A Poetic Analysis of Psalm 130

Harding University Scholar Works at Harding Student Association Colloquy Harding School of Theology Fall 10-20-2020 FOR WITH HIM IS PLENTEOUS REDEMPTION: A POETIC ANALYSIS OF PSALM 130 Aaron Parker Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.harding.edu/hst-colloquy FOR WITH HIM IS PLENTEOUS REDEMPTION: A POETIC ANALYSIS OF PSALM 130 A Term Paper Submitted to Dr. Lance Hawley Harding School of Theology Memphis, TN As a Requirement in Course BOLD 5130 Hebrew Poetry By Aaron Parker 11 May 2020 1 Introduction Psalm 130 has traditionally been understood as not only a lament psalm that protests or grieves calamity, but as a penitential psalm that admits complicity and seeks forgiveness. This is a perfectly respectable reading with a venerable theological and liturgical history. It is, however, incomplete and perhaps in some sense inadequate. The lament-penitence reading is generally more reflective of its own status as tradition than of the inner dynamics of Psalm 130 itself. An important aim of this paper, then, is the interrogation and reevaluation of form-critical and theological assumptions about the nature of lament in the Psalms. Song of Ascents: Significance of the Superscription Psalm 130 falls in the middle Book V of the Hebrew psalter (Pss. in the middle of This is 1.שׁיר המעלות/המעלה a redactional section (Pss. 120-135) marked by the superscript a notoriously difficult term to define, but perhaps more difficult to translate.2 There are three broad ways to understand the superscription: metaphorically, as a reference to the return from exile, or as a reference to the Jerusalem and/or the temple. Most interpreters take the term in various literal ways, though a few take it as a metaphor describing the internal progression of content or performance techniques.3 A 1 It is possible that these psalms were all originally composed with the superscription included, but the fact that they all occur together in the psalter would seem to suggest at least some level of redactional influence. It seems clear that these psalms were intentionally gathered together. See John Goldingay, Psalms, vol. 3, Psalms 90-150 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 752; also note 6 below. 2 Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger, Psalms 3: A Commentary on Psalms 101-150, trans. Linda M. Maloney, Hermeneia (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2011), 287-288, gives no fewer than eight attested renderings, and it is possible to imagine more. 3 Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms, Biblical Commentaries on the Old Testament 4.1. trans. Davi Eaton (Leipzig: Dörffling und Franke, 1867) 692, argues for the “internal progression” understanding and describes this as a continuation of Gesenius’s understanding. 2 ”seems unlikely. Dahood suggests that “ascents המעלות metaphorical understanding of refers to the spiritually “upward” tone or progression of the psalms, but there is no significant evidence for this.4 The suggestion that these psalms are connected by similar performance practices is interesting, but unprovable.5 generally focus on the travel שׁיר המעלות Concrete interpretations of the phrase aspect of “going up.” One explanation is that these were psalms sung by returnees from the exile in Babylon.6 A few interpreters note the fact that there are 15 psalms in the collection, 15 words in the Aharonic Blessing, and 15 steps between the Court of Women and the Court of Israel in the Temple and so suggest that these psalms served a particular cultic function.7 Other interpret “going up” as a reference to the (three) annual 4 Mitchell Dahood, Psalms 101-150, AB 17A (New York: Doubleday, 1970), 195, holds—on the should be understood as “Song of שׁיר המעלות basis of 1 Chr. 17:17 and a single line from Qumran—that Extolment.” However, the Hebrew text of 1 Chr. 17:17 is very difficult and highly contested. It is unclear Nor is it necessary to read Dahood’s citation from 11QPsa as .מעלה that it necessarily should read “extolments;” it seems, on the information he provides, that “a going up of all the world” would suffice as a translation. More to the point, Dahood’s suggestion is entirely divorced from the nature of the collection at hand. In fact the entire psalter could be seen as having an “upward orientation” to the extent that it comprises poems to or about YHWH and may be considered liturgical. 5 Radak, cited in Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 288, argues for understanding “ascents” as a description of performance practice—perhaps increasing volume or rising pitch. If this were the case, however, the structure of the psalms in question might be expected to be more similar or to share similar grammatical markings or Masoretic markings indicating tonal or volume changes. 