The Psalms. 1. Interpreting the Psalms

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1 1 The Psalms 1. Interpreting the Psalms 2. Ordering the Psalms 2.1 Lament Psalms 2.2 Hymns of Praise 2.3 Psalms of Gratitude & Trust 2.4 Cultic Psalms 2.5 Wisdom Psalms 2.6 Key Words in the Psalms 3. The Structure of the Book of Psalms 3.1 Psalm 1 A Psalm of Orientation 3.2 The Process of Disorientation 3.3 Psalm 73 An Experience of Conversion 3.4 Psalm 150 A Psalm of Reorientation 1. Interpreting the Psalms When we read any text, we interpret it. Of course to say that we interpret it doesn t mean we apply to it a meaning that it doesn t have or can t bear. But it does mean we apply to it what we know even if only our knowledge of language (for we can t understand, & therefore can t interpret a text in a language we don t know). This fact is just as true of the Bible. Before we go to the psalms, it may be worth looking very briefly at some of the ways in which scholars have tried to interpret the Bible, a science known as biblical hermeneutics. At some level, it s probably true that we use these ways ourselves when we read the Bible, & especially perhaps the psalms, which are often felt to speak most directly of our own experiences, despite the obvious differences of language, culture & context. We ll look briefly at hermeneutics in its narrower, more technical sense, but first a word on some other forms of interpretation. The most influential school of psalm criticism has its foundations in the work of a German OT scholar, Hermann Gunkel ( ). Although his work has been built on, nuanced & added to, his basic classification of the different genres or conventional forms of the psalms remains the starting point to this day. Form criticism, the sort of criticism that Gunkel developed, assumes that a culture has certain conventional ways of saying certain things different genres or forms. If we look at the particular form the Biblical author has chosen, then we can understand what he (normally if not exclusively he) wants to say. So, in the prophets, if the prophet uses the form of an oracle of woe, he is not offering good news, or at least not universal good news (the oracles of woe

2 2 against Israel s enemies are obviously good news for Israel, but not for the enemies). A form will also lead people to look at different things in different ways in using an oracle of woe, the very form will make the prophet consider reality in a different way, which may lead to further condemnations (one might imagine something like this at work in Amos 1), or also may lead to a realisation of God s salvation at work in the world (cf. the second half of Hosea 2). The main types of the psalms, to which we ll return later, are lament, thanksgiving/praise, wisdom & law, royal, & cultic (liturgical). There are also psalms which are predominantly historical. However, among the 150 psalms in the Bible, there are many which don t fit neatly into any one category, some which appear to fit into none of the categories at all. But by & large, all of them can be understood as speaking in one of those sorts of language. As texts, psalms are also open to literary criticism. This can be as literary works in much the same way one might read e.g. Homer or Virgil (ancient poets read often in translation, writing from very different cultural backgrounds). The advantage of this is to help determine the ways in which the writer uses language, the images & stylistic elements. Much of this is conventional, & in the psalms much is borrowed from other Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) traditions. How does the Biblical writer rely on &/or subvert these conventions? One can also look at the more technical elements of the structure of the psalms e.g. how Hebrew poetry works. These help us to understand the poetic structure of the psalm, & some of its features, which might otherwise make little sense. The basic unit for the Hebrew poem is the line normally one short sentence or two even shorter sentences. These are balanced in one or more of a variety of ways metrically (the same number of stresses), in how they sound, in what they mean, in grammatical form etc. Although our knowledge of Hebrew poetry, & especially its metrical nature, is limited, it s clear it obeyed certain rules, & that in the hands of some of the OT writers these gave rise to some beautifully memorable poems (& also that in some cases it was used almost mechanically to much less impressive effect). It s also very important to consider the settings in which the psalms were used. Here the most influential figure was a Swedish Biblical scholar, Sigmund Mowinckel ( ), who argued that the main setting for the psalms, especially the royal psalms was a new year enthronement festival, in which Yahweh s kingship was reaffirmed, & the place of the king as representative of & responsible for the maintenance & establishment of Yahweh s justice & peace on the earth was celebrated. Although later scholars tend to disagree with Mowinckel, at least as far as his theory tends to be overarching, it has had great influence, especially in linking the psalms to temple cults. More recently others have argued for a more domestic & familiar setting for the psalms. The views are

