The Religious Experience in the Book of Psalms (Das Alte Testament im Dialog / An Outline of an Old Testament Dialogue) [New ed.] 9783034320917, 9783035109207, 3034320914

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Shamai Gelander

The Religious Experience in the Book of Psalms

DAS ALTE TESTAMENT IM DIALOG an

outline

of

an

old testament Vol. 10

Peter Lang

dialogue

This book deals with the world of the psalms, in order to reveal the elements of faith as expressed in the various prayers. It includes an encompassing study of the variety of experiences: How can an individual in distress experience a situation which contrasts his actual reality altogether? What causes an individual to believe that God wants him to live and does not want him to die? What are the individual’s sources of confidence in justice as ruling over the universe, and his confidence that the harmony of the universe leaves no room for evil? Virtually all books of the Old Testament express the world view and opinions of their authors, with a didactic purpose on mind. Not so the Book of Psalms: Here we can find an expression of the pious individual’s world and his beliefs. The psalms are what the authors sought to place in the mouth of the worshippers, thinking that they would aptly express what was on their mind. Anybody who seeks to understand how faith and thoughtfulness join together with the individual’s emotions through a wonderful creative shaping, is invited to read this book.

Shamai Gelander (*1931, Vienna) graduated of the Hebrew University and the University of Tel Aviv and holds a PhD in biblical studies. He served as a senior lecturer of biblical studies at the Haifa University and of jewish studies at the University of Tel Aviv. He was a visiting professor in Oxford and served as chairman of the department of biblical studies and academic director of the college “Oranim”.

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The Religious Experience in the Book of Psalms

DA S A LT E T E S TA M E N T I M D I A L O G an outline of an old testament dialogue

Band / Vol. 10 Herausgegeben von / edited by Michael Fieger & Sigrid Hodel-Hoenes

PETER LANG

Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Oxford • Wien

Shamai Gelander

The Religious Experience in the Book of Psalms

PETER LANG

Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Oxford • Wien

Bibliographic information published by die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at ‹http://dnb.d-nb.de›. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library, Great Britain Library of Congress Control Number: 2015960674

Translation by J. Orr-Stav. Umschlaggestaltung: Thomas Jaberg, Peter Lang AG ISSN 1662-1689 pb. ISBN 978-3-0343-2091-7 pb.

ISSN 2235-5707 eBook ISBN 978-3-0351-0920-7 eBook

This publication has been peer reviewed. © Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2016 Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland [email protected], www.peterlang.com All rights reserved. All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.

Contents

Introduction.................................................................................................. 7 1. On the Methods of Ancient Commentaries..................................... 11 1.1 On contemporary interpretations................................................ 14 1.2 Guiding approach and investigative method............................. 19 1.3 On the essence of the experience............................................... 26 2. Transitions & Transformations........................................................... 33 2.1 The transformation experience: from the actual to the desired (per Ps. 23).................................................................. 33 2.2 From doubt and crisis to renewed faith (per Ps. 5).................. 49 2.3 From despair to hope, from pleading to thanksgiving............. 56 Interim Summary............................................................................... 83 2.4 Praise and thanksgiving................................................................. 84 Psalms 9–10...................................................................................... 89 2.5 Summary........................................................................................ 106 3. The Experience of Closeness to God.............................................. 113 3.1 “In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge”............ 113 3.2 Close – to the point of merger.................................................. 127 4. The Experience of Harmony: Justice and World Order............... 137 4.1 Psalm 39........................................................................................ 155 4.2 Psalm 147...................................................................................... 158 5. The Ceremonial Experience............................................................... 163 5.1 The procession or rally............................................................... 163 5.2 Raising sacrifices as a ceremonial experience.......................... 180 6. The Promised Life Experience.......................................................... 193 6.1 Confidence in salvation in the communal prayers.................. 206

7. Every Man a King................................................................................ 215 7.1 Psalm 20........................................................................................ 231 7.2 Psalm 132...................................................................................... 234 Conclusion................................................................................................ 239 Bibliography.............................................................................................. 243 Abbreviations............................................................................................ 251

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Introduction

The central aim of this book is to explore the unique qualities of the Book of Psalms. Other books in the biblical canon express the outlooks and views of the religious “authorities” – the priests/legislators, or prophets – or in general, the spiritual leaderships overseeing the biblical compositions, or the word of God as understood by His representatives on earth. By contrast, the Psalms give a voice to any person of faith who wants to put his case before their God, while showing how their plights and joys, and feelings of depression or elation, are linked to their faith.1 There are other books in the “wisdom literature” – such as Job and Ecclesiastes – in which the authors give vent to the anguish of their doubts and express the crisis that has befallen their faith in the face of conflict between conventional wisdom and the lessons of their own life experience. But while those books require scholarly introspection, the psalms in the Book of Psalms – including those attributed to the biblical “wisdom literature” – are, first and foremost, about an emotional and cognitive experience that brings about a rapid transformation in the worshipper, who as a result is mentally transported, to some degree or another, to his desired circumstances, to the point that he is oblivious to, the sensations arising from his actual situation. These transitions involve not only a change from hardship to salvation, from despair to hope, and from supplication to praise and gratitude, but also a sense of belonging to a clearly defined congregation, to total solidarity with the crowd of celebrants, and total rejection of “opponents” – i.e., anyone who is not part of that group.

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Hence the prevailing view in contemporary research – in contrast to the past – that attribute all the psalms to David (such as the statement at the end of the Psalms scroll discovered in Cave #11 at Qumran – 11Q XXVII – that David had composed all 4050 psalms). We shall revisit the question ofattribution to David further below, and in Chap. 6.

In other words, the transformation is evident in the worshipper’s ability to experience the desired situation both cognitively and emotionally. Objective reality is blotted out. The basic mechanism behind such a transformation relies on sets of expressions that come pre-charged with symbolic meanings: some representing the graphic essence of an idea, others in the guise of various formulaic expressions, but all designed to secure some purchase on the desired reality. Some – such as mentions of frequent visits to the house of God – are verbal constructions that are so evocative in the worshipper’s mind, their very enunciation can banish his present predicament to place him, in his mind, in the position he would like to be. In effect, they encapsulate the worshipper’s ideological demand for divine protection by virtue of his proclaimed innocence and blamelessness. The various descriptions and wordings used for this purpose illustrate the various nuances of the experiences involved. At the heart of this inquiry is the question: what is the worshipper experiencing – that is to say, what is the meaning of the words that the author puts in his mouth? To answer this, we must go beyond a simple reading of the text, beyond the literal meaning of words and idioms, and occasionally even beyond the usual use of figurative language.2 This is necessary because, over the centuries, psalms have become an integral part of the rites of worship and a staple of prayers, both on a daily basis and on festive occasions, as well as a means of individual expression of innermost thoughts and desires, in private or in public settings. From analysis of the psalms it is clear from the outset that the author was not limiting himself to any given historical situation, but imagined what they might represent to someone far removed from it in time and space. Accordingly, many of the expressions in the psalms should be regarded as metonymic in nature, i.e. as metaphorical or symbolic. To reveal the particular or historical situation behind any 2

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For the purposes of the current discussion, I use the term “figurative language” in its broader sense of departing from the conventional lexical meaning in the use of words and expressions – as opposed to Rivlin’s definition of “Graphic language, figurative language” in A Glossary of Literature, Tel-Aviv 1978, p. 30 (Hebrew).

given psalm, therefore, we must take care not to stray too far away from a simple reading toward the metaphorical and allegoristic. While the historical backdrops and dating of certain psalms are not the focus of this book, being able to discern the unique aspects of a given situation based on the constituent expressions in its description will help us avoid sliding towards free and inappropriate associations. The psalms were designed to give a voice to any individual, and invoke a sense of solidarity with one’s congregation or fellow celebrants.3 Our basic premise is that the language of the psalms was fully intelligible to everyone when they were first composed, but over time, when Hebrew ceased to be the spoken language of daily life, the words and descriptions took on metaphorical and allegoristic meanings. Although this change, in essence, is what psalmic interpretative tradition is all about, I do not believe it is possible to accurately trace the various stages of this evolution. We lack the necessary tools to do so, nor is it the main purpose of our study.4 That said, we can gain some sense of how this process unfolded in ancient commentaries, such as these two passages from the Talmud: Rabbi Meir says: All praises said in the Book of Psalms are quotes of David – as it is said: “Here end [the] prayers of David son of Jesse” (Psalms 72: 20): Do not read it as “Here end,” (kálu), but rather “These were” (kol élu). (Pesahim 117: 72). And who wrote them? Moses wrote his book, the story of Bil’am, and [the Book of] Job; Joshua wrote his book and [the Books of ] Judges and Ruth; David wrote the Book of Psalms with the help of ten elders: Adam, Melchizedek, Abraham, Moses, Jeduthun, Asaf, and the three sons of Korah… (Bava Batra 14: 72).

The words “Do not read it” in the first of these two excerpts is indicative of an interpretive reading – since that, after all, is the meaning 3 4

For a more extensive discussion of this topic, see chapter 4. See A. Rofé’s discussion on this point, especially with regard to the approach of ancient commentators – and translators – to the psalm titles: A. Rofé, Introduction to Psalmic Poetry and Wisdom Literature in the Hebrew Bible, Jerusalem 2004, pp. 33–37 (Hebrew).

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of the phrase5 – in a tacit admission of the difficulty of attributing all psalms to David, since historically this is implausible.6 The second of the two excerpts greatly qualifies that extreme generalization by attributing the composition of Psalms to the “help of ” ten elders, effectively presenting it as a supra-temporal act, that begins with ancestral Adam and ends in the days of the Levites. Be that as it may, we find that the words of the psalms transcend individual and specific historical situations, and that their significance, like the manner in which they were composed, is supra-temporal, and the situations they describe are highly emblematic.

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6

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See Maimonides, Moreh Nevukhim (“Guide to the Perplexed”) (trans. M. Schwartz), 3: 43. See also “‘Read [it] not [as]’ – Dialects of the Talmud and Jewish Writings,” Daat, Jewish Enclopaedia (Hebrew). See also: ibid. “Talmudic expressions, phrases, sayings and legislator idioms” (Hebrew). Conversely, see: N. M. Sarna (“Tehilim,” Encyclopaedia Biblica, vol. 8, Jerusalem 1984, pp. 444–445 (Hebrew), who argues that the Sages did indeed attribute the psalms to David – on the grounds that the word leDavid (“to David”) in the title of many psalms denoted the author, and because the colophon The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended (Ps. 72: 20) indicates that the editor was unaware of another eighteen psalms attributed to David.

1.  On the Methods of Ancient Commentaries

The notion that the psalms are prayers of allegorical significance is the conclusion of a prolonged and extensive interpretive process, but for the purposes of this introduction I shall sum up its chief highlights through the work of A. Simon. A detailed examination of four different approaches to the Book of Psalms7 reveals, I believe, what they have in common. Whether we see the psalms, as Ibn Gikatilla did, as prayers and non-prophetic songs, or as sacred prophetic poetry, like Ibn Ezra, or side with Saadia Gaon in his polemic against the Karaite view,8 the notion that the Psalms are allegorical is a repeated theme. Thus, Saadia Gaon thought the Book of Psalms was a supra-temporal manual – a “Second Torah,” as it were – and hence, too, his objection to the use of psalms to serve the fleeting needs of internal conflict.9 Simon also notes that the Karaites, by viewing the Psalmic literature as prophetic, and its authors as prophets of consolation, were presenting biblical prayer as superior to its rabbinical counterpart.10 In the case of Gikatilla, his reading of the Psalms as allegory is clear from his interpretation of the title of Ps. 30: “A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the House of David.” This psalm is problematic for two reasons: one is the anachronistic reference to the dedication of the Temple, the other is the discrepancy between the title and the body of the psalm, which is praise for recovery from illness. In his own commentary, Ibn Ezra begins by citing various previous commentators, who resolved the former difficulty by suggesting that David composed the psalm in honor of the dedication of the first, second, or third Temple, and the second difficulty by taking U. Simon, Four Approaches to the Book of Psalms (Hebrew). Specifically, Salmon Ben-Yeruham and Yefet Ben-Ali, who saw the psalms as mandatory prophetic prayers. Simon, Four Approaches, pp. 66–95. 9 Simon, Four Approaches, p. 94. 10 As argued, for example, by Yefet Ben-Ali. See: Simon, Four Approaches, pp. 7–74.

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a metaphorical approach, that is, that “time spent in exile is analogous to being ill.” He then proposes his own solution, namely that the psalm is referring not to the house of God, but to David’s personal palace, which was dedicated when he recovered from illness. Finally, Ibn Ezra cites Gikatilla’s interpretation, who resolves both difficulties by invoking an extreme metaphor: David’s illness was not a physical affliction, but a mental one, brought on by his bitter disappointment when Nathan the Prophet told him he would not build the house of God because of his bloody past (per Chronicles 28: 3) – but when he learns that his son Solomon will build the Temple, his sorrow turns to joy, and he sings a song of praise for having the permission to “dedicate” the Temple.11 Ibn Ezra then goes on to cite Gikatilla’s interpretation of the anachronism in Ps. 122: “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord ” – namely, that this psalm was written by David to be recited once the Temple was built.12 As we shall see later, the psalms may be said to be “prophetic” – not necessarily because they foretell future events, but because in their final stages of composition,13 a metaphorical or allegoristic14 dimension was added to actual historical events (e.g., “when he fled from Absalom his son” [Ps. 3: 1]), to allow the worshipper to identify with David’s life story, or even with the symbolic sense of the idea of “king” in its wider sense.15 Ibn Ezra 11 Simon, Four Approaches, p. 115. On the issue of the connection between the king’s recovery from illness and construction projects as seen in Ugaritic literature, see chapter 6, notes 11 & 19 there. 12 Similarly, Gikatilla takes an allegoristic approach (similar to Ibn Ezra’s) to interpreting Ps. 132 based on verse 13, namely, that the suffering in the title (“his afflictions”) refers to David’s anguish over the plague (II Sam. 24: 13–15) – which turns to joy when he learns that God has chosen Zion for His abode (see Simon, Four Approaches, p. 117). Accordingly, Gikatilla attributes the psalm’s composition to David’s old age – thus linking the title to David’s personal life, and to its symbolic significance as well. 13 Namely, the point at which the titles were added, and the psalms arranged and grouped. 14 I use this term to denote a work that offers only hinted allusions to the main elements in the reference – as distinct from an allegorical one, where each of the components has a parallel in the reference. 15 See a more extensive discussion of this in chapter 6.

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himself took a similar approach, in principle, by attempting to prove the sanctity of psalms based on various biblical passages (I Chron. 9: 22; II Chron. 5: 12) in which David, Ahiman, Asaph and Jedutun are given prophetic titles.16 In our inquiry, therefore, the notion of “divine inspiration” might be interpreted to mean that the psalms are indeed of a supra-temporal nature, experiential expressions that are not limited to specific historical episodes, and the prophetic titles are an attempt to bridge between the psalms’ titles and their general message and wider meaning.17 The same is true for the approach taken by the Karaite commentaries, where the recital of the psalms in the Temple is perceived as a secondary (repeated) prophecy. Solomon Ben-Yeruham thought the very act of writing down the psalms was a kind of pious act18 – while Yefet Ben-Ali noted that allusions to the psalms being proclaimed to be “in the holy spirit” are references to “performer poets,” with whom the holy spirit dwelt in the days of the later kings as well, rather than the “composer-poets,” whom the holy spirit abandoned with the death of King Solomon.19 The allegoristic significance is also apparent in how Yefet Ben-Ali interprets David’s personal enemies, and in his method of classification based on the number of enemies of Israel addressed in each case.20 In a way, Ben-Ali’s approach is similar, in principle, to my argument that any worshipper might see the psalms as an expression of their innermost feelings and faith, if we understand the medieval 16 Simon, Four Approaches, p. 110. 17 Equally, it seems, one could designate as prophetic the psalms “given to him from before the Most High” (as stated at the end of the Psalms scroll discovered at Qumran – see note 1 above), and Ibn Ezra’s commentary on the Psalms as holy prophetic poetry, thus reconciling his allegoristic approach and his view that a simple reading is the best. In other words, the psalms’ prophetic quality lies not in their foretelling of specific future events, but in the depiction of conditions representing a range of possible situations in any time period. 18 Simon, Four Approaches, p. 59, and his inquiry into the power of musical playing to induce divine inspiration, even in the Temple. Also on that point, see chapter 4 below on the experience of the ceremonial event. 19 Ibid. p. 81. 20 Ibid. p. 93.

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commentators’ definitions of “prophecies” or “commandments” in the looser and more symbolic sense of anticipating salvation as given (as Ibn Ezra did), rather than as prayers (as Gikatilla argued). Such an explanation would also be consistent with my interpretation of psalms that feature seemingly “abrupt” transitions from supplication to gratitude: the religious experience in these psalms lies in the worshipper’s ability to be transported in his mind from his current plight to his desired state of redemption as if it has already been achieved in reality.21 Such observations underline how much the expressions of religious experience defy formal classification of the psalms into distinct genres.22 Despite the allegoristic meanings in his commentary, Ibn Ezra, like Gikatilla, thinks that a simple reading is the most important,23 and the tension between the allegoristic meaning and the simple reading, can support the approach that we have described, and clarify it.

1.1  On contemporary interpretations In my review of more recent research – from the nineteenth century onwards – I shall also limit my inquiry to the aspects relevant to our discussion, which focus on the religious experience in the psalms, namely the emotions and world view of the individual revealing his innermost thoughts to his God. To this end, I rely largely on A. Rofé’s 21 See chapter 1, section 3. 22 That said, Yefet Ben-Ali does distinguish between words of praise and various types of supplications. See Simon, Four Approaches, pp. 70–71. 23 Simon (ibid., p. 138) also states that his free approach to the commentaries is apparent in his fundamental view that the entire Hebrew Bible was intended to serve as a source of metaphysical and theological truths. Accordingly, personal psalms (e.g. psalms 16, 25) – which Rashi saw primarily as an expression of physical and mental needs, i.e. for the forgiveness of moral and ritual sins and to a life of observing commandments and studying Torah – were raised by Ibn Ezra to a theological-metaphysical level, as an expression of spiritual-cognitive needs (ibid., p. 192).

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extensive survey of the key findings of research and interpretation in the modern era.24 Ewald’s commentary is characteristic of the first period of historical commentary of the Book of Psalms.25 It offers a classification of the psalms by period, which is relevant to my investigation only inasmuch as they include certain expressions that reflect the psalm’s historical context, i.e., the circumstances in which the speaker actually finds himself, rather than stock phrases. This issue will be discussed at greater length later – especially in the first part of chapter 2. According to Rofé, Ewald also distinguished between early and late psalms based largely on his personal taste: the most beautiful ones he attributed to David, while the more inferior ones (e.g., the Royal Psalms – 20, 21, 45) he attributed to a later period. I shall address this issue later in this, and in other chapters. While I do not divide the psalms into “beautiful” and “inferior,” I do dwell a great deal on their metaphorical content, in an effort to distinguish expressions that are unique (especially in structure and in context), from those that are used merely schematically. Since even that sort of distinction is not entirely free of subjective bias, I have tried to do so by applying clear criteria: a) How does a given metaphor relate to the various descriptions in the psalm, i.e. to what extent does the expression fit the situation or the speaker’s condition; b) Descriptive devices: is a particular situation described in detail – or in generic terms, with few metaphorical allusions to the situation at hand; c) The expressions used to describe distress, the speaker’s opponents and their just desserts – are they distinctive, or formulaic or common expressions (such as “evildoers”; “liars”; “Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed,” etc.). I examine this more extensively and in greater detail in the first part of chapter 2 with regard to the evolution of the metaphor of sheltering under the wings of God; d) The ratio between salvation and thanksgiving in the psalm’s descriptions; e) The relationship of the moral of the story to the situation at hand – i.e., the degree to which one can say that the general conclusions about God’s 24 Ibid. pp. 330–336, and see note 6 there. 25 See H. Ewald, Commentary on the Psalms (transl. E. Johnson), vol. I, London 1880, pp. 113–114.

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ways, the rule of justice in His world, the reward for the righteous, etc. do indeed spring from the particular experience or situation being described in the psalm. As for the contributions of Gunkel and his followers, I accept most of Rofé’s observations, and will limit myself on this occasion only to a few clarifications. I see no difficulty in the actual terminology that Gunkel uses in his classification of the psalms into literary genres,26 – only in the criteria themselves. Although Gunkel recognizes that a poem may initially be inspired by a particular historical event, he notes how poems can change from an unique expression to a repeated expression of historical significance, and in such cases, as Rofé points out,27 a poem is more the product of an entire period than of a single type of poetry. In particular, as he sees it, each poem is derived from a particular social custom or lifestyle – such as the custom of women of going out and greeting returning heroes with songs and dance. Gunkel’s approach should therefore be seen more as a kind of historical inquiry than a literary interpretation. For this reason, the customary English translation of Gunkel’s term Sitz im Leben as “setting in life” is problematic, as it is inaccurate both in meaning and in scope. Judging by Gunkel’s classification of psalms by genres, Sitz im Leben appears to refer not to the context in which the psalm was written, but the context in which it is meant to be recited by the congregation – i.e., its “ritual purpose” or “cultic setting.” In any event, Gunkel’s classification is not relevant to our discussion, because in the course of my inquiry it will become apparent that the various experiences depicted cover more than one type: quite a few psalms, for example, contain both a complaint and thanksgiving.28 Recognizing this difficulty, Gunkel proposed that this is because the supplicant is so confident that God will grant his prayer, he can already 26 Hymns (or Songs of Praise) in General; Communal Complaint Psalms; Individual Complaint Psalms; and Royal Psalms. See H. Gunkel, “Fundamental Problems of Hebrew Literary Problems,” What Remains of the Old Testament (translated by A.K. Dallas), London 1928, pp. 57–68. 27 Ibid. p. 336. 28 E.g., Pss. 115, 119, 129, 131, 144, 147, where the merger of several themes is particular apparent.

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imagine his subsequent song of thanksgiving – in other words, his gratitude is not for his present condition, but for his future one, and expressed accordingly. Nonetheless, Gunkel stands by his classification into distinct genres, and particularly his differentiation between “an individual’s thanks” and the “an individual’s complaint.” In chapter 1, in my review of the various descriptions of transformations in the speaker’s consciousness in greater detail, it will become apparent why, even with this qualification, this classification does not accurately account for the various types of religious experience in the Book of Psalms. The same is true of the psalms of individual or communal thanksgiving. According to Gunkel, these should all fall under the “Hymns in General” category – however, based on the experience depicted in them, they should be attributed to different genres, since some focus on the experience of transition from despair to hope (see chapter 1, section 4), some on the celebration’s ceremonial aspects (see chapter 4), while others deal primarily with the experience of the promised life (which is explored in greater detail in chapter 5). Hence, certain psalms may be examined repeatedly from various angles, and as such defy neat classification under Gunkel’s scheme. Gunkel’s theory about “the kingship of God”29 – as refined and accentuated by Mowinckel30 – defines these psalms as depicting an annual celebration of God’s enthronement. But Mowinckel links these psalms not only to the actual celebration, but to ritualistic elements of Near Eastern Creation myths – such as the drama surrounding the life of the Creator, including His struggle, death and resurrection, and ascendance to the throne, which is repeated every year with the cycles of the seasons.31 In other words, Mowinckel thought that the psalms should be understood as works that arose naturally from the ritual’s 29 See Pss. 47, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99. 30 See S. Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien I–IV, Kristiana 1921–1924. Idem, Religion und Kultur, Göttingen 1953. 31 On the Babylonian festivities based on this myth, and the question of how they are reflected in the biblical texts, as perceived by Mowinckel’s followers, see J.S. Licht, Time and Holidays, pp. 108–112, esp. H. Tadmor, “New Year’s Day in Mesopotamia,” pp. 112–121 (Hebrew).

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content, while Gunkel interpreted formulaic expressions as though they had been uttered by the believers engaged in the ritual.32 Moreover, from an examination of the ceremonial psalms and the communal supplications, it is apparent that the nature of the mythic allusions vary with the historical context, such as passages that make direct references to the myths. Thus, descriptions of the Creator’s victory over specified monsters (leviathan, dragon, serpent, Rahab) in a physical confrontation – are made during a state of acute national crisis (e.g., Pss. 51, 89), while texts in which mythological entities are alluded to only obliquely, or where the Lord’s victory is some time in historic past (such as the crossing of the Red Sea) and there is no mention of theomachical struggle between God and his rivals, are mainly of a celebratory nature or festive occasion (e.g., Ps. 93). Hence, the treatment of the myth in the psalms is indicative not so much of a particular ritual, but of the historical context and the speakers’ subjective feeling. I explain this at greater length in chapters 4 and 5 of this book, and elsewhere.33 As for the significant transformations highlighted in Weiss and Strauss’s examinations, which typify the literary approach to the psalmic poetry, I am inclined to agree with A. Rofé, who discusses it in detail.34 For a greater understanding of the science of literature and its application in the Old Testament, I refer the reader to Weiss’s comprehensive book on the subject.35 Weiss, however, tends largely to avoid or ignore the question of the psalms’ historical background – possibly in response to the endless preoccupation of previous scholars with that point, at the expense of examining the psalms’ artistic and experiential qualities. For my part, where evidence of a psalm’s specific historical situation may help to shed light on the religious experience that it describes, however speculatively, I shall attempt to describe it – and vice versa: indeed, where the description permits, 32 See Rofé’s reservation on this point in Psalmic Poetry, pp. 351–352. 33 Gelander, The Power Struggles, 2005 (Hebrew). 34 Ibid. pp. 365–376. 35 Weiss, The Bible and Modern Literary Theory (Hebrew). See also Rofé’s comment about the third edition, Psalmic Poetry, p. 365 and note 25 above.

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I feel it behooves me to discuss the background that gave rise to the experience. Many psalms contain such a mix of historical and religious experience references, and such an approach is fully consistent with Weiss’s “holistic” method. As for Strauss, as I noted earlier, I do not think that his analysis sufficiently addresses the pious aspect at the heart of the religious experience in the psalms. While he does note that the speaker in the psalm is making his case before God, Strauss’s prosodic analysis does not adequately emphasize the fact that the tension invoked by the sense of God’s presence, in its various degrees, is also a key part of the tension of the psalmic experience as a whole. Without such an appreciation, the entire transformation experience is missed – as evident, for example, in Ps. 23, with which I begin my inquiry. Similarly, his omission of the opening and concluding verses of Ps. 131, on the grounds that these are redactive addenda inserted later, is equally misguided, to my mind, as they are clearly integral to the psalm itself.36

1.2  Guiding approach and investigative method Since this study does not deal with the Book of Psalms as a whole, but primarily with the religious experiences portrayed therein, I have chosen not to dwell upon the structure of the book, nor with its division into groups of chapters. In any event, those questions have already been dealt with extensively elsewhere, and can be found in nearly every introduction to the Book of Psalms. Instead, to clarify my topics of investigation, suffice it to say the following: 1. To the best of my knowledge, there is no coherent and consensual explanation in the research literature for the division of the 36 So, too, according to Rofé, ibid. pp. 374–375 – and my examination below of the importance of the form of address to God to understanding the underlying situation.

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Book of Psalms into five compilations, or books.37 I do accept the argument that the first of these (Pss. 1–41) consists largely of the most ancient psalms. As for the second and third sub-books – which include the block of psalms now known as the Elohistic Psalter because they refer to God as Elohim rather than as YHWH – Rofé suggests that YHWH’s name was changed to Elohim during redaction, out of reverence for the Lord’s name. I agree, but would further postulate that this was carried out during the general initiative of assimilating northern Israelite traditions and texts (which, as is well known, are characterized, in part, by references to God as Elohim) into their southern (Judean) counterparts, during the comprehensive religious reforms carried out by King Hezekiah following the destruction of the northern kingdom. As I describe elsewhere,38 this is also when the rewriting of biblical historiography as the history of a single people may have begun, as part of Hezekiah’s efforts to unify Judea and Israel in a single ritual framework. In this book, I shall address this issue mainly in chapter 4, in relation to the ceremonial experience. 2. I also accept that the division of Pss. 90–150 into books 4 & 5 (90–106, and 107–150, respectively) was done for reasons that are unclear, and perhaps arbitrary, since the two groups have many attributes in common that set them apart from other parts of the Book of Psalms: most are public–liturgical, and few are in the form of an individual’s prayer. Moreover, psalms of these two books – specifically, Pss. 103, 117, 119, 124, 125, 133, 144, 145 (i.e., the fifth more than the fourth) – feature linguistic patterns of a later period.39 Since my classification focuses on the types of experience being described, I would point out that descriptions 37 See: N. M. Sarna,”Tehilim,” Encyclopaedia Biblica, esp. 448–450; and N.M. Sarna (ed.) The Psalms, vol. I, Tel-Aviv. 1995 pp. 8–11. (Hebrew); and Rofé, Psalmic Poetry, pp. 308–311. See also Eaton, Psalms, esp. pp. 41–43. 38 See: S. Gelander, From Two Kingdoms to One Nation – Israel and Judah, Leiden – Boston 2011, pp. 193–232. 39 See A. Hurvitz, Ben Lăshon le-laŝon: The Transition Period in Biblical Hebrew, Jerusalem 1972.

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of ceremonial occasions do indeed feature predominantly in Pss. 90–150. However, here too, as in the other books, the experiences transcend the “classical” boundaries of classification. Thus, for example, the hymn psalms (songs of praise) contain not only elements of praise but of supplication and moralistic pronouncements (usually in the form of general moralizations), as well.40 Thematically, as well, the psalms in these final two books are no different from those in the other books, although in general terms one might say that individual prayers feature more prominently in the former (fourth book), while in the latter the ceremonial element is more predominant, with considerably less emphasis on moralizing and wisdom maxims. This suggests that the psalms in these books – or many of them, at least – had already been collated and redacted for ritual ceremonial purposes rather than to reflect individual experiences, and indeed the mingling of themes is particularly apparent in psalms of a ceremonial nature (see chapter 4). 3. My approach to the various clusters in the book – in particular, the smaller clusters – is similar. The reasons for grouping various psalms into contiguous clusters are not clearcut: the arrangement is based on their titles, but the criteria for this arrangement are unclear.41 As a rule, they are grouped according to their literary form or subject, on an associative basis. Such a division, however, is inherently subjective by nature: Goulder, for example, justifies the division of Korahite psalms (42–49; 84–89, except 86) into two,

40 See, for example, the thematical compositions of Pss. 113–118, and especially 115 and 119, in which every letter of the Hebrew alphabet is the start of an appeal, a declaration of innocence, a thanksgiving and a moralization. The same is true of Pss. 129, 131, 144 and 147. 41 See Rofé’s detailed discussion, Psalmic Poetry, pp. 311–315. He accepts Delitzsch’s basic premise that the psalms were arranged by their degree of homogeneity, and in Rofé’s view (according to Kassuto), that homogeneity is often manifest in the associativity of expressions. See Delitzsch, Psalms, (trans. F. Bolton), Grand Rapids, reprinted 1986, pp. 21–22.

