Psalms: Why are they included in the Cannon?

The psalms are part of what we call the inspired word of God. There seem, however, to be many similarities between the psalms and things that are not considered as divinely inspired. What is the difference between the psalms and the well written songs of a believer now? One argument for the superiority of the psalms is that David was a man after God’s heart, and that he had the spirit of God upon him. If, however, the status of Psalms is based solely on the merits of David, then there is nothing to differentiate them from things written by the saints, because the saints were really godly and Christians have the Holy Spirit. There is another problem, however, with basing the status of the psalms on David, which is that David didn’t write all of the psalms. Another reason that the Psalms should be counted as part of the cannon is that they are riddled with prophesy. While it can be argued that because the authors were not prophets per se the passages that seem prophetic are just a coincidence, there are too many instances where the Psalms clearly are referring to events in the future for them to simply to have been a coincidence. Whether or not the authors themselves knew what they were doing, there is something more organized than chance in the prophesy of the Psalms. However, while the presence of prophesy in the psalms is evidence of some supernatural intervention and inspiration, is that enough reason to include a book in the cannon?

I am really not sure then, why the Psalms are included in the scriptures and are counted the word of God. I really couldn’t think of good reasons why it should be included. However, I trust that there probably are some really good reasons to include it since the early church fathers chose to include it.

*edit*

After discussing psalms again with my group, I realized that the psalms provide us with examples of proper emotions and the proper way to interact with God. They are the real thoughts of godly people, and they show us how to be godly people. This is very different than the rest of the bible, which is either stories of people’s lives, or God telling us what to do and how to live through other people. The psalms, then, fulfill a very important and unique role.