Methods of Interpreting the Psalms

Transcription

1 LESSON 4 OF 24 OT505 The Book of Psalms Bruce K. Waltke, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Knox Theological Seminary in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida The following lecture has been produced for the Christian University GlobalNet and is copyrighted by Christian University GlobalNet, Grand Rapids, Michigan. All audio rights are reserved worldwide. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the written permission of Christian University GlobalNet. The lecturer holds exclusive publication rights to all of the intellectual material in the lecture. Bruce K. Waltke, Ph.D.: In this lecture I hope to conclude the discussion on methods of interpreting the Psalms and then finally we will discuss, by way of introduction, types of Messianic Psalms. In the last lecture we pointed out two of five methods of interpreting the psalms. One method is what we have called the literary analytical historical method. And now thirdly, is what has come to be known as the form critical method of interpreting The Psalms. This prevailing approach is set forth principally by Herman Gunkel in his Einleitung in die Psalmen, which he did not live to finish. The work was completed by his student, Begrich, whom he selected for that task before his death in March of There are three phases to the form critical method of interpreting The Psalms. The first concept in this method is that of the Sitz im Leben, or the setting in life. That is, this approach starts from the premise that at first every sacred poem in Israel s religion was to be sung as an accompaniment of some ritual act. For example if one came to the Lord at an occasion of lamenting then these songs were composed for that part of the ritual. If on the other hand, God had answered your prayer and now you had come to pay your vows to God, for now He had answered your prayer and you would acknowledge what He had done for you, then some songs were composed to accompany that ritual act. Other songs were composed for just the general worship of God at the morning and evening sacrifices. Now they not only seek to establish the setting in life for the occasion in the temple when the song was composed but secondly they seek to show that the psalms have common forms or types, and it s from this that the approach gets its name, the form critical approach. Gunkel listed the following characteristics which distinguished the various types of psalms. They not only share a common occasion but the common types or forms of psalms share a common treasure of ideas and moods. For example, the lament psalms or the petition psalms almost all begin with the expression, 0 God or 0 Lord. It s almost as though if you pick up a piece of literature and it starts, Dear John, and it ends sincerely yours, you know 1 of 8

2 you are dealing with a letter. On the other hand, if you pick up a piece of literature that begins, Once upon a time, then you know you are dealing with a fairy tale. Or if you read a piece of literature that has many whereas, and as said in the preceding article and so forth, you are probably dealing with a legal piece of literature. So also these psalms have a common treasure of ideas and moods so that lament psalms have very common vocabulary and very common mood about them, and worship psalms similarily. There s not only a common treasure of ideas and moods, but they also share common forms of expression and common vocabulary which we have already intimated. For example, in acknowledgment psalms, that is, God has answered your prayer and now one goes to the temple to acknowledge what God has done for you. It is very often that the Psalmist will look back upon his time of need as though he were actually dead. He had as good as died. For example, let s take a look at three acknowledgment psalms where the Psalmist, in looking back at his time of need, describes himself as having been dead. For example, you will find this in the song of Jonah in the belly of the great fish, Jonah chapter 2:2, and he looks back at his time of need and Jonah said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord. And he heard me. Out of the belly of Sheol cried I and thou heardest my voice. He likens himself to have been in the belly of Sheol itself when he was in the position of being about to die. Now it is sometimes argued that Jonah had died, that he had been in Sheol, but those who argue this way are not familiar or are ignorant of the fact that this is the common treasure of expression of acknowledgment psalms. You ll find another acknowledgment psalm, for example, in Psalm 18 where David will say essentially the same thing. If you turn to Psalm 118:4, in this acknowledgment psalm he looks back at his time of need and he says, The sorrows of death compassed me and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. Or again you ll find a similar motif in Psalm 30:31. 0 Lord thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol. Thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. Now just taking it at its face value, 0 Lord thou has brought up my soul from Sheol, one might think that David, too, had died. But it s the same as in the case of Psalm 18 and Jonah 2 - that as he looked back upon his desperate situation it was as though he were in Sheol, the place of death. Finally, they not only share common forms of expression, but they also share common motifs. That is, for example, looking at lament psalm where the Psalmist is in the setting of life and his life is in danger, they almost all begin with a direct address to God. Then somewhere in the psalm they will have an expression of their confidence in God, their faith in God. Then they will describe their lamentable situation. Then they will offer up a petition to God and very normally they will end with a vow of praise, 0 God when you hear my prayer and answer me, then will I pay my vows which I have uttered when I am in this trouble. Now there s not only the concept of these various forms of psalms but finally he has what he calls the concept of Ueberlieferungsgeschicte, that is how the psalms grew and they developed. Gunkel and his fellow practitioners 2 of 8