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on the grounds that they represent two distinct stages of ritual drama.42 I shall return to this topic later – mainly in chapter 4. There is no doubt that a complex ritual ceremony, comprising prayers of varying themes and design, consolidates its various components into an overall experience. Nonetheless, in my examination I shall focus on the distinctive experiences set out in each psalm, as each one stands on its own as an independent creation. While psalmic poetry can be found elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, as well,43 I have chosen to limit my inquiry to the religious experience in the Book of Psalms. This calls for a further clarification: I noted earlier that the Book of Psalms is unique in that it is about man addressing his God, while other biblical books focus on the words of God to man (either directly, or through his prophets or messengers). While we do find instances of moralizing or wisdom maxims in the psalms that are thematically similar in many respects to those in the Book of Proverbs, some of these form an integral part of the religious experience being described as they represent the moral of the story of the speaker’s experience, and so are included in my inquiry. Conversely, those that are purely ideological, standalone pronouncements are omitted. The psalms outside the Book of Psalms are, for the most part, epic poems (although they do have some lyrical elements), and are worthy of a separate study. However, there are also lyrical psalms incorporated in prosaic contexts, such as Hannah’s Prayer (I Sam. 2: 1–10); Jonah’s 42 See Goulder, Sons of Korah. See also attempts to find principles of evolution from one psalm to the next in the Songs of Ascent, in terms of the main theme: Y. Shaviv, Bisdeh Hemed, 21 (1978), pp. 392–400 (Hebrew), and Y. Bazak with regard to the unified nature of the hymns (Beit Mikra 41, 3 (1996), pp. 210–227. 43 See the Song of the Sea (Ex. 15: 1–18), the Song of Deborah (Judges 5); parts of Moses’s Blessing (Deut. 33: 2–5, 25–29); the blessings of the forefathers and tribes; Noah’s blessing of his sons (Gen. 9: 25–27); Balaam’s blessings (Num. 23: 7–10, 18–24; 24: 3–9, 15–19, 20, 24); the Ark (Num. 10: 35–36); the Song of the Well (Num. 21: 17–28); the speakers in proverbs (Num. 21: 27–30); and passages of poetry incorporated into the poetic prophetic literature, e.g. Jer. 8: 13; 9: 9; 10: 19–21; 12: 7–8; 14: 2–9; 15: 10, etc.

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Prayer (Jonah 2: 1–10); Hezekiah’s Prayer (Isa. 38: 9–10), and others. From the integration of these psalmic passages within the narrative, one can detect how the psalms were used, and how, in the authors’ view, they related to a given historical-narrative situation. However, apart from the associative connection, which is easy to establish, a comprehensive discussion of the relationships between the poetic descriptions of a given experience and their prosaic description would require a full analysis of the narrative text and of the poems themselves – which lies beyond the scope of the current study. However, we can say this: as a rule, the relationship between the poems and their prosaic context is much the same as that between certain psalms and their respective titles, i.e., between the content of a psalm and the historical context stated in its title.44 This associative connection is aimed at extending the boundaries of the particular experience and extracting the general significance from the particular occurrence. Thus, the transition from distress to tangible salvation, or from crisis and despair to renewed faith, becomes a general faith-related transformation, allowing any worshipper to identify with the content of the psalm and see it as an expression of their personal condition. I discuss this throughout the book – especially in chapter 6. Such distinctions are helpful in discerning the uniqueness of the experience behind each poem, and to that end one must distinguish between formulaic expressions, which naturally lend themselves to a variety of situations, and unique ones, which are clearly tailored to the speaker’s particular situation. To do so, I employed the following criteria: a) Format – namely, if the speaker’s situation is described in detail or only in broad terms, with few appropriate metaphorical references; b) Whether the speaker’s distress and his antagonists are described with truly unique expressions or with formulaic expressions such as “I become like them that go down into the pit ”; “all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me ”; “evildoers”; “those who speak falsehood ”; “they shall be ashamed ”; “ashamed and sore vexed.” Particular attention in this regard is devoted to the evolution of metaphors for living under 44 See also the relationship between II Samuel 22 (= Psalms 18) and the preceding narrative in particular: Zakovitch, From Shepherd to Messiah, pp. 148–150; and my commentary on Ps. 3 in Chap. 1.

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God’s protection (see chapter 2); c) The ratio of descriptions of distress to those of salvation and thanksgiving; d) The degree to which the moral message being put forward – about the Lord’s ways, the rule of justice in His world, the rewards to the righteous, etc. – truly springs from the particular situation being described, or is merely tacked on for convenience. It is important to note, that I discuss the historical background mainly when the psalm provides clues about the speaker’s circumstances, or when the historical context can help reveal and clarify the worshipper’s experiences (as in the case of some of the psalms discussed in chapter 4, and in Ps. 132 – see chapter 6).45 In this respect, my approach is different from those of Weiss and of Strauss.46 A. Rofé 45 Sarna (who usually echoes Buttenweiser’s position) dates the psalms by the circumstances they describe: Pss. 9–10, 12, 14, 35, 38, for example, reflect a condition of exile. Hints of exile are also apparent elsewhere, as in 41: 21; 69: 36–37; 44; 74; and 70, which may allude to the end of prophecy in the early Second Temple period. The absence of any mention of communal sin, as in Ps. 44, is indicative of the introduction of the Judean constitution at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. References to “the house of Aaron” in Ps. 118, and of the triumph of the faithful in Ps. 149: 5–9, are suggestive of the Maccabean period. Sarna sees other late-period signs in Pss. 22: 27–30; 65; 68: 32; and 86: 8–10, which show signs of influence by the teachings of the prophets. The same is true of the universal worldview put forward in Pss. 93; 96–100, or the belittling of burnt sacrifices in Pss. 40: 7; 50: 8–15; 51: 18–19, which suggest influence by Isaiah’s ideas (see my discussion of these issues in the context of these psalms). However, Sarna also points to ancient Canaanite and Middle-Eastern influences, such as the links between Ps. 29 and the Epic of Gilgamesh (see also Y. Avishur, Studies in Psalmic Poetry, pp. 25–75 (Hebrew), and the similarities between Ps. 104 and the Great Psalm to Aten. He finds further hints of historical events in Pss. 2; 48, 74, 79; 89; and to earlier events in Pss. 78, 81; 83; 95; 105; 106; 135; 136. That said, the absence of any eschatological terminology or references to a “Day of Judgment” may limit the dating of these psalms to a certain period, while Pss. 126, 137 and others appear to date from after the destruction of the First Temple. See M. Buttenweiser, The Psalms – Chronologically Treated with a New Translation (1938): Repr. with a prolegomenon by N. M. Sarna, New York 1969. See also N. M. Sarna, “Tehilim,” Encyclopaedia Biblica, pp. 446–447 (Hebrew). 46 Strauss also appears to avoid discussion of the historical context, although one cannot say so with certainty, since he examines only five psalms (12; 23; 114; 124; 131) whose historical background is unclear, and identifying their

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rightly criticizes Weiss for taking expressions at face value, ignoring their conventional or established meaning in their many appearances in the Bible or in other closely related languages in the region. As Rofé points out, such a reading would suggest that the poet supposedly chose the expression in question with the intention of attaching a new meaning to it, as if he had free rein to do so, with no regard to tradition or of the language of his contemporaries.47 Yet, one of the key characteristics of literary psalms is how poetic forms are subject to ancient laws and traditions: the poet must strike a balance between strict tradition and creative originality.48 Similarly, the interpretation of significant expressions must rely just as much on the ancient sources as on their respective contexts: only by taking both of these into account can the reader (or indeed, the worshipper) be sure that they are not making misleading associations. Moreover, the hymns – particularly the ceremonial psalms – feature many instances of participants shouting out pithy slogans – declarative distillations of the crowd’s faith and distinctiveness49 whose full meaning must have be apparent to all its members, since it is hard to imagine how else they could have galvanized the crowd and imbued it with a sense of unity and solidarity. As I said earlier, precisely how the psalms came into being and were compiled into the Book of Psalms lies beyond the scope of this book.50 Therefore, where I discuss examples of redaction, it is not as

47 48 49 50

place in the history of the psalmic literature requires comparison with other psalms, even when a historical event such as the Exodus from Egypt (Ps. 114) is mentioned. On the other hand, the importance that Strauss ascribes to meter brings him much closer to Ibn Ezra’s observations about the psalms’ modes of performance. See: M. Weiss, The Bible and Modern Literary Theory (Hebrew), pp. 28–47; A. L. Strauss, Psalms, pp. 66–94, “On Three Psalms from the Book of Psalms,” Studies, Booklet I, 1964. E. Rofé, Psalmic Poetry, p. 368. For more on this in greater detail, see chapter 1, section 3, and also Y. Hoffman, “Transition”, pp. 161–172 (Hebrew). This topic is discussed at greater length in chapter 4. See Sarna’s review of this topic, ibid., pp. 440–441, where he focuses on the merger of two psalms into one, according to translations, commentaries and ancient literary sources, e.g. Pss. 9–10; 42–43 (according to Yalkut Shimoni Tehillim Ref. 745; Pss. 53–54 (per Ginzburg); and Pss. 53–54, 70–71; 93–94; 94–95;

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part of a systematic study of such instances. Nonetheless, every time an editor chose to add text, to split a psalm into two or merge two psalms together, undoubtedly represented a kind of internal biblical commentary that revealed what he sought to attribute to the experience as a whole, and to present to the psalm reader. The same is true for all types of redacting, including the arrangement of psalms in a particular order, and the decision as to a psalm’s title and how it related to its content.51

1.3  On the essence of the experience Uncovering the speaker’s personal religious experience in each psalm demonstrates how it defies neat classification of the psalms into genres – indeed, the very transformation that the worshipper experiences often places the supplication and the praise at odds with each other, since the latter is given in thanks to having one’s appeal for help answered, while the former is an expression of distress. Even the participants’ declarations in the festive ceremony are inherently moralistic maxims in nature. Thus, labeling certain psalms as either “ritualistic” or “wisdom psalms” essentially ignores one of the significant elements in each case, and gives a false impression of the experience as a whole. Accordingly, in this book I do not dwell on the so-called “wisdom psalms,” since the maxims they contain do not relate to any particular situation or personal condition. Instead, I examine the wisdom elements only where the moral can be said to be a direct consequence of the worshipper’s emotional and cognitive experience. Even the king’s personal experiences, after acquiring metaphorical or allegorical meanings, require recognition of elements of supplication or of praise 104–105; 114–115; 116–117; 117–118. See also Eissfeldt, The Old Testament, an Introduction, (trans. P.R. Ackroyd), Oxford 1965, pp. 444–454, and A. Rofé Psalmic Poetry, pp. 33–64. 51 For more on this, see chapter 6 in particular.

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that suit the circumstances of any given worshipper. Therefore, when examining a particular psalm, while I may make an incidental note of its classification by various commentators, it will not be as part of an attempt to define a coherent and systematic set of rules of classification and definition.52 Finally, I will dwell briefly on the fundamental differences between this and two other important books in the literature: The Varieties of Religious Experience, by W. James, and Ideas and Beliefs in the Book of Psalms by M. Weiss. In the case of the former, the important difference between it and my inquiry is that James focuses on the attitudes and situations that prepare a person for a complete transformation of lifestyle and perception of the meaning of life. He presents the convert as a fundamentally changed man – following a revelation, or a prolonged, premeditated withdrawal from one’s previous life, or when the transformation simply descends upon him unexpectedly.53 However, as far as I can tell, the psalms do not involve a life-changing experience for the worshipper: his priorities do not change, and apart from strenuous proclamations of his innocence, he experiences his redemption in full, without it being contingent upon a complete change in his behavior or beliefs. Admittedly, in a handful of instances the worshipper sees the error of his ways, such as “I said in my haste, All men are liars” (Ps. 116: 11) or “For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes” (Ps. 31: 22 – see also 30: 7). But there, as elsewhere, it is not the transformation in the worshipper’s life that appears to have brought his redemption, but the salvation that he experiences during his prayer that changes his outlook. Indeed, all the transitions from one state to another – from despair to hope and security – take place in the course of the prayer. It is the prayer itself – the worshipper’s dialogue with his Creator – that constitutes the entire experience, including the changes that he undergoes. There is no evidence of any other type of conversion: the religious experience is the prayer experience. 52 See Eissfeldt’s review (ibid. – see note 50), pp. 88–128. See also A. Rofé, Psalmic Poetry, pp. 11–32. 53 W. James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, Edinburgh 1902, pp. 125–142.

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As for Weiss’s work, his main intention is to examine certain tenets of religious worldview that are evident in the psalms (especially those that make the speaker confident of his salvation), while in this book the emphasis is on the experience itself – with each chapter devoted to a different type of experience – and the opinions and views that the worshipper derives from it. In most cases, I prefer to start by examining one or two psalms, as a test case. The order of chapters in the book largely follows a logical progression, as certain phenomena and aspects that appear at the beginning of my inquiry are examined at progressively greater depth and scope. As a result, some psalms appear in more than one chapter, since they feature several types of experiences and are not necessarily limited to any single defined type of experience. Chapter 1 examines the various manifestations of transformations and transitions. First, it looks at psalms that talk about total transformation, in which the worshipper suddenly experiences a situation dramatically different to the real circumstances in which he is in, both subjectively and cognitively. It begins by examining Pss. 23 and 126: on the face of it, these are hymns – i.e., songs of praise – but on closer inspection the true underlying situation turns out to be one of distress. It then moves on to Ps. 5, where the speaker is initially racked by doubts – possibly even a crisis in his faith – but eventually rallies with renewed conviction. The third part of the chapter looks in detail at various psalms that describe a transition from despair to hope, where slight differences in the structure and range of expressions and idioms may reflect varying degrees of intensity of experience and circumstances in which the prayers were formed. In this part of the chapter – devoted to praise and thanksgiving – we gauge the authenticity of the experience in various psalms by the extent to which salvation is described in relation to that of personal distress, and by the ratio between the speaker’s personal distress and moralistic conclusions about God’s ways and governance of the world. These observations, together with what was gleaned earlier on in the chapter, provide a comprehensive picture of the poetic circumstances.

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Chapter 2 is devoted to the experience of proximity to God. By its very nature, such an inquiry touches upon fundamental theological questions. Ideas are presented according to how they arise from the tension induced in the worshipper by the sense of God being close to him – the oscillation between fear and longing, distance and awe, between the sense of one’s insignificance, and different degrees of proximity, to the point of being at one with God’s grace. For a full understanding of this experience, I examine the constituent parts of the supplication prayer – which will bring us back to the transitions discussed in chapter 1, and help us trace the mechanism of transitions from despair to hope, and from crisis to renewal of faith and conviction. Chapter 3 discusses the experience of harmony, which also has a direct bearing on fundamental theological issues. The correlation between justice and the natural order is given to many interpretations in the Old Testament, and in the Book of Psalms in particular, but the overall impression is of a world that serves as the setting for the enactment of justice. At the same time, justice is perceived as a law of nature. Whether praying for salvation or praising God for His actions, the worshipper recognizes that his salvation is not necessarily a private act of God’s grace, but a manifestation of a wider justice that governs the world at large, and a fulfillment of the law of nature in his own personal life history – a personal insight, as it were, into the bonds of belonging and solidarity that bind his personal life and the world at large. The significance of his righteousness lies in the fact that the world is his world, and he is an integral part of it. Chapter 4, which examines the ceremonial event and its many aspects,54 presents the speaker’s experience as one of total solidarity with the crowd of fellow celebrants: they all share the same tenets of faith, and revel in how they differ from non-celebrants. It is an experience in which the emotional springs from the cognitive. Although 54 Many of these psalms are referred to by Gunkel as “songs of praise,” and by Rofé as “hymns” (Psalmic Poetry, p. 308 onwards). However, as I noted earlier, many of them also contain a supplication, as well as some religious preaching and wisdom sayings.

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this aspect of the experience concerns one specific part of the event – the festive march or pilgrimage, and being physically at the Temple – the event also includes another component – that of ritual sacrifices. Closer inspection reveals that, unlike the festive march or pilgrimage, that aspect of the ceremony is not experienced at the cognitive level: the speaker says nothing about the sacrifices’ symbolic meaning, nor do the details of the sacrifice say anything about their objective nature. This part of the ceremonial event therefore remains obscure, and only the imposing nature of the act of worship impinges upon the worshipper’s emotional world. Thus, the experience of the ceremonial event as a whole has an inextricably dual nature – the cognitive (represented by the solemn procession and gathering), and the mysterious-emotional (represented by the religious sacrifices). For this reason, it would be wrong to say that the psalms in general represent a cultic-free faith that rejects the notion of burnt sacrifices when worshipping the divine, as advocated by the classical prophets.55 Chapter 5 examines psalms where the speaker’s confidence in salvation is founded both on theology and on experience. In some – prayers of supplication as well as hymns – the speaker makes deathdefiant pronouncements, such as “What profit is there in my blood? ” (30: 9), which are not only emotional plaintive pleas, but statements of principle. Declarations of this sort in various contexts and formulations reflect the notion that in God’s world, life must be regarded as the supreme value, while death has no value whatsoever. This is part of a general notion that faith is a “philosophy of life,” whereby God needs followers so that His work is continued and His name is glorified – “For in death there is no remembrance of thee” (6: 6). The notion of the supremacy of life is also evident in various descriptions of life’s comforts as positive and blessed goals in their own right. The experience of connection with the world and the natural order, as presented in chapter 3, is expanded in this chapter to a general pursuit of life in

55 On this point, A. Rofé echoes Pfeiffer’s position in R.H. Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament, New York 1948, p. 632. See A. Rofé, Psalmic Poetry, p. 334 and note 16 there.

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its fullest sense as one of the fundamental articles of a worshipper’s faith. Chapter 6, dealing with the Royal Psalms, adds another significant dimension to the worshipper’s experience, through identification with the values embodied in the king. Praying for the king’s welfare and stability of reign is a kind of metonymic expression of a hope for stable and proper social order, for a munificent nature and for achieving grace in the eyes of God. The king’s figure represents a distillation of all the worshipper’s wishes, in that a blessed king means that he, too, is blessed – reflecting the notion that “every man is king.”

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2.  Transitions & Transformations

In this chapter we will try to track the worshipper’s experience according to three types of changes in his condition. One is transformation: by virtue of his unshakable belief, he is already experiencing the desired state as if it has actually been achieved. In the second, he moves from a state of doubt – or even, perhaps, a crisis in faith – to recovery, where he is sure of triumph. The third type encompasses various types of transitions from despair to hope. In some psalms the expressions of hope are so earnest, that the tone of desperation gives way to one of praise and thanksgiving – but even then, in the great majority of instances, it transpires that the speaker’s true state is one of distress. In all these psalms there are certain recurring elements that adhere to the strict rules of this literary form. Nonetheless, in every psalm there is also a point where the poet breaks free from rigid protocol and conventional turns of phrases, to express a unique and one-off experience.

2.1 The transformation experience: from the actual to the desired (per Ps. 23) In this context, when we speak of religious experience, we do not mean a prolonged state, but a sensation, or range of feelings that remove the individual out of his daily routine and familiar surroundings, as well as from his usual appreciation and attitude toward that reality. It is impossible to know what changes are actually wrought upon the speaker after this experience: even when he expresses his gratitude by making earnest promises for the future, or undertakes certain commitments to change his lifestyle thereafter, we do not witness these commitments 33

being implemented in reality. As we shall see, while the supplicant’s appeal is occasionally been heard and answered and he is saved from his distress, he recalls his past desperation – as in “I said in my haste, All men are liars” (116: 11) and “For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes” (31: 22; cf. also 30: 6). In general, the psalms dwell upon and go into great detail of the speaker’s adversity, or distress, or salvation, rather than the transformation that he undergoes after his prayer is answered. Therefore, one cannot really characterize the experience in the psalms as one of conversion – a changing of a man’s heart, as William James puts it.1 Rather, it is an intensely subjective transformation, in which the individual viscerally and consciously experiences the desired condition that he yearns for and desperately wills it to come true. One can only achieve such a transformation from actual to desired reality if one has total confidence and unshakable belief in one’s God – but only as long as circumstances do not disabuse him and undermine his belief. This persistent confidence, therefore, is the necessary backdrop to the experience of religious awakening, but is not the experience itself.2 The intensity of the experience is apparent only when objective reality clearly does not justify his confidence, and when, in stark defiance of his actual state, he experiences the transformation, and manages to see himself in the ideal conditions and sense them as if they were truly real. This is clearly expressed in Ps. 23: (1) The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. (2) He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. (3) He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

1 2

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James, “Lectures 9 & 10,” Religious Experience, pp. 125–169 (and in the Introduction, above). One of the commonly accepted views is that the act of prayer is what gives the worshipper his confidence in God’s presence, and by extension in his salvation. His very ability to make his case before God gives the believer the sensation of relief and hope. But this phenomenon has many aspects to it, and is experienced with varying degrees of intensity. Neither these circumstances, nor – as we shall see in the following chapters (esp. chapter 4) – the ceremonial-cultic framework are enough to reveal both the emotional and conscious essence of the transformation experience.

(4) Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (5) Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. (6) Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. (4)

The initial image in this psalm is one of supreme confidence. The speaker’s sense that God is with him prompts him to declare that even if he were to walk in the valley of the shadow of death, he would fear no harm. The wording in the biblical Hebrew, which makes no distinction between present and future, takes on a special significance: whether he is referring to the fact that he is currently walking in the valley of the shadow of death, or to the evils that he anticipates are in store for him in future, his feeling is the same. The same is true throughout this psalm: knowing that God is his shepherd, he feels as though he were basking in an idyllic scene of green and pleasant pastures right now – or will do so in future. What all these descriptions have in common, therefore, is that the speaker’s actual situation and his desired one merge into a single sensation. Reality, for him, is governed entirely by his unswerving confidence in God. However, on closer inspection it is apparent that the speaker’s condition is not so unequivocal. While many commentators see this psalm as reflecting an idyll of perfect tranquillity, others detect an undertone of grave distress.3 As we shall see, these differences in interpretation are not necessarily due to the subjective notions of one commentator or another, but are rooted in the nature of the psalm itself. Most of the speaker’s proclamation leaves no room for doubt. His confidence in God, and in His support, rule and salvation, is unshakable. However, it is couched in terms that hint at the speaker’s true situation and actual circumstances. The details suggest that there is 3

For more on Ps. 23 and God’s attitude toward it, see M. Weiss: “Psalm 23; Studies in Biblical Faith and Ideas,” E. Tov. et.al. (eds) Shaarei Talmon (Tribute to Y. Talmon), Jerusalem 1992, pp. 32–41 (Hebrew). Weiss rejects the latter possibility – see below.

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a disparity not only between his mental state and physical one, but between his present feelings and his confidence and innermost desires, as well – and it is this distinction that ultimately allows us to fully understand the true nature of the worshipper’s experience. The acutest and most prominent expression of the psalm is also at its heart: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” I prefer to interpret “shadow of death” (in Hebrew, tzalmavet) in its original sense of darkness rather than death – i.e., he is merely walking in a dark place.4 While the allusion to death is a clear reference to the fear of the unknown,5 the notion of “walking in darkness” is linked to a more diverse, broader, and extreme meaning of evil in every respect.6 The presence of evil, in other words, is made all the more menacing and tangible by being represented by its most ominous form: as we all know – when someone is not afraid of something, they do not spell it out – as in (Ps. 3: 6) “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.” Clearly, then, the speaker is indeed in trouble: when confidence in God is absolute and evil is indeed nowhere to be seen, a simple declaration such as “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? ” (Ps. 27: 1), or “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? ” (118: 6), suffices. The wording of the present psalm therefore suggests that, beneath the surface, things are not quite as idyllic as initially projected. However, such associatively charged hints require confirmation, and further examination is needed to reveal whether the rest of the psalm confirm that the words “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures” is an accurate reflection of the speaker’s condition, or merely a wistful hope for the future. Comparisons of God and his people – or a ruler and his people – to a shepherd and his flock, are very common in the Hebrew Bible.7 4 5 6 7

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Based on the Akkadian salmu = darkness. See Y. Avishur, “Psalm 23,” N. M. Sarna (ed.), The: Psalms, vol. I, Tel-Aviv. 1995, p. 107 (Hebrew). This sense of darkness is also apparent in the story of the Creation, since the words “And God saw the light, that it was good ” are followed by “and God divided the light from the darkness” – in other words, darkness is the opposite of “good” (Gen. 1: 4). Contrast with Pss. 49: 6 and 56: 5, 12. See W. L. Holladay, “The Lord is My Shepherd, Then and Now,” The Psalms Through Three Thousand Years, Minneapolis 1993, pp. 6–16. In his review of the

The prophecy by Nathan the Prophet to King David in II Samuel 7 serves, in this regard, as a kind of ideological blueprint for the future relationship between God and his king.8 Speaking on behalf of the Lord, he says: “I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel ” (v. 8). Aside from providing a biographical tidbit about the young David, it suggests that shepherding, in its metaphorical sense, is a suitable foundation and training for leadership. However, if we delve further, it becomes apparent that the pastoral description before us is also accompanied by a wistfulness due to a certain absence or deficiency. Had the speaker been content with declaring “The Lord is my shepherd,” the impression might have been different: such brevity, in and of itself, would have been enough to indicate the devotee’s absolute and unquestioned confidence. The detailed image, however, also suggests that the speaker feels the need to illustrate his meaning explicitly. Lying down in green pastures and being led to still waters evokes an image that goes beyond its simple meaning – to express a yearning for a visceral, primal, sensual and innocent bond between the speaker and his world. A craving of this sort is typical of one whose world is in turmoil, whose hopes have been dashed, but whose faith, nonetheless, is still strong. That said, at this point our assumptions are still no more than wild speculation. The supplemental details, therefore, may provide further clues: even here, however, in his clear declaration of faith, the speaker is not content with merely saying “for thou art with me,” but feels the need to provide yet further tangible illustration of God’s presence with him: “thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” It is these words that provide us with a first glimpse of his identity. While the rod and staff may ostensibly be nothing more than the working tools of a shepherd,9 they are also quintessential

8 9

various contexts of the references to shepherd as a metaphor in the Bible, and in his interpretation of the meaning of “the shadow of the valley of death,” he sees in this psalm a kind of “essence of faith.” See Gelander, David and His God, Jerusalem 1991, pp. 75–100, and the bibliographical references for the meanings of images there. So, too, according to Avishur (see note 2 above). See also A. Cooper, “Structure, Midrash, and Meaning,” Proceedings of the Ninth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem 1985, pp. 107–114.

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symbols of rule,10 which would explain the imagery that follows: the words “thou anointest my head with oil ” – a clear allusion to kingship and enthronement – suggest the speaker is taking comfort in the position of authority that he is given by God. The speaker is not, therefore, one of the common people, but a king or ruler, and when he speaks of “mine enemies,” he is referring to those seeking to topple him. The very expression “they comfort me” also indicates that he is not merely supported by and dependent upon God,11 but also needs His comfort and encouragement. The hope for God’s benevolence is also revealed in the wish-image accompanying these expressions – namely, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” The looming presence of evil is evident repeatedly here, since a person for whom all is well and good has no need to flaunt his affluence in this way: presenting a laden table before his enemies is clearly a provocation or a taunt, motivated by a form of revenge.12 As I see it, the word “enemies” in this context (in Hebrew, tzorerai) should be understood not in the generic sense, but as “besiegers” (hatzarim alai). This, then, reveals the powerful contrast inherent in the image: in the face of the terrifying prospect of starvation and thirst that a siege entails, salvation takes the form of a table laden with food, and a cup that runneth over. Hence, too, the disparity between actual versus desired reality completes the contrast between image of green pastures and still waters and the valley of the shadow of death. Ibn Ezra, in his commentary, agrees: “Against 10 Although Rashi interprets this to mean “[The rod means] the many torments that have befallen me, and [the staff means] Thy gracious support that I can rely on,” he goes on to say: “‘Thou layest out before me a table’ – i.e., the kingship.” On the notion of adoption with regard to the perception of kingship in Israel, cf. also Ps. 2: 17, and others. For more on the perception of the staff and rod as symbols of kingship and a similar metaphorical use of the shepherd, see J. Eaton, The Psalms, London-New York 2005, p. 122. 11 Cf. Ps. 119: 76 and 94: 18. 12 M. Weiss (ibid. – see note 2 above) argues that anyone who thinks this is a taunt is projecting his own attitude. He also points to other places where the expression “to prepare a table,” such as Isaiah 21: 5, 65: 11; Ezekiel 23: 41, Ps. 78: 19; Proverbs 9: 2. However, in all those other instances the expression is presented in a negative context. See also note 28 below and my arguments in support of this premise.

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mine enemies contrasts with the valley of the shadow of death […] the table corresponds to the green pasture, and the cup that runneth over to the still waters.”13 By now, there can be little doubt that the rod and the staff are not references to the tools of a shepherd, but symbols of rule, since the image of a laden table before his enemies is not in keeping with the lifestyle of a humble shepherd. At this point, it is also apparent that the picture of pastoral idyll of the initial declaration runs counter to that of the subsequent verses. The phrase “he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness” is difficult to explain in a narrow sense, since “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters” evokes a picture of a shepherd and his flock, while the “paths of righteousness” is taken squarely from the realm of mental-moral concepts. Admittedly, one might argue that “he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness” is merely an analog of green pastures and still waters in that they are merely metaphors for a peaceful, desirable and blessed life in every respect. However, the ways in which different topics and subjects are juxtaposed in the Psalms are very utterly different than in new lyrical poetry. This is particularly noticeable in what are commonly referred to as the Nature Psalms. Ps. 19, for example, shifts from terrestrial themes (sky/day and night/sun) to God’s teachings and His commandments, and thence to the speaker’s aspiration, springing from his heart’s anxiety. Ps. 8, too, similarly draws conclusions about the human condition from observation of the wonders of nature.14 In the Psalms, therefore, nature or the natural world are not described for their own sake, but as proof of divine rule of justice and accord. Typically, their ideological context is one where, by observing the ways of nature, the believer concludes that justice will assuredly prevail. The universe is viewed as the embodiment of divine justice, and justice is thus a “law of nature,” rather than a mere social 13 For more on the difficulties in this expression and a review of its various interpretations, see S. Weisblitt, “On Psalm 23,” Beit Mikra 49 (1972), pp. 229–232 (Hebrew). 14 Chapter 3 discusses the psalms linking natural phenomena with acts of God throughout history, as well as between Creation and manifestations of divine justice. See, for example, Pss. 29, 46, 65, 66, 76, 96, and others.

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convention.15 This fundamental association is apparent not only in extended poetic passages, but in ad hoc metaphorical contexts, as well. It is no surprise, therefore, that an image of idyll and harmony is placed next to an aspiration about the physical and tangible manifestation of justice. However, there is another possibility. The word ma’agal the wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible is typically understood to mean “path.”16 However, in Ps. 23, if we pursue the image of a siege (v. 5), it may have the meaning of circle, suggesting that the speaker is seeking to picture justice triumphing in the face of surrounding circles of enemies (cf. I Samuel 26: 5). In other words, instead of being surrounded by enemies, the speaker wishes to be surrounded by justice. Moreover, the word justice here might be interpreted not only in its moral sense but in the sense of “strength” or “triumph” (as in Jer. 12: 1; Isaiah 41: 10 and especially 49: 24; Isaiah 45: 22, 24, 25; 46: 13). In any event, the notion that the speaker is literally under siege is reinforced by the final verse: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me.” The association between the words follow and justice (or charity), grace and good is common throughout the Hebrew Bible.17 However, in all these other instances, justice – or good or grace – is in the passive role of being pursued, rather than in the active role of pursuer. This may be because in Ps. 23 the context is of the speaker’s desire for something very different from his current state – that is, for good and grace to replace his present persecutors (mine enemies). The words “shall follow me” indicate an immediate change of circumstances, underlining the sense of sudden salvation that is illustrated in the speaker’s hope and reinforced by his faith. With this interpretation in mind, the meaning of the idyllic picture at the beginning becomes clearer: surrounded by enemies and under siege, the speaker yearns for open spaces and pastures. It is therefore an expression of his aspirations for the future, and the sheer power of 15 On this topic, see S. Gelander, “Justice and the World Order,” Beit Mikra 97 (1984), pp. 161–198 (Hebrew). 16 Prov. 2: 9, 15; Ps. 17: 5, 140: 6; Isaiah 26: 7, 59: 5. 17 See Deut. 16: 20; Isaiah 51: 1; Ps. 21: 21, 38: 21, 34: 15; Proverbs 6: 3; Hosea 6: 3.

