Language of Desire in Psalm 119 Introduction A

Anna Rohlfing THE EROTIC LAW: Language of Desire in Psalm 119 Introduction A colossal alphabetic acrostic lasting 176 verses, Psalm 119 is often referred to as the ‘Great Psalm,’ yet it tends to be neglected or considered inferior to other psalms. St. Augustine of Hippo, arguably the most influential theologian of the early church, put off examining Psalm 119 for as long as possible because of its depth of content. Although some modern scholars, including David Noel Freedman, find value in the Great Psalm, a greater number of others during the course of Christian history have had a tendency to discount it altogether. Why is this? Is it because of the structure, the length, or the subject matter which focuses on law? Regardless of the reason, this disregard mistakenly ignores a magisterial psalm, and Psalm 119 deserves to be revisited, particularly for the sake of understanding its thought provoking and poetic content. The psalmist approaches his subject matter of God’s law with intense longing and love. This psalm is a profound prayer in which the psalmist lovingly desires to know the law more completely. The desire is not simply intense or loving, it is erotic in nature. The expressions used to give voice to the psalmist’s desire are often reminiscent of the desire a lover expresses for his beloved. They imply not only a longing but a need and a heightening of the senses, similar to that experienced in an intimate relationship. This intense desire and longing for the law that the psalmist expresses again and again in an incomparable fashion has been sadly and largely neglected by modern scholars. In order to look at this psalm in a new way, focusing on the erotic content, this paper will begin with an explanation of the basic structure of Psalm 119 and then move on to a discussion Rohlfing 2 of modern scholarship concerning the complexity of the psalm. In his study of Psalm 119, Freedman remarks, “While scholars have praised the psalm’s thoroughness, they have also denigrated its artificial structure, lack of originality, and repetition,” complaining of monotony.1 This comment reflects a fairly typical modern evaluation of the psalm. However, Freedman also argues that “a dismissive evaluation of the psalm’s creativity must also be radically revised. Psalm 119 is, in fact, inventive,” both in form and in content.2 Historically speaking, the desire to neglect Psalm 119 is nothing new, although modern reasons differ significantly from historical reasons. Augustine of Hippo, in the prologue to his Expositions of Psalm 118, explains, “Always I put off the exposition of Psalm 118, not so much because of its formidable length as because of its profundity, which few can fathom. My brethren took it badly that this psalm alone should lack an exposition in our insignificant writings…and they pressed me insistently to discharge the debt.” 3 Following this prologue, Augustine goes on to preach thirty-two sermons moving verse by verse through the Great Psalm. This implies that Augustine saw the intense value in the content of the psalm even though he didn’t want to deal with it until he had little choice. When he did treat it, he dealt in depth with content rather than structure, unlike most modern scholars. His issue was not with the psalm’s length but with its complexity. Therefore, since Augustine deals with content, not just structure, he is a useful study for this paper, providing historical scholarly analysis since modern scholarly analysis is lacking. Additionally, Augustine’s analysis provides some insight into the erotic nature of the psalm though it also has some shortcomings, including his projection of Jesus into his analysis. 1 David Noel Freedman, Psalm 119: The Exaltation of Torah (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1999), 87. 2 Freedman, Psalm 119, 87. 3Augustine, Expositions of Psalm 118 : prologue, trans. Maria Boulding (Hyde Park: New City Press, 2003), 342. It is necessary to note that in LXX and the Vulgate, which Augustine uses, the Psalter was divided slightly differently than in modern Bibles, resulting in a slight alteration to the numbering system. Thus what we know today as Psalm 119 was known to Augustine as 118. Rohlfing 3 Structure of Psalm 119: More than a Simple Acrostic In order to understand the arguments of modern scholars, as well as the psalmist’s genius, it is necessary that this paper first examine the structure of Psalm 119. Understanding the basic structure of the psalm will also allow the reader to comprehend how the psalmist was able to maintain his single-minded subject weaving it throughout the entirety of the longest chapter of the Psalter. The composition of Psalm 119 follows a very rigid structure. In a basic sense, the psalm is an