3 supposed that they could trace the history or development of the type. For example, he concluded that at the early stages the psalms were composed by priests for these cultic purposes and they were not for the individual saints in order to pour out his most personal self before God. But later on he concluded they were personal compositions and not priestly, and I quote him. There are other poems which in the Psalter constitute the actual majority in which there appears nothing or very little of such illusions (that is to the priests) which on the contrary have come forth in a much more personal fashion and from out of the religious life of the individual saints. And on this basis of setting in life and common forms and so forth, Gunkel discovered seven major categories of psalms. There was as we ve been speaking of, the lament psalms. And here he had two of the laments of the individual and then there were the laments of the people. Then thirdly there was the thanksgiving of the individual, an acknowledgment that God had acted in his behalf. Then he found hymns with sub specie of Song of Zion, songs for the law et cetera. A fifth category is what he calls royal psalms. The only thing that binds the royal psalms together is that they have a common setting, namely they pertain to the king. Beyond that they do not have a common form. Then he spoke of the songs of Yahweh s enthronement, psalms really in which Yahweh returns to this earth. Then he had, seventh, many minor types such as pilgrim songs, victory songs, community thanksgiving, sacred legend and Torah, prophetic psalms and wisdom poetry. The commentators who use this approach include not only Gunkel, but Hempel, Eissfeldt, Engnell, Kittel, Staerk, Schmidt, Bentzen, Bohl, Oesterley, Flemming James, Patterson, Terrien, Leslie, Castellino, Podechard, Scammon, and finally Westermann and I think Westermann s work, The Praises of God in Israel is a most significant and important work. Now let me say a word regarding a critical reappraisal of this approach. Frankly I find that this approach, namely looking for the setting in life and recognizing that they fall into various types of forms, has Biblical support. Let me say first of all here before I demonstrate that, that the concept that one can trace the evolution of the form, I think, is trying to follow a rainbow. You will never catch it. I find this based on unacceptable philosophical premises. I think this has been demonstrated very adequately by Kenneth Kitchen in his, what I think an outstanding piece of work, The Ancient Orient and the Old Testament, and you can see his discussion on the form critical approach, especially trying to trace the development of the form of the type. But regarding the idea that they do have common settings and that they do have common forms, I think this is exactly right. In my own study of the Psalms, I came to the conclusion that Gunkel was right that Psalms can be classified particularly as lament psalms, and as acknowledgment psalms, and as praise psalms. One day in my study, in reading through I Kings, I Chronicles rather, and chapter 16:4, I was merely literally balled off my chair by this statement in I Chronicles 16:4. In the context of this passage, of I Chronicles 16, David has brought up the Ark to Jerusalem and has now designated Mount Zion as the center of the Israelite worship and we read in verse 4, And he appointed 3 of 8

4 certain of the Levites to minister before the Ark of the Lord. Both II and the Old King James Translation says here to record, and to thank and to praise the Lord God of Israel. Now it s worthwhile looking at those three verbs used here to describe the activity of these Levites who were there to minister before the Ark of the Lord, the central shrine of Israel, the locus of the temple and where the hymns would be sung. The word translated to record is misleading. The translation is misleading, rather, and I don t find the American Standard Version much better here because it translates it both to celebrate. I like the revision made in the New Scofield where it s translated and to invoke. The Hebrew word translated by to record or to celebrate or to revoke is lehazkîr. The root here is z k r and root zàkar means to remember. You know that root in the word, for example, of Zechariah. It means to remember and in this particular form, what we call the hiphil stem, it means to make remembrance or to remind. So a better translation might be and to remind, that is they were to compose psalms to remind God, which is a bold anthropomorphism as you can see, to remind God or to bring to His remembrance your desperate situation. Now we re told they not only were there to minister before the Ark of the Lord and more particular they were to sing psalms that would envoke, but secondly they were to thank. Now I think the translation thank and thanksgiving in our English version is not a happy translation. The Hebrew word here is Jehôdâh and it means to acknowledge. Now the reason I do not like the translation to thank is that it has sort of a private connotation, that is I can go into my closet and I can privately thank God for what He has done for me. That is not the idea at all of the Hebrew. It means to thank publicly, to confess is another translation, or better to acknowledge; that is, when God had answered your prayer you would now repair to the temple and before the great congregation you would acknowledge what God had done for you. Frankly I think that our prayer meeting services in many of our evangelical churches most closely approximate the worship at the temple. Namely we have a time of invoking God and then a time of testimony or confession, or sharing, or acknowledging what God has done for us. The final verb used here is to praise the Lord God of Israel. The root here is hillel and that means to rave about God, to just talk of His wonderful perfections, what He has done in general for His people. Whereas to acknowledge refers specifically to that thing which God has done for you, that answer to prayer which you have experienced, to praise the Lord is more general. You either rave about His character or you praise Him for what He has done in the history of all the people. Now most of the psalms fall into these three categories, so I do find within the Biblical material itself support for the concept of various types of psalms. On the negative side, however, I find that the practitioners of this approach tend to force the psalms into preconceived molds. They do not allow them enough individuality and as I ve mentioned I do not find any value in the concept of trying to trace through the history of the tradition. In the major part of this lectureship I will be using this approach to the psalms trying to 4 of 8