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his belief and unshakable faith, which allows him to experience it as if it were real. The opening expressions of the psalm contain a further meaning. The opening declaration encapsulates a double negative: “I shall not ” and “want.” As A. L. Strauss points out in relation to another psalmic instance of negative wording – “my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty” (Ps. 131: 1): The negative in the psalm is in contrast to that which is lacking, against that which is integral to the body of the poem” […] Had the poet sought to convey only the peace and tranquillity inherent in the words in their simple logical sense […] he would have had to avoid mentioning the haughtiness and lofty paths. 18

Here, too, it seems, we must distinguish between someone who has everything, and one who declares “I shall not want.” The negative phrasing implies a sense of downplaying, as if he were saying “I can’t complain.” The idyllic picture contains another curious feature worth exploring: “for his name’s sake.” In other biblical contexts, wherever this expression appears – or similar ones such as “for thy mercy’s sake” or “because of thy judgments”19 – it is a kind of argument of last resort: a recognition by the desperate, given that salvation is nowhere in sight, that if they are saved, it is not because they deserve to be, but purely by the grace of God.20 The final piece of this interpretation is provided when two aspects of the emerging picture – the imagined reality, and the actual one – come together at the conclusion of the psalm: “and I will dwell in the 18 A.L. Strauss, “Chapters,” Studies, pp. 66–70 (Hebrew). 19 In particular: Jer. 14: 7; Pss. 6: 5, 25: 11 (7), 31: 4, 44: 27, 48: 12, 79: 9, 143: 11. See also I Sam. 12: 22; Daniel 9: 19; and Isaiah 42: 21, 43: 25, 48: 9, 11; Ezekiel 20: 14. These are not in the context of historical events, although on occasion the framework is one of prayer. See I Kings 8: 21; II Chron. 6: 31. Similarly: II Kings 13: 23; Ps. 106: 8. 20 On the fundamental aspects of this declaration, see S. H. Bergman, Kiddush Hashem (Jerusalem, 1964) – a special publication by the Bialik Institute in honor of the eightieth anniversary of the writer’s birth. For more on the significance of the expression “for his name’s sake” or “for thy name’s sake,” see chapter 5.

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house of the Lord for ever ” (v. 6).21 The notion of “dwelling in the Lord’s house” is a key – if not the most important – biblical expression of the transition from one situation to another, from distress to salvation, and from despair to hope and security. It is a highly charged expression, whose metaphorical and symbolic meaning varies with the context. In this particular psalm it has at least two meanings, which should be further explored. The very mention of the Lord’s house in an invocatory context suggests that the psalm is meant to be part of a ritual prayer – either literally at the Temple, or symbolically, when the speaker yearns for it from afar, or from exile. As such, it has a broad associative meaning, which removes the prayer experience from a narrow, particular sense to a communal dimension that allows a broad and highly diverse congregation to take part in the ritualistic prayer. The former sense of dwelling in the Temple, appears to be one of shelter and protection. Clearly, when he says “and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever,” or “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” (Ps. 27: 4),22 the worshipper does not mean actually spending the rest of his life at the Temple, nor does he mean observing the ritual in its practical and narrow sense when he says “But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple” (5: 7). Two other psalms – Pss. 15 and 24 – may help shed light on this point. 21 Although in Hebrew, the operative word is veshavti (“and I will return”), the likely meaning of the text is veyashavti (“I will dwell”) – in line with traditional European translations, similarly to the conflation of these two Hebrew roots elsewhere, e.g. Isaiah 1: 27 (“and [Zion’s] converts with righteousness ”). So, too, according to the Shadal’s (Samuel David Luzzatto) commentary on Jeremiah 4: 1, and Rofé’s reference in Introduction to the Prophetic Literature, p. 83, note 173 (Hebrew). 22 However, some commentators think that this expression is an expression of an underlying ritual of some sort, and even link it to the expression “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” – i.e., involving a ceremonial meal of some sort, or a thanksgiving sacrifice (Mowinckel). See the overview of approaches on this topic in H. J. Kraus, Psalms 1–59 (translated by H.C. Oswald) Minneapolis 1988 (Psalms 60–150: 1989), pp. 303–09. For his part, Kraus believes that the speaker is someone who was wrongly accused, but then acquitted, and for that he thanks the Lord.

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In them, the speaker specifies who is entitled to dwell in the Lord’s house by describing his moral and religious attributes – his “eligibility criteria,” as it were, similar to those inscribed at the entrances of ancient Egyptian temples.23 Mowinckel even classifies these psalms as “entrance liturgy.”24 Proclaiming one’s right to dwell in the Temple and to take shelter in it, therefore, presupposes one’s entitlement to do so, and expressing the wish to dwell in the house of the Lord is tantamount to declaring oneself innocent and blameless. The opening words of these two psalms – “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” (Ps. 15: 1), and “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? ” (24: 3) are suggestive of different situations: Ps. 15 is a wisdom instruction psalm that is not related to any particular situation, while Ps. 24 is a pilgrimage psalm.25 In neither psalm, however, is the Temple defined as “the house of the Lord” but is referred to by various names, which indicates that the latter, essentially, has a broad and varied meaning of the Lord’s presence and proximity. We should further note that the attributes of the eligible entrant are defined in these two psalms in a positive manner: the text describes who is entitled to enter, rather than who is not. To this, we should consider yet another context (Ps. 101: 3–7): (3) I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. (4) A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person. (5) Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.

23 See M. Weinfeld, “Instructions for Temple Visitors in the Bible and Ancient Egypt,” S. Groll (ed.), Egyptological Studies: Scripta Hierosolyma 18 (1982), pp. 224–250. 24 S. Mowinckel, Le Décalogue, Paris 1972. Mowinckel sees a link between these psalms and the Ten Commandments. See also “The Uniqueness of the Decalogue and its Place in Jewish Tradition,” B. Z. Segal (ed.), The Ten Commandments as Reflected in Tradition and Literature Throughout the Ages, Jerusalem 1986, pp. 1–34 (Hebrew). 25 On the characteristics of the ceremonial psalm or pilgrimage psalm, see chapter 4.

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(6) Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. (7) He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.

By putting these words in the mouth of God Himself, the poet is clearly seeking to bolster the worshipper’s confidence by emphasizing that God will have nothing to do with evildoers of any kind: the house of the Lord is absolutely free of them and protected from them, and they cannot not set foot in it. This psalm appears to be concerned with the need for protection and shelter, while the positive wording in Pss. 15, 24 come across as objective statements, i.e. with no hint of distress.26 As we shall see, a more extreme example of such “self-persuasion” about God’s virtues appears in Ps. 5. The theme of protection and shelter recurs in Pss. 27: 4–5; 61: 5; 73: 17; and 43: 3. However, here it takes on another aspect, which may reflect another stage in the expression’s evolution – namely, the shelter and protection are not at all tangible. Like the giving of thanks later on, here the protection and shelter are merely the outcome of spiritual and mental guidance, rooted in what the Temple symbolizes: “O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles” (43: 3). They are essentially a request for salvation, which may have originated in the house of the Lord but does not involve or depend upon physically being there: “[…] when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle” (28: 2) – or “Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple” (Jonah 2: 4). From the context it is apparent that the more varied the names and titles of the house of the Lord (“thy holy hill,” “thy tabernacles,” “God’s altar”), the greater the range of symbolic meanings attached to the notion of dwelling there. See also 5: 8; 27: 4; 42: 3; 84: 5,11. (See also: “courts” 26 From the declaration in Ps. 61: 5 (“I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings”) in which the word “tabernacle” parallels “covert,” Weiss concludes that the question “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? ” (Ps. 15: 1) refers to whoever is entitled to God’s protection and to strength of His proximity. See M. Weiss, Scriptures in their Own Light, Jerusalem 1987, p. 146 (Hebrew), and the discussion in chapter 2.

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in 82: 2,11; 92: 14; 116: 19; 135: 2; “pavilion” – 27: 5; 61: 5; “habitation of thy house” – 26: 8; “sanctuary of God” – 73: 17.) Since dwelling in the house of the Lord guarantees shelter and protection to anyone found to be innocent and worthy, it is occasionally coupled with the supplicant’s promise to thank the Lord, to offer thanksgiving sacrifices and to “publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works,” (26: 6–8) and to “pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people” (116: 9–17).27 The notion of dwelling in the house of the Lord appears to imply a reward for righteousness and observing the Lord’s commandments: “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever” (Ps. 52: 1); “Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God” (92: 13); “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee” (84: 5). The analogy of the righteous man as a flourishing, blessed tree, planted by the rivers of water and yielding fruit in season – in contrast to the wicked man who is like a juniper in the wilderness, or to “thorns thrust away” (II Sam. 26: 3) etc. – is also fully consistent with the notion of justice as a manifestation of the laws of nature.28 Given the range of emotions linked to dwelling in the house of the Lord, it is also perceived as a place for emotional elation, a suitable setting for forming wonderful and intimate friendships. (“We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company” – 55: 14), or a place where the longing for it sparks revelatory inspiration (63: 2).29 27 Greenberg marks out this aspect as one of the recurring elements of the supplication prayer. The element he calls the “supplication justification” includes reiterating the Lord’s virtues, glorifying His name, and an admission that the Lord is his God, and a pledge to continue to worship the Lord and the existence of its worshippers. See M. Greenberg, “The Structure of the Supplication Prayer,” Eretz Israel 16 (1984), pp. 47–55 (Hebrew). In the thanksgiving prayer, the speaker announces that he is indeed fulfilling his pledge now, and discharging his vows. From the comparison between the constituents we learn, therefore, that the thanksgiving prayer is in fact the “inverse” of the supplication prayer. 28 See above, note 15. 29 Similarly, see H. Fish, Shirat Miqra (translated from: Poetry with a Purpose by S. Shiloh), Ramat-Gan 1993.

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In view of all the above, when the speaker in Ps. 23 ends his prayer with the words “and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever,” he appears to mean something along the lines of “I shall enjoy God’s proximity and protection, in reward for my righteousness.” In Ps. 27 (verses 4–5) we find a similar expression, whose context underlines the aspect of shelter and protection: (5)  One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. (6) For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

The description, which suggests a yearning and longing for proximity, reducing the meaning of protection and shelter to something almost physical, contrasts with the final verse of Ps. 23 which has a broader sense of a transformation.30 In his supreme confidence and piety, the speaker can easily conjure up in his mind the significant and symbolic outcome of his dwelling in the house of the Lord as lying down in green pastures and walking beside still waters. The idyllic pastoral image at the beginning of the psalm is therefore not a depiction of his actual present state, but of a desired future, which he manages to experience by the will of prayer alone. This is evident from the attendant expressions: not only does God “leadeth me in the paths of righteousness” and “for his name’s sake” (which we have already explained), but also “He restoreth my soul ” (in Hebrew: nafshi yeshovev), which Rashi interpreted to mean “my soul, which has been troubled and in flight, will be restored.” In his own commentary on this prayer, W. James writes: If it be not effective; if it be not a give-and-take relation; if nothing be really transacted while it lasts; if the world is in no whit different for its having taken place; then prayer, taken in this wide meaning of a sense that something is transacting, is of course a feeling of what is illusory, and religion must on the 30 Compare also with Ps. 43: 3: “O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles” – and my commentary on this issue of requesting guidance as part of an investigation of the elements of the plea prayer (chapter 2).

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whole be classed, not simply as containing elements of delusion […] but as being rooted in delusion altogether.31

Granted, as M. Weiss has shown,32 these observations may be given to other interpretations. But when seen collectively, they reinforce each other.33 Moreover, one cannot ignore the fact that the faith of one who has lived a charmed life is not put to the same fundamental and harsh test as someone who is in acute distress.34 It is the intensity of the transformation within the believer’s soul – from the actual to the imagined – that gives it a fully religious dimension. In this short and concise psalm, this experience appears to find its most extreme expression, as well.35 31 See W. James, Religious Experience, p. 448. 32 See above, note 2. 33 A. L. Strauss (“Chapters” pp. 66–70) even goes as far as to remove this poem from the private-individual experience. By putting together the two images – one of the flock roaming with its shepherd, the other of sitting securely at the proprietor’s table – he sees a reflection of the historical destiny of a nation that began with roaming shepherds and ended up sitting around the Temple. As he put it, “this is how the experience of the individual believer is portrayed against the backdrop of the experience of the entire nation.” See note 18 above. 34 As Rashi says about “the valley of the shadow of death”: “In the land of darkness – the Ziff Wilderness.” Similarly, Z.P. Chayut, Tehilim, (repr.) Jerusalem 1970 (Hebrew). Radak (Kimhi) believes that the speaker “is thankful […] for the favor that Thou has shown me until now, but I ask that your favor and kindness pursue me for the rest of my life, and that I be no longer troubled by wars and the world’s troubles.” It should be noted that in his story The Bridal Canopy, S.Y. Agnon tells the story of Reb Yudel Hassid, who is left hungry and thirsty: What did he do? […] He thought about all the good things that the Holy One Blessed Be He did for him over the years […] until his heart awoke and sang “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” with such joy and such a voice of thanks, as if a table laden with delicacies had been laid before him. As Reb Yudel put it, when David was in the desert and had nothing to eat or drink, and his soul was about to depart from him, the Holy One Blessed Be He invited him, such that he suddenly had a taste of the afterlife and composed this psalm. The Bridal Canopy, vol. II, Berlin 1894, pp. 29–30. 35 A yearning for a simple, basic and intimate contact with the surrounding world is evident also in modern poetry. In the third poem in the collection called To the Elephants, modern Israeli poet Nathan Alterman writes: “Slumbering universe/

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In Ps. 5, therefore, what appears at first to be an entirely benign situation is revealed, on further inspection, to be quite different. Since this transformation occurs not only in the reader’s mind, but is experienced by the speaker as well, the situation itself is one of transformation.36 This psalm does not quite fit the category of what M. Perry refers to as the “inverted poem”37: while a prosodic analysis might show us how its structure and meter illustrate the transition from tension to repose,38 it does not help us in deciphering the nature of the transformation in question. Strauss, Weiss and Rofé all note the transition from third person in the idyllic description to second person (v. 3 onwards), but they see this as signaling a note of calm and security, while to my mind, the opposite is true. The use of the second person form suggests greater proximity, which in the presence of fear and danger underlines the need for moral support and for a visceral sense of God’s presence, while the third person form in the idyllic description denotes detachment, and implies that it is unreal. Uncovering the loaded meaning behind the expressions and the full meaning of the turns of phrase therefore helps in reconstructing the true situation behind the psalm.39 If the power of a poem is measured by its ability to present a subjective experience as though it were objective reality, or to depict a desired condition as though it were being experienced in earnest, then Pss. 23 and 126, as we shall see, represent the pinnacle of religious experience in psalmic poetry. However, the experience of a transformation

36 37 38 39

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compassionate, teatful/ call, call, for to you I shall go /like a faltering calf / from fasting lands / I shall wander, reeling, in the steam of your milk.” But in this poem what stands out is the element of protest, and later on the disappointment caused by the universe – the reason for his lost hope and faith – is explicit: “Atone to my face for the wrong you have done me/for every well within me that you have poisoned, say ‘Forgive!’” Stars Outside, Tel-Aviv, 1953, p. 19 (Hebrew). See Holladay’s similar conclusion in note 7, above. See M. Perry, “The Inverted Poem: On a Principle of Semantic Composition in Bialik’s Poem” Hasifrut A 3–4, pp. 607–631 (Hebrew). Strauss, “Chapters,” Studies, 66–70 and subsequently A. Rofé, Prophetic Literature, p. 83, note 173 (Hebrew) note 21 above, pp. 81–84. As illustrated, in possibly even more extreme fashion, in Ps. 126, as we shall see later.

and the transitions from despair to hope are not necessarily revealed in situations of extreme contrasts, but in the experiential clash between crisis and renewed faith, or between despair and hope. This will be the focus of our discussion below.

2.2  From doubt and crisis to renewed faith (per Ps. 5) At first glance, the theme of this psalm is simple and straightforward: the speaker, who trusts in God, turns to Him and asks for His help against his enemies. He asks God to charge and punish them for their sins – much to the rejoicing of His believers, whom He protects. The contrast between the Lord’s ways and the acts of evildoers reinforces the speaker’s confidence, and therein, too, lies the basis and reasoning of this supplication prayer: (1) Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my utterance. (2) Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. (3) My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. (4) For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. (5) The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. (6) Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. (7) But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. (8) Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face. (9) For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulcher; they flatter with their tongue. (10) Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee. (11) But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. (12) For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

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A closer reading, however, reveals that the issue is not at all that simple. Just as the very detailed description of evil’s presence captured our attention in Ps. 23, here too, we must wonder why, immediately after the initial appeal, God’s positive attributes are described in negative terms: “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.”40 Only after three such negative emphases are God’s qualities cast in a positive language: “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.” (vv. 5–7). The arrangement of three negative descriptions, followed by three positive ones, is not merely a schematic device: the former three are general attributes, while the latter are more specific, detailing the Lord’s attitude or actions toward a particular, highly defined, type of evildoer. At issue here is language-based evil, that is to say, in the evildoers’ speech. Mowinckel’s suggestion that “evildoers” in this case are sorcerers – wielders of magical powers, who are able to cast a curse – seems reasonable to me.41 Although a “bloody man” in this context means a “murderer,” it is coupled with the word “deceitful.” This is significant, since it is the custom in the Hebrew Bible, when listing items (including in parallelisms), to do so in ascending order of severity, which suggests that “deceit” in this instance has a special meaning that specifies the type of “bloody man” – namely, one who perpetrates his misdeeds through deceit. I dwell on this point because, as we shall see presently, in the great majority of descriptions in the psalms, the evildoer is noted more for his evil tongue than for other types of evil actions – and this instance is no exception.42 This is important to understanding the unique situation depicted in this 40 Cf. Ps. 94: 20, where the speaker rules out such a possibility with the rhetorical question: “Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee[…]?” 41 Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien I–IV, Kristiana 1921–1924, passim. Kraus also wonders if this expression shouldn’t be understood in this way. See H. J. Kraus, Theology of the Psalms (Theologie der Psalmen), Neukirchen 1979 (transl. K.R. Crim) Minneapolis 1986. 42 See my paper on this point, “The evildoer’s wicked tongue in the Psalms,” Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress of Jewish Studies. Division A: The Bible and Its World. Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish. Studies, 1990, pp. 37–42 (Hebrew).

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psalm. The negative wording used to describe the Lord’s attributes in the beginning has a special purpose: before he can confidently enumerate God’s attributes in a positive fashion, the speaker must first reassure himself, as it were, that God is not, in reality, on the side of his enemies. The negative passage has the quality of a whispered incantation used by the speaker to banish the evil before he can see the good. He must emphasize and repeat what God is not, three times, before he can recover and go on to proclaim God’s attitude toward liars and cheats – in a positive fashion. It stands to reason, therefore, that the speaker’s severe distress, brought on by his enemies, has also undermined his confidence and faith, and he is in the midst of a crisis. This interpretation is reinforced by the wording of his appeal: “Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my utterance. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.” This indicates the speaker’s urgent and very real need, not only for God’s attention, but for a sense that He is nearby and present. It is only natural that, in a supplication prayer, the worshipper should start by asking God to listen to what he has to say. Similar openings exist in other psalms. However, the uniqueness of this particular appeal becomes apparent when compared with other psalms. In Ps. 17, the speaker begins with the words “Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer ” – but immediately follows this with a detailed assurance of his blamelessness: “that goeth not out of feigned lips.” Here, then, the speaker is utterly confident that God will hear him. In Ps. 28 there is a similar appeal, but there the speaker supplements his appeal with a detailed description of the catastrophic consequences that would ensue were God to ignore it. In Pss. 55 and 61, the appeal is abbreviated and clearly formulaic in nature. In Pss. 77 and 86, there is a similar repetition of the appeal for attention, but it is purely auditory (“I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me”; “Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me: for I am poor and needy” – cf. 88: 2–3). In Ps. 141 we find total congruence between the wording of the appeal and the depicted situation: since the speaker needs God to help him quickly (“make haste unto me”), the appeal, too, is brief and to the point: “Lord, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice.” 51

Only in Ps. 102 do we find a description very much like the one in Ps. 5: “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee.” However, the latter is a combination of personal and national prayer, and we may assume that just as the topics were added for ritualistic purposes, the opening plea is also formulaic in nature. This blending of the personal and the nationalist in a single prayer will be discussed below. For our purposes, what we find from the above comparison is that in some psalms the appeal to God is formulaic, while in others it is clearly specific to the situation described in the psalm, and its details reflect the speaker’s condition.43 In Ps. 5, however, the supplicant is not content with merely gaining God’s ear, but appeals to His sense of sight and asks that God gaze upon his musings. This is of particular significance: judging by a similar parallelism – “the words of my mouth, and the utterance of my heart ” (19: 15) – “my utterance” here might mean “my thoughts.” But equally, and more plausibly, it means what he is uttering out loud. Either way, the expression is synaesthetic – i.e., attributing the action of one sense to another, since in the original Hebrew, the word for “consider” – binah – is derived from the verb hitbonen, meaning “to observe” – meaning the speaker is asking God not only to hear his thoughts, but to see them, as well. The wording suggests, therefore, a profound need for a sense of God’s presence and proximity, which is almost physical in nature. As previously noted, this tripartite, negative proclamation of the Lord’s attributes reinforces this sensation.44 However, since the speaker’s confidence has been undermined, and he must first recover and reassure himself that God is not on the side of the evildoers, his proclaimed dwelling in the house of the Lord has a different meaning from that in Ps. 23 – “But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple” (v. 8). Since he goes on to ask for God’s guidance – “Lead 43 See also 55: 1–2; 61: 2; 143: 1. The comparison shows that in these instances the appeal uses a common parallelism structure (similarly to the appeals in Pss. 78: 1 and 80: 1), while in this psalm and in the aforementioned examples the appeal is consistent with the situation depicted in the poem as a whole. 44 See, for example, Kraus, who defines this psalm as a request for proof of God’s justice: H. J. Kraus, Psalmen, Biblischer Kommentar) I, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1966, pp. 36–46.

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me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face” – it likely does not mean that he is entitled to dwell in the house of the Lord. In Ps. 23, the speaker also asks for God’s guidance, but there he is confident that He will accede to his request “for his name’s sake,” while here guidance is sought “because of mine enemies” which also suggests that he is not entirely confident that he will not go astray and that his enemies will indeed not thrive. Accordingly, if he is permitted to enter the house of the Lord, it will be by the grace of God, rather than by right. Hence, the words “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up” (v. 4) are an indication of his distress and dire need for divine help and salvation, rather than a proud declaration of his righteousness and allegiance.45 The speaker’s appeal to his God appears, therefore, to be founded on his notions about God’s attributes, and on his own religious-moral identity. Therefore, the experiential process that is apparent in the psalm as a whole is one of self-discovery. This is ultimately realized through renewed identification, faith and confidence in God. Moreover, from its wording (“For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee”) it is apparent that he wishes to find God not in a state of emotional ecstasy, but through reason and wisdom.46 The poem features two requests: one for permission to enter the house of the Lord, the other for God’s guidance. Only after these two declarations are made, does the speaker feel he can broach the real purpose of his request: “Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee” (v. 11). The reason for this is set out in the previous verse: “For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue” (v. 9). The nature of the difficulties his enemies are about to inflict upon 45 For this reason, Leslie attributes this psalm to a group he calls “prayers of the wrongfully accused.” See E.A. Leslie, The Psalms, New York-Nashville, p. 351. See his classification list in chapter 3, note 19, and my commentary on this issue in the discussion of the structure of the supplication prayer. 46 On the questions involved in God’s identity and his attributes, see T. F. Torrance, Theological Science, Oxford 19783, pp. 9–11.

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him is now apparent: their weapon is their tongue. They use flattery to deceive and entrap their victims. This reveals two more details: 1. The speaker is not one of the common folk, but a man of status – most likely someone distinguished, if not in a position of power – who has fallen victim to slander and intrigue. Thus, the religious experience assumes another dimension: the sense of social belonging, and solidarity with the surrounding society, are very important to him; 2. The speaker makes no distinction between his personal enemies and the enemies of God.47 The opening verses speak of personal troubles, but then it transpires that those who are plotting to ensnare him, whose “throat is an open sepulcher,” are also those who have “rebelled against thee” – i.e., against God. The image of God’s acceding to the speaker’s prayers, as indicated by the joy of those under His protection, is no less powerful than that in Ps. 23. Here, God’s protection is not described in idyllic terms: the blessed righteous benefit from being encompassed “as with a shield.” Unlike the pastoral image of Ps. 23, here the imagery is war-like, with God’s favor likened to an actual shield. The metaphor used is also indicative of the situation behind the psalm. Although we find this psalm to be fundamentally personal in nature, most commentators regard it as quintessentially ritualistic. However, the dispute as to whether it should be seen as a personal

47 See William James, Religious Experience, 224. Leslie, on the other hand, believes that the request to avenge himself on his many enemies suggests the intervention by a priest at the Temple, and that this is a liturgical psalm intended for a ritual ceremony of a sin offering on behalf of someone ill and suffering. Leslie finds in this psalm patterns characteristic of psalms that are substantially prayers of someone wrongfully accused, and he divides these into two groups: the prayers of the wrongfully accused seeking vindication (Pss. 7; 11; 25; 26; 27: 7–14; 31: 1–8; 42–43; 52; 55: 1–8; 55: 18–21, 23; 56; 64; 70; 74: 16–23; 120; 140; 141; 142), and the prayers of the accused while spending the night at the Temple (Pss. 3; 4; 5; 17; 27: 1–5; 49; 57; 133). To these he adds a further group of prayers of the wrongfully accused who has fallen ill as a result (Pss. 13; 22; 28; 30: 9–24; 36; 38; 41; 69; 71; 86; 102; 109). See E. A. Leslie, The Psalms, pp. 350–352, 316, 346.

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prayer 48 or a public one,49 or at the Temple, or anywhere else,50 is ultimately immaterial to our discussion. As we shall see, the speaker’s personal experiences are of the sort that any worshipper might identify with them, on a personal level or as part of a greater public, inasmuch as the experience is seen in its metaphorical sense. Thus, for example, once it is understood that the “king” is a reference not to any particular ruler or actual king, but is emblematic of any stable government, liberty, and good governance, the individual’s prayer for the king’s welfare (“But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory” – 63: 11), or for his long reign (“Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations” – 61: 6), becomes an expression of hope for a life of peace and stability. The king or ruler are a metaphor encapsulating the individual’s desire for good governance, and redemption in the fullest sense. The same is true for the ruler or person of the ruling classes, as suggested in this psalm. The transformation experience in Ps. 5 is different from that of Ps. 23. In Ps. 23 the speaker harbors no doubts whatsoever: his total confidence is what allows him to make the transition from actual to desired reality. In Ps. 5, on the other hand, the experience is what gives 48 Gunkel sees it as a personal prayer. See: Gunkel, Einleitung in die Psalmen, Göttingen 1933, p. 17. On the classification of the psalms by type, see ibid. pp. 172–173, 184–190. See also Weiser, Weiser, Die Psalmen, Göttingen 1950, pp. 84–85. 49 See C.A. Briggs, The Psalms, vol. I, Edinburgh 1906, pp. 37–38. He believes that the psalm was composed as a morning prayer accompanying morning sacrifice. So, too, does Cheyene: see T. K. Cheyene, The Book of Psalms I, London 1904, pp. 14–16. 50 Buttenweiser is also of the opinion that this is a communal prayer (see M. Buttenweiser, The Psalms, Chicago 1938, pp. 405–410). But from v. 8 he concludes that a distinction should be made between prayers said at the Temple, and those that can be said anywhere else. In his opinion, the significance of the speaker’s declaration is that by the grace of God he is entitled to come into the Temple, but also to worship Him anywhere else. Since in this psalm there is nothing to indicate conditions of exile, he concludes that it pre-exilic psalm. In analyzing the expression “For there is no faithfulness in their mouth,” he concludes that the author is influenced by the Book of Job, and thus the psalm dates some time after 400 BCE.

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the speaker the ability to rule out the possibility that God has any faults, and that God is on his side rather than that of his enemies. On the contrary, his enemies and God’s enemies are one and the same – so much so, that were it not for the speaker’s opening personal plea, which reveals his own distress, we might imagine that he were praying not for himself, but for the punishment of the evildoers who have betrayed God. However, the opening words, added to the personal plea, “Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face” (v. 9) make it clear that the speaker’s real condition is one of personal distress.51

2.3  From despair to hope, from pleading to thanksgiving On the face of it, the heading of this section is a tautology, or at least a parallelism. But in reality it highlights a distinction between the supplicant’s two distinct conditions. This inquiry is designed to sharpen the distinction between various psalms, which on purely formal grounds might be classified as belonging to the same group. In previous sections we looked at psalms that feature an extreme transition that the speaker has undergone – from the actual reality to a desired one, and from a state of doubt and crisis of faith to renewed faith and security. But in many psalms we find other expressions of contrasting situations, which, to my mind, fall into two categories. One is the category of the most common contrasts: in certain supplication psalms, the speaker voices his despair while also expressing hope.52 The difference between those and the contrasts presented in previous sections is that in the latter the speaker is truly experiencing the 51 On another aspect of this psalm, which should be regarded as reflecting ritual liturgical situations, in which the speaker goes through a form of drama of different situations, see below, esp. Kraus (note 75) in the next section. 52 In particular, Pss. 3; 6; 17; 35; 41; 59; 102 – versus Pss. 27; 42; 43; 51; 109; 140; 143. In the latter group, as we shall see, the hope is no more than a wish, and the speaker is not yet experiencing it.

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transition, while here he is still in the throes of distress, and his desired situation is still only a pipe dream. In this sub-category I am inclined to adopt Hoffman’s approach, which explains these transitions against the backdrop of “the tension between the rigidity of the psalmic genre and the poet’s creative struggle to give motional and ideological expression to the unique experience behind each individual psalm.”53 In other words, the psalms of this type are founded on conventional patterns in terms of their subject matter, themes and sensations, and their style. The conflict between what is suggested by those patterns and the particular message of the psalm is the chief artistic problem in each psalm. We will return to this topic later. The second type of psalms that depict contrasting situations are those where the supplication and the thanksgiving play an equally important role – to the extent that, formally, at least (based on Gunkel’s study of psalmic forms),54 it is difficult to define them or attribute them to any one of these types. The common explanation is that this complexity is due to the characteristics of ritualistic prayers, in which the psalm is in fact the product of two formerly discrete psalms fused together for ritualistic reasons, rather than for any direct connection they might have to the situation at hand. Begrich believes that the transition in such psalms from complaint to thanksgiving or to praise marks the point where a priestly oracle of salvation intervenes – that is, after the supplicant has finished his supplication prayer, a Temple priest answers him on God’s behalf 55 – as in in the words of Samuel to Hannah: “Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him” (I Sam. 1: 17). Mention of this intervention was, 53 Y. Hoffman, “The Transition from Despair to Hope,” Tarbiz 56/2 (1986), pp. 161–172 (Hebrew). 54 Gunkel distinguishes between four main types of psalmic poetry: hymns (or Psalms of Praise); communal complaints; individual complaints; and individual thanksgiving (a fifth category – the Royal Psalms mentioned in note 26 of the introduction – are a special category of their own). H. Gunkel, The Legends of Genesis (trans. D. Amara), Jerusalem 1998 (Hebrew), pp. 123–181. For more on the literary genres and their evolution, see H. Gunkel, “Fundamental Problems,”  What Remains, pp. 57–68. 55 See J. Begrich, “Das priesterliche Heilsorakel,” BZAW 66 (1936), pp. 63–88.

