Currently, SASA, the Christian arts group I belong to, is embarking on this reading and writing project we call the Psalmic Expressions. In this project, we read the Psalms each weekday and create art (write poems and songs, design artworks, etc.). based on inspiration from the Psalms. Currently, we are in the late 20s of the Psalms. We have 120+ more Psalms to read, so I invite you to join this project. The songs and poems that are coming out of it are phenomenal and I am not exaggerating when I say God is moving tremendously in our lives. I was also inspired to work on this Bible Data Story because of the Psalmic Expressions project. 

This write-up takes a cursory glance at the Psalms. It is not a deep analysis of their central themes and messages but a look at the structure, a summary of the authorship, and other minor details. Perhaps, later, we can do a deep dive into it but for now, let’s just flick through the Psalms. 

Authorship:

One of the main points I want to make with this post is that David is not the sole writer of the book of Psalms. The Psalms are a collection of Jewish poetry and songs that were recited and sung by the Jews. David wrote 73 out of the 150 Psalms accounting for about 49% of the book. For some interesting reason, the Psalms are almost always synonymous with David perhaps because of the number of Psalms attributed to him. Another interesting fact is that 50 Psalms are not directly attributed to anyone. 

The other writers are Asaph, the Sons of Korah, Moses, Solomon, Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman the Ezrahite. Asaph was a prominent Psalmist and musician during the reign of King David. He played the cymbal and was appointed by David to lead worship before the Ark of the Covenant in 1st Chronicles 16:4. Throughout the Old Testament, his descendants were known to be worshippers and musicians. It is said of the sons of Asaph that they prophesied with lyres, harps, and cymbals in 1st Chronicles 25:1. One of the Sons of Korah (Heman, not Heman the Ezrahite) was also mentioned in 1st Chronicles 6 as one of the men David put in charge of the service of songs in the house of the LORD. 

According to 1 King 4:31, Ethan and Heman the Ezrahites were wise men during Solomon’s reign as king of Israel. The passage under discussion now (1 Kings 4:29-34) illustrated the magnificence of Solomon’s wisdom; it was stated that Solomon was found to be wiser than a list of supposed wise men including Ethan and Heman. The next verse is also quite related to the topic under discussion. In verse 32, we are told that Solomon spoke 3000 proverbs and his songs were 1005. Yet only 2 of the 150 Psalms are attributed to Solomon. I assumed that based on this information, perhaps the other writers too had 100s of poems and songs that didn’t make it into the book of Psalms. Especially, David, who was largely known as a harpist and Psalmist. Moses too wrote other songs, for example, the song of Moses recorded in Deuteronomy 32 and another one in Revelation 15 (also attributed to him). Yet only one Psalm in the book of Psalms is attributed to him (Psalm 90).

NB: Psalm 88 is attributed to different authors: the sons of Korah and Heman the Ezrahite. But in this data story, I chose to attribute it to Heman alone just to avoid confusion and double counting. 

Structure:

The Psalms are broken into 5 major books or collections of Psalms. For example, in the ESV Bible, it is boldly indicated on top which book you are about to read. Find the breakdown below:

And there are other categorizations of the Psalms as well. Theologians break down the book according to themes such as laments, praise, etc. First, I would like to talk about the Hallel Psalms. These Psalms are regarded as a Jewish prayer: a verbatim recital of Psalms 113-118 on special Jewish festivals and occasions as an act of praise and thanksgiving. All six Psalms of the Hallel are recited as a unit on the following joyous Jewish occasions: Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot, Hanukkah, and Rosh Chodesh.

Also, I would like to highlight a specific collection of the Psalms referred to as the songs of ascent and how I came to know them. I often speak about how worship music has helped me go through the toughest times of my life.  Just as I run to read my favorite Psalms when I am in distress, I also binge on worship songs when I am facing a hard time. One such song, for which I wrote an explication, is Highlands by Hillsong. I wrote an entire article based on that song elaborating on the lines and what they meant generally and then to me. One line of that song got me thinking and led me to do a little research. The songwriter, Benjamin Hasting, said “And if ever I walk through the valley of death / I’ll sing through the shadows my song of ascent”. This got me wondering what the songs of ascent were. The songs of ascent are a collection of 15 Psalms from Psalm 120 to 134. “The songs were sung possibly by Hebrew pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem or while ascending Mount Zion or by the Levite singers while ascending the 15 steps of the temple in Jerusalem to minister”. These are Psalms recited or sung while the Jews were ascending either a hill or steps. It is even more intriguing when you look at how some of them start:

• Psalm 121:1 – I will lift up my eyes to the HILLS. From where does my help come?
• Psalm 122:1-2 – I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the LORD! Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!
• Psalm 125:1-2 – Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.

