Interpreting the Psalms: Issues and Approaches - Softcover

Firth, Philip Johnston And David G

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844740773 ISBN 13: 9781844740772

Publisher: Apollos, 2005

Synopsis

The Book of Psalms has been precious to countless Jewish and Christian believers in many different languages and countries over many centuries. It has expressed their hopes and fears, inspired their faith, and renewed their trust in God. In this way, the spiritual insight and religious heritage of a small number of ancient Israelites has had a profound and lasting impact on humanity.
The Book of Psalms is also of great importance in biblical scholarship. In the twentieth century, Psalms study was dominated by two approaches, but now it is in the midst of a sea change, and the older perspectives jostle for attention alongside newer interests.
This volume aims to bridge the gap between basic introductions and specialized literature. Part 1 present overviews of current scholarly approaches and Ancient Near Eastern prayer. Part 2 covers central themes of distress, praise, king and cult. Part 3 gives an interesting sample of approaches concerned with the Psalter's content and final form. Part 4 considers interpretative traditions, seen in the shaping of the canonical Psalter and in later Christian and Jewish texts.
The authors are Craig Broyles, Dale Brueggemann, Jerome Creach, Timothy Edwards, David Firth, Jamie Grant, David Howard, James Hely Hutchinson, Philip Johnston, Michael LeFebvre, Tremper Longman, Dwight Swanson, Any Warren-Rothlin, Gordon Wenham and Gerald Wilson. They have already published many books and articles, and made significant contributions to Old Testament scholarship.

About this title

About the Author

David Firth is Old Testament Tutor and BA Course Leader at Cliff
College, Derbyshire. He is the author of 'Responses to Violence in
Complaint Psalms of the Individual' (forthcoming).

Philip Johnston is Old Testament Tutor and Director of Studies at Wycliffe
Hall, Oxford. He is the author of 'Shades of Sheol' (Apollos) and co-editor
of 'The Land of Promise' (Apollos).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

4. THE PSALMS AND PRAISE (extract)

Introduction
Like so many human activities, praise comes to us both naturally and
unnaturally. C. S. Lewis once observed that `the humblest, and at the same
time most balanced and capacious minds, praised most, while the cranks,
misfits and malcontents praised least'. Praise, he concluded, `almost seems
to be inner health made audible', the natural overflow of a heart that
delights in a certain object. Conversely, as Paul Beauchamp writes, `praise
is not natural to our selfishness'. If the book of Psalms is, as the
traditional Hebrew title has it, the `book of praises' par excellence, this
is only because the psalmists turn their thoughts away from themselves and
on to the object of supreme delight - the Creator God, Israel's Redeemer,
Yahweh himself. This close correlation between theology and doxology
emerges at every turn in the Psalter. My task will be to demonstrate, and
enlarge upon, this truth; in particular, I shall offer ten propositions
regarding the Psalter's praise that arise from lexical, grammatical,
poetic, form-critical and canonical considerations.

Vocabulary of praise
According to my first proposition, use of the key verb hll highlights
the fact that praise in the Psalter is ascribed supremely to Yahweh and
that he is worthy to receive it. No reader of the Psalms can fail to be
struck by the recurrence of the summons to `praise the Lord' traditionally
`Hallelujah'). ...

Grammar of praise
My second proposition (above) does not entail that the person praising God
be in the company of others. Praise is frequently oered to Yahweh by
individuals: for example, the headings of Pss. 7 and 18 specify that the
praise offered in these psalms is found on the lips of David. That said, we
need to bear in mind that the call to praise in the Psalter usually takes a
plural form ...

We must note the reasons given for praising Yahweh. To employ Claus
Westermann's terminology, praise in the Psalter is both descriptive of
Yahweh's character and deeds, and declarative of his particular acts of
deliverance - my fourth proposition. ...

Poetry of praise
Those who know this God express their beliefs about him with enthusiasm.
According to my fifth proposition, praise has an emotional
dimension.This emerges from the poetic character of thepsalms and
especially from particular devices used to heighten the praise mood. In
Ps.103,Yahweh is praised for his benefits considered from the successive
standpoints of one individual (vv. 1-5), the whole covenant community (vv.
6-18), and the entire created order (vv. 19-22). Alongside this widening of
the horizon, there is a crescendo in the intensity with which the truths
are expressed, culminating in the urgent threefold plural imperative of the
last three verses. It is dicult to imagine this psalm being read in a
neutral tone! Likewise, it is hard to escape the intensity of feeling
conveyed by the tenfold exhortation `praise' (imperative or jussive)
featuring in vv. 1-7 of Ps.148 ...

Edition details

• Publisher: Apollos
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844740773
• ISBN 13: 9781844740772
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 345