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Begrich believes, dropped when the psalm became part of the ritual prayer, since God’s reply to the appeal varies with the circumstances. Possibly, however, a trace of the mention of such an intervention on the part of a priestly prophet is evident in Ps. 85: (1) Lord, thou hast been favorable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. (2) Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. (3) Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. (4) Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. (5) Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? (6) Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? (7) Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. (8) I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly. (9) Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land. (10) Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. (11) Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. (12) Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. (13) Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.

In essence, this is a psalm of national supplication. In its first part, which includes the plea (vv. 4–8), the dominant form of speech is first person plural. But in v. 9 it switches to first person singular: “I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.”56 And indeed, after these words, the supplication makes way for words of praise and glory, and the psalm becomes one of thanksgiving. One might even say that it is thanks to this sudden transition that the psalm begins with words that might be seen both as praise for God’s past deeds, and as a forecast 56 As noted by Mowinckel, Kraus and Johnson. See S. Mowinckel, Religion und Kultur, Göttingen 1953, pp. 57ff. H.J. Kraus, Theology, who also notes Pss. 50: 7; 81: 9–10. See also A.R. Johnson, The Cultic Prophet in Israel’s Psalmody, Cardiff 1979 passim. Similar optimistic moralistic conclusions can be found in Ps. 32: 9 – hence, perhaps, the meaning of the “moralistic” declaration in Ps. 55: 23, as well. Eissfeldt concludes from this that the individual’s laments, like the public ones, were part and parcel of the ritual. See O. Eissfeldt, The Old Testament: An Introduction, pp. 115–120.

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of the future.57 The change that one sees here, from supplication to thanksgiving, might be explained in two ways. One is that, as we have said, after the response, which promises that God will speak peace to his people on condition that they do not revert to sin (v. 9), there comes the feeling that God’s proximity and presence are indeed no longer in doubt. This proximity is also evident in the continuing maintenance of world order and laws of the universe, as quintessentially expressed by truth and compassion, justice and peace. The second explanation springs from the starting point: the very knowledge that world order and laws are founded on the truth and grace and on justice and peace is the source of the speaker’s confidence that God will forgive His people’s transgressions and resurrect it once again, and His people will rejoice in Him. Either way, it is apparent that the transition from supplication to thanksgiving, and from despair to confidence, is not a sudden one – since both extreme aspects are interwoven: God’s good will, forgiveness and calming of His wrath are apparent from the outset, so that there is no telling for certain whether this is just a wish for the future or memories of the past – or even a description of God’s qualities by his nature: (8) Lord, thou hast been favorable unto thy land / thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob / Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah / Thou hast taken away all thy wrath / thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger /Turn us, O God of our salvation / and cause thine anger toward us to cease (vv. 2–5).

Only after these words does the supplication burst out – with even a hint of defiance, followed by a rhetorical-like question: “Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? ” It appears, therefore, that the experience of transformation as described above has another side to it: the worshipper is not necessarily making the transition from one state to another, from the actual to the desired situation, or from 57 Most translations use the past tense here, but the JPs. translation explicitly states both possibilities: “You will favor Your land (or ‘have favored’), restore (or ‘have restored’) Jacob’s fortune.”

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doubt and despair to complete confidence, but rather is experiencing the tension between the two conditions at the same time in his prayers. He is at once in the depths of despair and at the pinnacle of hope, in the maze and mysteries of despair, and in the clarity of security. His emotions go from one extreme to the other and contain them, and thus mirroring the entire world. Not so Ps. 22. Here, too, the psalm goes from supplication to thanksgiving, and one might find, within the supplication, signs of hope and confidence embedded within expressions of despair: in the first part, the supplicant lays out his sorrow, saying, among other things: “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. / Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. /They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.”58 These words bolster the supplicant’s claim, and are said insistently. One might think the speaker’s memory of these divine attributes and acts of salvation are revealed later to be the seed of hope in the latter part of the psalm – but at this stage they are nothing but a particularly emphasized presentation of the contrast between past salvations of the forefathers, and the speaker’s plight in the present. And indeed, they do not provide immediate relief – on the contrary, the speaker goes on to give a highly detailed description of his suffering. In fact, it is one of the most detailed and complex in the supplication prayers in the Book of Psalms, and is based on two main themes: the speaker’s debasement and humiliation by his enemies (“But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men,59 and despised of the people /All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head ” – vv. 6–7), and the portrayal of his enemies as predator beasts and his repeated pleas for salvation (e.g. “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog” – v. 20). It is worth reiterating at this point that in most prayers that detail the supplicant’s hardships, the evildoer’s deeds 58 See chapter 2 about the components of the supplication prayers. 59 Based on the context, most commentators are inclined to understand these words to be not what the speaker actually feels personally, but rather how he is seen in his opponents’ eyes. (Rabbi David Kimchi: “I am despicable in the eyes of the Gentiles“). More on this below.

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amount to nothing more than his evil speech: mockery, slander, conspiracy against the supplicant, attempts trip him up, and contempt. In that respect, the distinctiveness of the complaint in this psalm is all the more apparent: in the great majority of complaint psalms the adversaries are presented in clichéd expressions or labels (rivevot am – “ten thousands of people” – “workers of iniquity,”60 “wicked transgressors,” “them that speak leasing,” “bloody and deceitful man,” “deceitful and unjust man”), or in generic terms (“them that hate me,” “mine enemies,” “them… that seek after my soul,” “mine adversaries,” “the wicked,” “the proud,” “assemblies of violent men”). Occasionally they are not described at all (“Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred ” – 25: 19). However, hints of the distinctiveness of the situation behind certain psalms becomes apparent when such expressions are more metaphorical, or broader in scope. Thus, the slanderous tongue wielded by the wicked enemies is occasionally likened to a weapon or a snake’s tongue (“whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword ” – 57: 4; “swords are in their lips” 59: 7; “Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows” – 64: 3; “Sharp arrows of the mighty” – 120: 4; or “They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent ” – 140: 3). At times, the enemies are also likened to predator beasts (“Lest he tear my soul like a lion” – 7: 2; “Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places” – 17: 12; “When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh” – 27: 2; “Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me” – 35: 21 – cf. “He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den” – 10: 9; and in our psalm, v. 21: “Save me from the lion’s mouth”), or “My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men” (57: 5). But these examples are clearly similes, as indicated by the word “like”. In the third of these examples (64: 3), the parallelism refers to the human realm (“and bend their bows to shoot their arrows”) – but not so in Ps. 22. While previous images were static, here the description is 60 Some commentators reject the translation of the Hebrew po’alei aven as “evildoers” (as Luther translated it), preferring instead, like Mowinckel, to interpret it as “men with magical powers,” who can place a curse upon someone. See S. Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien, I Oslo 1921, p. 47. Kraus was of the same opinion: see H.J. Kraus, Theology, pp. 161–163.

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more extensive, detailing what the animals do: “have compassed me[…] inclosed me” – v. 11). The entire ensemble, featuring predator beasts, livestock61 and dogs, is a tableau of monstrous dimensions, especially since, between the beginning the description (vv. 12–13) and the latter part (v. 16), the speaker likens his physical sensation to dying in agony, that continues even after his death, as his adversaries share the spoils between them (v. 18): (12) Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. (13) They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. (14) I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. (15) My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. (16) For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. (17) I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. (18) They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

Even when he moves on to the supplication itself and appeals to God, the nightmarish scene with his enemies still flashes before his eyes: “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’ mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns” – vv. 20–21). The speaker, therefore, is experiencing his troubles more powerfully and tangibly, yet still unable to experience the sense of salvation by virtue of his faith, despite the hints of such hopes at the start of his complaint. For this reason, I see vv. 3–5 merely a conventional element, designed to confirm God’s virtues, but one which the supplicant is unable to hold on to and internalize – since the transition to thanksgiving is abrupt and unexpected – unless we return 61 In Hebrew, abirei Bashan – meaning the “strong bulls of Bashan” (see Ps. 50: 13). The reference to bulls as aggressive predators suggests to me that it is used in a metaphorical/symbolic sense, since “the bulls of Bashan” were an emblem of the Ephraim tribe, i.e. the northern Israelite kingdom. Therefore, the speaker may be a Judahite king under attack by his enemies in the northern kingdom. However, although many commentators do identify the supplicant as a king, I myself cannot find substantial evidence for this hypothesis.

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to consider v. 8: “He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.” This verse may be understood in the main, in two ways: either it is the speaker’s adversaries, who are mocking him,62 or the words of someone who is hearing the supplication, and answering on God’s behalf – perhaps a priestly prophet, a kind of oracle, as in Ps. 85.63 While the transition from second to third person might pose a secondary difficulty, this can be resolved: in the former instance, the adversaries are at first addressing the speaker, then talking among themselves, speculatively or derisively; in the latter case, the priest is talking to the speaker, and in the latter half addressing the crowd. But even if these are words of derision, we see the supplicant seizing the words of hope for divine salvation, which he now, surprisingly, makes a point of demanding. Eaton sees the start of the transition from supplication to thanksgiving somewhere else: as he sees it, the final word of the first part – “for thou hast heard me” (v. 21) paves the way for the thanksgiving in the second half. However, he believes these words of praise to be 62 Eaton, The Psalms, pp. 116, 120. 63 Pollak raises both possibilities: one is that these are words of scorn uttered by Rabshakeh (Isaiah 36: 15) or by Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel, 3: 15). But since this possibility is implausible from a grammatical point of view, he prefers to interpret them as the words of a wandering Levite priest (since he believes that the scene dates from after the Temple’s destruction), who is speaking on God’s behalf. See A. Pollak, Elucidations of Knotty Points in Scriptures Texts, Jerusalem 1991, pp. 72–73 (Hebrew). In principle, much the same interpretation might be understood from Kimhi’s commentary, who sees these words as a platitude that the author himself had inserted as some kind of generic assurance that whoever turns his ways, questions and prayers to God will be rescued by him. For other examples of oracle-like prophecies, see Ps. 12: 5; and possibly 25: 8–11. But Leslie believes that such an intervention by a priest may also be evident in the inclusion in the prayer of a request for revenge on one’s enemies, whose large number is emphasized, and therefore when such a request is integrated into a prayer which is essentially an individual’s lament, it is apparent that the psalm is liturgical, as part of a ritual rite of purification, in the context of sin offering by someone very ill and suffering – a combination of themes of a fairly regular pattern in the Book of Psalms. See Leslie, The Psalms, pp. 350–352.

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essentially a promise of a better future, in which the supplicant undertakes to praise the Lord before all and sundry. For this reason, Eaton endorses the translations that cast this passage in the future tense. However, even if such an interpretation resolves the difficulty in the transition from supplication to thanksgiving, there is still one more difficulty, namely, identifying the situation behind the psalm. The complaint as a whole is written in the first person, but in the latter part there is a call to praise the Lord, that is addressed to the entire people: “Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel ” (v. 23).64 The same is true for references to the past, in the complaints of “our fathers” (v. 4–5): this, too, suggests that this is a national supplication. But the reference to the forefathers perhaps serves as a national argument which justifies the personal appeal that immediately follows: perhaps the declaration “But I am a worm, and no man” means “I myself am not worthy, but thanks to the forefathers, God will hearken to me as well.”65 Because of these transitions, some commentators suggest that throughout this entire psalm the supplicant is actually speaking on behalf of the nation – perhaps the king himself. Still, the specific situation in question remains elusive.66 As Eaton rightly points out, there is nothing in this psalm to tie 64 The words “seed of Jacob” and “Israel” appear to be addressed to the entire Israelite nation, and not just the northern kingdom as implicit in most such epithets in the early historiography. 65 Without such an interpretation, if we accept this declaration at face value, it deviates from general perception of the person in the psalms as a whole. Although we find an expression of the fact that in the face of the power of God and His deeds, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? ” (Ps. 8: 4), but there it is said to highlight the contrast between the power given to man “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels” (Ps. 8: 5 – in Hebrew, vatehasréhu me’at me’elohim, which can also be understood as “For thou hast made him but a little less than God”). As we noted earlier, Kimhi interprets the present verse to mean: “I am despicable in the eyes of the Gentiles” – namely, this isn’t how the supplicant sees himself, but rather others. 66 Mowinckel, for example, believed that it to be King Ezekiah, who fell ill and recovered by hearing the words of God from the mouth of Isaiah, which added fifteen years to his life. See also Eaton’s review of interpretations (The Psalms, pp. 116–122).

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it to any specific events – the most we can say is that the enemies’ very tangible presence makes them loom very large, with seemingly enormous powers that might overwhelm any human. Such calamitous consequences clearly do not refer to the personal tragedy of any ordinary individual, but to that of an entire community or people. Nonetheless, the first part of the psalm (vv. 1–11) suggests a very personal distress: the speaker declares “thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’ breasts” (v. 9) – underlining the closeness that he feels with God, which helps him feel more confident of being saved. Beyond that, however, this declaration attests to his innocence and virtuousness: God, he is saying, knows him well, since he can see his innermost thoughts, and therefore has a certain commitment to him personally in his own right, and not necessarily as a spokesman for the nation. In view of all the above, the picture emerges of a psalm that comprises various situations: supplication as well as thanksgiving and praise, national distress and crisis, and personal distress. Within it one detects the trace or hint of a priestly prophet, which may explain the transition from supplication to thanksgiving. At the same time, it contains internal elements that suggest that the transition from supplication to thanksgiving, or from despair to hope, is not a sudden one, but rather, the seeds and roots of hope and confidence are embedded in the supplication itself. This variety of situations lies at the heart of Eaton’s analysis,67 according to which this psalm is a liturgical drama with two scenes – a type of mystery of salvation from death.68 67 Ibid. p. 119. See also his detailed review of interpretations and possibilities in identifying the situation depicted, pp. 118–119. 68 Eaton, The Psalms, also points to a possible resemblance to hypothesized dramas of a similar kind in Pss. 18, 118; Isaiah 53; Zachariah 9: 9. Moreover, in keeping with the myth-and-ritual approach, he surmises that the situation is suited to celebrations of the Jewish New Year, which center on the turnaround that occurs in nature – in the form of the king, who embodies both the sorrow of ordinary mortals and the hope for recovery. (See below my reservations about this.) A similar approach is apparent in Leslie (see note 11 above). However, as Kraus rightly points out, the notion of a ritual drama based on a symbolic reinvestiture of God as king is foreign to Israelite culture, since it was not

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There are, indeed, clearly liturgical elements in various parts of the psalm, especially in verses where the two extreme situations are linked together: (3) But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. (4) Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. (5) They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

Repetitions such as these are hallmarks of ritual prayers.69 The repetition of the word “trusted” is not only a guiding word that marks the essence of the idea, but designed to reduce the gap between the desired and the actual. By placing confidence (“trust”) at various stages of the reference to the post, the presence of this confidence becomes tangible, turning the past into the present. It also represents a kind of slow progress of one or two steps forward, one step back, illustrating the gradual reduction between the present situation and the desired one. Such a wording is suggestive of magical action, and may be identified, to a greater or lesser extent, in most supplication prayers. Accordingly, even the expression “and thou didst deliver them” is better seen as a positive reply to the appeal, namely, as a kind of closing of the circle, in which the positive outcome in the past is repeated as a promise for the future. Another issue that requires clarification is the interpretation of vv. 29–31: (29) All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. (30) A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

These verses may be interpreted in a number of ways. In the view of most commentators, they mean that both the living and the dead will praise the Lord. However, we might also understand it to mean that

supposed that God ever temporarily lost his dominion and had to be reinstated. See H. J. Kraus, Theology, p. 108, and note 22 above. 69 See discussion of the ritualistic event experience in chapter 4.

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both the rich and the notables70 and the poor71 will bow before Him and recognize His greatness, and tell many others.72 This indeed is more likely, as the former interpretation runs counter to the prevailing view of other psalms: in other psalms the supplicant argues that God must respond favorably to his appeal and save him, because there is no life after death: (9)  “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?” (6: 5) (10)  “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?” (30: 9) (11)  “Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? […] / Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction? / Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” (88: 10–12) (12) “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” (115: 17)73

This argument also tells us to what extent the believer’s confidence in his salvation is based on the promise to thank the Lord in public and to extoll his praises. According to this interpretation, we may even read v. 29 as a sequence of rhetorical questions: “All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship? (or: “All those who sleep will worship only Him?”); “All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul?” – much like the questions in 30: 9 or 88: 10 – with v. 31 (“A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation”) serving as a contrasting reply, similar to the continuation of 115: 17 (“But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore”). 70 Similar to the reference in Isaiah 10: 16: “the Lord […] send among his fat ones leanness.” However, some commentators suggest that the Hebrew dishnei haaretz should be read yishnei haaretz, i.e. “all those who sleep.” See also notes 70–71 below. 71 For example, according to Ps. 113: 7: “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust” 72 The words “they […] shall eat” is based on the Hebrew akhlu veyishtaḥavu – but more plausibly, the original words were akh lo yishtaḥavu, meaning “only Him shall they worship.” 73 See also Ps. 139: 18–19; Ecclesiastes 9: 10, and others, and the extended discussion of this subject below. On the arguments presented in these verses, see chapter 5.

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Such an interpretation would be consistent with the prevailing view in the psalms and elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, namely: this is a defiant kind of plea, one based on logic, rather than just emotion or memories of the past. This variety of content components, modes of appeal and tone of speech are undoubtedly indicative of several layers of various situations, designed to provide a generic expression suitable for anyone taking part in a ritual ceremony. That said, the conclusion that this psalm and others like it should be regarded as a form of ritual drama – or even refined traces of it – is unwarranted, and a throwback to the largely discredited Myth and Ritual approach. Those who still subscribe to that school of thought may no longer present the king as one whose salvation and redemption from adversity are an illustration and personal representation of death and resurrection in nature with the passage of seasons – or as a symbol of God being taken to the underworld and the dominions of death, then returning and arising from them anew. Nevertheless, any notion that prayer – however complex – is a form of drama is based on the belief that its various parts reflect a kind of representational narrative.74 In such a narrative, the two extreme situations – distress and salvation – are merely a situational framework: the main thrust of the storyline is the event itself – i.e., the various developmental stages describing the transition from one state to the other. Yet that sort of dramatic narrative is entirely absent in the Psalms – even in those in which the speaker describes his distress in great detail, as in the Ps. 22. In contrast to ritual drama, the psalms focus on hardship and salvation: the transition itself is left to the worshipper, who must read his own thoughts and feelings into it. The avoidance of dramatic descriptions of narrative events may derive 74 A clear example of this perception may be seen in Goulder’s commentary on the Korahite psalms (Pss. 42, 44, 49; 82, 84, 87, 88), which he divides into two: 42–49 (excl. 46) and 84–88, which he regards as two states or two types of approach to the ritual drama, in which the various situations represent the gradual transition from suffering – which is the king’s symbolic and representational suffering – to salvation, which represents the return from death and resurrection – albeit in a metaphorical and stylized manner. See M.D. Goulder, The Psalms of the Songs of Korah, Sheffield 1982.

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from the general trend in the Hebrew Bible to steer clear of mythology. The demythologization in the Bible, even if it is not characterized by an unequivocal distancing of fulfillment, does typically avoid descriptions of epic battles between gods and divine entities (with the notable exceptions of the opening story in the Book of Job 1: 6–12, 2: 1–7; vestiges of the story in Genesis 6: 1–4; and hints such as Isaiah 51: 9–10; Psalms 74: 12–15; 89: 11).75 From all the above, it is apparent that Ps. 22, in its current form, does not reflect a the situation of any particular speaker, nor is it a collection of poetic fragments brought together and compiled for the purpose of a liturgical ceremony. Although in some parts of the psalm we see conventional elements of content and expressions, it is nevertheless a lyrical composition, whose content and structure are an expression of the participant’s sense of solidarity with the occasion of the communal prayer, with all the transitions that that entails, be they explicit in the descriptions, or merely hinted at: the contrasts between supplication and thanksgiving, despair and hope, his sense of his innocence and the slander and scorn expressed by his enemies, and his sense of insignificance and his confidence in God’s duty to respond favorably to his appeal. All these come together into an overall set of contrasts that lie at the root of every supplication prayer. The reference to the forefathers in contexts of this sort is meant to bridge between past and future, since the wording tells us that God’s favorable response in the past must be repeated in the present. History is therefore perceived as supra-temporal, which is also reflected in the words of the appeal and of the thanksgiving. Both are cast in a language that may be interpreted as either past tense or future, as is most apparent in Ps. 28:

75 Kraus argues against the “Myth and Ritual” approach, because there are no overt signs of ritual in the psalms – merely individual liturgical elements and details. But based on various psalmic expressions (Pss. 122: 1–2; 15: 1; 24: 3 – “opening liturgy,” as it were) and others, he reconstructs and finds in Ps. 5 a kind of personal drama of the supplicant, as reflected in the early stages of the psalm. See H.J. Kraus, Theology, pp. 103–112.

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(1) Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. (2) Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. (3) Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts. (4) Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert. (5) Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up. (6) Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. (7) The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. (8) The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. (9) Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.

In this psalm, the transition from supplication to thanksgiving is more abrupt and sudden than in Ps. 22. The words of blessing for the salvation (“Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications”) and the expression of confidence in God (“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him…”) are devoid of any introductory hints, as in Ps. 22 – nor are there any expressions that gradually make way for the growth of hope. Instead – as in Ps. 5 – here, too the appeal for God’s favorable response is repeated with emphasis that highlights the urgent need for salvation. However, while in Ps. 5 the repeated appeal for attention is tangible (“Give ear […] Hearken […] shalt thou hear”) with a sense of uncertainty as to God’s attitude toward one’s enemies (“For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee / The foolish shall not stand in thy sight ”). There, the doubt fades and gives way to confidence only gradually, while in Ps. 28 the appeal to punish one’s enemies is based on the certain knowledge that they are also enemies of God Himself (“Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands”). Accordingly, it is only right that the Lord punish them measure for measure (“Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert ”). The personal rivalry gives way to a rivalry in principle, and the supplicant’s suffering is revealed 70

to be one caused by the violation of divine justice and morality by the wicked, who “speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.” Hence we also understand why – unlike in Ps. 22 – the supplicant does not go into detail or even hint at what the wicked do to him personally: the urgent need for salvation is not because of any personal distress, but out of concern for the general justice that has been violated. The thanksgiving, therefore, stems from the speaker’s absolute confidence, which has not been shaken. But the concern about restoring divine justice is what reveals the personal distress to be a national one, and hence the conclusion of the thanksgiving prayer, once again, with a plea for the future: “Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance”. The presentation of God in one context as a stronghold for His people and for his anointed one does not necessarily indicate that the speaker is indeed a king speaking on behalf of his people.76 The king, or God’s anointed one, is perceived by the worshipper in the metonymic sense of someone who symbolizes law and order and good governance. The tension between distress and confidence in salvation is not a reflection of personal despair, in this instance – rather, it is between the reward provided by the redeeming God’s counteracting and nullifying the evil of the wicked, whose deceit undermines world order . The fear and anxiety characterizing the first part of the psalm dissipate immediately in light of the simple knowledge of past and future salvations. This is possibly also the reason why the issue of salvation is mentioned at first in past tense (“because he hath heard ”), and subsequently in the form of an appeal for the future (“Save thy people”).77 76 Eaton (The Psalms, pp. 136–138), like commentators before him, proposes various options of identification of the situation: the speaker is in mortal danger, perhaps because of an illness, or perhaps because of his enemies, as well. This combination of situations originates, it seems, in the prevailing view that illness is a punishment for sin, and the ill person is derided by his adversaries. See Leslie on this matter (ibid. note 11). 77 The various translations and commentaries are not unequivocal on this point. Some interpret the Hebrew ki shama as past tense, some as present or even future tense. In the Septuagint: εισήκουσεν; in King James: “because he hath heard,” the JPS: “for he listens” – while Eaton (The Psalms) argues “For He will surely hear…”

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The final impression one receives from all of these combinations is that of an individual who sees the national prayer as an expression of his own personal distress, whatever it may be: illness, the enemies and the dangers taken on a generic, metaphorical and representational meaning, and past salvations of the forefathers instill in him hope for future salvation. His solidarity with the general community is so strong, that past salvations of his forefathers means that he is confident that he, too, will be saved. The gap between the personal plight and the national distress is reconciled by the the description of the evil of his enemies, who “they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands” (v. 5) – that is to say, through their actions they sin against the Lord’s works, and violate the proper world order.78 An examination of other psalms, such as Ps. 3, may illuminate further nuances in the seemingly identical pattern and distinctiveness of individual experiences: (1) Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me. (2) Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. (3) But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. (4) I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. (5) I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me. (6) I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. (7) Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. (8) Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.

Here, v. 3 is not yet an expression of thanks, nor does it indicate a change in the supplicant’s condition. At this stage, it is merely validating God’s attributes. But his very recognition that God, who defends him, is the source of his honor – in contrast to the humiliation that he is receiving at the hands of his enemies – instills confidence in him. He also relies on divine salvation in the past: in Hebrew, the term “I cried” 78 Ps. 92 presents precisely the same view from the opposite direction: there the poet praises the proper order of a world in which there is no room for evil. See also the discussion in chapter 3 on the degree of compliance between justice and world order.

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is éqra, is actually future tense, but in this context it appears to be in the past tense, as translated – but as in other psalms, it is possible that past and future tenses are merged together. The crux of the speaker’s confidence, however, appears in v. 5. Here we see that salvation by God is not a one-off event, but a recognition that this is the normal state of affairs in the relationship between man and God: man, who lies down and sleeps, is awoken by the power of the Lord. God is perceived, therefore, as one who wakens those who sleep by virtue of who and what He is. 79 This declaration recalls previously discussed declarations about death, as summed up in the statement “For in death there is no remembrance of thee” (6: 5): God is the God of life, and as such will not let man sink into the sleep of death. The recognition is therefore that salvation is not a one-off act of grace, but due by God’s very nature. The two final verses also merge together past and future in similar fashion (“save me” and “for thou hast smitten”),80 and the closing declaration presents God as the God of salvation and blessing. Accordingly, the transition from supplication to thanksgiving is not indicative of a reversal of fortune, but a unifying vision, in which the supplicant’s confidence is rooted in his perception of God’s nature and attributes. Not so in Ps. 6, however: (1) O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. (2) Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. (3) My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long? (4) Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’sake. 79 In Weiss’s view, the psalm features a change of mental state, from one extreme to another: due to his total isolation, and the many people who tell him “There is no help for him in God” (Ps. 3: 2), his faith crumbles. Weiss argues that the change of condition occurs by virtue of the prayer itself. See M. Weiss, Scriptures, pp. 135–140. But the process of prayer and the worshipper’s experience are not described in that psalm, and the transition from one state to another is abrupt (“I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill”) – thus it is clear that the transition takes place by the very identification of God’s qualities, as previously presented. 80 The words for thou has smitten appear to be not in the past tense, but in the prophetic past tense. See Weiss, ibid.

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(5) For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? (6) I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. (7) Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies. (8) Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. (9) The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer. (10) Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

Here, as in Ps. 22, the supplicant experiences his suffering, and expresses it in great detail. This is also apparent in the formal structure: the verse describing the suffering is the longest one, extending even into the following verse (6–7). By contrast, he does not actually experience salvation – rather, the declaration toward the end, “The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer ” is coupled with the dual cry, “Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.” The repetition in the last verse reveals the speaker’s true state. As in the case of repetitions in other psalms, it is indicative of prayer, an attempt to visualize the desired condition. The use of alliteration in Hebrew should also be considered: yashuvu (“let them return”) versus yevoshu (“be ashamed”), with the swapping of the Hebrew consonants v and sh illustrating the sought-after transformation. The demand “Depart from me,” with all its attendant detail, indicates that although God has heard his prayer, it has not produced the desired result. Accordingly, despite the presence of despair and hope in this prayer, the nuances suggest that the supplicant is still in dire straits. Although logic, and God’s attributes, dictate that he should be saved, because “in death there is no remembrance of thee,” emotionally, the supplicant is not feeling any salvation, nor is it given any descriptive expression in this psalm. The same appears to be true of Ps. 17, as well. In the first half (vv. 1–8), the appeal to God for salvation is justified on grounds of the speaker’s proven innocence and blamelessness, while in the second half (vv. 9–14a), the argument used is the evil nature and corruptive power of the wicked. The situation described in the conclusion (14b–15) is therefore the desired state, but from its brevity and generic 74

nature of its description, it is clear that the supplicant is still not experiencing it, and it is still no more than a wish. The differences between these psalms may clarify the understanding of the meaning of the sudden transition from supplication to praise and thanksgiving. The psalms describing the enemies and the speaker’s distress in great detail reflect his present situation, and have a practical purpose: to make the distress more bearable, by allowing the speaker to make the transition from crisis to deliverance. By describing the evil, its unknown, mysterious, dangerous aspects are removed, making it more bearable. The same is true of Ps. 31: (10) Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. (11) For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. (12) I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me. (13) I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. (14) For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.81

Here, too, we find in the description of the distress the hints of hope and salvation, embedded within the supplication and appeal: “be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me” (v. 3); “For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’ sake lead me, and guide me” (v. 4); “Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth” (v. 5); “I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities” (v. 7). But while the distress described here very vividly, the desired state is expressed in perfunctory idiomatic expressions about God’s

81 Cf. Jeremiah 20: 10: “For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side.” The style of the concluding words of this passage (v. 13: “Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers”), some commentators believe that this entire passage in Jeremiah was in fact taken from the Book of Psalms. See: A. Pollak, Elucidations, p. 112.

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qualities. The evil is still present, and embedded in the speaker’s gratitude for the anticipated salvation, as a kind of counterweight: (16) Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues (vv. 19–20).

This part of the thanksgiving is also preceded by a detailed wish for revenge: (17) Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous” (vv. 17–18).

The same is true of Ps. 41: (1) Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. (2) The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. (3) The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. (4) I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. (5) Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish? (6) And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it. (7) All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt. (8) An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. (9) Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. (10) But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them. (11) By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. (12) And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.

