This document provides an analysis of 12 Psalms that explore themes of righteousness, God's protection, doubt, suffering, and seeking God's presence. Key ideas discussed include: 1) The metaphor of the righteous being like a tree planted by streams of water that bears fruit and prospers in all they do, while the wicked are like chaff blown by the wind. 2) Later Psalms acknowledge that the righteous can stray but find protection if they return to God. 3) Psalms of suffering express agony but also hope in God's nearness during dark times. 4) Psalm 23 depicts God as a shepherd who guides and protects through even the darkest valleys. 5) Many Psalms emphasize seeking God's presence as the ultimate goal and

1. Psalms I
I. Introduction
II. PSALM1
A. Read whole psalm and then focus on verses 1 and 2
1. Ask for notable part of speech. (Verb!)Why? What does walk/stand/sit
remind us of? Vihahavta - sit at home, walk by the way, lie down, and
sit up
2. Note emphasis on Torah, the desire of the happy/blessed(ashrei).
3. metaphor - like a tree planted by streams of water, that bears its fruit in
its season, and its leaf does not wither, and in all he does he prospers.

2. break this down:
a) why a tree planted by streams of water?
b) what does it mean to bear fruit in its season?
c) what does it mean that its leaf doesn’twither? (eternal soul? the good we
do lasts forever?
d) prospers inall he does? (literally? in some spiritual way? in certain ways
in which one lives these ways? what ways?
4. wicked, like chaff the wind drives away. some wicked seem to prosper;
how is it true that they’re like chaff the wind drives away? (nothing good
that would last, nothing would stand up in court, or lasting esteem or
reputation, lost, oblivion.
5. Note Robert Burns poem.
III.PSALM34

3. A. Read verses 9-15. Note how this extends the ideas of Psalm 1.
B. Read 16-23.What idea is added? How does this augment and
somewhat complexity our thinking? (It’s not all good for the righteous all the
time, yet God is there to protect!)
IV. PSALM 32
Read 5-9. What idea is added here?
Righteous people stray. The issue is: do they return? People are not all
good or bad. It’s not as balck or white as one might assume from the first
couple of psalms. This introduces the notion that God seeks our return
when we stray, and that an element of righteousness is the desire and
effortto return, which keeps us within God’s protection.
V. PSALM39

4. Read psalm. What further is added here?
The psalmist, seemingly a good person, but with doubt about his
imperfections, is abused by a scoundrel, and seems lostand lonely. Yet,
he’s hopeful of God’s nearness and support. Hope? Doubt? There can be
agony, but we have hope that God is there for us even then, maybe
especiallythen. This, rightly, acknowledges pain and the reality our
experience bears out.
VI. PSALM 44
Read psalm.
It gets even harder here. When is this? Who is this? What’s the cry? What’s
the hoped for answer? Is this the martyr? The victim in the camps? Any of
us in great distress? How do we square this with all we’ve studied and read
today?
VII.PSALM 23

5. Let’s go back to firmer ground. Perhaps we’ll see all this come together.
Introduction.
Read psalm slowly, with questions.
A. God is shepherd. We are sheep. How? In what ways?
B. Green pastures. Still waters. Meaning? Ancient wells of streams? The
streams in psalm 1? Spirituality? Torah? Garden? Meribah?
C. Restores the soul. Returns life. In what ways? From what? To what?
D. For His name’s sake? What does that mean?
E. Walk through the (Valley - buggay) (Of deep shadow, of deep darkness,
of the shadow of death - tsalmaveth) - what is this? More than physical
death, but including it.
F. In it, I feel no harm or evil (to be done) to me. What is the harm that
could be done? (Death? Harm from another? Loneliness/anxiety? Other
perils? Feeling troubled/guilty? The pain we’ve been discussing in previous
psalms? Exile? Purposelessness?
G. What gives me the comfort? Whatconsoles me? Your rod and Your
staff? What are they? Guidance? Direction? Is the rod to correct when
wayward/ atonement (Rashi)? Is the staff to support in moments of
affliction/attack, or to hold the sheep, as a symbol of authority?
Table in front of face of foes.moistenhead with oil. my cup overflows.
What are these? Blessings of God’s Presence. Sensual things
representative of a good life. As if a king/priest.

6. H. Faith that goodnessand kindness pursue me all the days of my life
(EVEN through the Valley and all the pain that may be there.) And I dwell in
the house of the Lord for the perpetuity of days, many long days, forever.
l’orek. which is it? what does it mean? Alter says not eschatological.
Meaning? God’s presence is the gift! with its accompanying goodnessand
kindness, it’s all about dwelling in God’s midst.
VIII.PSALM27
This psalm affirms the conclusionto 23. It’s all about seeking to be in God’s
presence. We’re going to work to understand the elements of that during
the remaining psalms we study today. Let’s start with verses 4-8, 10-11,
13-14.
What aspects here to we see of being in God’s presence?
IX. PSALM 48
This psalm recounts the Temple, which teaches us in its own way, of
course, of God’s presence.
Introduce the ideas behind the psalm (the psalmists likely lived, wrong, and
sang in these precincts and are recounting of it and the experience).

7. read verses 10-15.
What do garner from these verses? association of kindness, justice and
judgment with God, and the missionto the ends of the earth.
Significance to the activity in 13-14?
Look at 15. Forever? Our God, olam vaed. Our guide to/over/beyond death,
Al mut. This is significant, whichever of the meanings it holds.
Could the terrain that is being asked to be remembered be at a deeper,
more internal level than the Temple itself? What might that be? (the soul.
the spirit. our still, small voice and conscience, our own sense within
ourselves of the beauty, richness, and meaning of being near God.)
X. PSALM62
We’re not going to read this psalm, but there are two ideas in it I want to
raise.
Verse 2: “Only in God is my being quiet.” What does that to our
understanding of seeking to be in God’s presence?

8. Verse 12: “One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that
strength is but God’s, and Yours, Master, is kindness. For You requite a
man by his deeds.”
Meaning? God is strong, especially in so valuing kindness that God is
present in the requiting of our deeds that mirror that chesed.
XI. PSALM 77
Here the psalmist, in pain, perhaps in exile, seeks God’s nearness and
seems to achieve it. That processis huge for us.
Read.
How and in what ways? memory. reciting works. recalling ways of holiness.
“And your footstepsleftno traces.” BUT impact is felt.
XII.PSALM 73
Psalmist envies scoundrels because they seem to do well. Then he turns to
trying to find contentment in being pure and separate, which gives him no
comfort.Then he wants to talk like them. Still no comfort.
Then in 17 he says he finally “comesto the sanctuaries of God.” What do
we now understand these to be?

9. Read 23-26 and close out with notes at the bottom of the page on 73.