Psalms

The Book of Psalms was compiled in several stages over a period of several hundred years, reaching the present collection of 150 psalms probably in the third century B.C. The Jewish collection, identical to ours, is called Tehillim (Songs of Praise).

Through the ages, the Book of Psalms has been used as a prayer book in worship services, and as a source of strength, inspiration, and guidance by individual believers. The coming of Christ opened up a new range of meaning to the psalms, since many can be interpreted as prophetic of the Messiah and of his suffering and deliverance from death.

Included in the psalms are instructions, petitions, laments, praise, and thanksgiving. The psalms celebrated in our window are mainly those concerned with music and nature, since these themes lend themselves to the stained glass medium better than themes concerned with laws or suffering or deliverance. The exception is Psalm 119, a celebration of God's laws, symbolized by the three Hebrew letters at the bottom of the window.