In this psalm, too, the speaker dwells upon the details of his distress more than on his hope, and is still entirely at the mercy of the evil of his enemies. So much so, that he attributes greater weight to describing their plots and ill will than to his hope and confidence in God’s 76

support (vv. 5–9, versus 11–12). Moreover, the main expressions of hope appear at the start of the psalm (vv. 1–3), and are more general moralistic pronouncements than expressions of the speaker’s actual feelings – in other words, he draws strength from general truths about God’s ways. Hope, therefore, appears in this psalm as a feeble voice, probably because the speaker is doubly afflicted: on the one hand – as in Ps. 41 – his antagonists are deceitful in their speech (v. 6), and wish him only death (vv. 5, 7), and on the other hand, even his own friend has cheated him (v. 9). A comparison between this psalm and Ps. 28 highlights the difference in situation: although they share identical elements, the harsher and more complex the distress, the harder it is for the worshipper to experience the desired future, and to feel that his salvation is assured and real. In this situation – as described in Pss. 42, 43; 51 or 56–57 – his praise and thanksgiving appear to be no more than a promise, and to some extent, conditional – i.e., he promises to thank the Lord after being saved from his distress. Another manifestation of the speaker’s buffeting between despair and hope we find in Pss. 42–43: (1) As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. (2) My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? (3) My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? (4) When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. (5) Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. (6) O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. (7) Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. (8) Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. (9) I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? (10) As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

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(11) Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

(43:)

(1) Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. (2) For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? (3) O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. (4) Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God. (5) Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

It is difficult to say whether these two chapters should be seen as one psalm – as they indeed appear in many manuscripts82 – or as two.83 On the one hand, they have an identical refrain (42: 5,11; 43: 5) and share a significant internal parallel: in both cases, the speaker’s plight is related to his yearning for the house of God,84 and his hope hinges upon his chances to be there once again (42: 1,2; 43: 3–4). In other words the speaker’s experience is a wholly religious one: his separation from the house of God is the source of his despair, and his wish is to return and be in it is the source of his hope. At the same time, there are significant differences between the two psalms in terms of content. The speaker is racked not just by yearning and hope, by mocked and taunted by his antagonists: “My tears have been 82 See detailed reference in Weiss, “Psalms 42–43,” Y. Hoffman et. al. (eds.}, A Light for Yacob (in Memory of J.S. Licht), Jerusalem 1997, pp. 104–117 (Hebrew). 83 Per: M.Z. Segal, “The Refrain in Hebrew Poetry,” Tarbiz 6 (1935), pp. 125–144 (Hebrew). 84 Chapters 42–43 are commonly regarded as a quintessentially Elohistic psalm – especially in view of the marked repetition of the name Elohim (God), and because of the many place names cited (v. 6). See: A. Rofé, Prophetic Literature, pp. 16–17 (Hebrew). Only in v. 8 is God referred to as the Lord, but Rofé argues that this is an incidental verse, not only because of its change in name, but in its content, as well: it exudes confidence, while the rest of the psalm is dominated by despair. See my discussion of this below.

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my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?” (42: 3), and “As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?” (42: 10). This portrayal of his enemies is typical in the Book of Psalms, in that their wickedness is mainly of the verbal kind.85 Its relation to the speaker’s distress lies in the fact that their mockery is mainly of a religious nature, namely, “Where is thy God?” In this regard, the two psalms are different: Ps. 42 presents the speaker’s opponents as the opponents of God, as well, thereby heightening the religious experience, and the counterpoint tension assumes a full and uniform dimension. In Ps. 43, however, the adversaries are personal – “an ungodly nation [… a] deceitful and unjust man” (v. 1). In Ps. 42, the speaker’s emotional response to the taunts is pain and indignity: his denigration is God’s denigration, as well (“My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?” – v. 3) – while in Ps. 43, he asks God to judge him, to plead on his behalf, and rescue him from his enemies. We might say that here the distress moves from the national level to the personal one (“Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man 86” – v. 1). There is also a discernible difference in the use of metaphor between the two chapters, in terms of content, uniformity, intensity, and vividness: in Ps. 42 the yearning for God’s proximity is manifested in a physical sense: “My soul thirsteth for God ” (v. 2),87 and the mental response to the enemies’ taunts is similarly depicted: “My tears have been my meat day and night ” (v. 3).88 The enemy’s jeers also take on a visceral expression: “As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me” (v. 10). 85 See also Gelander, “The Language of the Wicked in the Psalms,” Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Division A, Jerusalem 1989, pp. 37–42 (Hebrew). 86 The word “nation” (in Hebrew, goi) is not necessarily in the sense of nation or people, but in the generic sense of “person” or “people.” Cf: Genesis 20: 5. 87 The word “soul” here is in its ancient meaning of body, or throat (see Numbers 11: 6). See also the various expressions for the sense of God’s proximity, as discussed in chapter 2. 88 The use of the word “bread” here, as elsewhere in the Bible, is undoubtedly in its metonymic sense of a person’s daily routine and basic needs (see Leviticus 26: 26;

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A series of metaphors also accompanies the feeling of thirst and the description of destructive waters. This description casts the speaker’s despair and suffering as a picture of the collapse of world order, and perhaps even a return to chaos: “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me”(v. 7)89 – in other words, while God’s presence and proximity are a refreshing power for him, being distant from God, as he sees it, is tantamount to total destruction.90 Moreover, the tension between where he wants to be and his actual surroundings is also illustrated by the tension between a tangible landscape (“from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar” – v. 6) and a chaotic one (“Deep calleth unto deep…” – v. 7).91 By contrast, in Ps. 43 there is no metaphorical association between the speaker’s personal distress and his ideological belief-based crisis. Rather than yearning for God’s immediate proximity, he asks that Isaiah 3: 1; Proverbs 30: 8; and others). But in this context it is also linked to a sense of thirst, in that his tears have taken the place of food. 89 Cf. Jonah 2: 4; Pss. 22: 5; 88: 8, 18; 93: 4; 124: 5; 144: 8. See also Pss. 68: 23; 69: 2–3, 15–16. It is reasonable to assume that the descriptions of water as a devastating destructive force are drawn from ancient myths, and are a refined incarnation of the ancients’ view of water as the realm of chaos. On this point, see also below, chapter 3, and notes 15, 16 there. The perception of water as God’s enemy and the source of all evil is also evident in Egyptian sources, and even in magical medical texts. See: N. Shupak, “Serpent of the Water,” God’s War with the Sea, in M. Garsiel, “Psalms 110; 132; 139,” Biblical World: Psalms, vol. II, pp. 159; 234–238; 251–255. 90 With regard to the meaning of the destructive water I lean toward Alonso Schökel’s interpretation – although I doubt that could find this to be an expression of the polarization between a mysterious and attractive divinity and an awe-inspiring one, given the contrast between the water that he seeks, and the water coming down on him from God. See L. Alonso Schökel’s, “The Poetic Structure of Psalm 42– 43,” JSOT 1 (1976), pp. 4–11 – and see also Weiss’s observations on this point (ibid., note 26), which underlines that the yearning is for God himself. 91 In the Septuagint, καταρρακτων (in the Jerusalem Talmud: marzava). Chayut (Tehilim, p. 48): “The water rushes down from the mountains through natural crevices, and some say that the waterspouts are is like the clouds that produce thunder…” Cf. Eaton (The Psalms, p. 179): “The roar of your waterspouts…”

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God plead on his behalf,92 judge him and deliver him from his enemy, whose ungodliness is described in detail (“ungodly nation [… a] deceitful and unjust man”). Moreover, the chapter’s content is mainly founded on the conventional elements of a supplication prayer (as detailed above, chapter 1). These are more formulaic than distinctive: apart from the supplication itself, we find an appeal for divine guidance (v. 3), with a promise to continue worshipping the Lord. In Ps. 42, this promise is included in expression of physical yearning (“for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday” – 42: 4) – while in Ps. 43 it is focused in metonymical expressions (“Then will I go unto the altar of God […] yea, upon the harp will I praise thee” – 43: 4). The situation in Ps. 43 is also largely conventional: “deceitful and unjust man” (v. 1)93; “the God of my strength”94; and “why dost thou cast me off?” (v. 2).95 Even the repeating refrain is more distinctive and pertinent to its context in Ps. 42 than in Ps. 43, with the appeal “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?” (42: 5) being echoed in the words “O my God, my soul is cast down within me” (42: 6). In addition, in Ps. 42 the yearning for God’s proximity and for the house of God is described amidst a direct soul-baring confession, while in Ps. 43 he appears to be seized by doubts about his own innocence, and therefore in need of God’s guidance: “O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles” (v. 3). Each of these two psalms, therefore, deals with a separate experience, and each of these experiences is expressed in a series of metaphors that reflects a plea on a different emotional and ideological plane. Nevertheless, we cannot unequivocally state that these are two discrete psalms. The repeating refrain is not merely a technical detail. Perhaps the poet himself, or the master redactor, sought to use it to convey an ideological statement, namely that the speaker’s appeal to 92 From the context it is clear that the Hebrew word riv. in this case, as elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, is in this sense of a legal dispute. 93 Cf: Pss. 5: 7 *; 52: 6 *; 55: 24 *; 101: 7 *; 102: 2 *; 109: 2 * etc. 94 Cf: Jeremiah 16: 19; 37: 39; Pss. 31: 2–3 *; Nehemiah 8: 10 etc. 95 Cf.: Pss. 44: 9 *; 60: 3 *, 12; 77: 8 *; 88: 15 *; 89: 39 *; 108: 12 * etc.

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his soul, “hope thou in God,” does not extricate him from his despair, but does show him the way to hope, and this applies to both situations, which together sum up all states of distress and despair. The repeating cry “hope thou in God” is only a prelude – the speaker is still mired in despair, and not yet experiencing his salvation. Together, therefore, the two experiences may serve as a single prayer psalm that is valid for all forms of yearning, distress or despair. From the psalms we have reviewed to date in this section it is clear that what they depict is not clearcut transition from despair to hope, or from supplication to thanksgiving – on the contrary, the speaker experiences the despair, while the expressions of hope are merely aspirations that incorporate an expression of confidence in God and His salvation, but not necessarily a sense of well-being and redemption. The more detailed the speaker’s description of the distress, the greater his need to illustrate it, in an effort to gain control over his situation. By the same token, one might assume that when hope and confidence are expressed in repeating refrains, it is a kind of self-motivational refrain. Thus, in Ps. 56, we find the repeated declaration: “In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me” (v. 4); “In God will I praise his word: In the Lord will I praise his word / In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me” (vv. 10,11). Here, too, most of the psalm is devoted to a detailed and graphic illustration of the speaker’s distress, but here the emphatic declarations of confidence work as intended, eliciting cries of self-encouragement (57: 9–11) a sense of growing stronger, as if the desired deliverance had already arrived (57: 3) – so much so, that the supplicant is able to voice sincere praise and thanks for being saved (56: 13; 57: 9–11). In other psalms, as well, we find that, notwithstanding glimpses of hope and praise, the actual situation being experienced is one of distress, although the balance between despair and hope may vary with the context.96 96 See Ps. 59 – a psalm of communal complaint, centered on seeking revenge on one’s enemies, while the element of hope is found only in the description of the realization of revenge and the pledge to thank the Lord in future. The same is true of Ps. 64. In Ps. 102 there is a more detailed description of the

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Interim Summary In the previous three sections we dealt with three types of religious experience, which we defined as transformative. These represent three degrees of intensity of experience. In the first – the most powerful and extreme – the speaker actually experiences the desired state, as if his wish has already been fulfilled – so much so, that his actual condition appears to fall away and be removed from his consciousness, and hints of it are apparent only in his choice of expressions. The second type involve the transition from a crisis of identity, solidarity and faith, to a rallying from the demand that divine justice and punishment of the wicked be implemented. The third kind of religious experience presents various guises and intensities of swings between despair and hope. In most instances, the speaker feels his distress very keenly, and while he is hopeful for imminent salvation and redemption, implicitly or otherwise, it is entirely dependent on the tension between God’s commitment toward his own nature, and the speaker/supplicant’s undertaking to honor his vows and thank and praise God when his prayers are answered. Experiences of the first kind are undoubtedly the most consummate, sought-after and strongest type of religious experience. The second and third kinds – less so: there, the supplicant’s hope and desire are satisfied above all by the knowledge that there is someone to address the prayers to, and that he is entitled to demand God to listen to him and to be receptive to his innermost thoughts and feelings. sought-after future (Ps. 102: 12–21), but the very pledge to recount the glory of God brings us once again back to the reasons for the complaint (vv. 22–23), which is highly detailed in the first part of the psalm (vv. 1–11). Ps. 140, too, is mainly a prayer of supplication, and its optimistic element is based on a “moralistic” notion of a proper world order, rather than a reflection of the speaker’s actual state. In Ps. 143, which is also a supplication prayer, while there is a measure of hope arising from the speaker’s memory of God’s actions and deeds, one can sense that its optimism is limited, since instead of a declaration of innocence – which is a standard feature of supplication prayer –the speaker qualifies his words, pointing out that “in thy sight shall no man living be justified,” and therefore “enter not into judgment with thy servant.” (Ps. 143: 2).

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The full transformation experience, as in Ps. 23, is best expressed in the songs of praise and thanksgiving, as discussed below.

2.4  Praise and thanksgiving The psalms in this section feature a kind of closed circle. In some, the poet sings in praise of the world for its order, and praises the Lord for his wondrous deeds. Some are wisdom psalms, which are generally not about a specific individual condition. However, the great majority of them center on the experience of fulfilling an earnest desire. Personal deliverance makes it possible for the author to identify with proper world order, and even to see himself as part of the universal harmony, and by declaring these conclusions to all and sundry, he feels solidarity with the community at large. Regardless of whether his prayer has been answered, or he is merely experiencing it as if it had already happened, his expression contains the same elements. Moreover, closer inspection of these psalms reveals that they often feature the same elements that we found in the supplication psalms – but “in reverse,” as it were, to the extent that one might say that the thanksgiving psalm is an “inverted” form of the supplication psalm: in the latter, the speaker undertakes to honor his vows, and therefore thanks the Lord and praises him, while in the thanksgiving psalm he declares that he has come to honor his vows, and therefore thanks the Lord and sings his praises. In the supplication prayer, the description of God’s attributes serves to justify the request, while in the thanksgiving psalm the speaker declares that God’s attributes have been indubitably verified and realized. In the supplication prayer, the speaker professes his innocence or his right to seek refuge in the house of God from his wicked enemies; in the thanksgiving prayer, he announces his arrival or presence in the house of God because God has recognized his innocence, and has therefore judged him and saved him. We have also seen, in previous sections, that at times the supplication and thanksgiving are interwoven, to the point where it is difficult to tell with any 84

certainty what is the speaker’s actual state. Often the words of thanks are bound up within a general moralization, making it more akin to wisdom literature. As in the psalms of transformation and transition presented in previous sections, here too I shall attempt to examine various degrees of intensity in the psalms: at one end of the spectrum, the speaker expresses his thanks and experiences his salvation, without any clear indication as to whether or not it is real, or merely imagined. The desired state is experienced fully and completely. In this regard, it is identical to the experience described in Ps. 23, but unlike that psalm, here is no trace or hint whatsoever of past or present distress. In this respect, it seems that the only song of praise that is identical in its intensity depicted in Ps. 23 is Ps. 126: (1) When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. (2) Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them. (3) the Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. (4) Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. (5) They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. (6) He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

The metaphors used in this psalm are uniformly distinctive, in that their details come together into a single ideological and emotional view: first and foremost, the experience of solidarity, in which the entire congregation voices its feelings as a single entity, but in first person plural. This is experienced at three levels at once: 1. The return to Zion – a historic occasion, likened to a renewal in nature (“as the streams in the south”). In other words, world order and history form a whole, the cosmic merging with the historic. 2. The process of renewal in nature is identified with the transformation in the speaker’s emotional state, from sadness and anxiety to joy (“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy”): the condition of nature is equated with the state and emotions of those who experience the return to Zion. 85

3. The reality and dream are experienced at the same time (“When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream”): the prayer and thanksgiving, the speaker’s present condition and the desired future are experienced amidst a sense of harmony and happiness from the vision’s fulfillment. Such uniform completeness places the experience above any other single occurrence. The return to Zion is experienced as the supreme fulfillment of deliverance for which the world order was intended (since it is likened to streams in the south) – and through his actions, the farmer, representing mankind, mediates between history (now put right) and bountiful nature.97 Any attempt to associate this psalm with any particular historical occasion98 or religious holiday99 misses the power and emotional and ideological significance of the experience. From all the above, it is clear that this psalm transcends time and specific situations. The combination 97 We might also see in the words “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy” a kind of closing of the circle in relation to the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, when Adam was told: “[…] cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life” (Gen. 3: 17). 98 Goulder believes that the background to this psalm is clearly reflected in Nehemiah 6: 1–14. But that passage is about the attempts by Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem to obstruct and thwart the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls, including a false prophecy by Shemaiah, son of Delaiah. Even though the story is told after these obstacles had been overcome, it nevertheless includes Nehemiah’s appeal to have his enemies punished, and is more indicative of his distress and difficulties than of well-being and relief. The linking of this particular incident with Ps. 126 may also be attributable to the apparent similarity of “It is reported among the heathen” (Neh. 6: 6) with “said they among the heathen” in the psalm, but the psalm undoubtedly extends far any particular situation. See M.D. Goulder, The Psalms of the Return (Book V: Psalms 107–115), New York 1998, pp. 60–63. 99 See  J. Eaton, The Psalms, p. 433. He argues that, in the main, this is a psalmprayer for the resurrection of the exhausted nation, rather than – as commonly believed – merely a depiction of the harsh conditions of the post-exile period. While he thinks that vv. 1–3 recall past salvation as grounds for the prayer, the psalm is mostly concerned with agricultural conditions, and in that respect is most akin to Ps. 85. To my mind, however (see section 3 above), it is first and foremost a portrait of distress.

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of historic deliverance with the salvation of a bountiful nature casts the past, present and future as a timeless unity, as in a dream or – to be more precise – as reality within a dream. Hence, the transitions from past tense (“When the Lord turned again”) to future (“Then was our mouth filled ”) are done for a reason, to illustrate this simultaneous unity.100 This linguistic parallelism between past and future repeats in the passage between “then said they among the heathen” and “whereof we are glad.” Gratitude permeates this entire song of praise with a sense of joy, with no more than the subtlest of echoes of past distress. This is worthy of further scrutiny. The most explicit expressions of joy are at the beginning (“Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing”), in the middle (“we are glad ”) and at the end (“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy”). The descriptions “They that sow in tears” and “He that goeth forth and weepeth”might be interpreted on various levels. If we link the historical level in the first part of the poem with the natural realm of the latter half, we might find ourselves in a narrow allegorical field, in which the tears and weeping hint at the hardships of exile and past crises. In the narrow sense, there is no need to resort to allegory, and the depiction might be interpreted at face value: the tears and weeping are nothing more than the fears, concerns and pain of a farmer who is anxious about his investment.101 However, at a broader level, taking into account all possibilities, the references to sowing and harvesting are metonymical, symbolizing the conversion of anxiety, concern and distress into a bountiful blessing. In this respect, there is only a faint 100 See Eaton, The Psalms, who believes that those who believe that this psalm is a depiction of post-exilic hardships do so based on a mistranslation of v. 1a. See: Chayut, Tehilim, p. 271, but also Kimhi: “The tribulations of exile will seem like a fleeting dream, so joyful we will be on returning to our country.” Cf: A. (Victor) Horovitz, “Psalm 126,” Biblical World: Psalms, p. 228: “‘We were like them that dream’ – meaning, ‘In our dream, we saw and experienced what the Lord is set to do for us in future.’ 101 Goulder, Psalms of the Return, points out a common practice in Egypt and perhaps throughout the ancient Middle East of weeping during sowing, as a form of sympathetic magic, in an agricultural ceremony held around the time that the Jerusalem walls were rebuilt.

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vestige of past hardships, which fade into insignificance in the face of the present. Further echo of past hardships might be found in the words “said they among the heathen”: on the face of it, this is nothing but an expression of the power of salvation, word of which spreads among all nations: the people’s joy is magnified by the fact that all the world’s nations recognize the extent of the salvation. But the reaction of the world’s nations and of the nation’s enemies is also important for another reason, which emerged as a recurring theme in the supplication prayers, where it plays a key part in the supplicant’s distress. Thus, in the national supplication prayer we find the argument: “Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God?” (79: 10 – similarly, 115: 2); and in the individual prayer: “As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?” (42: 10); “2 Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God” (3: 2); and so forth.102 Therefore, what the nations say today is by way of full compensation and coming to terms with the reversal of fortune. The complete riddance of past difficulties is what allows the celebrants to experience their joy. In this respect of reversal of fortune, there is a parallel with Ps. 23: the sense of triumph in the citing of what the nations say is emotionally similar to that of “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” in Ps. 23, and the description of joyful harvesting recalls “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters” in the same psalm. But while Ps. 23 the distress of the present is hinted at throughout, in Ps. 126 even the distant echoes of hardship have been transformed into an integral part of the expressions of joy and praise. The praise, by its very nature, is also an expression of identification: the praiser finds his place in his world, inasmuch as his deliverance is testimony of a proper world order. But in many instances this is also an experience of social solidarity. This is clear and self-evident 102 Cf. Rabshakeh’s boasts: Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, the Lord will surely deliver us […] hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, the Lord will deliver us […] Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand? (II Kings 18: 18, 30, 34, 35; cf. Isaiah 36: 14–16; and see II Chronicles 32: 14).

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in the communal psalms, which are cast in the first person plural, and where the speakers derive their confidence and strength not only from the power of their faith in God’s actions, but also from the sense of national belonging, or from belonging to the community of the righteous, as opposed to the “others,” namely, the wicked, who are generally also identified as enemies of God.103 The call to praise and glorify the Lord is fundamentally one of identification, insofar as the praises reflect the praiser’s worldview and priorities.104 Therefore, in the individual prayer – and occasionally in the communal ones, too – we find wisdom maxims. These are essentially moral teachings about the virtues of God’s deeds and the benefits of believing in Him and following His ways. These words take the psalm out of the personal domain and particular situation and place it in the communal realm and, by extension, solidarity with it. This, as far as we can tell, is why these generic expressions are included in songs of praise and thanksgiving, even if they are not directly related to the situation they depict. Psalms 9–10 It is customary to view these two as one psalm,105 which was originally constructed in alphabetical order, with every second, third or fourth verse beginning with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet, and the order possibly became jumbled later. Dahood points out that the structure of the akrostichon does not allow for a gradual spectrum of

103 For more on declarations of identity and belonging – particularly their polemical aspect, highlighting the contrast between the speakers and those surrounding them – see chapter 4, which deals with the ceremonial experience. 104 See Lewis’s commentary on this topic: in his view, it is not God who needs praising, nor does he demand it – rather, praise is the praiser’s appropriate reciprocal response to the experience of enjoying God’s actions. See: G.S. Lewis, “A Word About Praising,” Reflections in the Psalms, London 1958, pp. 90–98. 105 So it is in the Septuagint; see also N. M. Sarna, Biblical World: Psalms, pp. 228; 437–462; A. Rofé, Prophetic Literature, p. 83, note 173.

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expression of feelings and ideas, but is meant as a memory aid.106 In any event, we find that this psalm is perceived as an essentially didactic poem. As in the psalms discussed in the previous section, here too, in the psalm’s two parts, we see descriptions of distress. Thus, in the first part (Ps. 9): “Have mercy upon me, O Lord; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me” (9: 13), and in the second part (Ps. 10), in greater detail, amidst a more extensive description of the enemy’s appearance, words, and thoughts: (1) Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? (2) The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. (3) For the wicked boasteth of his heart‘s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. (4) The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. (5) His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. (6) He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity. (7) His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity. (8) He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor. (9) He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. (10) He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. (11) He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it. (12) Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.107 (13) Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.

106 Dahood also argues that the findings from Ras Shamrah contradict Lohr’s theory, whereby the Hebrew alphabet was attributed magical powers. See: M. Dahood, Psalms I, New York 1966, pp. 53–67. 107 This appeal to the Lord, which interrupts the description of the wicked, is parallel to the appeal in Ps. 9: 20, and is as a kind of refrain, but with it one can see how the alphabetical akrostichon, which is renewed in these verses, was disrupted.

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These descriptions beg the question if this is a supplication psalm, or song of praise.108 In the previous section we showed how pinpointing the historical situation behind a given psalm is dependent on the degree of detail of the descriptions. Here, too, there is considerable weight to the description of hardships, but counteracting it the descriptions of God’s favorable response spill over and merge with the words of praise, creating a blend between the presentation of God’s attributes and the general moral of the story. This blending removes the psalm from the realm of complaint and transfers it to the praise and thanksgiving – such as the words in Ps. 9: 8–11: (7) But the Lord shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment. (8) And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. (9) the Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. (10) And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

The call to sing to God and praise him (“Sing praises to the Lord, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings” – v. 11) is explained here, too, by God’s favorable response, and in a description that includes God’s attributes as well (“When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble” – v. 12). The wisdom-like moral of the story “neutralizes” the descriptions of personal distress, inasmuch as they are testimony of God’s attributes. The description of hardship is designed mainly to illustrate the magnitude of the salvation. It achieves its purpose in a call to praise God, and therefore the sense of solidarity is between the speaker and those whom he addresses midway through the psalm. A similar blend of personal experience that includes a residue of past distresses, or wisdom moralizing presenting God’s attributes, is found in Ps. 18. In its second half, there is a clear element common to both the supplication and the thanksgiving types of prayer – namely, 108 Dahood, Psalms I (see note 105), like Buttenweiser before him, interprets the verbs in the description of hardships as a repeated description of a wish already fulfilled.

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the declaration of the speaker’s innocence and blamelessness. As previously noted, in contrast to the supplication prayer, the element here is “inverted”: while in the supplication prayer the declaration serves as grounds for God’s intervention, in the thanksgiving and praise prayer God’s intervention appears as part of God’s praises: (20) The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. (21) For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. (22) For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. (23) I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. (24) Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.

The use of the same words to describe the speaker’s attributes and the reward from God (“according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands”) illustrates and reiterates God’s custom of measure for measure. The transition to the general declaration about the Lord’s ways and his attributes is similarly natural and self-evident: (25) With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; (26) With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. (27) For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.

In these verses there is also a formal escalation: unlike the identical wording in the previous passage, here there is (in the Hebrew) full alliteration between the deed and its reward (e.g., v. 25: im ḥasid tit’ḥassad, im gvar tamim titamam). The repetition of syllables and letters reiterates the idea that divine recompense will indeed not be only a one-off act of grace, but is an inherent part of who He is and what He does. We know this because, when the speaker returns to detail his salvation, it has an added meaning of a generalization, which removes the praise from the individual realm:

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(28) For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. (29) For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.

Once again, he frames this declaration within a general moralistic statement about God’s ways: (30) As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. (31) For who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God?

Only now, at this point, do we see a return to a broad and detailed description of the salvation and its aftermath: (32) It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. (33) He maketh my feet like hinds’feet, and setteth me upon my high places. (34) He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. (35) Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great. (36) Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip. (37) I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed. (38) I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet. (39) For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. (40) Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me. (41) They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the Lord, but he answered them not. (42) Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. (43) Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me. (44) As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me. (45) The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places.109

109 It is clear from the context that vv. 43–45, notwithstanding the use of future tense, are referring to past salvations, and it is possible that the mingling of past and future is an allusion, as in Ps. 126, to the notion that the speaker is always experiencing the salvation ahead of time as much as when it occurs in reality.

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Thus, the words of praise and thanksgiving appear to grow of their own accord, with the thanks for the personal salvation wrapped within praises for the Lord’s virtues: (46) The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. (47) It is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me. (48) He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man. (49) Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. (50) Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.

In this way, the second part of the psalm makes it unequivocally clear that the hardships mentioned in passing in the first part are a thing of the past. This is particularly apparent from the extensive description of the Lord’s works, which present His salvation in terms of control of the world as a whole. The Creator bends nature and the “foundations of the world” to His will, in a description reminiscent of the titanic struggles of ancient mythology.110 To my mind, it is no coincidence that in this psalm the theomachic myth is not referred to explicitly, as it is in Ps. 74 (vv. 13–17), or in Ps. 89 (9–13), and to a lesser extent in Ps. 77 (16–19).111 The context suggests that direct reference to the ancient divine monsters defeated by the Creator appears in national supplications, and are indicative of severe distress,112 in a bid to make them more vivid and “persuade” Him to return and give another show of strength, instilling a measure of hope and security in those suffering that salvation is possible. However, in passages where there is only a faint and oblique echo of theomachic struggles, the historical context is not a state of severe distress but of remembering 110 Dahood, Psalms I, pp. 101–119, joins many commentators in attributing this psalm to David himself, noting its great similarity to ancient Canaanite terminology and descriptions. 111 See also Isaiah 19: 1; 27: 1; 51: 9–10. 112 See: S. Gelander, “Theomachy in Mesopotamian and Canaanite Mythology – and in Biblical Creation Descriptions,” Y. Friedlander et.al (eds.), The Old Shall be Renewed and the New Sanctified, Tel-Aviv. 2005, pp. 46–59 (Hebrew).

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God and expressing confidence in His arrival as part of a panegyrical thanksgiving for past salvations. This is evident both from the context and from the psalm in question. The descriptions of God’s rule over the universe therefore assume a moralistic dimension in this psalm, in which the world order is perceived as testimony of the existence of justice and its perception as a law of nature. (This issue will be discussed at greater length in chapter 3.) However, the transitions from one issue to the next are the product of associative spontaneity rather than a preplanned and well thoughtout design – an authentic expression of an experience, rather than retrospective poeticizing. Various expressions and turns of phrase also indicate that this psalm is an ancient poem.113 A similar mingling of subjects is apparent in Ps. 40, which opens with the speaker’s words of thanksgiving for being saved, while alluding to the danger he had been saved from: (1) I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. (2) He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.114 (3) And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God –

He then goes on to attach two topics to this: singing the Lord’s praises, including His innumerable virtues and actions, amidst general sermonizing: (3) – many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. (4) Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. (5) Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. 113 Dahood (ibid., note 105) defines it as a royal song of praise, and supports its attribution to David himself. 114 This supports Westermann’s argument that the psalms do not contain words of thanks in the conventional sense, but an acknowledgment of God’s acts and their significance. See C. Westermann, The Praise of God in the Psalms, Richmond 1965.

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(6) Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

The two halves of v. 3 explicitly indicate that the words of praise and thanksgiving are designed a priori to be instructive and for the benefit of the community at large, rather than to express the speaker’s personal experience. His song of praise is meant to bolster their faith in the Lord – an experience of solidarity with the community at large. Thematically, the description of personal salvation coupled with acclaiming God’s grace as one of His virtues parallels the personal praise combined with the recognition of the “many.” Now that it has been made clear that the speaker was not only thinking of his own good, he declares the fulfillment of his promise to sing God’s praises: (7) Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, (8) I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. (9) I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. (10) I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

This declaration has a dual meaning. It is an counterpoint to the testimony in the supplication prayers: there, the speaker undertakes to thank the Lord in public and praise Him, while here he is declaring that he has indeed come to fulfill his promise. However, at the same time it is also a kind declaration of innocence: in v. 9 he claims to have observed the Torah’s commandments,115 having declared that he wants to please God not through sacrifices, but by observing His commandments and following His ways. This, he feels, is the main message that he must disseminate widely. Only after these declarations does he repeat his personal words of thanks, which include a hope for the future: 115 This, apparently, is the meaning of v. 7. In the “volume of the book” set out in Deut. 17, 18, this may be a hint that the speaker has fulfilled the commandments required of a king.

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(11) Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

And now – with the personal experience having given way to general messages – the speaker returns to expand upon his alleged hardships, however that appears no longer to be the main point. His main concern was to honour his pledge to thank God and sing his praises to all and sundry. Only on concluding this sermonizing preaching does he return to what he was saved from: (12) For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities116 have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.

However, here, too, as in v. 3, he does not go into detail about the hardships themselves, but about their outcomes and effect on him. He is already viewing them from afar, and can sum them up in generic terms. Thus, the supplication prayer later in the psalm is not a reflection of his current predicament, but is mainly oriented to the future – in particular, to the punishment of his enemies and revenge on them. God’s act of compassion (lovingkindness), as it were, will not be complete until after the evildoers have been punished, so that those who seek God will be able to rejoice in Him and praise him forever more. The ending therefore reiterates the purpose of the entire description, which is to create the conditions for praising and glorifying the Lord. The concluding verse contains a kind of moral of the story and personal warning to the supplicant himself, lest his heart become conceited and boastful: (13) Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me. (14) Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. (15) Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.

