Article
Dawes, Stephen, The Psalms (commission earned) (SCM, 2010)
Although Dawes is extremely cautious about classifying Psalms into categories, he exemplifies various "voices" in 8 Psalms:
Psalm 150 - Praise. It might be useful to consider Walter Bruggemann on the act of praise while considering this Psalm; praise is, he says:
- A liturgical act that helps us to embrace an alternative image of reality
- A poetic act which opens us ... to wider visions of reality which make new visions possible
- An audacious act, not only because it is loud and boisterous, because in doing it we are adding something to God, giving him something he doesn't yet have
- An act of "basic trust" that can be made because the singer has found God to be utterly reliable
- A knowing act, one which is possible because God has been challenged and forced to act in a way that has demonstrated his reliability
- A doxological act, in which God is blessed and praised in "self-abandonment" and without restraint
- A polemical act, which is prepared to offer praise only and solely to YHWH
- A political act of social protest, social criticism and social delegitimising, which dethrones all other sources of authority and power
- A subversive act, which destabilises all oppressive systems
- An evangelical act, which enacts the good news of God's rule
- A useless (not a pointless) act of "communion" with God.
(Bruggemann, Walter: Praise and the Psalms: A Politics of Glad Abandonment in: The Psalms and the Life of Faith (1995).
Psalm 23 - Shalom. In this Psalm the idea of rightness is critical:
- This word Shalom popularly translated as "peace" but it has a much wider and deeper meaning which corresponds to wholeness, rightness or completeness
- "Right path" is a much closer translation than "righteousness" which is morally loaded and, in Protestant Christianity, has salvific implications
- The Jewish Law is there to keep or put things right
- To do right and to be right is to be blessed and be a blessing to others
- YHWH wants all his people to be blessed and is not, again, reflecting on a certain brand of Protestantism, an exacting judge
- cf Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 12; Ezekiel 34.
Psalm 74 - Dissonance or Lamentation. Such sentiments account for more than 1/3 of the Psalms:
- The supplicant feels entitled to complain to God about personal injustice or misfortune
- The problem of theodicy: the contrast of past good fortune and present misfortune
- The question: "why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer?", also in Habakkuk and Job, is never answered
- Dissonance arises from the incompleteness of Shalom.
Psalm 51 - Penitence. Various authors identify seven penitential psalms:
- Sacrifice makes provision for penitence
- The penitent appeals to YHWH's hanan (mercy) hesed (steadfast love) and rahum (compassion) which are matched against pesa kim (transgressions) awon (iniquity) and het (sin)
- The language of remorse that precedes penitence is very strong but should not be taken to denote "original sin"
- Some translations capitalise "Spirit" which is redactive and incorrect.
Psalm 8 - Hope. This word radically changes its meaning through time:
- Is associated with what are often called the "Royal Psalms" but only after the exile when the question arises: in what do we hope when we do not have an earthly king
- The development of the kingly and Messianic idea in Daniel; some believed in two Messiahs, one a king, the other a priest
Psalm 1 - Spirituality. In one way or another, all the Psalms may be said to express spirituality but those most concerned with it relate to wisdom:
- Jewish Wisdom Literature is part of an international cultural heritage
- There is a relationship in Judaism between wisdom and prosperity
- Wisdom is codified in Torah.
Psalm 103 - Theology. There is extreme controversy among scholars as to whether there is a systematic theology in the Old Testament:
- YHWH has authority over his "Covenant people": but also over all peoples; and in the angels in the heavenly court
- Bruggemann claims a kind of Creed in Psalm 34:6-7
- Possibly the best summary is the shema, the first two words of a section of the Torah which is used at morning and evening services: Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Numbers 15:37-41.
The following are some useful general points in Dawes (to be read in conjunction with the related study sheets - see below):
- Hebrew poetry is constructed with two parallel or reinforcing ideas in the verse (synonymous and antithetical parallelism). Only the acrostic Psalms (cf Psalm 119) have stanzas.
- The version of Psalms arrived at by the Hebrew tradition dates from the 6th-9th Century CE, the first extant version with vowels in the Moscow Codex 1008-9 CE. There are Psalms outside this book and fragments of Psalms scattered through the Hebrew tradition.
- There is controversy over whether the compilation was deliberate or simply the result of layers of tradition.
KC X./11
Related Study Sheets…
Added: 24th October 2008
Added: 24th October 2008
Added: 24th October 2008