Interpreting Poetry

Good Examples Of Narratives: The Book Of Psalms Or Proverbs

Understanding The Power Of Poetry

Poetry is the second most common literary feature in the Bible (narrative is first). Poetry displays a higher degree of structure, sound, and language than narrative. Poetry is not dominated so much by grammar, paragraph, or plot but poetic verse.

Characteristics of Poetry

It uses vivid language. (Psalm 104, Psalm 6) It also uses an economy of language, so each word is important. It uses concrete images for abstract ideas. (Psalm 1) The goal is experience, not just information. We feel poetry. We must ask, “Why is God communicating this to us in the poetic genre?”

Parallelism is a key structure of Hebrew poetry. There are three primary types worth taking note of.

Synonymous

Synonymous parallelism involves the repetition in the second part of what has already been expressed in the first, while simply varying the words.

“The one whose deeds are blameless and whose motives are pure, who does not lie…” Psalms 24:4

Antithetic

Antithetic parallelism, the second part presents the same idea as the first by way of contrast or negation.

“Certainly the Lord guards the way of the godly, but the way of the wicked ends in destruction.” Psalms 24:4

Synthetic

Synthetic parallelism involves the completion or expansion of the idea of the first part in the second part

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” Psalms 24:4

Think of the writers as artists painting pictures with words, interpreting figures of speech (literal and figurative). Ask what the function of the figure of speech is in the context. What was the function of the Poem in the life of Israel? Each Psalm is a unit of thought.

Up Next, Interpreting Poetry

In the next section, we learn about Epistles.

Proceed To Poetry