Poetic and Musical Features of the Psalms (Biblical)

The Psalms are first of all poetic song. As such, they incorporate many of the features of poetry and music, including picturesque language, a principle of the correspondence of lines, metrical patterns, and instructions for performance. Metaphorical Language Psalmic poetry shares with other biblical poetry, and indeed with that of all cultures and eras, the use of picturesque and metaphorical language. "The Lord God is a sun and shield" (Ps. 84:11); "He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind" (Ps. 104:3). The worshiper's enemies are "bulls" or "dogs" (Ps. 22:12, 16); they are "lions, those who breathe forth fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows" (Ps. 57:4 nasb). Celebrating Israel's deliverance in the Exodus from Egypt, the psalmist addresses natural features as though they were persons: Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back, you mountains, that you skipped like rams, you hills, like lambs? (Ps. 114:56) Pictorial comp…