116 The true meaning of the Hebrew word in this context – avonotai – is in fact “mine punishments” – i.e., the evils that have afflicted me, rather than my iniquities or sins. See: Lamentations 5: 7, and Isaiah 13: 11.

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(16) Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, the Lord be magnified. (17) But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

From all the above, it appears the structure of this psalm describes a different situation from than in Ps. 18. Unlike the transitions in the latter psalm, which were associative and spontaneous, in Ps. 40 they appear to be in accordance with a highly premeditated script. It is still clearly founded on a personal experience, but one that has gone through a secondary refinement before shaped into its current form. To some extent, this is evident from the description of the punishments meted out to his enemies, which are formulaic (“ashamed,” “confounded together,” “driven backward,” “put to shame”) rather than distinctive, and neatly arranged symmetrically to underscore the principle of measure for measure (e.g. “ashamed and confounded together” versus “rejoice and be glad in thee”).117 In Ps. 30, too, these themes are intertwined. The words of thanks for salvation are wrapped up in words of praise to the Lord for his virtues and ways, and therefore His faithful followers (“saints”) are called upon to sing to him: (4) Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. (5) For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

In other words, here, too, the poet extracts the hardship and salvation from its unique circumstances of a personal experience, and brings them into the public domain, after here, too, deliverance is summed up by citing the trouble that he has been saved from: (2) O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. (3) O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. 117 For a more detailed examination of the various punishments imposed on the evildoers, see S. Gelander, “Language of the Wicked.”

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In addition, the salvation is once again incorporated within the hardship and the declaration of increased confidence in God: (7) Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. (8) I cried to thee, O Lord; and unto the Lord I made supplication.

Here another factor appears, which places the entire experience on a different footing from that of the previous psalms – namely, an added note of polemic to the mention of his salvation, when he refers repeatedly to his supplication with an additional argument: (9) What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?

In other words, salvation is not only an act of compassion/lovingkindness, but is also fully justified on logical grounds, that God cannot deny. This argument reappears in various guises in many psalms,118 and is a key issue of faith – something we shall revisit in chapter 5. For now, it is important to note here that this argument gives the supplication a distinctive tone, as it suggests that the speaker’s conclusion that his salvation was inevitable is the result of soul-searching that he had conducted, and that a God who abides by His own principles had no choice but to save him. His declaration of innocence appears in a special form in this psalm, as he testifies of himself that his confidence in his innocence is derived from his calm: (6) And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.

This statement might be interpreted either way: on the one hand, the meaning of “in my prosperity” (in Hebrew, beshalvi), is “in my confidence,” namely his self-confidence was so great that he thought it would never fail. On the other hand, the Hebrew word shalvah often has negative connotations of nonchalance, suggesting that the speaker saw himself

118 See, also Ps. 6: 6; 88: 11–12; 94: 17; 116: 17; 116: 9. Cf: 17: 13–14; 39: 6; 49: 16; 89: 46; 146: 3 (Hebrew).

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immune to any danger.119 From the rest of the text it is apparent, therefore, that the soul-searching and the memory of God’s ways are what led him to the right conclusion about the nature of salvation. In addition, the pledge to thank God and continue His work is encapsulated here in the argument: “Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?” (v. 9). This part of the argument highlights and underlines that of “What profit is there in my blood?”: God, in other words, needs the supplicant’s thanks and recognition of His truth, just as the supplicant needs salvation. The praise experience, therefore, involves a kind of polemical soul-searching: the worshipper praises God after his thoughts lead him to the conclusion that there is no purpose to his death, and that salvation is therefore not a miraculous event, but a an inevitable outcome of His nature. The transformation implicit in the word “turned ” in v. 11 – (11) Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;

– is therefore the result of a polemic or soul-searching, since the distress gives way to thanksgiving, but only after the “What profit is there in my blood?” argument in v. 9: (12) To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

We also learn from this that this psalm goes beyond praise for a single act of salvation, as many commentators assume,120 to proclaim general truths in philosophical contemplations about God’s ways in managing the world. In this instance, the praise is derived from the worshipper’s personal conclusions, but of his personal distress – as harsh and as 119 Eaton (The Psalms, p. 143) leans toward this interpretation. 120 Z. P. Chayut (ibid., p. 32, p. 63); Eaton (The Psalms, p. 142); Dahood (ibid., pp. 181–184) believe that this is about someone who has been cured of an illness. However, from the context it seems to me, that one must interpret the words “hast healed me” in the general, abstract sense of correction in the spiritual and moral sense, as well.

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dangerous as it may have been – there is only a faint echo, with no detail. The very mention of enemies at the start of the psalm (“for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me“) removes the personal dimension from the calamity experience, and makes it more generic. We find a similar example in In Ps. 34, as well. The speaker’s personal situation is only hinted at, and there is no evidence of the actual predicament from which he has been saved: “I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” (v. 4) Verse 6 transfers his personal experience to the general realm, by switching to the third person: “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.” The same is true of the response of the many to his personal salvation: “They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed” (v. 5). From that point on, the transition from the individual domain to that of the many comes across as natural and self-evident: “The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles” (v. 17). These transitions indicate that in the eyes of the speaker, his personal salvation was not a unique and personal act of grace, but a manifestation of the Lord’s custom of answering the appeals of the righteous, in His constant vigilance: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry” (v. 15), “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (18) – as the speaker pointed out earlier: “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them” (7). The speaker experiences his salvation not necessarily as a reversal of fortune, but as another revelation of God’s ways: there is no vestige of his personal distress in his emotions or thoughts, nor is it mentioned in any way. In any event, the main thrust of the psalm is apparent in the meaning of its wisdom/moral message: “O taste and see the the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him” (v. 8). This appeal ideologically parallels that of the previous verses: when speaking about the salvation, the speaker is not distinguishing between the act of salvation itself and God’s ways in general, nor between the individual and the many. Here, however, when speaking of learning and becoming familiar with God’s 101

ways, he does not distinguish between the cognitive understanding and the sensorial perception – both are presented as a single visceral act. This appeal leaves its mark on the attendant words of advice – namely, the detailed commandments that must be observed out of an intimate visceral knowledge of God:121 (12) What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? (13) Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. (14) Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

The final verses (19–22) close the circle, combining general moralistic maxims, conclusions about God’s ways, and hints of the distress from which the speaker has already been saved, while specifying the punishment that the evildoers are set to receive. Its overall tone is not one of supplication as much as a confident statement of an obvious fact: (19) Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. (20) He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken. (21) Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. (22) The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

This, therefore, is a wisdom song of praise, in which the moralistic conclusions are founded on personal experience. However, its main thrust is not the personal experience in them, but the didactic experience. Therefore, the structure of the psalm suits its messages: its various themes are embedded in it in a nearly symmetrical-concentric pattern – most obviously in examples such as: “I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (v. 4), versus the generalization “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all ” (19); “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them” (7) versus vv. 16, 19. Conversely, the appeal to the congregation to praise the Lord, which is also the crux of the opening verse – “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together” (v. 3) is a counterpoint to the moralistic message that also marks the 121 For more on this extreme expression of a sense of God’s proximity to the point of merging with Him, see chapter 2, section 2, and notes 24, 25 there.

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beginning of the wisdom part of the psalm: “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (v. 11). (3) O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. (4) I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. (7) The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

(11) Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. (15) The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. (18) The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. (19) Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.

This structure helps to illustrate the idea of good and rightful conditions that determine how the world is governed thanks to God’s virtues. This idea is also illustrated in the psalm’s alphabetical acrostic. Therefore, as previously noted, the underlying experience is not one of praise and thanksgiving for salvation, but the speaker’s happiness, whose personal experience taught him the virtues of following the ways of God.122 In the light of all this, let us consider Psalm 33: its structure and content may help us in drawing general conclusions about the praise psalms.123 (1) Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright. (2) Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. (3) Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise. 122 For this reason, Dahood’s definition (ibid, pp. 204–207) falls short. He defines the psalm as a song of thanksgiving of someone whose prayer to be relieved of his suffering has already been answered, and even claims that because of the alphabetical structure, the sequence of emotions in the psalm is not sufficiently clear. His assumption is that the acrostic structure artificially imposes the order of the ideological messages. 123 Eaton (The Psalms, p. 151) sees in this psalm the basic template for all psalms of praise.

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(4) For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth. (5) He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. (6) By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. (7) He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. (8) Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. (9) For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. (10) The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. (11) The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. (12) Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. (13) The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. (14) From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. (15) He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works. (16) There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. (17) An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. (18) Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; (19) To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. (20) Our soul waiteth for the Lord: he is our help and our shield. (21) For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. (22) Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in thee. (20)

This psalm of praise also presents the act of salvation as one of God’s virtues, and here, too, there is no explicit detailing of the trouble or hardship that those who are now being called to rejoice and thank the Lord were saved from. At most, there is a faint echo of it in the words of general moralizing: “The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (vv. 10–11). These are nearly identical to the maxim in the Book of Proverbs: “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.” (19: 21). However, in Proverbs this verse is stated as a general truth, while here (in the Hebrew) the words begin with the past tense, and the second verse is a conclusion of the first. 104

Therefore it is difficult to say whether this psalm is indeed about enemy schemes that were foiled by the Lord, or a more general truth springing from no particular concrete instance. The same is true for the words of vv. 18–19. Only in v. 20 is there a hint that this psalm was inspired by a particular historical crisis that the congregants were saved from: “Our soul waiteth [in Hebrew: “waited ” – SG] for the Lord: he is our help and our shield.” In the first three verses there is an appeal to the crowd, detailing how the Lord should be thanked. An appeal of this sort is one of the hallmark of the festive ceremonial psalms (more of which in chapter 4). Another is the identification of the crowd of celebrants, while pointing out its distinctiveness – a kind of self-congratulation. In the psalm before us this is a national identification: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance” (v. 12) However, its content, like the other themes of the psalm, is essentially related to the ideological messages and teachings, which are the main thrust and heart of the psalm. The first verses in the praise section present God’s virtues or attributes: “For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” (vv. 4–5). Early on in the psalm, we learn that righteousness and judgment are evident not only in God’s actions toward mankind, but “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord ” – all the world’s a stage for His grace.124 And indeed, in the following verses (6–7), the acts of Creation are described as an example for how well the word is managed, which makes the inhabitants of the world fear the Lord (vv. 8–9). In the next verses (10–11), the other aspect of God – as the master of history directing its development as he sees fit – is presented. This, then is the source of the happiness of the nation that God has chosen (v. 12). In 124 See H. Fish, Shirat Miqra (translated from: Poetry with a Purpose, by S. Shiloh) Ramat-Gan 1993, pp. 125–126 (Hebrew), who sees in these verses an expression of the “covenant” that obligates the world of nature just as much as the Jewish people. See also the wider discussion of the issue of the immanent relationship between justice and world order in chapter 3.

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vv. 13–15 God’s two domains of control are merged and interwoven: as master of the universe (“the place of his habitation”), he supervises the actions of humans – i.e. historical events – and directs them. Hence the moralistic conclusion (vv. 16–17), and the recognition that deliverance by the Lord is none other than a manifestation of his virtues and attributes (vv. 18–19). Therefore, the joy of thanksgiving (vv. 20–22) springs from a conclusion that sums up the truths declared throughout the psalm. Similar features can be seen in Ps. 84: this song of praise opens with a personal declaration about the intensity of the speaker’s longing (“My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God ” – v. 2). It also contains significant echoes of the worshipper’s plight: “O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. / Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed ” (vv. 8–9).125 But these are interspersed with words of praise, that present the world order and God’s blessing as assured for those who follow His ways (vv. 4, 11–12). Therefore, the appeal, which starts off on a personal note and ends on a national one, repeats and makes way for the teaching, which is set in generalized terms (“Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah./Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them” [vv. 4–5]; “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee” [v. 12]).

2.5 Summary We see, therefore, that in a significant number of praise psalms (e.g. Pss. 9, 10, 18, 40) the emphasis shifts from the personal experience to the wisdom/moralist teaching. Indeed, in some cases the psalmist makes no mention at all of his calamity or distress – at most, it is alluded to obliquely, and the psalm focuses on praising God (e.g., Pss. 33, 34). In both instances, the speaker shifts from first person singular to plural, 125 The sheer number of appeals – “Hear”, “give ear,” “Behold,” “look.”

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and the psalm is primarily addressed to the congregation and the community at large. Therefore, there can be no clear distinction between “personal” and “congregation prayer” psalms among the songs of praise: the experience, by its very nature, includes the participation of the community at large and solidarity with it, and these psalms are also tangentially related to the festive ceremonial psalms, and incorporate many of their characteristics (e.g. Pss. 76, 78).126 The songs of praise and thanksgiving that we have discussed indicate that the psalmist is more interested in taking the lessons of his personal experience into the public domain than dwelling on his personal experience of transition from danger to salvation by illustrating those two conditions. Therefore, he downplays the description of the personal plight – at times, to the point of complete omission – to focus on presenting divine grace as an immanent part of God’s ways and attributes, or indeed of the world order itself. He believes that God saved him not necessarily in response to his personal prayer, but because that is His way, by His very nature. Accordingly, the appeal to praise the Lord and glorify Him is made on grounds of general moralist wisdom, rather than out of a sense of gratitude for the individual act of grace done to the worshipper. The fundamental difference between individual praise and national praise is that in the national psalms, by their very nature, there is a hint of a particular historical situation, or instance of national salvation or triumph over enemies. However, just as in the individual praise we do not find a detailed description of the personal distress, so, too, in the psalms of national praise there is no description or indeed explicit mention of the plight from which the nation has been saved. In both cases, the unique reason for the thanksgiving is obscure, and we can only speculate as to what it is that the grateful supplicants are giving thanks for, or the particular historical circumstances. The songs of praise and thanksgiving – both individual and national – were written in keeping with a basic tenet of the genre, namely that the salvation must always be divorced of its particular 126 Eissfeldt (The Old Testament, pp. 12–124), classifies and distinguishes between psalms of praise by individuals and those made by the community.

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historical background. The psalmist’s experience is therefore one of dual identification: on the one hand, because – as demonstrated by the salvation – the world order is as it should be, his own life have become part of the harmonious whole of the universe. On the other hand, his appeal to the community at large to praise and glorify the Lord by recognizing that God protects and responds favorably to his faithful followers, he himself identifies with that community and feels part of it. A brief inspection of a selection of examples may illustrate this aspect of the national psalms of praise: Ps. 46 associates triumph over enemies with the establishment of harmonious world order. For this reason, commentators have had difficulty deciding whether it is a psalm of thanksgiving for salvation from a natural calamity, or for a military triumph.127 A reading of the teaching makes it possible to decide: “Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth./He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire” (vv. 8–9). This suggests a military triumph, while the descriptions earlier in the psalm of elemental events (“though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea” etc. – vv. 2–3) are designed merely to underline and glorify the Lord’s works, as customary in many psalms, namely that God who established the wondrous works of Creation is also the one who obliterated the enemy. God’s command over the course of history stems from His control of the universe as a whole, therefore the perfect world order leaves no room for evil. The oblique allusions to attempts of rebellion by the forces of nature (vv. 2–3) are most likely echoes of the theomachy myth,128 and as we have seen, explicit allusions to that myth appear in psalms about situations of distress (e.g., 77: 14; 89: 10–14), while in the psalms of praise there are 127 The appearance of these two issues – wars and natural disasters – side by side makes it more difficult to identify the situation at hand. Indeed, Chayut (ibid, pp. 101–102) appears uncertain as which of the two possibilities to choose: on the one hand, he sees hints of a specific national triumph and cites speculations by various commentators that it relates to King Ezekiah, while at the same time he is inclined to think that the psalm is about an earthquake or similar such natural occurrence. 128 See similar hints in Ps. 93: 3–4.

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only faint echoes of the titanic battles preceding Creation.129 What is common to both types of psalm is the idea that God, who succeeded in establishing order in the world, is the same God who gives His people victory over its enemies. The link between establishing harmony in the universe and eradicating evil is consistent with the prevailing view in the Hebrew Bible about the congruity between justice and world order. (This will be discussed at greater length in chapter 3.) Both the individual psalms of praise and the national ones praise the Lord with moralistic teachings about His wonders in Creation, without direct reference to the particular event. Such an event is perceived as merely one link in an endless chain of evidence about the perfection of Creation. Ps. 65 also praises God for his actions in the world, and also hints that the establishment of harmonious world order is the result of God’s defeat of the rebellious titans of nature: “Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power: / Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people” (vv. 6–7). The words “the tumult of the people” indicate that God’s sway over the universe is related to his command over the course of history. They are the only hint in the psalm of a national confrontation of some kind – and a faint one, at that, which appears not necessarily in the context of thanksgiving for a particular salvation, but in recognition of God’s capacity for forgiveness, which is part of His nature: “Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away” (v. 3).130 This forgiveness is what ensures the land’s fertility and its blessing, in a detailed description at the heart of the psalm (vv. 9–13). These festive words of praise join the declaration of identity of those making sacrifices: “Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple” (v. 4). This appeal is similar in its meaning to the declaration of identity in Ps. 24: there, too, the participants see themselves as worthy of entering the Temple, by virtue of their 129 See S. Gelander (note 111 above). 130 The first person singular form (“against me” – in Hebrew, méni ) appears to be erroneous in the Hebrew version, and should have been ménu – i.e., “against us”) – as translated in the Septuagint: hmaς.

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righteousness. The implicit ideological notions behind the psalm – that justice is a law of nature, and that the earth’s bounty is a sign of God’s forgiveness – are a ceremonial expression for the pilgrim crowd.131 In Ps. 75, the thanksgiving takes on a more collective nature: here, too, the speech shifts from plural to singular, and the declarations in vv. 4 and 9 illustrate the identification of the individual, who expresses the Lord’s words, with the congregation at large by means of the teachings of truth that he declares:132 the right and proper world order (v. 3) exists only thanks to the Lord (vv. 6–7) and leaves no place for the wicked (v. 8). Unlike Pss. 46, 75, in this psalm there is a strong note of defiance: “I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn” (v. 4). This might be a very faint echo of some kind of rivalry, but the victory of truth overwhelms the particular circumstances that gave rise to the sense of triumph that dominates this psalm. By contrast, Ps. 76 suggests a more specific situation, although it, too, features the same elements: the equation between the correct world order and the rule of justice does not appear here as an arbitrary wisdom teaching, but is the outcome of a national event or series of events that attest to it. The descriptions in praise of Zion mark it as God’s dwelling place and an important victory: “In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion /There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle” (vv. 2–3). The detailed description of the disorientation that seizes the enemy reinforces this impression (vv. 5–6) – but since this display of divine power is later linked to his command of the entire universe (“Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still” – v. 8), the victory over the enemy ceases to be a discrete event but is merely another example of illustration of Zion’s power and strength as the God’s place on earth. As in other psalms of praise, here too the experience is not limited to a single event – rather, the event is noted as another piece of evidence 131 For more on the symptoms and constituents of the festive ceremonial psalm, see chapter 4. 132 Verses 5–6 can be thought of both as a continuation of God’s speech, and as the speaker presenting the teachings, thereby serving as a kind of bridge between the two parts of the psalm.

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of the truth of the perception of the world with regard to God’s ways, and in this instance, as evidence of the role of Zion as the heart of the realization of this view.133 The songs of praise and thanksgiving are therefore essentially ceremonial declarations of faith. A particular salvation or victory – like the gift of God’s blessing in increasing the earth’s yield (Ps. 67) – are, in the eyes of the individual and the congregation alike, proof that their faith is true and righteous, and they experience and celebrate these manifestations that bind the significant events of their lives with world order and God’s ways.134

133 Sarna distinguishes between psalms of thanksgiving and psalms of praise. As he sees it, the public psalms of thanksgiving are rare (66; 124), while the Zion psalms he thinks are a secondary type. See Sarna, Psalms, pp. 451–452. 134 See also Pss. 103; 144; 145.

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3.  The Experience of Closeness to God

3.1  “In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge” In the previous chapter we examined the various meanings of dwelling in the house of the Lord. This led us to an inspection of another, related aspect of the religious experience: the mutual sense of closeness between God and the individual. This sense, in turn, has several aspects to it, and appears in various degrees of intensity. However, fundamentally it is nothing more than a further internalization of the sense of dwelling in the house of the Lord. Like that dwelling or receipt of sheltering, the sense of closeness is most clearly expressed in a nearly uniform image of sheltering under the wings of God. It is virtually impossible to identify the source of the expression “In the shadow of thy wings.” Although there are winged deities in the ancient East – the “winged” attribute appears in texts of Ras Shamra,1 and Canaanite descriptions of deities were adopted in the Hebrew Bible and attributed to the God of Israel – there is no reason to assume that this was the case in this expression. In biblical descriptions of God as being airborne, the wings are ascribed not to God, but to cherubs,2 or of the

1 2

See M. Dahood and T. Penar, “Ugaritic-Hebrew Parallel Pairs,” in: L.R. Fisher (ed.), Ras Shamra Parallels I, Rome 1972, p. 230, note 292. For more on Talmudic sources that maintained that the cherubs took the form of winged infants or young boys, see Mas. Sukkah 5: 72 – esp. Rashi’s commentary there: “Cherubs are baby-faced” (see Exodus 25: 18–20). Other sources asserted that one of the cherubs was male and the other female, while others still describe them as both sexes at once: See Tractate Yoma 44: 71; 72. See also the exploration of this topic by N. Rothenberg, Beloved Doe: The Wisdom of Love, Tel-Aviv. 2004 (Hebrew).

wind carrying Him (Pss. 18: 10 / II Samuel 22: 113; Ps. 104: 3). God is therefore borne aloft by various means, rather than possessing wings – similar to the meaning of “I bare you on eagles’ wings” (Exodus 19: 4). Another possibility is that the expression has metonymic connotations, such as in Ezekiel 5: 3: “bind them in thy skirts” (“in your wings” in the Hebrew) – i.e., the fringes of one’s coat. So, too, in Jeremiah 2: 34: “Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents”). In other contexts, the expression clearly refers to sheltering: “spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid ” (Ruth 3: 9), and certainly also “The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust” (Ruth 2: 12). Although the parallelism in Ps. 91: 4 “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust ” may suggest that the former meaning is the correct one, the structure of the simile is nevertheless similar to that in Deut. 32: 11: “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings ” – where, in the Hebrew, a different word is used for “wings” in each case: knafaïm in the former instance, and evrah in the latter. An examination of the various descriptions in which the supplicant sees himself as someone sheltering under God’s wings may be doubly productive: 1. Through it one might identify where the expression appears as a singular, authentic simile that is directly related to the particular situation depicted in the psalm, and where it is merely a turn of phrase or formulaic expression. Such a distinction also makes it easier to identify the situation, i.e. the speaker’s condition. 2. Tracing the evolution of the expression in question from a unique simile or metaphor to a formulaic expression will help establish the various gradations of religious experience, and its evolution from something personal and unique to a public ritual. In the case of the latter, the expression may elicit different associations in

3

The Hebrew word vayera (“and he saw”) appears to be a transcription error, and should be vayida (“and he glided”).

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each individual, and this range of associations allows a large congregation to unite around a single general sentiment. Descriptions of sheltering under God’s wings appear in Pss. 17: 8*; 36: 8*; 57: 2*; 61: 5*; 63: 8*; 91: 4*. The order of examination proposed herewith may help illustrate the gradual transition from unique imagery to formulaic expression or coin of phrase: (21) Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings (17: 8)

At first, the parallelism in this verse appears to be synonymous – however, there is a subtle difference between the two parts, or clauses, indicating that the structure is not merely a schematic one. The two complement each other to provide a single image of physical proximity, and in both instances the meaning is conveyed through different parts of the body. However, while in the first part the apple of the eye is a metaphor for protection, in the second one sheltering under God’s wings is described as something physical, not a mere simile. In other words, the two parts represent a kind of progression: what makes the sheltering possible is God’s total protection of the speaker, like the apple of one’s eye.4 The subtle integrity of the image is also revealed in the difference: in the first part, “apple of the eye” refers to the speaker, while the wings in the second part belong to God. The two parts of the verse, which are about protection and sheltering, are shown therefore to be two reciprocal elements, which engender the sense of intimacy. To complete the image, we should examine the verse in its context, in particular its role in the psalm as a whole. At the heart of the psalm is the metaphorical image: it divides the appeal into two parts: the first about the speaker, and the second about the wicked who oppress him. In terms of meaning, however, the image parallels that of the psalm’s final verse: “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, 4

For more on the relationship between the parallel components in biblical literature, in which the second sharpens and focuses what is described in the first, see J. L. Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History, New Haven and London 1961, pp. 1–58.

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when I awake, with thy likeness” (17: 15). The metaphorical image in the second part completes the quest for physical proximity, making it the very heart of the experience in this psalm.5 This sense increases as one recognizes the ways in which the remaining parts of the appeal are shaped and worded. In other psalms – such as Ps. 5 that we discussed earlier – the speaker’s personal distress is either merely alluded to or hinted at. But here, in Ps. 17, it is different: the actions of the wicked are presented only in general terms, without reference to how they affect the speaker, or any sign of mental anguish brought about by their wicked actions, or any hint of his suffering. As he himself says: he trusts the guidance that he fully expects to receive from God, just as he is sure of his own righteousness. There is not the slightest hint of doubt in his mind, or indecision, as we found in Ps. 5. Here, in the two parts of the psalm – the first, about the speaker (vv. 1–8), the other about the wicked (9–15) – all the descriptions are arranged in clearly defined parallelisms and in expressions reflecting a clear distinction between good and bad. Thanks to his sheltering under God’s wings, all is good in the world and everything in its right place. The subtle distinctiveess of the situation is achieved through the imagery that illustrates the essence of the mutual closeness and intimacy between the speaker and his God, giving the psalm a balance that clearly contrasts the righteous speaker against his wicked enemies. In Ps. 91: 4 we also see an appeal for mutual closeness: “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust […].” However, while in Ps. 17: 8 the parallel expression of “under the shadow of thy wings” is “as the apple of the eye,” here the parallel is between “feathers”

5

A similar proximity of “apple of his eye” and “wings” is found in Deut. 32: 10–11 – however, there the expressions are unrelated. Moreover, there the wings are meant not as protection, but for bearing someone aloft, thereby evoking an entirely different image. See also the imagery in Proverbs 7: 2: “Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.” For more on expression couplets of identical meaning, see G. Boling, “‘Synonymous Parallelism in the Psalms,” JSS 5 (1960), pp. 221–255.

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and “wings” – a more schematic metaphorical parallelism, suggesting a transition toward formulaization.6 In Ps. 61: 5 the parallelism is no longer based on the imagery itself, but on its figurative-symbolic sense:7 “I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever / I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.” The wings, in other words, have been replaced by a tabernacle – likely a reference to God’s dwelling place on earth in its broad symbolic sense, i.e., the Temple, clearly reflecting another evolutionary stage in which divine protection is now identified directly with the God’s dwelling place.8 This is a wisdom psalm devoted mostly to various aspects of protection and sheltering by the divine, and thus not about any particular historical situation, but a mosaic or tight sequence of descriptions that together provide a

6

7 8

This image also has a third part: “his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” The difficulty with this component is that “shield and buckler” is not akin to feathers or wings. Therefore, some commentators have suggested that it should be read amato (“his arm”), and some have even suggested it be omitted entirely (see BH). See also: A. Rofé, Prophetic Literature, p. 26, note 47. In this context, by “figurative sense” I mean the use of words not in their literal lexical meaning, but in their associative, allusive or metaphorical sense. The expression “tent and tabernacle” (see II Sam. 7: 6) harks back to the period and mindset that emerged after the notion of “house.” However, I think that this verse reflects a period in which “house” and “tent” are used, as in Ps. 15 and in Ps. 32: 3. In Ps. 27, the expression “house of the Lord,” “his tabernacle,” and “his temple” appear side by side in the same sense. See von Rad, “Zelt und Lade,” Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament, München 1958, pp. 109–129. To complete the picture, we should also consider another expression of shelter: “Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence” (Ps. 31: 20), where the very phrase is problematic. It may be the result of a perception that equates “thy presence” (in Hebrew paneikha – “thy face”) with “thy temple” – as in the expression “before the Lord God” (in Hebrew, le[he]raot et pnei Adonai – “to see the face of the Lord”) in Exodus 34: 23–24; Deut. 16: 16 and 31: 11; and elsewhere. It may even be that this unique expression is an antonym to that of the various forms of “hide thy presence.” The idea that God hides his face/presence as a form of punishment is fairly common in prophetic literature (Isaiah 5: 13; 8: 17; 24; Hosea 5: 6). For more on this topic, see L. Perlit, “Die Verborgenheit Gottes,” in: H.W. Wolff (ed.), Probleme biblischer Theologie, München 1971, pp. 367–382.

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comprehensive description of the meanings of divine protection that is assured to His followers. In Ps. 36: 7, the shadow of God’s wings is compared to his lovingkindness: “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.” The second part of a parallelism, as we have said, is meant to sharpen and meaning of the first part. If so, the highlight of the demonstration of divine lovingkindness is the right to shelter under God’s wings. One might think that this image sprang from an ancient incarnation of the psalms, but in the following verse (8) we find: “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures” – in other words, God’s lovingkindness is manifest not only in “thy house,” but in the blessings of nature and the abundance that comes from it. Hence, “the house of the Lord ” also has a singular metonymic meaning – or, to be more precise, a synecdochical one,9 in which “the house of the Lord” and dwelling therein are presented as the righteous person’s recompense and reward. In Ps. 63: 7, there is no true metaphorical parallelism: “Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.” While the first part contains an explicit, straightforward declaration, the second contains a double synecdoche. Since the expression “will I rejoice” appears in many contexts in the Hebrew Bible in the sense of praise and thanksgiving to God,10 in this context the phrase “in the shadow of thy wings” is merely an expression meaning “in thy Temple” – and therefore “will I rejoice” is a reference to ritual singing (for more on the purpose of thanksgiving poetry and its part in the structure of the supplication prayer, see below, especially chapter 5). In Ps. 57: 1, we see a similar structure: “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge.” However, here it is clear that the precise meaning of See entry “Synecdoche” and “Tropos” in: A. Ukhmani, Contents and Forms, pp. 148–149. Also: “Synecdoche”, T. Shipley (Ed.) Dictionary of World Literary Terms, p. 328. 10 See: Jer. 31: 11; Pss. 20: 5; 33: 1; 51: 14; 59: 16; 71: 22; 84: 2; 89: 13; 91: 1; 132: 8,15; 145: 6. 9

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the expression “in the shadow of thy wings” is protection, since the verse continues “until these calamities be overpast.” This investigative comparison tells us that the metaphorical image “in the shadow of thy wings” (or “in the covert of thy wings” – [61: 4], or “under his wings” [91: 4]) may have appeared in the early stages of the development of psalmic poetry without direct connection to the Temple. Over time, however, it became an idiomatic-symbolic expression that did specifically mean just that. In the last four examples it is difficult to imagine that these words are an expression of someone’s singular personal experience rather than something related to some ceremonial occasion. That said, by expressing the feelings evoked by his own personal and unique experience, the poet or supplicant is also identifying on a personal level with the ritual, with all its symbolism and diverse meanings. So in the four previous examples the appeal for divine protection and shelter has a predominantly more formulaic character than in the first example.11 However, the evolution of the singular metaphor into a turn of phrase makes it easier for the psalm’s reader to identify with the supplication, by virtue of the many associations and connotations provided by the formulaic expression at a ritual occasion. In other words, the very process of formulation, or transformation of the unique metaphor into a formulaic turn of phrase, also enables the personal and unique experience to be shared by a broad and constantly changing community. Beside observing the experiential uniqueness of each of the psalms, this investigation also reveals to us the importance of the convention: the distinction between turns of phrases and unique expressions, like the distinction between commonly used content elements and unique ones, makes it possible to identify the unique and singular situation in any psalm.12 11 M. Weiss, Scriptures in their own Light, passim, learns about the meanings of such formulas by comparison to their other occurrences, while I prefer to learn about their unique ideas by analyzing their close context. 12 See my paper: S. Gelander,“Convention and Originality: Identification of the Situation in the Psalms,” VT XLII/3 (1992), pp. 302–316.

