Royal psalms

Acrostic Psalms

Acrostic psalms do not have a common purpose in the same way as do the hymns of praise or the prayers of petition. But they do have something else in common — they all use a poetic device known as the acrostic.

Certain acrostic psalms adhere more completely to the acrostic pattern than others. Differences also arise between single acrostics and multiple acrostics.

Essentially, an acrostic poem begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the succeeding lines begin with successive letters of the alphabet. For example, the lines in Psalm 111 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Growing up in Western society, where poetry traditionally has a set meter and frequently a rhyming scheme, we may fail to appreciate an important role the acrostic plays in biblical poetry. Hebrew poetry has neither regular rhythm nor rhyme and is often extremely emotional.

Imposing an acrostic structure on a poem may either serve as a memory aid or prevent the emotional aspects of the poem from descending into an incoherent jumble of words.

Just as the sentences in this box are somewhat contrived, so the acrostic psalms sometimes sound artificial. Keeping the story flow going while adhering to an acrostic structure is not easy.

Lamentations is particularly highly structured: Each of the first four chapters is an acrostic poem, the third chapter being a triple acrostic. Most of the other acrostic poems are in the Psalms (Psalms 9 – 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119 and 145), but one of the most famous acrostics is Proverbs 31:10-31, which exquisitely describes the wife of noble character.

Not every acrostic poem has lines that correspond to the verses in our Bible. Often the lines are two verses long, and occasionally they are one and a half verses long.

Psalm 119 is the supreme example of a multiple acrostic poem; it has eight verses beginning with the first letter of the alphabet, then eight verses beginning with the second letter and so on.

Quite a few of the acrostic psalms, including Psalm 119, are connected with wisdom motifs, such as the majesty of God’s law. Regarding genre, however, the acrostic psalms do not fall into any one category. Some are hymns of praise, some are songs of confidence and others are penitentiary psalms.

The acrostic psalms can be appreciated on their own merit even without knowledge of the acrostic pattern. Understanding the special techniques used in these psalms, however, gives us a deeper appreciation of them. Veins of gold lie hidden in the Bible for those who take the time and effort to dig them out.

While we would like to complete our own acrostic in this section, we cannot find any sensible conclusion, so here is what we came up with instead.

Xylophones might be used in modern hymn services, but possibly did not exist in ancient Israel, which explains why most scholars do not believe they were used originally in the performance of acrostic psalms. You can see how difficult it is to compose an acrostic, which should give you an appreciation of the skill with which the acrostic poems in the Bible were written. Zeal and dedication must have been strong traits of their authors.