Defining Wisdom In The Psalms

Crenshaw defined wisdom as,

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“The reasoned research for specific ways to ensure personal well-being in everyday life, to in some way make sense of extreme adversity and vexing anomalies, and to transmit this hard-earned knowledge so that successive generations will embody it -- wisdom -- is universal.”[1]

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Wisdom techniques and practical philosophies do those three things mentioned above. There are comprehensive elements of application, understanding, and teaching in wisdom. Application refers to ensuring personal well-being in everyday life, understanding will make sense of travesty, and teaching protects the code going forward, so future generations have the wisdom to survive and thrive.

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Wisdom in the Psalms is an interesting concept because of the broad range of thought in the corpus generally. Wisdom theory is scattered throughout the book in some quite well-known and used psalms (Pss. 1, 19, 37, 73, and 119) and also in some of the more innocuous psalms (Pss. 39, 49, 94, and 127). There’s also interchangeableness between Torah (law) psalms and wisdom psalms.

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Taking the wisdom psalms generally, they tell us:

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- It’s wise to delight in and meditate on the law of the Lord both day and night;

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- Have faith in the Lord to do the avenging -- the wicked will perish;

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- Trust in creation to speak of God’s awesomeness, sovereign power, and testimony of the truth;

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- Fear of the Lord, his precepts and ordinances, bring joy to the heart and light to the eyes;

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- The righteous consistently (though not always) are saved, whilst the wicked are consistently (though not always) cut off;

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- Wisdom is personal and very much about relationship with God;

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- The importance of numbering our days and acknowledge how fleeting life is;

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- Wisdom is uttered in proverbs and riddles, and understanding is at its core;

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- Riches do us no good in the end -- it’s a profound folly to go after wealth, as is having wealth without understanding;

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- The upright will end up ruling over the unruly;

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- Though our hearts and our strength fail us, God is the strength of our heart, and our portion forever;

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- Whoever keeps to God’s ways and commands will be blessed.

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Perhaps it’s true that Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes and James speak more clearly and cogently about wisdom in the Scriptures. But it’s the psalms that echo the command of the Spirit through the heart of the afflicted and joyful alike. It’s also the psalms that meld wisdom with worship, and complaint and eventual patient understanding. They attest to the process of lament in truly acquiring wisdom -- the formation of character.

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As far as application, understanding, and teaching are concerned, we learn by teaching and applying, and our understanding increases with practise. Like faith, wisdom is hewn, polished and honed in the rub of everyday life.

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Copyright © 2008, Steven John Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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[1] James L. Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom – An Introduction, (Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1998), p. 3.