The imagery of the ascent of Hebrew pilgrims can be sensed strongly in these verses. One can also sense a pilgrimage, especially in the passage in Psalm 122 quoted above. The Psalms were meticulously written, carefully collected, and curated into one big book for our edification, consolation, and exhortation. I urge you to read them regularly and follow the instructions at the end of some Psalms: Selah. Which is an instruction for readers or listeners to pause and soberly reflect on them. Ponder over the Psalms, it will do you a lot of good. 

The visualization:

This data visualization is known as a bubble chart. In this instance, there are 150 bubbles representing each Psalm in the Bible hence the numbers you see on the bubbles are the chapter numbers. Some of the bubbles are so small the chapter numbers did not fit on them so they are blank. Each color represents a different author and the bigger the bubble the more verses there are in that Psalm. For example, the biggest bubble represents Psalm 119 because that is the longest Psalm with 176 verses. The shortest Psalm is Psalm 117, it is also represented by the smallest bubble because it has only 2 verses. The bar chart at the bottom right corner of the bubble chart represents each author and how many Psalms they wrote. 

Below is an interactive version of the visualization more easily accessed and interacted with if you are reading this article on your laptop/pc. You can hover over the bubbles and additional information regarding each Psalm will pop up. Since the legend in the top right corner is interactive, once you click on the writer’s name it will highlight all the Psalms they wrote in the bubble chart.

For an optimized experience of the visualization above, follow this link to interact with it on my online Tableau Public account on your laptop/PC.

Out of the 70, there was the “12”. In Luke 6:12-16, we are told that Jesus spent all night praying before he selected the 12 out of the 70. They are the most popular disciples of Jesus because the New Testament makes mention of their names and tells us stories about their ministries. Even some New Testament books were written by some of them, about the details of some events of their ministries and even named after them. They were the ones to whom the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit was made and they waited for it together with other believers in the upper room. These ones walked more closely with Jesus. Anytime he would speak a parable to the people, he would explain it to them privately. It was to these 12 that Jesus said he would no longer call ‘servants’ but ‘friends’ (John 15:15).

Out of the 12, there was “the 3”: Peter, James, and John who seemed to be closer to Jesus than the rest. He often separated these 3 from the 12 for special assignments. For instance, when he went up the mount of transfiguration, he took these 3 along and charged them not to share the events of that day with anyone else. In Gethsemane too, he told the rest of the disciples to wait for him while he went further with Peter, James, and John. Then he went further ahead to pray alone.

Out of the 3, there was John. John in his own epistle called himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. In John 13:25, it was said that he leaned back against Jesus or rested his head on his chest. That’s how close he was to the Messiah. It is not surprising at all that he was the only one amongst the disciples of Christ who was present at the foot of the cross of Jesus. Also, when Jesus resurrected from the grave, he wanted to have a private word with Peter so he asked Peter to follow him. Peter noticed that John was coming along too and he expected Jesus to disallow John from following them. On the contrary, Jesus didn’t, he actually went on to ask Peter that “if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me” (John 21:22). 

What greatly intrigues me here is that all (but one) of Jesus’ disciples abandoned him at some point in their walk with him. Once, Jesus taught about the communion and mentioned that unless the people eat of his flesh and drink of his blood, they didn’t have life. This was a hard message for some of his disciples to receive and so that was the day they left him and only the “12 disciples” remained. But even 11 out of the 12 disciples were not present at the foot of the cross. 

1. Judas had already committed suicide because of the guilt he felt after betraying Jesus. 
2. The remaining 10 had gone into hiding, leaving only John at the foot of the cross with the women. Jesus turned to him while he was on the cross and committed Mary, his mother, to his care. 

Let us never forget that Jesus had a lot of people around him, however, they left him when things got hard. When his message was too hard for them to accept, they left. When he was arrested, they left. He even said that “have I not chosen 12 of you and one of you is the devil?” in reference to Judas (John 6:70). Out of the 12 apostles Jesus prayed and hand-picked, he was betrayed by 2, Peter and Judas. This is a simple message to us: people will disappoint you and betray you, even people who came into your life by some divine orchestration. If it happened to Jesus, then we must understand that it can happen to us as well. But when Jesus resurrected, he appeared to the very people who had left his side during the hardest moment of his life here on earth. He came after them. Which means he had forgiven them even before they could have the opportunity to ask him for it. 

Let us also learn to segment our relationships just like Jesus did. There were things he told the 3, that the 12 didn’t know about. There was something he told John(as stated above) that he never told any of the other apostles. This is the kind of wisdom we must apply in organizing our relationships and segmenting our friends as well. Let us put people in circles, ranging from the smallest and closest circle to the biggest and farthest circle. Know where to put who.  With prayerful consideration, let us segment the people in our lives while knowing that we can still be hurt by such people no matter which circle they are in. And when that happens, let us do what Jesus did, forgive them.