hold his son's hand to teach him how to write. In the Book of Psalms we know ourselves and the weaknesses and pitfalls that are in us and we find in this travel fall and the advancement of prayers of repentance and thanksgiving and praise. Psalms are filled with many prophecies concerning the incarnation, pain and resurrection of the Lord. It is the greatest witness to the life of the Lord Jesus, so Peter said that David is a prophet (Acts 30: 2).

Verse three outlines the start of the forming of David's band of miscreants; "Also joining him was every person who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. He became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him" (NKJV). David is now the leader of an unstructured group of men discontented with the current political situation. They had been wronged and mistreated, were under a curse of debt that they could not pay. They were not trained loyal soldiers, but like David, are so distressed that they have no option left except to run and hide from their problems (Swindoll, 1997, p.74; Epp, 1965, p.56). Psalm 57 indicates that not only were they hiding, but they were angry and wanting vengeance on those they felt had wronged them�. Keller (1985, pp. 120,121) suggests that it was in living with these oppressed outcasts that David developed his compassion for those living under oppression.