3 3 not necessarily mutually exclusive what began as the prayer of a fugitive may have become the prayer of a nation under threat or vice versa. Other social elements must also be taken into account, since often the psalms speak of real situations, real injustices that the psalmist asks the Lord to put right. An interesting reading here is of the threats against foreign nations, which often speak of kings & armies. The people of Israel calls on God to rid them of the threat of unjust social & military systems it s not violence against the uninvolved but against those who would usurp the role of God as the one who ultimately rules in Israel. It s a direct plea for social justice rather than sheer pleasure in physical brutality. Having considered some of these areas, we can now look at hermeneutics more narrowly understood, especially the theory of hermeneutics developed by a French scholar based in the USA, Paul Ricoeur. We ll look at how this has been applied to the psalms by an American based OT scholar from the Reformed tradition, Walter Brueggemann. One could approach the psalms from various perspectives. Brueggemann chooses that of function, which can be asked in two ways what was the function of the psalms for their users & writers in ancient Israel, & what is their function for us, members of the Christian faith community today (not to mention, of course, their function in contemporary Judaism)? He suggests the nature of the psalms is such that we can discover a commonality of function they serve to speak for people in limit-situations today as they served to speak for people in limit-situations two & a half millennia ago. The elements he draws from Ricoeur to talk about this are several. Ricoeur sees life as a movement from moments of disorientation to reorientation, the constant search for orientation or balance in our lives. Alongside or linked to these two movements, one of which is marked by a reluctance to let go of a world that has passed away, & the other by a capacity to embrace a new world which is given in its place, are two hermeneutical movements. Ricoeur wants to keep these two in tension, producing out of them a resolution. The first he has termed a hermeneutic of suspicion, represented by such thinkers as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche. This seeks to unmask the deceptions that are practised in the name of truth in Marxism the way that the dominant social class seeks to determine the nature of social reality, or in Freud the way in which we drive the truth about who we are into our subconscious & develop mechanisms for avoiding confronting that truth. This hermeneutic can be linked to what Brueggemann calls the psalms of disorientation, those which are prayed or sung by people who find themselves at limit-situations. These are moments of despair, usually moments when old

4 4 certainties simply no longer hold. We are forced to recognise that the religious sentiments which we had previously spoken without much thought no longer hold water. So, some would claim that the rhetorical questions in the psalms & other OT writings are not purely rhetorical i.e. the asker does not know the answer any more. & in recognising this, asking the questions we had not previously dared to ask, we are forced to confront the truth of the situation. In doing this we move on through the second form of hermeneutic which is a more language-based one. In restating situations we come to realise that the words can bear more meaning than we had originally anticipated. This has to do with Ricoeur s understanding of language, which he sees not merely as descriptive but also as evocative - it doesn t just tell us what is, but lets us see what could be. So, if some psalms are about the confrontation with the truth, the unmasking of the personal & social factors which have rendered our relationship with God untenable (either on an individual or communal or national level, or a mixture of the three), others are about the restoration of that relationship. But this is never a going back to what things were like before. The experience of disorientation is not ignored or undervalued, but becomes part of the reorientation. Thus we speak of a hermeneutical circle, but the better image is a spiral. T.S.Eliot puts it like this in the fourth of his Four Quartets: The end of all our journeying is to arrive where we began & know it for the very first time. The movement Brueggemann posits is from orientation a sense of being at home, of knowing who we are, who God is to disorientation. This is a painful move, one which, analogously to the hermeneutic of suspicion, demystifies & disenchants (in the literal meaning of the word, robbing us of all magical illusions). When we reach the bottom (cf. Ps 88, the only psalm of lament which has no positive prayer or comment), when we acknowledge that we ve been wrong or unfaithful to the truth, then we can begin the process of reorientation, analogous to a hermeneutic of representation, which re-symbolises & redescribes our life. The way this happens is through the language we use the forms since these are not merely descriptive, but evoke further possibilities of transformation. 2. Ordering the Psalms There are several ways we can order the psalms. The actual book of psalms is divided into five unequal sections: 1-41; 42-72; 73-89; & The first four sections end with a doxology, which is not part of the preceding psalm (a doxology is a short prayer of praise blessed be the Lord ). The final four psalms, which are hymns of praise, may be taken as the doxology to the whole collection. We ll look later at the way the psalms are put together, but the first & last can be seen as an introduction & conclusion to what comes in between. The

