"Blessed be Jehovah God, the God of Israel,/Who alone does wondrous deeds;/And blessed be His glorious name forever;/And may His glory fill the whole earth./Amen and Amen" (vv. 18-19). This is the psalmist's blessing to God as the closing word of Book 2 of the Psalms. Thus, verse 20 concludes, "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended."
In the remainder of this message, I have the burden to say a word concerning the relation of the Psalms to the book of Job. Apparently these books are not related, but actually they are closely related.
Readers of the book of Job can easily understand that this book is about Job's sufferings. After reading this book, many Christians might think that Job is a good pattern for us today. Although he suffered so much, he did not blame God but still praised Him. These readers would agree with the following word from the book of James: "You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen his end from the Lord" (5:11). It is, of course, not wrong to use Job as a pattern of suffering with endurance; however, this understanding of Job is shallow.
Why did Job suffer? We know from the first two chapters of Job that God allowed Satan to damage Job, taking away his possessions and his children and even touching his body. Much of this book is the record of a long debate involving several parties: Job, his wife, his three friends, and Elihu. Eventually God came in to speak, asking Job one question after another in order to convince him that he was foolish and did not know anything and that he should stop his speaking. Job did not know God's purpose in allowing him to suffer, and in the entire book no answer is given to the question of why Job suffered so much.
The book of Job is a good match to the Psalms. Perhaps nearly half of the one hundred fifty psalms are the pious expressions of the complex sentiments of the psalmists, mainly complaining to God and asking Him to destroy the psalmists' enemies. We all need a clear view of this negative side of the Psalms. On the positive side, many of the Psalms give us a revelation concerning Christ. This revelation is mainly on Christ's person, work, exaltation, and position.
However, in the Psalms there is not much revelation, if any, on Christ's being life to us, Christ's dwelling in us and making His home in us, and on our living Christ in order to magnify Him. There is not such a thought in the Psalms. Instead, the Psalms give us the impression that we have to be godly, to fear God and to trust in Him, to keep the law, to maintain our integrity, and to be righteous, upright, just, and perfect. Seemingly, all this is right. Actually, the concept that we need to fear God, keep the law of God, and be just and righteous is wrong, for it is not according to the divine revelation. It is worthwhile for us to study the Psalms to appreciate Christ but not to appreciate other matters such as trusting in God. Apparently, the matter of trusting in God is right, but the way we trust in God may be wrong and the purpose of our trusting in God may also be wrong.