PAPER INSTRUCTIONS FROM CUSTOMER
Assignment topic: Psalm and Job White Paper
Format: APA
Number of pages: 2 pages / 550 words
ESSAY WRITTEN SOLUTION
Psalm and Job White Paper
Psalm White Paper
The Book of Psalms was the Old Testament Jews’ hymnbook. It is the Bible’s longest text, and it includes poems that address every human emotion (Swindoll, 2021). The Book of Psalms is only one of two Old Testament Books that declares itself to be a collaborative work containing various writers. The author of some psalms is mentioned in the first line or title, for example psalms 90 mentions Moses as the author (Swindoll, 2021). Most of the Psalms were written by King David of Israel who composed seventy-three of them. Similarly, Asaph penned twelve chapters while the descendants of Korah composed ten of them (Swindoll, 2021). One or two were written by Solomon, and two were written by Ethan and Heman the Ezrahites. However, the rest of the psalms don’t give us any detail on who wrote them (Swindoll, 2021). Tehillim, which means “praise songs” in Hebrew, was the original title of the Book. The English title “Psalms” came from the Septuagint’s Greek title Psalmoi, which also means “praise songs” (Swindoll, 2021). Individual psalms date from Moses’ time, across David’s, Asaph’s, and Solomon’s times, to the time of the Ezrahites, who most probably lived after the Babylonian captivity, implying that the book was written over a thousand years (Swindoll, 2021).
The Psalms are divided into five sets of books. They were most likely gathered over time as corporate worship styles evolved alongside temple worship (Swindoll, 2021). The psalms express the poet’s feelings to God or about God (Sieler, 2020). It is written in various styles to express different emotions and thoughts about the psalmist’s situation. Similarly, its key themes include, Meditating on God’s Word, the goodness of God, worshiping and praying to God, and the Messiah‘s coming (Sieler, 2020). It focuses on praying and worshiping God for His past steadfastness (Ps. 90:1), present compassion (Ps. 106:1), and future hope (Ps. 2:7-9; Ps. 72) despite life’s many challenges (Ps. 38) (Sieler, 2020).
Job White Paper
The Book of Job is one of the first books in history to focus exclusively on how a compassionate God can cause innocent people to suffer. It is contained in the third portion of the biblical canon regarded as the Ketuvim (“Writings”) (Thomas Nelson Bibles, 2020). Although the precise date of the Book of Job is unclear, there is a strong indication that Job lived in the second millennium BCE and that the Book was written at the same time though the author is unknown (Thomas Nelson Bibles, 2020). The occurrences in the Book of Job are thought to have occurred before Moses’ time, perhaps around the time of the Bible’s Patriarchs.
Job’s Book is regarded as a literary masterpiece. It belongs to the “wisdom literature” or “speculative wisdom” category since it raises concerns about widely held beliefs and assumptions (Thomas Nelson Bibles, 2020). It can be broken down into two categories: a prologue (chapters 1–2) and an epilogue (chapters 42:7–17), as well as an intervening literary contemplation (chapters 3–42:6) (Thomas Nelson Bibles, 2020).
Many theories have been proposed as to what the intention of the Book of Job is. However, the overarching goal seems to illustrate to man the insufficiency of human reason in accounting for innocent people’s misery (Thomas Nelson Bibles, 2020). The book is a reflection on the issue of evil. Its central theme is the eternal problem of unjustified suffering, and it is named after its main character, Job, who tries to comprehend his sufferings (Thomas Nelson Bibles, 2020). There is a mystery of spiritual liberty that does not refute God’s goodness or authority, but that man cannot grasp. As a result, human beings are forced to adopt a trusting and reliant mentality towards a benevolent God whose workings they cannot comprehend.
References
Sieler, P. (2020, May 19). Book of Psalms summary. Calvary Talk: Helping You Understand & Apply the Bible to Your Life. https://patsieler.com/book-of-psalms-summary/
Swindoll, C. (2021). Psalms. Insight for Living – Chuck Swindoll’s Bible-teaching via articles, books, videos, streaming, and audio products – Insight for Living Ministries. https://www.insight.org/resources/bible/the-wisdom-books/psalms
Thomas Nelson Bibles. (2020, August 28). Who wrote the Book of Job? https://www.thomasnelsonbibles.com/blog/who-wrote-the-book-of-job/