The Psalter in the Canon

The Psalter in the Canon Knud Jeppesen1 Vice-Rector: Tantur Ecumenical Institute for Theological Studies Jerusalem, Israel Abstract The Psalter, read as a coherent book instead of being read as 150 independent poems, reveals some patterns and a continuum of ideas, which might not express the editors’ original intention, but support the readers’ understanding of this canonical book. The article suggests that, even if the majority of texts are laments, the Psalter is a book of praise, underlined for instance by the endings of the Psalter’s five books. The five books relate the Psalter to the Pentateuch, and a form of competition between David and Moses is found (see esp Book 4), of which David was the winner. This is one of the reasons why the Christians were able to read the Psalter as a Christian book. 1. HOLISTIC READING In recent research it has become more common to read the Old Testament texts in the context of the entire Bible than when the author and Dr Steingrimsson, who is honoured in this article, went to university. I first met him during a study trip to Uppsala, some thirty years ago. Dealing with the subject of the Psalms in those days, we were taught to regard the single Psalm almost as a self-contained entity, with the preceding and subsequent Psalms not very often used to widen our understanding. For example, by reading the David-psalm, Ps 3: “O Lord, how 1 Prof Dr Knud Jeppesen, Emeritus Professor at Aarhus University (Denmark), is a member of the International Advisory Board of Hervormde Teologiese Studies. Prof Jeppesen participates as associate in the research project “Biblical theology and Hermeneutics”, directed by Prof Dr Andries G van Aarde, Department of New Testament Studies, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria. Prof Van Aarde visited the Tantur Institute in Jerusalem in March 2003. Some of the ideas presented in this essay will be published in Danish in a three volume Psalm Commentary, edited by E K Holt and K Nielsen (2002). See especially Vol 1, ch 2 and 7, and in Vol 2 and 3 the commentaries to the psalms dealt with here. The article will also be published in a forthcoming Festschrift dedicated to Dr Sigurdur Örn Steingrimsson, Reykjavic, Iceland. HTS 59(3) 2003 793 The Psalter in the Canon many are my foes!”2 (v 2), it would normally not form part of the exegesis to ask if the fact that the previous Psalm is about Yahweh and his Messiah and describes their power in the world, and how their enemies were defeated, is of any significance; nor was it a routine question to enquire whether the final words of the prayer Ps 4, “O Lord, make me lie down in safety” (v 9), have any connection with the end of Ps 3: “Deliverance belongs to the Lord, may your blessing be on your people” (v 9)! It is of course well-known that in the Hebrew Bible the book of Job follows the Psalter, and that in for example the Luther Bible, the order is the opposite, but the question whether this difference could have any influence on the understanding of the two books, was hardly asked. In recent literature problems such as these have been discussed at some length and the new trend, sometimes called holistic3 reading, has proved to be of significance for the understanding of the single Psalm. Nowadays, there is much more room than before for a reading of the Psalter as one entity4 and to discuss its place in Canon. Traditionally, when scholars relate a Psalm under investigation to other Psalms, the reason would be that the other Psalms belong to the same Gattung 5 as the text in question or that they can be fitted into a common cultic pattern. 2 In most cases the translation used is The New Revised Standard Version: The New Oxford Annotated Bible (1994); however, the numbering of the verses in Biblia Hebraica is followed. 3 I could also have used the label canonical reading, as it has been used by B S Childs 1979 and other works; Childs’ ideas have also been an inspiration, but it has become increasingly clear to me that the word Canon is not as unambiguous as was often thought. It is sometimes difficult to establish whether a scholar uses the term the Old Testament canon about the Hebrew Bible or an Old Testament from the Christian traditions with its different order of books. In this article canon is used to refer to the totality of books of which the Bible in its different forms is made up. In a sense canon used in this way can include the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Luther Bible, King James Version etc. 4 It is not the intention of this essay to discuss this trend in much detail, but to present some ideas inspired by it. The literature is already overwhelming, so I restrict myself to mentioning only a few of the works, which have been of importance for my own research: Koch (1994); McCann (ed) (1993); Millard (1994); Whybray (1996); Wilson (1985). 5 Westermann (1964:344) puts it as follows: “Der Zusammenhang eines Psalms ist seine Gattung, die auf den Ort und den Sinn dieser bestimmten Gruppe von Gebeten im Ganzen des Redens zu Gott weist.” According to Mowinckel (1962:1.30, 32, and 33), “the Psalms are – with very few exceptions – real cult psalms, made for cultic use” and that “will in many cases mean that they belong to some definite cultic ‘festival’ .… In other words ... the pure ‘examination of types’ ... has to be enlarged and replaced by proper cult-historical ones.” 794 HTS 59(3) 2003 Knud Jeppesen The latter method was taught by Mowinckel in Scandinavia from 1922 onwards and was further developed by members of the so-called Uppsala-school. It has its origin in the form-critical approach, mainly developed by Gunkel (1924) in his commentary on the Psalms commentary and especially in his introduction to the Psalms (Gunkel & Begrich 1933). A clear impression that emerges from reading contemporary scholarly literature on the field of Psalm exegesis is that the after- effect of the form-critical school will last longer than that of the cultic interpretation; although to a large extent exegesis still begins with decisions about Gattung and Sitz im Leben and that is most likely to be the case for many years to come. The results of the form-critical method are much easier to cross-examine and control, than what a holistic reading can produce. We don’t know and probably never will know whether the canonical order of the Psalms follow a thought-through plan; on the other hand, the present form and order is a historical fact we can relate to, and when the Psalms are read in a canonical order, different lines of ideas seem to be revealed. But it is necessary to stress again and again that it should not be claimed that the holistic reading represents with any measure of doubt an original intention, and furthermore, it should be borne in mind that the lines of thoughts found, might not be the only possible lines. However, studying some of the new methods has convinced the writer that through the cautious use thereof, it is possible to obtain new knowledge about the Psalter and to also make adjustments to results achieved by for example the form-critical researchers. 2. THE PSALTER IN THE HEBREW BIBLE Reading Gunkel the impression is created that the Psalter, for the greater part, is a source book for people who want to express feelings of lament; the individual laments are “(der) eigentliche() Grundstock des Psalters” “und auch die Frömmigkeit des Volkes hat hier Anleihen gemacht” (Gunkel-Begrich 1973:173). There is no reason to question such statements, but on the other hand, when if you the entire psalter is read in its Hebrew, canonical form, it becomes clear that it is a collection of poems aimed at praising God. HTS 59(3) 2003 795 The Psalter in the Canon It is a well known fact that David’s psalms, like the Moses-literature, are divided into five books (cf Midrash Tehillim to Ps 1), a matter regarded as not being of great importance by the historical critical schools. But this division deals with the final composition of the Psalter and must therefore be of some consequence for the understanding of this biblical book. A doxology is found at the end of each of the first four of these books (Ps 41:14; 72:18-19; 89:53; 106:48). The shortest of these appears at the end of the third book (Ps 89:53) and begins with a formula of praise, “blessed be” (), without specifying who is to be blessed. Then follows the name of God, Yahweh, as the object for blessed, and a short statement that the praise will be eternal. The doxology ends with a double Amen, but we are not told by whom the Amen is proclaimed. The same four elements with some variation appear in the three other doxologies, but only in the last one is it stated that the Amen is proclaimed by the people (; Ps 106, 48). The fifth book does not conclude with a doxology of the same type, but Ps 145 develops in extended form themes from the four doxologies; in this Psalm the Psalter’s last examples of the Hebrew verb for bless (), known from the doxologies, are found to express human beings’ praise of God or his name (145:1, 2, 10, 21).

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