6 Michael Goulder, “The Songs of Ascents and Nehemiah,” JSOT 22, no. 75 (1997), 43-58, holds that the Songs of Ascent were composed by a single author in celebration of Nehemiah’s successful rebuilding project and would have been sung at the feast of Sukkoth. He argues on the basis of certain compositional similarities (these psalms are shorter than average; they utilize repetition and simile; they seem to contain a higher than average number of LBH expressions and Aramaisms), but none of these proves anything about the authorship of the Songs of Ascents. At most they argue for a later origin of certain poems in the collection. 7 This is a particularly common Rabbinic interpretation, per Goldingay, Psalms, 752; Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 291. John Eaton, The Psalms: A Historical and Spiritual Commentary with an Introduction and New Translation (London: T & T Clark, 2003), 423, also takes this position. Leon Liebreich, “The Songs of Ascents and the Priestly Blessing,” JBL 74, no. 1 (March 1955), 33-36, argues that the Songs of Ascents were recited in response to the priestly declamation of the Aharonic Blessing. Liebreich’s intertextual examination is fascinating, but quite a lot of it is better explained by theological overlap than by intentional reference. His note on Ps. 130 in particular fails to account for the contextual .שׁמר meaning of the root 3 pilgrimages to Jerusalem.8 On the whole, it seems impossible to determine a specific Sitz im Leben for this psalm collection, and many of these positions are mutually compatible. It seems especially clear that cultic use in the Temple and use on pilgrimages to the Temple are very likely to overlap.9 On the whole, I take it that the Songs of Ascents were redacted together after the return from the exile for use in the reestablished cultic apparatus at Jerusalem.10 Structure, Lineation, and Original Unity Psalm 130 is laid out in four major sections/stanzas plus the superscript in v. 1a. This sectional layout is determined largely by content, but also by considerations of grammatical person.11 The first section (vv. 1b-2b) is about the psalmist’s request of YHWH. Section 2 is direct address to YHWH about YHWH’s forgiveness and response to iniquities. Section 3 describes the psalmist’s longing for YHWH’s presence. The fourth and final section commends YHWH to Israel and urges Israel to seek YHWH’s presence. These sections also leave distinct emotional impressions as a result of their content and poetics. 8 This seems to be the majority position in contemporary scholarship. See Walter Brueggeman and William Bellinger, Psalms, New Cambridge Bible Commenary (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 523; Erhard Gerstenberger, Psalms, Part 2, and Lamentations, The Forms of the Old Testament Literature, vol. 15 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 318, 320-321; Goldingay, Psalms, 752; Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 294; James Luther Mays, Psalms, 385-386; and Claus Westermann, The Psalms: Structure, Content, and Message, trans. Ralph Gehrke (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing, 1980), 104. 9 See Westermann, The Psalms, 104. 10 The form of this cultic use is impossible to specify. For the post-exilic date of Psalm 130, see Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 427. 11 Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 425, notes this, as well. 4 The lineation of sections 1-3 is fairly straightforward: sections 1 and 2 consist of two couplets each; section 3 is a pair of triplets.12 However, section 4 is a triplet followed by a couplet, an unusual situation which has led to some rather extravagant attempts to argue for a different lineation, as well as arguments that it might be a later addition.13 This suggestion seems unnecessary; Psalm 130:7-8 can and should be considered original to the poem. The Lineation and Sectioning of Psalm 130 ִמַמֲּﬠַמִקּים ְקָראִתיך יְהוָ ה׃ ֲָיֹנאדִ ְָשׁמﬠה ְבקוֹלִי ִתְּהֶייָנה ָאְזֶניך ַקֻשּׁבוֹת ְלקוֹל ַתֲּחנוָּני׃ ִאם־ֲﬠוֹנוֹת ְִתָּשׁמר־יָהּ ֲאדָֹני ִמי ַיֲﬠֹמד׃ ְִֽי־ךִמּﬠכְִַּיחלָהסּה ְלַמַﬠן ִתָּוֵּרא׃ ִקִוּיִתי יְהוָ ה ָ ְִהתוּקְִַיפשׁנ ְֽוִלְדָברוֹ ָהוֹחְלִתּי׃ ְַנִפשׁי ַלאֹדנָי ִ ְִיםֹרממשַֹּׁקבֶּרל שְֹׁמִרים ַלבֶֹּקר׃ ַיֵחל ִיְשָׂרֵאל ֶאל־ְיהָוה ִִֽיָ־ְﬠם־יהוהכּ ֶַהחסֶד ְוַהְרֵבּה ִﬠמּוֹ ְפדוּת וְ הוּא ִיְפֶדּה ֶאת־ִיְשָׂרֵאל ִמכֹּל ֲﬠוֹֹנָתיו׃ 12 Dahood, Psalms 101-150, 234; J. P. Fokkelman, The Psalms in Form (Leiden: Deo Press, 2002), 137; Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 424; and Peter van der Lugt, Cantos and Strophes in Biblical Hebrew Poetry III: Psalms 90-150 and Psalm 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 396, all take vv. 5-6 as triplets. Goldingay, Psalms, 521-522, considers these verses as couplets (vv. 5a-5b // 5c and 6a-6b // 6c). This reading, though understandable from an interpretive standpoint requires ignoring the significant textual break up vv. 5 and 7, and the עם and of קוה indications that these verses consist of triplets. The repetition of does the same to v. 6. For conventions of lineation, see F. W. Dobbs-Allsop, On שׁמרים לבקר repetition of Biblical Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 42-57; van Der Lugt, Cantos and Strophes, 2-9.

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