5 5 fivefold division is an ancient Jewish tradition, allying the psalms to the Pentateuch, the five books of the Torah. There are other divisions e.g. the first seventy-two psalms seem to form a division, for the last verse of Ps 72 reads: The Prayers of David, son of Jesse, are ended. Then again, 3-41 all have the heading A Psalm of David, & with three exceptions (Pss 19, 24 & 33) are psalms for individuals (though this can be argued). Pss are often called the Elohistic section, because of the use of the word Elohim to address God. Pss (except 94) are about God s kingship, & Ps 100 seems to be a song of thanksgiving ending this section. It s also possible that originally Ps 119, the great long hymn of praise to God s torah, was the final psalm, as it mirrors to some extent the first psalm. Pss are called songs of ascent, often held to be linked to the pilgrimage to Jerusalem or to songs sung within the Temple itself. Looking at the canonical form of the book of psalms (tehillim in Hebrew, songs of praise), note that the lament hymns tend to cluster in the first half & the songs of praise in the second, indicating a more or less conscious movement through the work Lament Psalms We referred earlier to Gunkel s work on classifying the different genres of the psalms. The main category is that of lament psalms, the songs of disorientation (cf. Pss 32,35,38,51,59,70,102,137,140). These psalms can be either individual or communal/national. They contain most, if not all, of the following elements address, complaint, petition, motivation, vow of offering & assurance of being heard. They begin by calling on God, then make the complaint, followed by a plea to God to do something about it, with reasons added as to why God should do something about it, a promise of sacrifice or offering if the plea is heard, & finally an abrupt shift to a declaration of certainty in God s response Hymns of Praise Another category is the hymn of praise (e.g. 8,19,29,33,40,65-66,92,100,104-5,111,113-4,116-7,135-6,138,145-6,148-50). These generally start with an element of praise, then give reasons for praising God, followed in many cases by some form of conclusion, either repeating the initial phrase or containing a wish or blessing Psalms of Gratitude & Trust This grouping is sometimes given as a subgroup of one or other of the first two categories (Pss 9,15,18,23,30,40,67,103,118,121,133,139). These tend either to emphasise trust in God (cf. also Pss 4,11,16,62,91,115,125,129,131) or to offer

6 6 thanks for various reasons, either personal or communal (cf. also Pss 9-10,34,41,68,124) Cultic Psalms A fourth category is the royal/cultic hymn, linked to the hypothesis of an enthronement celebration & renewal of the covenant (2,20,45,50,72,76,89,105, 110,114). This is one of the most debated characters some see nearly all the psalms as linked to this area, others deny its existence at all. One reason for this is the textual problems with the psalms, caused by badly copied texts coming down to us & by decisions over vocalisation of the Hebrew text (which originally would have been written without vowel pointing). At any rate, those psalms which were clearly royal in their origins remained part of Israel s heritage even after the end of the monarchy in the southern kingdom in 587 BCE & the exile. They came to be seen as talking of one who is to come & thus were used by the early Christians to articulate their response to the experience of Jesus Wisdom Psalms A fifth category is the wisdom hymns, often songs of praise to the law (torah) (cf. Pss 1,2,25,34,37,49,58,101,112,119,128). They show links with the wisdom literature & it s generally supposed these are therefore among the latest of the psalms to have been composed. They often praise the law & the stable life (what Brueggemann calls songs of orientation). As already mentioned, several psalms may be placed in different categories & it s probably wise not to be too overly concerned about what belongs where. However, nearly all the psalms can be understood from one of these categories. Sometimes content helps too e.g. there are penitential psalms (the best known is Ps 51) or historical psalms (Ps 81) Key Words in the Psalms A final way of understanding the psalms is to look at some of the key terms found in them. Three key words can be mentioned here sedeq/sedaqa (righteous, righteousness), hesed (steadfast love or loving-kindness) & emet/ emuna (fidelity or truth). Israel constantly returns to these as the key characteristics which the Lord shows in his treatment of his people. He is the righteous one, & therefore desires to see righteousness (justice) established on the earth. Consequently, he is the one to whom complaint is made when there is injustice, when righteousness is absent. He is the God who is always present for his people, the God of loving-kindness.

