ZONDERVAN ACADEMIC

Psalms

Copyright © 1987 by Word, Incorporated

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ePub Edition © June 2020: ISBN 978-0-310-11571-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Allen, Leslie C.

The Psalms: Leslie C. Allen.

p. cm.

Bibliography: p.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-849-93082-9

1. Bible. O.T. Psalms—Criticism, interpretations, etc. I. Title. II. Series.

BS1430.2.A335 1987

223’.206

87-884

Biblical quotations have usually been taken from the translation in the volumes of the Word Biblical Commentary, Psalms 1-50, and 101-150, copyright © 1893by Word, Incorporated; used by permission. Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1952 [2nd edition 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Any internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 /LSC/ 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Joy

CONTENTS

Foreword

1. Introduction

Compilation

Types of psalms

2. Function

Temple settings

Wisdom settings

The changing scenes of life

3. Praise

An editorial concern

The praise of thanksgiving

Praise in the lament

Praise in the hymn

4. Faith

Faith in disorientation

Faith in orientation

Faith in reorientation

5. Blessing

Blessing in creation

Blessing in worship

Blessing in everyday life

6. Salvation

Salvation as existential reality

Salvation and covenant

Salvation as a theological heritage

7. Hope

Grounds for hope

Existential hope

Eschatological hope

8. Scripture

The authority of the Psalms

David as exemplar

The Psalms in the New Testament

Notes

Bibliography

Index of Psalms Cited

FOREWORD

Everyone has favorite Psalms. Yet the book of Psalms is still a closed treasure to most of us. So many of them do not obviously speak to us in our deepest need.

This is a book that can help to open that treasure and make it possible for the reader to claim many more of them as personally relevant. It explains in language all can understand the way the Psalms have been collected and arranged and leads the reader through the different kinds of psalms before showing how they were used in different settings. These hymns and poems have proved to be remarkably adaptable to changing forms of worship through the centuries, yet, in all these changing forms, the Psalms keep the worshipers’ attention focused on basic themes of God’s goodness. These consist in emphasis on God’s blessing and on his salvation. The Psalms then lead the worshiper to cultivate responses in praise, faith, and hope.

Like the teacher described in Matthew, who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old, Leslie Allen here provides for the reader a spiritual feast, the fruits of his study of Psalms in their original tongue. The reader who wishes to go more deeply into the foundations of what is written here will want to see the volume on Psalms 101–150 (No. 21) by Leslie Allen in the Word Biblical Commentary.

Dr. Allen’s insightful book recognizes that the Psalms speak to each of us differently. Each reader comes to this book from a different perspective, yet the Psalms have prayers and songs for each of us.

1

INTRODUCTION

Of all the Old Testament books Psalms has a special place in the hearts of Christians. Such is its popularity that it is easy to purchase a copy of the combined New Testament and Psalms. Every believer has a list of favorite psalms, while probably paying little attention to the rest. Little oases of familiarity punctuate a desert of unfamiliarity. The very format of the Psalter lends encouragement to this tendency. The individual psalms do not function as chapters in a book. Their consecutive numbering carries no warranty of consecutive content. Many of the psalms have their own titles, which increases a sense of beginning afresh with each new number. As a result readers feel little inducement to get inside the world of the Psalms.

People commonly attach a label to the Psalter, calling it the hymnbook of the Second Temple. This has some claim to truth, but on reflection it serves to accentuate the formlessness of the collection. Hymnbooks, as we know them, are arranged thematically according to particular doctrines and to periods in the church calendar. In no way do the psalms follow such an orderly pattern! A rare exception is the run of psalms celebrating God’s kingship, Pss 96–99. Even here it is noticeable that the affiliated Ps 93 is separate from its fellows.

Are there any unifying principles behind the overall collection? Indeed there do appear to be, but it is good to appreciate its relatively random nature. There is a danger in trying to systematize the Psalms, the danger of wanting to find links that were never really there. The appearance of randomness is a witness to the gradual accumulative nature of this book. Here are centuries of devotion crammed into one book. In this respect the Psalter is a microcosm of the Bible as a whole. It is a rich heritage to which many generations have contributed through all the changing scenes of human history, and so generation after generation can take it to their hearts, feeling kinship with its pages. Nowhere is the scriptural interweaving of divinity and humanity more evident than here.

Before we can tackle the themes of the Psalms, there is a certain amount of background information for the reader to grasp. We need to find our way into and around the Psalter, so that we evaluate its contents aright.

Compilation

There is more than one way of analyzing the Psalms. Perhaps the best approach to begin with is to look at the end of the process which resulted in the canonical collection, and to discern the final editorial shape that has been imposed upon it.

1. The five books. There is a consciousness that the hundred and fifty psalms comprise an anthology, a literary whole. Evidence of this consciousness lies in the fact that the overall collection has been divided into five sections or books. The rabbis saw a parallel here with the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, as if the Psalter was planned as a counterpart, the five books of David. It is a plausible suggestion, but scholarly attempts to verify it, for instance by envisaging lectionary parallels between pentateuchal passages and the Psalms, have not won general acceptance. Each of the books has been given its own conclusion in the form of a doxology. Book One consists of Pss 1–41 and ends with Ps 41:13:

Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting!

Amen and Amen.

Books Two, Three, and Four end similarly, at 72:18, 19; 89:52 and 106:48, thus marking their dimensions as Pss 42–72, 73–89, and 90–106. Ps 106:48 shows that Amen (and Amen) was modeled on a congregational response to a call of praise, in affirmation and involvement:

Blessed be Israel’s God Yahweh

from everlasting to everlasting,

and let all the people say Amen.

These doxologies did not originally belong to the individual psalms among which they are numbered, but are related to the preceding section of psalms as a literary finale, an ovation in God’s honor.

Book Five, Pss 107–150, does not have a doxology of the same type. It is generally thought that its last psalm, Ps 150, has the function of a doxology for both Book Five and the whole Psalter. In this series of asides which punctuate the collection we hear literary tributes of praise, in reaction to the portrayal of God given within each of its sections.

2. The individual collections. This scheme of books and doxologies is a final arrangement superimposed upon a large amount of earlier editorial work. The Psalter has grown by the accumulation of separate collections. It is like a well-loved hymnbook which over the years has gone through a number of editions, gradually enlarging its scope.

The primary collections which were utilized to build up the book of Psalms as we know it may be detected from the headings to individual psalms. Two collections represent the repertoire of Levitical choirs in the temple. Pss 42–49, 84, 85, and 87, 88 name the sons of Korah in their headings, while Pss 50, 73–83 are ascribed to Asaph. Another group of psalms mentions not their singers but apparently the scene in which they functioned: the Songs of Ascents, Pss 120–134. These were probably processional songs, sung as choirs and congregation went up through Jerusalem to the temple in sacred procession at festival time. Here then is evidence of a system of worship in which these psalms once played a role. They were meant to be sung and heard within a worshiping community whose hearts were in tune with the words of faith and praise.

Another collection may be detected from the content of its psalms. In certain psalms the content highlights the person of the Davidic king. Now scattered throughout the Psalter, originally they were probably a single collection. These royal psalms include Pss 2, 45, 101, 110, and 132. The society in which these psalms were first used did not have a constitution that demarcated religion from politics. It idealized a particular form of monarchy as the potential sphere of God’s will and gave it a role in its official religion.

The backbone of the first half of the Psalter is made up of two collections associated with the name of David, Pss 3–41 and