Verbum et Ecclesia (Sep 2000)
Die besondere betekenis van die Psalms in die Christelike Kerk
Abstract
The exceptional value of the Psalms in the Christian churchThe Psalms have a special place in the Bible as God's great prayer and hymn book. It is the work of various people, under the most representative situations, but it is also the work of the Holy Spirit. The Psalms express the lives, struggles, joy and praise of people before God with great clarity and true compassion. Their experiences of life, seen in the light of the living God, are vivid and real. The Christian Church took over the Psalms as their own, after the example of Jesus, whose life and work was seen as pictured in them. It became their prayer and hymn book - their life guide. The message of the Psalms is of such exceptional spiritual depth, expressing in great clarity every human need and emotion before God, that the Christian Church could find and understand itself in those situations and could associate itself with it.