7 7 Those who display this attitude (the Hasidim), are those who keep the covenant with the Lord. He is the covenant-faithful one, the God who constantly keeps his promise, who remains ever-true to his people. It is the constant reiteration of this abiding belief in the fidelity of God, in his steadfast & unending love, which motivates the prayers of the psalms, whether the complaints when these characteristics seem hidden, or of thanksgiving for their return or abundant presence. 3. The Structure of the Book of Psalms Again following Brueggemann, we ll now look at the canonical structure of the book i.e. the way it appears in our Bible. In doing so, we can also see the way the compilers of the biblical book understood the movement of prayer. We ve already seen this to some extent when we talked of the move from disorientation to orientation Ps.1 A psalm of orientation We ve also already mentioned that the book of psalms is topped & tailed by two psalms which act as introduction & conclusion. Clearly these two psalms will have considerable canonical importance, since in the eyes of the compilers they say something about the nature of the book. So, the first psalm is what Brueggemann calls one of orientation. It knows its world, one in which the righteous, those who follow the way of the Lord, who delight in the torah. On the other hand, there are the wicked, who will be punished. The way of the righteous will triumph, the way of the wicked will punish. It s a simple, clear picture of a God who will see to it that those who are faithful to him prosper, whilst those who are not will suffer the consequences. Brueggemann notes this psalm preaches the value of obedience. It s probably written fairly late on, certainly post-exile, when in fact Israel has little alternative but to get on quietly with its life. It has no political power, is just a small pawn in other, much larger empires. The pain of what happened when it tried to be one of the big powers remains, & now all it can do is follow the Lord, who has indeed remained faithful & steadfast in his love for his people The process of disorientation But, as so often in Israel s life, reality intrudes. This cosy life of quiet obedience is not the only one the people experience. So, in the first half of the book of psalms there is, as we said, a larger number of lament psalms. As an example, we can look with Brueggemann at Ps.25. There is here the same understanding, the same belief that happiness is to be found in following the way of the Lord. But here it s not quite so simple. It s certainly not the straightforward affirmation of this fact

8 8 that Ps.1 gives us. The psalmist prays here that he may be made to know the ways of the Lord in whom he trusts. True, God is his salvation, but this God of salvation is one for whom he waits all day. He calls on God to remember his mercy & his hesed & not to recall the sins he has committed, again calling on God to remember him according to God s hesed. If God is the faithful, steadfastly loving one, the psalmist clearly doesn t altogether experience this in his life & in vv launches into a petition or complaint against this. He is carrying out his side of the bargain, but it doesn t always seem that God is keeping his side. It s not total doubt, but it s serious questioning, calling God to task. That s just one, not particularly extreme example of a lament psalm, but it shows this world of orientation, of easy, untroubled life before God, is not as straightforward as it seems, or as we might like. This mirrors many people s experience in prayer if we take a stable starting place, one where basically all seems to be going well, even if this is not particularly intense. But against this background things happen, both in our lives & so in our prayer, which seem to question this cosiness. It may be an illness our own or someone close to us. It may be a problem at work or at home, it may be something we hear or read, it may be a more specifically religious question. But it forces us to start asking questions, to confront the too easy picture of stability we ve been living in Ps.73 an experience of conversion This is the experience of disorientation, one where the hermeneutic of suspicion comes into play. Were we right to believe what we did before? Can we really trust in the words we ve previously used to describe our interaction with our God? If one psalm can be seen as a turning point something which is probably debatable then Brueggemann suggests Ps.73. As we ve seen, Ps.72, the end of the second book of the Psalter, seems to mark the end of one section of the book. It is, of course, almost half way through the 150 psalms. Whatever its positioning, the movement of the psalm is noteworthy. It starts with an acknowledgement of God s goodness, yet immediately launches into a confession. Here is not a world where the wicked are punished & get their comeuppance. Rather, they prosper & treat God with contempt. So, the psalmist asks, what s the point? Why bother living a life of innocence, when all you get is pain & suffering? These are genuine questions, not easily ignored or avoided. The psalmist doesn t want to walk the way of the wicked, but what s the alternative? The answer comes in an experience he has in the Temple. He doesn t go into it in detail, simply stating that it happened. This encounter with God is one which is mirrored in many people s lives in prayer. Often it s not something we can find