5 show you that there are various types of psalms, that these psalms have distinct motifs, and that once you understand the outline for example, of lament psalms, you are then able to analyze them much more intelligently. Now we move on next to what we call the cultic approach. Now this approach builds on the form critical approach. That is Mowinkel who is the primary exponant of what we call the cultic approach, Mowinkel differed strongly with Gunkel s view, that although the forms of Israel s poetry originated in the needs and expressions of a corporate worshiping community the songs as we have them are free of that association, for Mowinke.l, and here I m quoting from Harvey Guthrie s work, Israel s Sacred Songs: A Study of Dominant Themes, Seabury Press, 1966, page 15, he says, For Mowinkel who was the primary exponant of the cultic approach the Sitz im leben, that is the setting in life, the actual setting of worship was the indispensable key to an understanding of formal cultic psalms such as those preserved in the Old Testament. Now the advocates of this approach, and there are three in particular, namely, Mowinkel, and secondly Weiser, and Kraus. They saw a large autumnal festival (that is, they felt there was the primary festival in Israel s religion during the period of the kingship) was the autumn festival at Tabernacles and they interpreted all the psalms in the light of that festival. They concede to this festival differently. Mowinkel thought of it as an enthronement festival. That is he thought that Yahweh was enthroned annually as king over the universe at the temple at Jerusalem and he interprets all the psalms in the light of that enthronement festival. Now for Weiser, he sees the festival quite differently. He sees it as a covenant festival, that is it was a time when Israel renewed its covenant with Yahweh even as they did at Shechem according to the record in Joshua 24 and he interprets all the psalms in the light of a covenant renewal festival. And Kraus picture is more complex and I do not want to go into it. Now I already gave you, then, this method of seeing them as being interpreted in the light of the festival in the fall, that they concede to the festival differently. I mentioned the three particular men here, Mowinkel and Weiser and Kraus. And now just let me say a word about the critical reappraisal of this approach. Frankly, I think it is very good to live in memory and reconstruct in one s mind s eye the setting in which these psalms were composed, see the psalmist coming to the temple to pay his vows and acknowledging what God has done for him. But on the other hand when one reconstructs a festival such as Mowinkle conceives of it, a covenant renewal festival and the Scriptures present no clear statement concerning these annual New Year s festivals, patterned along the lines imagined by these who engage in what we call the traditio historical method, I feel they have gone too far. It seems to me that if this is the key to understanding the psalms, the Spirit would have mentioned such a festival. And not only does the Spirit fail to tell us that this is the setting, He actually gives us different settings from what they have reconstructed as in the case of David, but many scholars do not find their approach convincing 5 of 8