alphabetic acrostic containing twenty-two stanzas consisting of eight lines each. Each stanza corresponds to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with the letters śîn and šîn combined into one stanza. In Hebrew, each line of every stanza begins with the corresponding letter of the stanza, though this structure is not maintained in English translations. However, this basic structure is simply a framework in which the psalmist makes a large number of adjustments to the form.4 Another primary feature of Psalm 119, which is the occasion of the majority of the formal adjustments, is the existence of eight key words all related to the concept of God’s word or law. These eight words are torah, ‘edot, mishpat, mitswot, hoq, piqqudim, dabar, and ‘imrah, which translate respectively as law/teaching, decree/stipulation, judgments/rulings, commandments, statute, precepts, words, and saying.5 In total these words appear 177 times, one time more than the total number of 176 verses. Scholars often argue that one word was unintentionally added so that the number of key words ought to be equal to the number of verses; however, even if this 6 were true, the structure is not quite as simple as one key word per verse. Only four of the 4 Freedman, Psalm 119, 31. 5 David J Clark, “Translating Psalm 119: Some Practical Suggestions,” Practical Papers for the Bible Translator 58, no. 4 (October 1, 2007): 187; Freedman, Psalm 119, 32-33. 6 Freedman, Psalm 119, 26 and 31. Rohlfing 4 twenty-two stanzas contain all eight words, one per line. In fact each word is missing from at least one stanza, some stanzas contain the same word twice, and some verses contain multiple key words. Despite all of these fluctuations, 167 verses have one key word each.7 Four verses--3, 37, 90 and 122--are completely missing any of the key words.8 If the psalm is divided into two halves, these correspond to the five verses--16, 48, 160, 168, and 172--which have more than one term, though the fifth verse causes something of a problem since it does not have a corresponding empty verse.9 Of the eight key words, four are feminine and four are masculine.10 Freedman argues that while only three of the words occur exactly twenty-two times within the psalm, the correct number for one per verse with an even distribution, the words when placed in pairs all add up to forty-four times, the correct number for two words, excepting the one extra word within the psalm.11 The most common word within the psalm is torah which appears a total of twenty-five times.12 The word yhwh, though not one of the key words, is also very common, appearing twenty-four times throughout the psalm. Despite the fact that these two words together form the core of the psalm’s subject matter, they only occur together once, in verse 1.13 Although many scholars argue, to varying degrees, that there are flaws within the structure, since numerically even what initially appear to be flaws have a place, the majority of these features were likely intentional This strict numeric based structure does two things. Firstly, it enables the psalmist to stay within the bounds of the Hebrew poetic structure through the use of both repetition and the acrostic. Within the Psalter, repetition is a literary element that is used again and again as two 7 Freedman, Psalm 119, 26. 8 Clark “Translating Psalm 119,” 186. 9 Clark “Translating Psalm 119,” 186, Freedman, Psalm 119, 41. 10 Freedman, Psalm 119, 36. 11 Freedman, Psalm 119, 38. 12 Freedman, Psalm 119, 33. 13 Freedman, Psalm 119, 33. Rohlfing 5 verses in a row are often synonymous. Additionally, there are seven other alphabetic acrostics in the Psalter--Psalms 9/10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, and 145--demonstrating that this format is not unique to the psalmist who composed Psalm 119.14 The acrostic format allows him to explore his subject matter, in this case his love of and desire for God’s Law, throughout the length the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Writing eight verses per letter demonstrates the immense importance of this subject for the psalmist; however, allowing himself to make adjustments to the formal structure proves that he is not confined by his structure; rather, he is using the structure as a method of demonstrating his devotion and love. Although the structure is rigid, the psalmist uses numerous different images in order to clearly demonstrate the immense intensity of his love, giving the psalm variety and depth. Modern Scholars: Two Opposing Views on the Value of Psalm 119 Now that the structure of the psalm has been examined, this paper will turn to a discussion of the work of modern scholars on Psalm 119, most of whom have made the structure their primary focus.

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