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Among the formulaic expressions that are particularly common are those describing the wicked: “the foolish” or “fools” (5: 6*; 75: 5*; 102: 9*); “workers of iniquity” (6: 9*; 14: 4*; 28: 3*; 36: 13*; 53: 5*; 59: 3*; 64: 3*; 92: 8,10*; 94: 16*; 101: 8*; 125: 5*; 141: 4,9*),13 “the deceitful ” (5: 7*; 58: 4*),14 “bloody” (5: 7*; 55: 24*; 59: 3*; 139: 19*).15 Thus, the definitions of the wicked in Ps. 5 do not describe the perpetrators of particularly and exceptionally wicked acts, but rather allude to bad people of all sorts, which have one thing in common, namely that they are the supplicant’s enemies, and as such also the enemies of the Lord.16 This is also why, in the great majority of supplication prayers, the evil deeds attributed to the speaker’s opponents are almost always limited to verbal defamation.17 There are, in fact, surprisingly few descriptions of physical harm, abuse, exploitation, or other such iniquities – and even then, it is almost invariably accompanied by a verbal abuse of some sort, which appears to be the primary and dominant cause of complaint.18 13 This and similar expressions also appear in Isaiah 31: 2; Prov. 2: 1; Job 31: 1, 34: 8,22; Prov. 10: 29, 21: 15. 14 See also: Ezekiel 13: 8; Zephaniah 3: 13; Prov. 30: 8; Daniel 11: 27. 15 See also II Sam. 16: 8; Prov. 29: 10. 16 Mowinckel sees no essential difference between the various descriptions of the speaker’s/supplicant’s opponents. As previously noted (chapter 1, note 34), only in the case of the “workers of iniquity” does he think that the reference is to magicians or workers of magic. Over time, he was persuaded by Birkeland that – at least when they are mentioned in plural – the opponents are foreign. See H. Birkeland, Die Feinde des Individuums in der israelitischen Psalmenliteratur, Oslo. See also: S.J.L. Croft, The Identity of the Individual in the Psalms [JSOTSupp 44], Sheffield 1987, pp. 15–48. 17 See also the detailed discussion of this above, in chapter 1, section 1. 18 In more than forty of the sixty or so psalms of supplication and complaint – including those verging on wisdom literature because of their prominent moralistic elements – the wickedness is of a verbal nature; in the others it is at least alluded to. In sixteen of those forty-odd psalms, this is the only evil that the wicked perpetrate. Only in twelve psalms are the wicked deeds described with no reference to any defamatory language being used: Pss. 7: 11; 18; 25; 49: 2 (where the metaphor appears to refer to verbal assault); Pss. 4; 57: 5 *; 59: 8 *; 64: 4 *; 86; 124 *; 125 *.

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We see, therefore, that the experience is primarily about the sense of closeness that it invokes between the supplicant and God: God’s presence is strengthened by the descriptions and declarations in the appeal. To fully understand this phenomenon, we must diverge a little from the issue at hand and consider the constituent elements of the characteristic pattern of the supplication prayer, namely the types of content that the great majority of them have in common.19 According to Greenberg, the structure of the supplication prayer is as follows: 1. An appeal to the Lord by name to “save me,” “help,” or similar expressions20 (e.g. Pss. 7: 1; 12: 1; 86: 1–2; and elsewhere). This does not always appear at the start of the psalm (see Ps. 3: 7), and at times it is obscured and blended in with other components (see: 6: 4: “Oh save me for thy mercies’ sake”; 14: 7: “Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion ”; 17: 7: “O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee”; 22: 1: “why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”) 2. The supplication devices – namely, the supplicant’s preamble to the appeal, in the form of praise and thanksgiving for God’s lovingkindness (e.g. 86: 13). 3. The substance of the request. 4. The justification for the request, consisting of:

19 Identification of these constituents is based on M. Greenberg’s observations (ibid. – see chapter 1, note 27). See also: Y. Hoffman, “Transition,” Tarbiz, pp. 161–172 (Hebrew). 20 The expression “Save me” – particularly in conjunction with the word “cry” – is a deliberate allusion to judicial justice – as in “Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha” (II Kings 4: 1), and “there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king” (II Kings 6: 26). The word “cry” therefore means something more than mere a raised voice, but calls attention to a wrong that has been done, just as the word “Save” refers not to mere rescuing, but doing justice. Both expressions, therefore, have a judicial connotation.

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a) a reiteration of the Lord’s qualities (in Ps. 5, by negative implication, e.g. “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee” etc.. See also: 6: 6*; 7: 9*; 10: 14*; 16: 5*; 22: 4*; 28: 7–8*; 31: 20*; 86: 6*; 94: 9–11* and elsewhere) b) praise of God’s name (22: 23*; 26: 7*, 11; 28: 7*; 86: 8,9*) c) the supplicant’s declaration that the Lord is his God (3: 4,5*; 7: 2*; 16: 2*, 5; 17: 16*; 84: 4*; 86: 7,8*); d] a continuation of worshipping the Lord and maintaining his supplicants (26: 12*; 42: 12*; 43: 4*; 51: 16*, 21; 54: 8*; 56: 13* and elsewhere). Fundamentally, these elements are not the preserve of the Book of Psalms: they – or similar elements – can be found in supplication prayers throughout the ancient East. In an ancient Hittite prayer, the supplicant appeals to a god to protect him from the wrath of another god: “ – be he in heaven, or on earth” (cf. Ps. 139: 8*). He states that it is the god who raised him and was with him wherever he went (cf. Pss. 22: 10–11*; 139: 2–5*). He goes on to detail his own righteousness and innocence (cf. Pss. 22: 10–11*; 139: 2–5*, and elsewhere), and remarks upon the brevity – and predetermined length – of man’s life (cf. Ps. 60: 10*). He asks the god to guide him and reveal to him what he had done wrong (see Ps. 25: 4–5*), and in the substance of the supplication he mentions his distress, his illness and suffering at night (cf. Ps. 6: 7*). The supplicant also asks the god to ensure that he will not be deemed unworthy of entry at the king’s gate – much like the recurring Psalmic theme of eligibility of entry at God’s gates and of shelter in His Temple, as discussed in chapter 1.21 An examination of these elements in their various contexts quickly reveals that their classification and definition are not always unequivocal. Often the expressions of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord for his lovingkindness are also validations of His attributes and glorifications of His name, and the promise to continue to worship Him and the continued existence of His supplicants means that the supplicant must admit 21 See: I. Singer, “Kantuzzili’s Prayer,” The Hittites and their Civilization, Jerusalem 2009 (Hebrew), pp. 180–183, citing Doc. #7, CTH 373, from I. Singer & S. Shifra, “Kantuzzili’s Prayer,” New Keshet 8 (2004), pp. 34–37 (Hebrew).

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that the Lord is his God. The same is true of the other elements. In many supplication prayers some of the elements are missing, and their presentation is directly related to the unique situation in each psalm. There are also places where it is difficult to ascertain whether the expressions of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord for His lovingkindness are only supplication devices, or whether the psalm has changed from a supplication psalm to one of praise and thanksgiving (e.g., Pss. 3: 6*; 16; 17; etc.). Such extreme transitions and changes are explained in various ways, and we will discuss this point at greater length during the discussion on the ritual prayer and the importance of the ceremonial occasion.22 Here I shall point out only that the definition of the various types of elements, such as the very classification of the psalms by type, is valid only by way of a preliminary distinction.23 It is precisely the deviations from the pattern, the convention or schematic forms that allow us to identify the particular situation behind the psalm – i.e., the speaker’s circumstances – and to ascertain precisely what his appeal is all about. We must distinguish, therefore, between the general framework and the unique circumstances of each psalm.24 22 See below, chapter 4. 23 Various psalms are considered to be the product of two conjoined psalms, e.g. 105, 106, but some the content of some psalms is a composite of several types – such as 131, which contains elements of praise, supplication prayer and wisdom. The same is true of other prayers which are primarily about praise and thanksgiving: 144; 147. Gunkel’s careful classification, that bases the psalms’ origins on a second opportunity at public life, has also led to a distinction between four different major types: the hymn, the people’s complaint, the individual’s complaint, and the individual’s psalm of thanksgiving. See Gunkel: The Psalms: A Form-Critical Introduction (translated by T.M. Horner), Philadelphia 1967. For a concise summary, see Gunkel, “The Poetry of the Psalms in its Literary History and its Application in the Dating of the Psalms,” Old Testament Essays, London 1927, pp. 118–142. See also Gunkel, Legends of Genesis, 138–142; 169–171. Based on this, see N. M. Sarna’s division, “Psalms,” Biblical Encyclopedia, vol. 8, pp. 437–462, and A. Rofé’s review in: Prophetic Literature, pp. 43–61 (Hebrew). 24 Dan Pagis makes a similar observation of the significance of the deviation from convention in determining the originality and uniqueness of a creative work, in the introduction to his book, Secular Poetry and Poetic Theory: Moses Ibn Ezra and His Contemporaries (Hebrew), Jerusalem 1970, pp. 9–34.

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For further clarification, we should take into account two more elements of the appeal. One is the appeal for God’s guidance. Admittedly, this element also appears in non-supplication psalms – “he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name‘s sake” (23: 3) – where it is part of an expression of confidence in the Lord and in His salvation. However, in other supplication prayers, it fulfills another purpose. In Ps. 5 we saw how this request reflects the supplicant’s distress in the face of the power of his enemies: “Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face” (5: 8). So, too, in Ps. 17: 5: “Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not” – where the first part is similar to 23: 3, but the second clarifies that, without God’s support, the supplicant is liable to fail. See also Ps. 25: 4–5, where the request for guidance is especially detailed and explicit: “Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths / Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day”. And indeed, the prayer also involves a request: “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord” (v. 7). The reliance of the salvation on God’s guidance and instruction is, in this instance, the thrust of the entire poem (as in 86: 11). Another variation for the request of guidance appears in Ps. 28: 3: “Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.” See also 31: 3: “therefore for thy name‘s sake lead me, and guide me,” as well as in 39: 4 *; 43: 3 *; 51: 8 *; 73: 24 *; 86: 11*, and nearly all of Ps. 119. The second element is the speaker’s declaration of his innocence and blamelessness. This is occasionally subsumed and implicit in his declaration of his eligibility to dwell in the house of the Lord, as we saw earlier (Pss. 5: 8 *; 27: 4 *; 61: 5 *; 73: 17*, and elsewhere) – on other occasions, it is explicit: “O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands / If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy”). This last example confirms the observation that the expression of eligibility to dwell in the house of the Lord is like a declaration of innocence, since the two parts of v. 5 present the two meanings side by side. Similarly: “Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried 124

me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress” (17: 3), and elsewhere. The declaration in Ps. 26: 4–5 – “I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. / I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked. /I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord ” – is similar in content to the description of God’s virtues in Ps. 5: 5–6: “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee / The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.” The fact that in Ps. 5 the descriptions rejecting evil are associated with God’s virtues tells us how embarrassed the supplicant is, that he cannot bring himself to declare his own innocence explicitly.25 In fact, the speaker’s declaration of his innocence proves to be the most important element in justifying the supplication prayer – since it is innocence that entitles the supplicant to divine protection and to having his prayers answered. This declaration also becomes an independent issue in its own right, not necessarily related to a supplication prayer. So much so, that in the brief and concise Psalm 131, given how closely the issues follow each other, this declaration is a kind of guarantee and basis for the entire Jewish people’s eternal hope and confidence in the Lord: (1) Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. (2) Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. (3) Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever. 25 Based on this element, some commentators identify the personal supplication psalms as belonging to a ritual process of a kind of judicial test, in which divine judgment is invited, and in which the accused cites these declarations. See Eissfeldt (Introduction, ibid., pp. 119–120), who bases his interpretation on that of H. Schmidt. In my view, in this way we can also understand the supplicant’s frequent and varied references to his opponents’ “defamatory language.” In other words, as part of the judicial setting, the supplicant is asking for his persecutors’ accusation to be rejected (see also chapter 1, section 2 and notes 42, 45 and 47 there). However, Eissfeldt believes that the personal tone of these psalms is very pronounced (e.g. Pss. 39, 41, 130), and therefore assigning them to the category of ritual prayers, as if they were intended as such from the outset, is forced and unconvincing.

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Here, the declaration of innocence is a kind of synopsis or even substitute for the supplication prayer, and for the transition from the individual to the community. The individual’s identification with the community is also made possible by virtue of his innocence.26 This aspect will become even more apparent in light of the various aspects of the experience of closeness to God, as we shall see in the second part of this chapter. However, these two elements – the supplicant’s request for God to guide him in His ways, and his declaration of innocence – are somewhat contradictory, since a person who admits that without God’s guidance he does not know what is the true path to follow, and that without God’s guidance he fears he may go astray, cannot declare with confidence that he is innocent and righteous. This contradiction is particularly evident when these two elements appear explicitly in the same psalm, side by side, as in Ps. 17: 3–5, and in most of Ps. 119. The transition from despair to hope is likely also accompanied by a certain doubt or anxiety, when the supplicant asks “O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles” (43: 3) – in other words, his yearning for God’s closeness and his longing for the house of the Lord are overshadowed by a certain fear that without God’s guidance he would not be entitled to have his wish granted. Further inspection of the supplication prayers may help settle this difficulty: in all the psalms we have mentioned the suggestion is of a judicial setting – for several reasons: a) the appeal to the Lord to do justice, or even an explicit description of Him as a judge; b) the speaker’s request that his enemies be tried and punished; c) the calling on testimony or hinting at witnesses; d) the speaker’s protestations of his own innocence, and from the range of judicial expressions. A judicial context may also provide another explanation why the evildoers are identified mainly by their speech and their defamatory language, since the statements made by the parties of a judicial proceeding are the ones that can decide the issue. 26 On this psalm, see in particular A. L. Strauss, “Chapters,” Studies, pp. 73–78 (Hebrew), and A. Rofé’s reservations in the Introduction above, note 2.

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However, the supplicant, who seeks to see his God not only as a judge, but also as an instructor and guide, adds to the occasion a further, distinct dimension of seeking closeness to God. Thus, the judicial framework, which is also that of the ritual and public setting, changes from an official occasion to a personal and private experience, that allows the worshipping individual to identify spiritually with the occasion and its meanings. The power of the experience stems from the supplicant’s sense that He who sits in judgment over all the world, who rules over the universe and over history, is also the God who guide and instructs, and who extends His protection over the individual.

3.2  Close – to the point of merger (22)  “But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works” (Ps. 73: 28)

There are many aspects to the sense of God’s proximity, and many forms of expression. The most common and prominent of these is the sense of closeness and divine protection, as evident in the above verse. In fact, we can also see that this verse contains some of the chief elements of the supplication prayer: its third part, as it were, justifying the supplication, promising to glorify the Lord’s name, while the two previous parts combining the speaker’s declaration of loyalty to God, with the acknowledgment that he does indeed find shelter in Him. This being the case, we see that the verse is also praising the Lord indirectly, and as such, also includes one of the supplication devices. The very possibility of distilling the elements of the supplication prayer into a concentrated expression is what presents the full meaning of the sense of closeness. But this verse is not merely a formulaic condensation, but inextricably bound to the other parts of the entire psalm – a kind of concise synopsis of the experience behind it.27 In the two main 27 The common contemporary interpretation is that this psalm is essentially a didactical one, dealing with issues of punishment and reward, namely with

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parts of the psalm, the evildoers are contrasted with the speaker: in his case, “it is good for me to draw near to God” while “they that are far from thee shall perish” (v. 27); he has “put my trust in the Lord God” while “They set their mouth against the heavens” (v. 9); and while he promises to “declare all thy works,” “they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?” (v. 12). The transition from the description of the world and actions of the wicked to the trust in the Lord and to the recognition that “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castest them down into destruction” (v. 18) – a complete reversal – is enabled by 17: “Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.”28 Entry into God’s temples provides not only shelter and protection, nor is it just testimony of the speaker’s innocence and loyalty to the Lord, but serves as a source of profound recognition and understanding of God’s ways, and produces an immediate awakening from the nightmare involved in the evildoers’ existence: “How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors /As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image”(vv. 19–20). The sense of God’s proximity is therefore an amalgam of a sense of experiential fullness, that allows the speaker to form an intimate connection with the inner logic of world order.29 the discrepancy between the principled approach and how it is fulfilled in life. Oesterly, who attributes this psalm to the post-Exile period, argues that the still unresolved problem first raised in the Book of Habakuk is partially answered in this psalm – in a manner similar to the one given by Job’s friends. Weiser and Dahood also note the similarity between the problems in this psalm and the Book of Job. Weiser also emphasizes that here, too, the problem is a theological one, but one of life and death, and therefore the psalm is about an actual situation from the life of the poet/speaker. See W.O.E. Oesterley, The Psalms, London 1962, pp. 340–345; A. Weiser, The Psalms, London 1962, pp. 506–516; M. Dahood, Psalms 1–50 (AB), Garden City, New York 1966, pp. 186–197. See also M. Weiss, Faith and Ideas in the Psalms, Jerusalem 2001, pp. 71–91 (Hebrew) and the review of various approaches there. 28 See also: M. Weiss, Scriptures in their Own Light, Jerusalem 1987, pp. 129–132 (Hebrew). 29 A. Rofé notes this psalm as an example of the fact that in some of the psalms there is an expression of an inner religion, free of ritual – a belief based on

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Illustrating the contrast between the righteous man and the evildoers through the metaphor of distance and proximity also appears in Ps. 119: 150–151: “They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law /Thou art near, O Lord; and all thy commandments are truth.” Within this psalm, which is entirely a kind of didactic concentration of pithy supplication prayers, it appears that the clear distinction between righteousness and evil is a key aspect of the experience of proximity. By contrast, in Ps. 145: 18 there is already a tendency to formulaization: “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth,” since “nigh” in this case is open to various interpretations and aspects, and does not have a clearcut character, while shortly afterwards (v. 20) the contrast between the wicked and the righteous is observed by means of another expression: “The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.” The observation about the uniqueness of the closeness experience may be clearer in Ps. 103: (11) For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. (12) As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. (13) Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

The distance of the sky from the earth, and of east from west, serves not only to illustrate the contrast between man’s crimes and God’s lovingkindness, but also God’s limitless control throughout the world. Thus, the third stanza presents the meaning of God’s closeness: likening it not only to a father’s compassion toward his sons, but through contrast with God’s pity for those who fear him: the sense of God’s closeness to those who fear him is as strong as the sky is distant from the earth and east is from west. The power of the experience draws from the power of the tension in the polar opposite: the more God is elevated, in absolute control of the entire universe from his seat on confidence in the Lord’s constant and delivering presence. He also notes the view of Christian scholars, who see in these expressions a foretelling of the New Testament. See A. Rofé, Prophetic Literature, pp. 40–41 (Hebrew). (Similarly: Sarna, Psalms, p. 452, which notes, besides Pss. 72, 23, 26, also Pss. 16: 8*; 27: 4*; 52: 2–3*; 63: 2*, etc.) On the essence of the ritual element, see chapter 4, on the experience of the festive ceremony.

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high – the more powerful his closeness, and the more his care is perceived as closer and more intimate. In these respects, Ps. 139 is a unique kind of supplication prayer, in that it contains all the various aspects of the experience of closeness to God: (1) O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. (2) Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. (3) Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. (4) For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. (5) Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. (6) Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. (7) Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? (8) If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. (9) If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; (10) Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. (11) If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. (12) Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. (13) For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother‘s womb. (14) I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. (15) My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. (16) Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. (17) How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! (18) If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. (19) Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. (20) For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. (21) Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? (22) I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. (23) Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: (24) And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

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The experiential tension in this psalm is multiplied several times over:30 it stems from the power of God’s presence, which is limitless and unbounded. But this powerful presence has two sides to it: on the one hand, it is a terrible presence that cannot be evaded (as most vividly expressed in vv. 8 and 11–12); on the other hand, it is also close and intimate, to the point where it penetrates to the innermost reaches of the speaker’s soul. This fills the speaker with confidence, since in the face of such divine presence, from which nothing can be hidden, he knows for certain that he indeed has nothing to hide. The inherent contrast in this notion is that the God who rules the entire universe is also the God who took such care in creating man in a craftsmanlike manner, as described in detail in vv. 5, 15. In this regard, the mutual relationship between God and man is like that between a creator and his creative work. It is also a relationship of mutual dependency, although this is not stated explicitly. The speaker’s confidence stems, therefore, from the realization that the God who is examining him with such unparalleled scrutiny is the Almighty. The justice that this God must apply toward him is therefore that which governs the entire universe and forces of nature. Consequently, he has no doubts about his situation 30 Some commentators see this psalm as a hymn, a psalm of praise and thanksgiving, and some see it as one of lamentation and supplication, as the prayer of the accused before or after they are acquitted. Others see it as an essentially didactic or ritual psalm, involved in temple rituals. For a review of the various approaches see S. Wagner, “Zur Theologie des Psalms CXXXIX,” Congress Volume, Göttingen 1977 = VTSuppl. 29 (1978), p. 357. Weiss dwells on the experiential reversal within the speaker: the Lord’s critical presence everywhere and at every moment becomes an unbearable burden upon the supplicant, but he does not complain, preferring instead to express his feelings, and while doing so his mood changes, without his noticing, from negative to positive. Thus, in contrast to “thou hast searched me, and known me” at the beginning, where he means to express the discomfort that he feels – the appeal ends with the request “Search me, O God, and know my heart” (v. 23). In other words, the mental process expressed here is akin to Ibn Gabirol’s “I shall flee from thee – toward thee” in Keter Malkhut [The Kingly Crown]. See M. Weiss, Faith and Ideas, pp. 191–198 (Hebrew). To my mind, the declaration: “Search me, O God, and know my heart” is a kind of variation of the declarations of innocence that is a regular fixture in the supplication prayers – as discussed above.

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compared with that of the wicked, since they are the Lord’s enemies as much as his own (v. 21). Although this psalm clearly also contains explicit and implicit elements of a supplication prayer, the poet uses them in a way that changes the nature of the psalm:31 when describing the enemies, there is no indication of the speaker’s distress, nor is there a hint of the hardship he has suffered, or indeed of any situation of crisis. However, there is also no sign that this is a didactic32 or philosophical33 psalm, since the speaker’s personal experience is reflected throughout it all. There is an experiential tension in it, based on polar aspects of God’s presence, as master of the universe and as a personal, close God. Accordingly, the expressions of thanksgiving for God’s lovingkindness (vv. 14, 17–18) may be interpreted as a promise to thank God in future, but also as an actual thanksgiving. The same is true of other elements which are usually found in supplication prayers: the descriptions of the Lord’s virtues, i.e. God’s attributes,may be read as a declaration of confidence in God’s judgment and in the speaker’s position in the face of his enemies (vv. 19–20). Since God is presented as one from whom nothing is hidden, the declaration of innocence becomes a rhetorical question: “And see if there be any wicked way in me” (v. 24). In effect, this is an extension of the rhetorical question: “Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? ” (v. 21): the speaker is declaring thereby that he knows that he is blameless. The experience of fear of God who cannot be avoided becomes a festive experience of a sense of reassuring presence. A similar expression of this is found in the song of praise and glorification “Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high / Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth” (Ps. 113: 5–6). Here, too, as we saw in the earlier examples, it follows that the higher God is, 31 However, see M. Garsiel’s interpretation of Ps. 139. See also J. Eaton, The Psalms, pp. 459–461. 32 See C.A. Briggs, The Book of Psalms (I.C.C.), vol. II, Edinburgh, 1969 (1907), p. 491. 33 Thus: Z. P. Chayut, Psalms, reprinted Jerusalem, 1970, p. 284.

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the more profound is his observational ability – and by extension, the more distant He is, the closer He is, too. The various manifestations of the sense of God’s proximity are therefore: a. The speaker’s recognition that his innermost thoughts are known to God: he is an open book to Him, and God’s constant scrutiny is due to His righteousness (Pss. 7: 9 * 34; 26: 3 *; 38: 10 *; 66: 10 *; 139: 2–3 *, 13 *, 15–16*). This awareness is tantamount to a declaration of his innocence, and inasmuch as it appears in the supplication prayers, it is also part of the prayers of praise and thanksgiving (18: 23 *; 131: 1–2 *). b. The recognition that God is omnipresent (11: 4 *; 14: 2 *; 139: 8,12*) for the purpose of general monitoring and constant surveillance (53: 3; 113: 5–6; 138: 6*), and for “personal” supervision by way of protection and sheltering (91: 11*; 102: 20–21*; 121: 1–8*). c. God knew man even before he was born, and it is He who brought him into the world, He is responsible for man’s very existence, and it is He who guides his conduct (22: 10–11*; 119: 73*). However, the main thrust of the experience of proximity – which is also a result of the combination of all these feelings – is the sense of spiritual union with God, which is almost physical: “O taste and see the the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him” (Ps. 34: 8), and “my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” (63: 1), and later “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips” (63: 5). Compare these with: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. / My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? ” (42: 1–2). The meaning of “taste” here is controversial: Rashi rejects the corporeal sense by suggesting “‘taste’ [means] ‘speak of ’,” but Ibn Ezra is open to a dual meaning: “This is what the heart sees, and ‘see’ is what the eye sees.” In other words, since he underlines the parallel between what the view from the heart and the view from the 34 Here, the meaning of “righteous” (tzaddiq) may be even broader, in the sense of strong and omnipotent – cf: Isaiah 49: 24.

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eye, they appear to occupy the same plane, namely that of the senses. Kimhi interprets as “knowledge and scrutiny of the mind,” based on Prov. 31: 18: “She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night,” which in Hebrew is literally “She tasteth” (ta’amah) – but later he adds: “just as he might taste a dish to see for himself if it is bitter, sweet, salty, or bland” – in other words, Kimhi, too, is open to a sensual interpretation. Both interpretations feature among later commentators, as well.35 G. Shalom cites Thomas Aquinas’s use of this verse as a concise expression of the mysterious desire for an immediate contact with God and for a sense of the divine presence.36 In contrast, the descriptions in Ps. 63 are unequivocal. The comparison to Ps. 42 may also indicate that the meaning of the expression “my soul” in this context is not necessarily in the spiritual sense, but in fact meant to be physical, or even perhaps the narrow sense of “my throat.”37 Indeed, Ps. 42–43 is fundamentally a complaint psalm, but Ps. 34 is unclassifiable. It has elements of praise and thanksgiving, but the speaker is no longer really experiencing salvation: he testifies that it has happened (v. 6), but only in a brief and general fashion, without details or expression of a transition from suffering to salvation. The troubles that the speaker has been saved from are summed up in two words: “my fears,” with the emotional charge quickly giving way to a moralistic preaching and sermonizing. The testimony of the Lord’s answering favorably to his followers’ appeal is presented in general terms, as part of a reiteration of God’s attributes (vv. 6–7 *, 11*, 15–18*, 19–23*). God’s virtues are what lead the speaker to his conclusions, which are presented as counsel and general guidance about the right 35 Chayut (Psalms, 73) argues: “‘Taste’ means ‘mind’, etc., and in this case: ‘Look and see’.” Briggs (Book of Psalms, 297) asserts it means “examine“; while Eaton (The Psalms, 154–155), in the light of the Vulgate and Dahood’s commentary, argues that “good” here means “sweetness,” i.e. a tangible observation. 36 G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, New-York 1946,2 p. 4. See also his view on Thomas Aquinas’s position: “His attitude is determined by the fundamental experience of the inner self which enters into the immediate contact with God or the metaphysical Reality.” 37 Similar to Akkadian, Ugaritic, Syriac, and Arabic. In the physical body sense, see: Deut. 19: 21; Ps. 107: 9*, and “throat” in Numbers 11: 6; Ps. 69: 1.

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path and how it should followed (vv. 9, 11–13). The essential purpose of this instruction is expressed, as we have noted, in the sense of a visceral proximity to God, which is akin to a physical closeness (v. 8). This advice is what calls for a detailed description of the feeling and its meanings. This description appears after the declaration “blessed is the man that trusteth in him” (v. 8), whose meaning becomes apparent later on. Hence, the full and ultimate purpose of salvation is the creation of this sense of intimate closeness. Ps. 63 is about an entirely different kind of experience:38 (1) O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; (2) To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. (3) Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. (4) Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. (5) My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: (6) When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. (7) Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. (8) My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me. (9) But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. 38 Weiser (ibid. pp. 453–456) believes that the speaker is in the Temple, in a place where he can experience the revelation, and now he feels secure and protected. Therefore “thirsteth” refers to the past. As Weiser sees it, mentioning the king in this context suggests that this is a pre-exilic occasion that took place in the presence of the king, and citing the enemies in this context is merely part of the ritual text. Dahood also believes that this is a blessing and thanksgiving psalm recited at the Temple. Commentators that see it as a lament base their view mainly on their interpretation of v.11 (“But the king shall rejoice in God ” etc.) as a later addition. However, this view cannot explain the transition of the king/ poet’s speech from first to third person singular. In Dahood’s view (Psalms 1–50 [AB], pp. 95–102), just as “They” (v. 10) marks the transition from the speaker (vv. 1–8) to his opponents (vv. 9–10), so “The king” marks the transition from the opponents to the figure identified with the speaker, i.e. the poet himself (similar to Ps. 61: 7). Dahood also compares this literary phenomenon to the stories about Aqht – 2 Aqht: VI: 18–19 (wtn qštk). But see my assertion below, that mentioning the king does not necessarily indicate that the king is actually present, but mainly as a kind of metonymical expression of good governance and political stability.

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(10) They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes. (11) But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

The reversal brought on by the sense of closeness to God stems from a sense of longing.39 The underlying situation is one of distress. The yearning for God’s proximity is not yet accompanied by a real sense of such closeness, since the speaker explains that this yearning arises “in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.”40 The distress is made tangible also by the description (v. 9), and by the curse upon his enemies (v. 10).41 But here, too, it seems that proximity is the crux of the experience – since God’s presence (v. 2) is what leads the speaker to the conclusion that “thy lovingkindness is better than life” (v. 3). In these psalms, which present this degree of mutual intimacy between man and God, the complaint or personal distress is suppressed, and gives way to a spiritual elevation to a general, balancing wisdom. From the combination of complaint, declaration of adherence, and proximity, as it were, we learn that we must see the personal hardships in the right proportions, to balance them and see them from the perspective of eternity and world justice, and such a view is what makes full union with God possible.

39 In the biblical view, closeness to God is achievable only in a holy place. See U. Simon, “The Holiness of Place and the Holiness of Time in the Bible,” Seek Peace and Pursue It, Tel-Aviv. 2002, pp. 227–235 (Hebrew). 40 In Hebrew the word is ayef (“tired”), but here its meaning is “thirsty”. Cf. Isaiah 29: 8. 41 The mention of the king in this context (v. 11) as in Ps. 61: 8–9*, will be discussed in chapter 6, in relation to the experience of identification.