6 either. So I would say on the one hand it s valuable to live in imagination, to see the psalmist worshiping at the temple in the life setting, but I find that reconstructing a festival and interpreting all the psalms in the light of that festival when the Spirit says nothing about such an occasion I find that to be very tenuous and unconvincing and wrong. I would advise you again to see Kitchen s work here, Ancient Orient and th Old Testament, Inter Varsity Press, 1966, pages 102 and following. Now a fifth approach is what I call the Eschatological Messianic approach. Now in this method of interpreting the psalms, one as Spurgeon expresses it, goes cross country and interprets all the psalms as referring to our Lord Jesus and His kingdom. For example, and here I will quote from Ironside s work on the Psalms, Who is the man in Psalm 1:1 when it says, 0 the heavenly bliss of the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly and I ve said that this method of interpretation goes directly to Jesus Christ and now I want to illustrate this method so we raise the question, Who is the man in Psalm 1:1? And now I read from Ironside. AThe first Psalm is the inspired introduction to the entire book. We may say that we have here in contrast two men, the blessed man and the wicked man. The blessed man is the second man, the Lord from heaven. The wicked man is the first man. This is found on page 5. Jumping a paragraph, Who is the blessed man to whom our attention is directed as we open this lovely Old Testament Book of praise and prayer? On the next page he said, But he is telling us of the blessedness of the man who has never done any of these things, the man who never took his own way, the man who never walked with the world as apart of it, who never did a thing in opposition to the will of God. Who is that man? And as he will say, The man is Jesus Christ. So he interprets all of Psalm 1 as referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. Or let us take another psalm. Let s take the one in Psalm 45, we have already been considering. We said that here we have an ode to a king and his bride on the occasion of their marriage. Now those who use this approach say that the king is the Lord Jesus and the bride is the Church. For example now I read from Pettingill, Christ in the Psalms, page 104. And he s commenting now on verse 8 of Psalm 45. Verse 8 reads, All thy garments smell like myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad. Now you can see how he will engage now in an allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures as he makes everything refer to Jesus Christ. The thy here refers to Jesus. Now what are the garments? He will raise the question All thy garments. So he writes, page 104, Garments when spoken of symbolically in the Word of God are a type of conduct or behavior. Frequently in the New Testament we are told what to put off and what to put on. We are to lay aside such things as malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings and be clothed with humility. So the garment refers to his character or way of life. Now we re told they smell of myrrh. What is the myrrh? Myrrh, he says on page 105, was among the gifts brought by the wise men of the east to the infant Christ and myrrh was among the spices in which His dead body was wrapped after Calvary. Thus from His birth to His death He 6 of 8

7 was dedicated unto the sacrifice of Golgotha as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. So the garments speak of His behavior and the myrrh speaks of His death. What are the aloes? AAloes is a bitter herb he writes, and here may signify to us the sufferings through which He passed on the way to Calvary and including Gethsemene and Calvary. And let us remember that we are appointed to partake of His suffering. So then the garments are His behavior, the myrrh is His death, the aloes are His sufferings. What is the Cassia? Here we re told it is a beautiful fragrance speaking of the glory which is to follow the sufferings and with which the sufferings may not be compared. Let us remember again that as we share in His sufferings we are also to share in His glory. So he says, Now all the actions, the conduct, the behavior of the Lord Jesus christ smell of heaven. His spiritual garments, so to speak, had come out of the heavenly wardrobes of the ivory palaces. This in comment upon out of the ivory palaces. So you can see he goes directly to a Christological interpretation of the passage and interprets everything in the light of the Lord Jesus. You will find this same approach for example in Olsen s Meditations in the Psalms. He follows almost exactly the same interpretation but whereas Pettingill said that the cassia refers to the glory which will follow, Olsen will say that on page 365 that this was used as a healing balm. One of the ministries ascribed to our Lord Jesus as found in the prophet Isaiah is to bind up the broken hearted. So he interprets this as the healing ministry of Jesus Christ. Now what shall be our evaluation of this approach? First of all, positively, we note that our Lord and His apostles taught us to interpret the psalms as to referring to Him. The use of the psalms by Christ and the apostles is well known to every student of the New Testament. We are convinced that on the highest level of interpretation, the psalms are fulfilled in Christ and we will discuss more on Messianic Psalms; but you can see, on the negative side, there is a danger here of allegorizing the Scriptures and divorcing the interpretation from the grammatical historical method of interpretation. We are really dealing with a much larger question here of Hermeneutics and the Protestant Reformed tradition has almost universally denied this method of allegorizing the Scriptures. If you use this method, you can make the Scriptures say anything. We have held consistently withln the historical Protestant tradition, we have held consistently upon the grammatical historical approach to interpreting the Scriptures and to just loose it from all historical considerations is extremely dangerous. And I think one can find too as one studies this approach that often the Scriptures are forced and, frankly, one can read Roman Catholic writers and they engage in the same approach. For example I was reading one Catholic writer and he said that the king is God and the bride is the virgin Mary. And he goes through this exact same methodology. So in conclusion we re saying that while we should see the Lord Jesus in these Psalms, yet we must not divorce them from the grammatical historical method of interpretation. That leads me then finally to the discussion of the types of Messianic psalms. Exactly how are we to see the 7 of 8

8 Lord Jesus in the Psalms and not cut outselves loose from the grammatical, historical method of interpretation? We ll have to reserve that discussion for the next lecture in which we will discuss types of Messianic Psalms. This course is a part of the curriculum offered through Christian University GlobalNet (CUGN). To learn more, visit us at All material in the preceding lecture is protected by registered international copyright and may not be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the written permission of Christian University Globalnet. 8 of 8