Why Poetry Matters
Poetry—few other genres cause such consternation among biblical scholars and students alike. Poetry has been given a bad rap (no pun intended, I assure you) because of the difficult and sticky nature of interpreting poetry. Poetry, however, has been misjudged and misrepresented, and deserves to be reckoned as equally important as the rest of the Old Testament.
That claim begets another, more audacious claim: if you do not understand Old Testament poetry, you will not be able to understand large portions of the New Testament. Why, you may ask, is OT poetry so important? I will give you five reasons.
First, Old Testament poetic passages form the foundation of New Testament theological teaching. This is true as Peter states it in 1 Peter 1:10-13 and as it is observed in the fabric of the New Testament itself. A few examples will suffice. Examine the preaching from the book of Acts, and ask from where the apostles quoted to verify their message. You will find a large number of Psalms quotations, showing the essential nature of poetry for the early church. Also, the Psalms repeatedly appear elsewhere in the New Testament—Psalm 110 alone is quoted or alluded to no less than 14 times! These passages, then, form a foundation of teaching upon which the apostles heavily relied.
Second, Old Testament poetry was full of messianic prophecy. Jesus, in Luke 24:44, said that all things written of Him in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled (where the Psalms stood for a broader portion of the Old Testament). Those things He summed up like this: that He would “suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Is that how you read the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms? If not, maybe your Old Testament study has been lacking and you need to reexamine the Old Testament. In either case, the truth of the Messiah is there to be found—and thus these texts are vital to our spiritual lives.
Third, there is personal instruction to be found in the poetry of the Old Testament. It is for this reason that Paul encourages the churches at Ephesus and Colossea to teach and admonish one another with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16). The crucial functions of teaching and rebuke (exhortation) rely, in part, on the Psalms. These instructions to the churches are also linked with joyful gratitude to the Father, which is easy to imagine in light of the Psalms of praise in the canon.
Fourth, the poetic sections of Scripture encourage us. Paul said that the things written before were written for our instruction so that “through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). Immediately preceding this passage, the Scripture that he quoted was from Psalm 69:9. This displays the fact that even the Psalms, which may seem obscure and difficult to us, are in fact full of encouraging truths for the Christian soul who will take the time to plumb their depths. Paul was encouraged by the Psalms and we should imitate him in this!
Fifth and finally, Old Testament poetry gives us specific hope for the future. Psalm 110 is again a good example for us in that, when it is rightly understood, it refers to the future victory of Christ above all of His enemies (Ps. 110:1 alluded to in 1 Cor. 15:25, quoted outright in Heb. 10:12-13). Friends, this gives us a sure and solid foundation for the future. The Davidic King will reign from the throne, having had all His enemies placed beneath His feet—this is the future victory of Christ and we read about it first in Psalms, then in the New Testament. The poetry of the Old Testament, then, is the foundation of the New Testament teaching in this matter and is very important.
For these reasons and more, let us dig into the Old Testament poetry with joy and zeal for the Word of God. May God grant us perseverance as we pursue the perfect, perspicuous prophecies of our Covenant Lord, Jesus the Messiah!
--Dean of Admissions
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