Throughout the Psalms, a myriad of different themes are shown, but there are five fundamentals which are used throughout the whole book. They are: sovereignty, hierarchy, law, sanctions, and future. They could also be written as: God, man, ethics, causation, and time, or sovereignty, representation, law, sanctions, and inheritance. Used extensively in other forms of literature, many societies base their institutions off of these five fundamental points. 

Sovereignty is discussed in the Psalms to display God’s rule over all of creation and David’s faithful worship of God. In Psalm (18: 1-3), “I will Love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverance,” it proclaims David’s love of God. Continuing on: “The earth shook and trembled, the foundations of the hills were moved because he was wrought and smoke went up out of his nostrils,” this displays God’s power over his creation.

Similar to the book of Genesis, hierarchy is explained in the Psalms. “The kings and rulers set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bonds asunder. The Lord shall have them in derision. Be wise of ye kings, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord. Blessed are they that put their trust in the Lord.” Therefore, God is the supreme ruler of the earth and his anointed are second, and he also warns earthly kings and rulers to serve the Lord. 

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord.” Ruling in terms of law, God obliges men to follow the Law of the Lord and not to partake in evil acts and follow evil men. 

Sanctions are God’s punishments for setting yourself against God or against righteous men. God brings both positive and negative sanctions. “The ungodly are like chaff which the wind driveth away. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. The foolish shall not stand in their sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.”

“The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: Thou maintainest my cup.” Time and the future are used to show the inheritance that men who keep God’s law will get. 

Inspired by Socrates, Plato was an extremely influential classical Greek philosopher. He lived in Athens from 427-347 BC, and wrote philosophy solely in the form of dialogues, many of which involved Socrates as a character. Interestingly, we get much of the information on Socrates from these dialogues, but it is debated how true this information is because of the fact that Plato based the character off of Socrates personality but didn’t actually tell us about his life. 

One of Plato’s most forward questions was wanting to learn the essence and form of different things. An example of this might be, what makes a dog a dog? Because some are small, some are big, and they are different in many ways. In other words, whatever an individual thing shares in common with something that shares its name, is its form. Like Socrates, Plato was concerned with questions of morals and believed that philosophers were only people who tried to find the forms of things. Continuing, he stated that forms are unchanging and eternal, and what is perfect and true. 

Remarkably, Plato established the first academy in Athens and offered the first detailed formation in Western thought of themes that would persist and be developed further by later philosophers. He believed that the “good life” was the true development of man’s personality as a rational and moral being, the right cultivation of his soul, and the general harmonious well-being of life. However, Plato did oppose atheism, relativism, hedonism, and materialism. 

His most famous work “The Republic” was of course a dialogue involving Socrates, where he raised the question: “What is Justice?” it should be pursued regardless of its consequences, even if it means you are punished for being a good person. Plato asserted that the soul has three parts: rational, courageous, and spirited or appetitive. Rational is the highest element of the soul, and is portrayed as a charioteer, with the spirited and appetitive elements as horses. The spirited element is the natural ally of reason, though shared by animals. Appetitive is a friend of riot and insolence. The spirited horse is good and loves honor and temperance, but the appetitive horse is bad, unruly, and follows passion. After this discussion, Plato asserted that the ideal state should be modeled after the ideal soul. 

Consisting of different authors and eras in which they were written, the Psalms are one of the most famous pieces of literature of all time. Many of the Psalms, and some of the most famous, were written by David, an ancient Hebrew King. Psalms means “praises” in Hebrew but “songs” in Greek. There are 150 Psalms and they are essentially prayers and poems. Although most were written by King David, Moses is thought to be the author of Psalm 90 and some were even composed after the Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon (586 BC). 

Recurring themes include: God is supreme, God’s people can safely trust God, God’s law is perfect, God brings judgment in history, the righteous will inherit the earth, and David’s despair and rejoicing to the Lord. The Psalms often use strong imagery to prove a point. 

In Psalm 2, David explains that the kings and rulers of the earth have fallen away from God, and that they will be punished. As it goes on, it is David asking the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. Psalm 5 is well-known, and it starts off with David imploring, “Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my king and my God, for unto thee will I pray.” David cleverly uses clever language in Psalm 6: “Chasten me not with thy hot displeasure” and “Heal me, for my bones are vexed.” At the beginning of Psalm 6, God was angry with David but after praying to God, David’s enemies were destroyed. 

The hierarchy during the story of creation is retold in Psalm 8, where it reveals how God has dominion over man, yet man has dominion over all the animals of the earth. The theme in Psalm 14 is that fools think there is no God, and they are evil and corrupt, while he that is truthful, kind, dislikes evil, and doesn’t partake in usury will be saved. Finally, Psalm 15 proclaims that God is everywhere in heaven and earth and that everything about God is perfect.