9 9 words to explain. It happens when all else has failed when, as the psalmist puts it so forcefully, to understand [the things that are going on in my life], it seemed to me a wearisome task. Perhaps we stop fighting, letting loose of a world that has departed. & in that moment we begin to perceive the possibilities of newness. Things make sense in a way that goes beyond words, though we then turn to words which evoke the possibilities inherent in this situation. It s not that he can now deny the evidence of his eyes & claim that the rich are not rich, the powerful not powerful. They still have their riches & status. But, from the new perspective with which he sees this, he realises this is not the most important thing that is to be with God, who is our strength & refuge forever. God is the one who holds our right hand, as the psalmist puts it so beautifully. It s a move from despair to hope, not a hope that ignores the past, but what Ricouer calls a second naïveté the first is pre-critical, when we think all is well because we know no better, but the second is when, having passed through the process of disorientation & reorientation, we come to realise, as Julian of Norwich puts it, that indeed all is well, & all is well, & all manner of things shall be well. Of course, there have been problems & will be again, & the pain of the past is still present, but transformed, just as the Risen Jesus is also the Crucified Jesus Ps.150 a psalm of reorientation & pure praise We can end with a brief consideration of Ps.150. Uniquely this psalm does not give a motivation for praise, but rather is pure praise. It simply calls on all creation to praise the Lord, using every musical instrument possible. Every living thing is called on to shout out the praise of the Lord. The Psalter ends in praise. The experience of the journey through disenchantment, through disorientation, to recreation, reorientation is one to which we can ultimately only respond in pure unbridled praise. Elsewhere, Brueggemann speaks of the nature of praise & describes it in eleven (!) categories: praise as a liturgical act, a poetic act, audacious act, an act of basic trust, a knowing act, a doxological act, a polemical act, a political act, a subversive act, an evangelical act & then in the end & not before a useless act. Ps.150 is an example of this it is praise for praises sake, the sheer joy of giving praise to the God who saves us. The book of the psalms moves from obedience to praise not discounting obedience, but realising that praise is the highest aim of all creation before the steadfast love of its God.

10 10 Suggestions for Further Reading Walter Brueggemann, Praying the Psalms, St. Mary s Press, Winona, Minneapolis, , The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary, Augsburg Old Testament Studies, Augsburg Press, Minneapolis, , The Psalms and the Life of Faith, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, , From Whom No Secrets are Hid: Introducing the Psalms, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, C.S. Lewis, Reflecting on the Psalms, Harcourt Brace & Co., New York, Carlo Maria Martini, What Am I that You Care for Me? Praying with the Psalms, St. Paul Publications, Slough, James L. Mays, The Lord Reigns, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, Thomas Merton, Praying the Psalms, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Roland E. Murphy, Responses to 101 Questions on The Psalms and Other Writings, Paulist Press, New York, Moira O Sullivan, God in Psalms, St. Paul s Publications, Strathfield NSW, Klaus Seybold, Introducing the Psalms, T & T Clark, Edinburgh, Carroll Stuhlmueller, The Spirituality of the Psalms, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Henry Wansbrough, The Psalms: A Commentary for Prayer and Reflection, The Bible Reading Fellowship, Abingdon, Patrick Woodhouse, Life in the Psalms: Contemporary Meaning in Ancient Texts, Bloomsbury Continuum, London, 2015.