Psalm 41

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.

(Psalm 41:13)

The verse quoted above ends not only this Psalm, but the first “book” of the Psalms. Maybe you didn’t know this, but the book of Psalms is actually broken up into 5 separate parts called “books”. Picture a five volume set if you will, each book a part of a larger work.

The interesting thing about this is that there are also 5 books that make up the Torah, or the LAW. In the Latin these are actually referred to as the Pentateuch, or the FIVE BOOKS. The Pentateuch records for us the beginning of God’s revelation to man. In it we see the beginning of the world, the entrance of sin, God’s judgment, the call of Abraham, the development of the nation of Israel, their exodus, their wanderings in the wilderness, and the laws by which they were to live.

It is almost as if these 5 books of the psalms serve as a response to the 5 books that God had delivered to His children. Though we can’t prove that this is why there are 5 and 5, I think it is an interesting thought.

What we do know is that these Psalms were the God-inspired response of the Israelites to the word that God had brought to them. As we close this book of Psalms, and embark on a journey through the second book, let us not just read these Psalms, but make them the song of our heart. May we sing with all that we are, “blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting!” Amen? Amen!