Singing Wisdom in the New Creation
By Eddie Johnston

So far we have looked at Psalm types that are identified in terms of their form.  The last two examples will be psalms that are identified not by their forms but by their content, the wisdom psalms and the royal psalms.

In this lesson we will look at the wisdom psalm.  As we have said it can be identified by its content.  So it will be necessary to give a brief profile of wisdom and some description of wisdom to help us identify it.

1.  What is Wisdom

When a man, after the Fall, comes to fear God, the Lord takes him back to the Garden and begins the reversal of the original exchange he made -   In the first exchange,  Adam and Eve exchanged God's wisdom for man's wisdom.  Now the Lord opens his heart and he exchanges his own worldly wisdom for the wisdom of God.  Now he is able to see God's renewing world correctly and handle the issues of life with trust in God.  He sees that God is actively restoring the creation that was ruined in the first exchange.  All of the teaching of Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes amounts to this bottom line - restoration.

2.  How does wisdom become praise? 

This is a bad question, almost as if we were trying to fit an oversized foot into a small shoe.  Actually, it fits perfectly.  The problem is our lack of understanding.  The very presence of wisdom in the Psalter proves that wisdom is fitting within the praises of the Psalter.  The presence of wisdom in man is a signal that God is present and renewing his world by his grace.  That is cause for praise. 

3.  Teaching, an identifier of wisdom.

If you look at some proverbs, or what is identified as wisdom in the psalms, it is often labeled as 'didactic' or 'teaching'.  That is because it tells you how things are or ought to be and uses the language of instruction to do so.  Look at Psa 34: 11-22.  The psalms tells his hearer that he is going to 'teach' him, vs. 11.  In vs. 12 he reveals the consequence of listening to this teaching - if you love life and desire to see good days, and in the rest of the verses gives the pathway one has to take to achieve that.  Well, that is wisdom instruction, giving both the way and the consequence of fearing the Lord.

4.  The Differences between Wisdom Psalms and Other Types of Psalms

a.  Wisdom is instruction, the others are praise

b.  Wisdom is wise men teaching other men wisdom, the others are man speaking praise to      God.

5.  The Wisdom Song Tells us how to approach all the Psalms - Psalm 1

6.  Wisdom and Joy – Proverbs 8

22     “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work,

the first of his acts of old.

23    Ages ago I was set up,

at the first, before the beginning of the earth.

24    When there were no depths I was brought forth,

when there were no springs abounding with water.

25    Before the mountains had been shaped,

             before the hills, I was brought forth,

26    before he had made the earth with its fields,

or the first of the dust of the world.

27    When he established the heavens, I was there;

when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,

28    when he made firm the skies above,

when he established the fountains of the deep,

29    when he assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters might not transgress his command,

         when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

30          then I was beside him, like a master workman,

         and I was daily his delight,

rejoicing before him always,

31    rejoicing in his inhabited world

and delighting in the children of man.

Wisdom was God's delight; the creation was Wisdom's joy.  As believers we participate in God's joy.  Walking the way of wisdom is not only fearing the Lord, but receiving the joy He gives in living in his world in accordance with his instruction (his Torah).

7.  The Theology of Wisdom - The two ways described in Proverbs 1-9 are the ways of Lady Wisdom,  9: 1-12, and the ways of Lady Folly.  Both built their houses at "the highest point of the city", 9: 3 and 9:14, that is they are temples.  The two ladies are presented as goddesses.  This poetic language is telling us that they represent Yahweh, the Lord of Israel, and idols, the gods of this world.  This means we have to read the proverbs, and wisdom in other places, as giving us instructions for being followers of Yahweh and not idol worshippers.

8.  Examples of wisdom Psalm s(1, 32, 37, 49, 73, 112, 119, 127, 128 - Waltke)

Conclusion - Wisdom in the Psalms joins the instruction of wisdom with the praise of the Lord.  Both of these themes are themes of redemption, theme of the restoration of man from the Fall.  This should mean to us that the Lord Jesus is everywhere in the Psalms.