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4. The Experience of Harmony: Justice and World Order

(23) Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other (24) Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. (Ps. 85: 10–11)

Commentators who have discussed this psalm have focused mainly on other aspects of it1 – especially the relationship between its opening verses (1–3) and its third section (vv. 8–13),2 or the difficulties arising from its change from plural first person to singular (“I will hear” – v. 8).3 In the conventional view, the above verses are thought to pose no difficulties, since they offer an optimistic ending, as one might expect in a prayer of this sort.4 Commentators appear not to have considered the actual meaning of the text – whether it is metaphorical or a turn of phrase – nor have they enquired into significant and internal 1 2

3

4

See our discussion of this psalm above in chapter 1, section 3. Gunkel rejects the notion that the first part of the psalm alludes to past salvations in the hope that the impending salvation will be similar. He believes (particularly in view of the alliteration of the root sh-b-t in the Hebrew of v. 1: shavta shvut Yaacov. (“thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob“) that the psalm’s first part, like the third, is also future-oriented to the End of Days – as it were, a kind of perfectum propheticum. See: H. Gunkel, Die Psalmen, Göttingen, 19685, p. 373. Weiser thinks this psalm is liturgical in nature, reflecting a prayer ceremony in which someone (a prophet or priest/prophet) emerges from the crowd, answering the crowd’s supplication in the Lord’s name. It is he, therefore, who “hears,” thereby also explaining the transition from supplication to praise: on hearing the positive reply, the crowd begins praising and giving thanks. See: A. Weiser, The Psalms (OTL), London 19652, p. 571ff. We shall return to this point at greater length in chapter 4, which deals with the ceremonial occasion and its meanings. See Gunkel, Die Psalmen, p. 374, which is based on the comparison with Isaiah 4: 2; 30: 23 onwards; Hosea 2: 23; and Amos 9: 13.

connection between these verses and other parts of the psalm. That, however, is the focus of my investigation in this chapter. The expression encapsulated in Ps. 85: 10–11 is neither formulaic, nor an example of arbitrary praise. It is, in fact, an image with profound and extensive roots throughout the biblical literature in general, and in the Psalms in particular. It reflects a fundamental notion that there is an immanent and profound link between justice and world order, whereby justice is not merely a social convention based on moral values, but the ultimate manifestation of world order and laws. The experience that we examine in this chapter is therefore that of the supplicant’s feeling that his salvation is not merely a fortuitous occurrence, but the inevitable outcome of the world‘s configuration. Moreover, by virtue of his own blameless lifestyle and innocence, he is privy to the realization of that world order, thereby affirming the reciprocal relationship between nature and his own world. Ps. 85 is essentially a national supplication. In many psalms, the element of thanksgiving merges with supplication, and ultimately overwhelms it, as well. In those instances, those who seek to sort psalms into neat categories may find it difficult to decide whether the psalm is a supplication prayer, or song of praise and thanksgiving.5 Some seek to resolve this quandary by arguing that the psalm is in fact an amalgam of two separate poems joined together for ritualistic ceremonial purposes. However, in many of these psalms, the two themes are intermingled by the very nature of the supplicant’s consciousness: in his confidence and faith, he thanks God for answering his prayer, and revels in his new circumstances, that he had prayed for. He is therefore describing his new situation as if it has already been realized, and celebrates his triumph as if he has already been saved. This, as we have seen, is one of the common aspects of the reversal experience described in chapter 1. In some instances, the thanksgiving is given such prominence, that the speaker’s present state might appear at first to be not one of distress at all – indeed, some supplication

5

See H. Gunkel, Einleitung, p. 397 (first edition, 1933).

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psalms actually begin with the thanksgiving.6 In Ps. 85, despite the two extreme situations that it describes, one can detect that the underlying theme is one of supplication. We can even understand why the act of salvation is seen as a revelation of “mercy and truth” – and its consequences as “righteousness and peace.” But we may be puzzled as to why earth and heaven feature in this prayer, and how the universe and nature relate to the particular historical situation in question. A few comparisons may help clarify the issue. Ps. 33, for example, has a similar juxtaposition of elements.7 Amid the verses praising God’s acts of Creation, there are allusions to a specific historical event: “The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect” (v. 10), and “There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength / A horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength” (16–17). Although these might be thought to be merely wisdom refrains – there are many examples in the Hebrew Bible of the horse (or the horse and its rider) being cited as a symbol of misguided reliance on mere brute strength.8 But v. 20 elucidates – “Our soul waiteth for the Lord: he is our help and our shield” – suggesting that the poem is indeed a prayer of thanks for a historical deliverance from enemies. 6 7

8

Compare Pss. 2; 13; 56; 58; 109 with Pss. 4; 9; 20; 21; 22; 27; 28; 30; 31; 59; 61; 63; 69; 71; 86; 89; 108; 102; 124. Oesterly (ibid. pp. 210–212) defines this psalm as one of praise and thanksgiving for national salvation, and finds a close connection between its themes: divine justice – as apparent in God’s acts at the time of Creation – is also revealed when God foils the schemes of other nations. He objects to the division of the psalm into discrete units. Weiser, on the other hand (ibid. pp.288–294), believes that this is a psalm intended for a formal ceremonial occasion – specifically, the ceremony of Covenant Renewal ceremony held on Jewish New Year. As such, it features a range of issues that pertain to such an occasion, so the salvation in question does not refer to any actual, specific act such as deliverance from conquest by Sennacherib. At the same time, it is not an arbitrary eschatological psalm, either. See: M. Bloch, “Early Poetry in the Bible,” Reflections on the Bible, vol. I, Tel-Aviv 19973, p. 75 (Hebrew); M. Firon, “Spiritual Aspects in the Battles of Israel in Biblical Times,” Reflections on the Bible, vol. I, Tel-Aviv 1973, pp. 193–201 (Hebrew).

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The psalm’s similarities to Ps. 147 also suggests that we should, perhaps, be wary of jumping to conclusions – for there, too, there is mention of “the strength of the horse” (v. 10). However, in that psalm the allusions to salvation are only generic in character, nor can they be considered general praise for the Lord, such as “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (v. 3), or “The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground” (v. 6). Such descriptions are about reaffirming the Lord’s virtues, rather than references to any singular historical situation. The strength of Jerusalem, too, is mentioned in this psalm as merely one of its blessings and virtues in various respects (“Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion / For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee. / He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat” (vv. 12–14). The same is true of God’s attitude toward His people, versus other nations (vv. 19–20). Ps. 147, therefore, is a festive ceremonial psalm that, while perhaps containing an echo of some past triumph, is not, by and large, in direct response to a specific historical experience.9 Pss. 33 and 147 also share a discussion of the Lord’s attitude toward His people and His acts of righteousness, within the context of descriptions of his wondrous acts of creation. In one verse (147: 3), the Lord is described as “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds”; in the next: “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names” – suggesting that His acts of lovingkindness toward His people are on a par with His works of Creation. The relationship between the two verses is not causative: one act is not the outcome of the other – nor does one follow the other. Therefore, the likely association between the two must be their common denominator, namely that God’s lovingkindness – in this case, toward His people – is analogous to His acts and control of the universe, as if to say: “Just as 9

We must not draw any conclusions from this, however, regarding which psalm predates the other. Just as Ps. 147 may have been influenced by Ps. 33, and its authors “borrowed” its main elements for the purposes of a festive ceremony, we might just as well argue that the authors of Ps. 33 “superimposed” a description of a real-life event on a psalm that they already knew. Chayut (Psalms, 70) contends that Ps. 33 is undoubtedly the later of the two, because he sees links between it and other biblical poetic works.

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he counts the stars, he also heals the broken-hearted.” This analogy is repeated later in v. 6 (“The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground ”), and in v. 8 (“Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains”). Admittedly, in between those two verses there is a call to “Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God,” suggesting that it is a ceremonial psalm. The positioning of this call in between the other two verses suggests that the association between God’s lovingkindness and His acts of creation is a clear and self-evident tenet of faith to the congregation at large. Within the ceremonial liturgy, Ps. 147 is clearly not thought of as referring to a particular event in history. The festive occasion and the call to the celebratory congregation fit more easily into traditional ideological patterns. Although all poems are created initially in response to a particular experience, they are likely to be pressed into service for festive occasions if they contain all the elements that the congregation expects to find in them. The association between divine justice and world order may have therefore been a self-evident feature for the crowds attending festive ceremonies. We find a similar juxtaposition in various guises and forms both in psalms of a national nature, and in psalms of individual prayer. Clearly, then, the supplicant knows that the Lord’s lovingkindness and His acts of righteousness are both fundamental aspects of the world’s constitution.10 He recognizes that God’s acts of lovingkindness and righteousness are not unusual events, or “favors” that God bestows arbitrarily, but unmistakable manifestations of a fundamental cosmic truth – namely, that Creation itself is the embodiment of justice. The universe’s existence is, by its very nature, synonymous with that of justice, and the two are immanently identical.11 10 The phrase “acts of righteousness” is meant here both in the sense of heroic salvation (e.g. Judges 5: 11), and in its usual sense of an act of justice 11 For these reasons, in particular, we cannot accept Zenger’s assertion that in the expression “righteousness and peace have kissed each other ” we should understand the word “kissed ” (in Hebrew, nashaku) as “armed” (from the root n-sh-k) – i.e., as if justice and peace were antithetical to one another – even if linguistically this is possible. The psalm’s context precludes this. See F.L. Hossfeld – E. Zenger:

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In Ps. 33, as we noted previously, these two themes are intertwined: on the one hand, the historical salvation, or triumph over enemies (“The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought ” [v. 10], and the implicit hint in v. 17: “A horse is a vain thing for safety”), and on the other, world order and structure (“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made […] He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap” [vv. 6, 7]). At first, one might think that the acts of Creation and world order are cited here only to praise God for his immense power, and that, as ruler of the world, He can obviously triumph of the people’s enemies, who are His enemies, as well. But the moralistic pronouncements here confirm that the two themes are linked together in a general and comprehensive world view and as part of a fundamental observation: “He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord” (v. 5), or: “He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works” (v. 15). With this in mind, the full meaning of the Ps. 85: 10–11 couplet becomes apparent: “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other / Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven” (see also: 72: 1–2): not only does the proper world order forge an immanent connection between the two domains, but the domain of good values is not accidental nor the result of any particular effort – rather, they are merely the natural, organic and readily observable product of that order. Indeed, any violation of justice is also a disturbance of the equilibrium of order and justice in the world. This theme is repeated in many forms throughout the biblical literature – in poetry, narratives, prophecies and legal prescriptions.12 A Commentary on Psalms 51–100 (trans. L.M. Maloney), Minneapolis 2005, pp. 360–361. 12 An in-depth discussion of the origins or history of the evolution of this view is beyond the scope of this book. In the Egyptian perception of the goddess Ma’at, for example, we see the same duality: she herself is the personification of a comprehensive notion of order identical to “world order,” “justice,” and “truth,” whereby the moral order is no different from the cosmic one. A person who lives a “just” life is in harmony with the world order. See H. H. Schmidt, Wesen und Geschichte der Weisheit, BZAW 1966, p. 101. For more on the evolution of these notions, see the concise summarized review of various types of theodicy, see D. A. Ford, Theology, Oxford 2000, pp. 80–82. But it is not my intention

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It also highlights the origins of the coupling of the appeal for salvation with praise for God for the world order He has put in place. Since he believes that justice is synonymous with world order, the believer’s confidence in his salvation is rooted in his observation of nature: the eternal and perpetual balance between opposites such as light and darkness, day and night, land and sea, the seasons of the year, etc., is seen as the embodiment of justice, as he sees it, which in turn assures the righteous man of his ultimate triumph. This premise explains a variety of other biblical phenomena: a) The repeated analogy of the righteous man as a good, useful and thriving plant, while the evildoer is likened to a bad, dry and withering weed (Pss. 1: 3–4; 92: 8–12) b) Instances where nature is “recruited” to help the “good” in their campaigns: the parting of the Red Sea; the fording of the Jordan River; the boulders raining upon the Amorite kings from the sky; the “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon”; and how these events are cited in “historical” psalms (78; 105; 106; 135; 136) c) Descriptions of nature rising up against criminal acts and rejecting them, indicating that criminal behavior is inherently contrary to world order (as implicit also in Gen. 4: 10) d) Descriptions of nature “mourning” and unhappy because of the sins of people (Hosea 4: 1–3)13 e) Expressions of bemusement or dismay at the sight of people who do not know how to conduct themselves in accordance with nature, as other creatures do (Isaiah 1: 3; Jeremiah 8: 7) f) Depictions of the ideal, perfect harmony that ensues when people do the right thing (visions of the End of Days, and Job 5: 22–23) to argue that the biblical psalms drew directly or indirectly from the Egyptian notions. This is a highly complex issue, and it is enough to mention the mythological contexts of ancient Egyptian concepts and the reciprocal relationship between mythology and “wisdom” to understand how different those two beliefs are. 13 In this context, “mourning” has a dual meaning of “dry” (as in drought), as well as of sorrow, given the parallelism with “languish” in the same verse.

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g) Natural occurrences, such as bountiful seasonal rain or drought, in response to good or bad conduct, respectively – not by way of arbitrary reward or punishment by God, but as built-in, reflexive responses of the world order. h) The notion that the land where God resides is a holy one, inasmuch as He is the God of justice, while countries where He does not reside are tainted and impure. While such manifestations of this worldview are not consistently or uniformly apparent throughout biblical literature, they do appear to underpin what the worshipper experiences in the Psalms. Let us now examine the various ways in which this experience is expressed in the various types of psalms. In one sense, elements of this outlook are apparent already in Ps. 1, in the analogy of the righteous man to “a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither” (v. 3). The common theme to all three parts of this verse is that the righteous man lives “with the grain” of world order, rather than against it. By deriving sustainable benefit from what nature has to offer, he can offer something of himself in return. By contrast, the wicked person, is hurt and rejected by nature, “like the chaff which the wind driveth away” (v. 4).14 This notion is most evident in Ps. 24. Earlier, we mentioned this psalm in relation to the meaning of dwelling in the house of the Lord, but now we can attach another meaning to it – that of a ceremonial preparation or “briefing” of pilgrims about to go up the “Lord’s Mountain.” The righteous man – whose virtues are spelled out in the psalm – is entitled to ascend to the Lord’s holy abode. However, at the same time, the entire world and everything in it belong to God and are identified with His presence, for God “hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods” (24: 2). These words are undoubtedly an echo and vestige of ancient Eastern myths about the founding of the

14 See also: Pss. 52: 8; 35: 5 – and below, about the imagery in Ps. 92.

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world through the Creator’s victory over the seas and rivers.15 However, we find many instances in the Hebrew Bible where the waters of the seas and rivers symbolize, or are the root cause of, various types of natural disasters – e.g., “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me” (Ps. 42: 7); “Save me, O God: for the waters are come in unto my soul /I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me” (69: 1–2); “Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me” (69: 15), etc.16 The notion of God’s control over the water appears most clearly and prominently in psalms centered on the Creation theme. However, in Ps. 24, the particular wording used is supra-mythological – God’s total dominion over the water is a given truism, because the world order is correct and just.17 Therefore, the psalm concludes, because this is the God who “puts the house in order,” only the righteous man (who is innocent and acts in a just manner, etc.) is eligible to be present on His holy mountain. The privilege of being close to Lord is not an reward for a specific act or conduct, but an expression of the immanent link between world order and justice. This interpretation also helps to understand the issues arising in Ps. 93. Here, echoes of the mythological struggle are more pronounced, but the general thrust is still that the existing stable order is 15 For a description of the war between the goddess Tiamat and her minions and Marduk and his allies, see S. Shifra – J. Klein, In Those Distant Days, Anthology of Mesopotamian Literature, Tel-Aviv 1996, Plates 1–4 (Hebrew). On echoes of this myth in the psalms, see R, Graves & R. Patai, Hebrew Myths, London 1967, and R.T. O’Calaghan, “Echoes of Canaanite Literature in the Psalms,” V T 4 (1954), pp. 164–176. On the theomachy myth and the “conversion” of mythological motifs into historical events, see T. Fenton, “Different Approaches to the Myth of Theomachy,” J.Avishur –Y. Blau (eds.), Studies in the Bible and the Ancient Middle East, Jerusalem 1978, pp. 337–381 (Hebrew). For overt descriptions of theomachy in the Hebrew Bible in the context of acute national crisis, see S. Gelander, “Theomachy,” in Y. Friedlander et.al, The Old Shall be Renewed. See also: Shupak, “Serpent of the Water,” God’s War with the Sea, for a similar view in ancient Egyptian texts. 16 See also Jonah 2: 4; Pss. 88: 8, 18; 68: 23; 124: 4–5; 144: 7 (Hebrew). 17 See also Pss. 46: 4–5*; 66: 6*; 77: 17–18*; 20; 89: 10*; 93: 4*.

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a consequence of the Lord’s dominion over the world: “the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved / Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting” (93: 1–2). The psalm’s conclusion leads to the laws of the Lord: “Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever” (v. 5). The words “are very sure” (Hebrew: ne’emnu) in this case are in the broadest possible sense of “persistent,” “constant.” However, the context as a whole is that the eternal existence of the Lord’s laws and commandments is a direct consequence of the stable order that He established in the world with the Creation. The intrinsic equivalence of justice and world order sheds light on Ps. 19, as well. This psalm’s unusual combination of celestial descriptions, praise for the divine commandments, and appeal for divine guidance has prompted some commentators to see it as a fusion of two, or even more, discrete psalms.18 Even those who accept it as a single psalm have put forward various explanations for its complex nature: Tur-Sinai, for example, thought it a “riddle poem” whose subject is the wisdom of the writing.19 However, in light of our examination above, the praise for the Lord’s law and justice appears to be nothing more than a consequence of the proper world order that He has put in place – an order self-evidently reflected in the actions of the host of heaven – i.e. in the signs of the times. The wish expressed in the final part of the psalm is based on the same view, inasmuch as the acts of the wicked are seen as a violation and distortion of the good and just order, while justice and wisdom are plainly evident everywhere in the natural and self-evident state of things: “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression” (v. 13). That which is plain to see, ubiquitous and self-evident is what is right, true and good, while sin and evil are what is distorted and hidden from view. The appeal “cleanse thou me from secret faults” (v. 12) is aimed, therefore, at the danger 18 See T. K. Cheyne, The Book of Psalms, London 1904. Like Gunkel before him, Briggs (Book of Psalms, pp. 164–168), sees this psalm as being made up of three parts, into which a prosaic passage has been inserted. See H. Gunkel, Ausgewählte Psalmen, Göttingen 1917, p. 24. 19 N. H. Tur-Sinai, “Samson’s Riddle,” Studies in the Book of Judges, Jerusalem 1971, pp. 378–402 (Hebrew).

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of adhering to evil, while the Hebrew words, az eitam, appear to mean, as in the translations, “and I shall be innocent.”20 According to this view, wisdom that is linked to morality, justice, and honesty is revealed and seen everywhere – a view apparent elsewhere in the biblical wisdom literature, such as in in Proverbs (especially 1: 20–21), and Ecclesiastes (7: 29).21 Here (in Ps. 19), as in Ps. 24 and elsewhere, the speaker draws conclusions about the rule of justice by observing the workings of nature and the universe. In light of this approach, the experience of wonder expressed in Ps. 8 is more comprehensible. This is a poem that praises the natural order of things by virtue of man’s position within it. But the praiser’s reaction is rooted in the dichotomous tension between the sense of man’s insignificance and his consciousness of supremacy and dominion over the rest of creation: “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour” (v. 5). This apparent contradiction is echoed in the phrase “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength” (v. 2) – namely, that God derives His strength from the smallest and most primordial of creatures.22 The double contrast, between insignificance and supremacy, and between the primordial and perfection, is at the heart of the view of the perfection of existence, in which there is a remarkable reciprocity between the smallest detail and the workings of the universe as a whole.23 Generally, a similar process occurs in the the supplicant’s soul in psalms where the contrast between the righteous and the wicked is underlined. Once again, we find that the supplicant’s confidence in 20 And per Kimhi. 21 See P. W. Skehan, “Borrowings from the Psalms in the Book of Wisdom,”CBQ X (1948), pp. 384–397. 22 Kimhi interprets this expression based on the notion of suckling, which man learns in time to understand the value of the lovingkindness that it embodies and to give thanks for it. Ibn Ezra, on the other hand, sees in it a reference to the beginning of speech. Weiss, however, argues that the simple expressions of infants serve as a foundation for the power of God’s kingdom. See: M. Weiss, Scriptures, pp. 155–157 (Hebrew). 23 Noting the uniformity of the poem – as we noted earlier – Weiss (Scriptures, pp. 152–173) disputes Segal’s assertion that this is a fusion of two psalms.

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the triumph of the righteous over the wicked lies in his observations of world order. Thus, Ps. 36, where “the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart” (v. 1), features the declaration “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep” (v. 6). The same theme is repeated in Ps. 91. For this reason, psalms that consist of two parts – one dealing with Creation and world order, the other with the question of the righteous versus the wicked – are not necessarily the result of two discrete poems being grafted together. Rather, the supplicant’s experience achieves its cognitive completion by combining and bonding these two issues together. Such an appreciation makes it easier to understand the ideological relationship between a psalm’s central topic and other themes that may be added to it. As a case in point, consider the conclusion of Ps. 104: “Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord ” (v. 35). The entire psalm is a paean to the Lord’s acts during Creation.24 In it, we see Creation depicted as an ongoing, perpetual and fluid action25 – in yet another echo of pre-biblical stories of creation (especially vv. 2–7).26 However, among the diverse topics being described, the final verse – about the unenviable fate of sinners and the wicked – stands out, because it is unclear at first what it has to do with the preceding descriptions. However, as in the previous examples, we find that here, too, the connection is essential and profound: nature’s good order rejects and 24 Weinfeld points to the similarities between this psalm and a Sumerian work about Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom, the sea and rivers (see C.A. Benito, “Enki and Ninmah,” Enki and the World Order, Michigan 1939, on microfiche at the University of Michigan. See: M. Affirm, “The Sumerian Literature and the Book of Psalms: An Introduction to Comparative Study,” Early Jewish Liturgy, Jerusalem 1964, pp. 9–50 (Hebrew). 25 See J. P. D. Mays, “Maker of Heaven and Earth: Creation in the Psalms,” in: W. P. Brown, S. D. McBride Jr. (eds.), God Who Creates: Essays in Honor of W. Sibley Towner, Michigan 2000, pp. 75–86; J. P. D. Miller, “The Poetry of Creation: Psalm 104,” ibid. pp. 81–103. 26 For more on the mythical elements in this psalm, see Graves-Patai, Hebrew Myths, pp. 25–29. For a detailed analysis of this psalm, see Weiss, Scriptures, pp. 214–251.

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expels the sins from within it – as long as this order is maintained, sinful behavior cannot exist on earth.27 A similar idea lies at the heart of Ps. 92. This is a psalm for the Sabbath – and yet, not only is there no mention of the Sabbath, there is no direct mention of the acts of Creation, either, of which the Sabbath is the culmination (at least, according to the first version of Creation, in Gen. 1: 1–2: 3).28 Some commentators even believe that the main purpose of this description of Creation is not necessarily in rejecting the notion of a physical resemblance between man and God – as a kind of polemic against the ancient myths29 – but the viewing of the Sabbath as the pinnacle of the entire act of Creation.30 The praise offered for God’s acts is of a very generic nature: “O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep” (v. 5). But the following verses make it clear that the greatness of the Lord’s acts and the depth of His thoughts are epitomized in the flourishing of the wicked and of workers of iniquity, which, like that of grass, is fleeting and doomed to disappear forever:31 “When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is 27 Similarly: Hoffman on this verse: “This is a conclusion – not a request. In such a perfect world […] there is no room for sins or wicked people, therefore their existence is fleeting and they will undoubtedly perish.” See Y. Hoffman, “Psalm 104,” N. M. Sarna (ed.), The: Psalms, vol. II, Tel-Aviv 1995, pp. 125–128 (Hebrew). 28 For a review of the formation of the affiliation between this psalm’s content and the Sabbath, see M.E. Tate, Psalms 51–100 (WBC), Dallas, 1990. However, see also Weiss’s approach (Faith and Ideas, 143–152), whereby the psalm’s author’s happiness is due to the world being justly governed. 29 In the sense that, through the repeated refrain of “And God said […] and it was so” (and through other details of the description), the Genesis account of Creation is a pointed contradiction of the prevailing notion in Near Eastern mythology that Creation was the outcome of a violent struggle (theomachy) of some sort between divine entities. 30 See, in particular, M.Weinfeld, “God the Creator in Genesis I and in the Prophecy of Second Isaiah,” Tarbiz 37 (1967–8), pp. 105–132 (Hebrew). On the juxtaposition of the themes of “God the Creator” and “God the Redeemer” in the prophecies of Isaiah II, see T. E. Fretheim, God and the World in the Old Testament: A Relationed Theology of Creation, Nashville 2005, pp. 181–189. 31 See a similar expression in Job’s complaint about the brevity of man’s life (Job 14: 1–2).

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that they shall be destroyed for ever” (v. 7).32 Moreover, only “A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this” (v. 6) – i.e., the self-evident truth that the perfection of Creation does not tolerate the existence of evil and wickedness. The basic idea behind Ps. 92 is therefore identical to that of Ps. 104. However, here the emphasis is on celebrating the speaker’s personal identification with the full meaning of the experience. Through this identification he also sees himself as part of the festive congregation, since the words “Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound ” (v. 3) indicate a public ceremony. Identifying with the congregation – which only brutish men and fools do not experience – validates the speaker’s feeling: while his enemies, who are also the Lord’s enemies, will perish, he himself will prosper and thrive: “But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil / Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me” (vv. 10–11). This image of salvation as a reversal of fortune recalls the expressions in Ps. 23: “thou anointest my head with oil ” and “in the presence of mine enemies” (v. 5), suggesting that they are formulated on a particular pattern. Hence, too, the confidence that leads to the moralist conclusion that, unlike the wicked, who flourish only fleetingly, “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon” (92: 12). Apart from the notion that world order and the existence of justice are equivalent, Ps. 92 features most of the aspects of the religious experience that we have seen so far: the reversal of fortune, rooted in the confidence in salvation; renewed faith by recognizing that only a brutish and foolish man fails to understand that justice is the purpose 32 In various verses of this psalm – especially in vv. 7–9 – we see echoes of ancient sources. The words: “For, lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered” (v. 9) resemble one from the Tales of Baal in Ugaritic scriptures: ‫הת אבכ בעלם‬, ‫אבכ תמח הת‬ʼּ‫צ הת תצמת צרתכ‬ (CTA 2 IV [68] 8–9), and see H. L. Ginsberg, “The Victory of the Land God over the Sea God,” JPOS 15 (1935), pp. 327–335, and H. L. Ginsberg, The Rebellion and Death of Ba’lu,” Or 5 (1936), pp. 161–198. For a review of comparative approaches, see Y. Avishur, Studies in Hebrew and Ugaritic Psalms, Jerusalem 1989, pp. 152–163 (Hebrew), and the bibliography there.

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of Creation; and the sense of being close to God, manifested in the worshipper’s belief that God is protecting him (“mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me” – v. 14). The inclusion of these aspects gives a special experiential dimension to the meaning of perfection of the act of Creation, such that the psalm is indeed suited to be a paean to the Sabbath. The supplicant’s confidence is founded on the notion that the success of the wicked is nothing more than a fleeting illusion – a sentiment repeated in various psalms in direct and immediate response to his hardships (9: 1*; 62;13*; 73: 19*; 75: 9* – as in the wisdom psalms: 37, 1, 2, 7, 9, 35, 38.33 To complete the picture, let us examine several more examples. In Ps. 146, the adjacency of the verse “Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever ” (146: 6) to “Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners” (146: 7) indicates that the author sees these two as inextricably linked: God the Creator is also the God who maintains justice and lovingkindness. In Ps. 121, this perception inspires confidence that nature itself stands by the righteous and protects them: “The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night ” (121: 6); while, per Ps. 46, even in the face of natural disasters, the righteous will not come to any harm: “Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea” (46: 2). Ps. 72 asserts that the eternality of the forces of nature serves as a guarantee for the immutability of human laws and justice: the blessing of the king includes the invocation “They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations” (72: 5)34 – whereby the sun and moon 33 N. M. Sarna, “Tehilim,” Encyclopaedia Biblica, p. 453 (Hebrew) sees these declarations a reply to the difficult questions put forward by the supplicant in his distress about the morality of the world’s operation – e.g., “Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? (Ps. 10: 1); “why hast thou forsaken me? ” (Ps. 22: 1), etc, and, in similar vein, Pss. 42: 10*; 43: 2* ; 44: 24–25*; 74: 1, 11; 79: 10*; 80: 13*; 88: 15*; 115: 2*.) 34 In the Hebrew, the English phrase “as long as” is the single word im (lit., “with“), and “throughout” is liphnei (lit., “before”), but in this case they both are used in the sense of “like,” or “as.” Cf: Job 3: 14–15; 9: 26; Ecclesiastes 2: 16. See also II Sam. 1: 16, and entry “panim,” in M.Z. Kadari, Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, pp. 864–865 (Hebrew).

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are metonymic symbols of eternal world order,35 and the king, inter alia, is a reciprocal embodiment of “judgment and righteousness” (this is discussed at greater length in chapter 7). This phrase also reflects the symbolic significance of the king as ruler36 – as in 89: 37: “It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven,” where it is part of a God’s vow to David. The equating of the king’s rule with the sun and moon therefore mirrors the equivalent of world order with the fulfillment of justice. In Ps. 72, this comparison is also anchored in a context that includes a range of imagery from nature: “The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness” (72: 3). Here, too, there is a mutual dependency between this image and the expressions of fulfillment of justice by the king: “For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper ” (72: 12, and vv. 13–14, as well). The prayer for the king’s well-being is an expression of confidence that the king’s rule is a sign of the existence of justice, which is seen as emblematic of a correct world order.37 This, then, is another aspect of the worshipper’s experience as one of complete identification: he identifies with the national social framework that the king, as its leader, is also its symbolic embodiment, and this in turn induces a sense of complete belonging to the world and its order. It is a reciprocal relationship, between the individual who ensures the continued existence of harmonic order by adhering to the straight and narrow, and the world order that guarantees his salvation and the triumph of the righteous believer. For this reason, the words of supplication or praise are accompanied by wisdom sayings, against the backdrop of his personal circumstances: the experience of complete identification has instilled 35 Cf. Pss. 8: 4*; 104: 19* ; 136: 9*. 36 The ancient Eastern beliefs were based on the mythological notion that a king, on ascending to the throne, receives two celestial gifts: justice and righteousness (or, in some wordings, “fair trial”), or, the Mesopotamian kittam mišaram šakānum (“[to do] truth and uprightness [justice]”). See M. Weinfeld, Justice and Righteousness in Israel and the Nations, Jerusalem 1985, pp.2–4, 12–25 (Hebrew). For more on justice and righteousness in a national administrative position, see ibid. pp. 26–36. See also the discussion in chapter 6, note 12. 37 Cf. Ps. 63. See also our discussion of this issue in chapter 6.

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in the speaker the realization that all that he feels and the morals he has learned are a fitting expression of that all is good in the world. His confidence and feeling of salvation are born of the immutable law of divine rule, which releases him from relying on fickle fate and the vagaries of forces beyond his control. As we have seen in some of the examples, the same is true in the national psalms. Indeed, the individual’s experience of identification is doubly validated by the realization that the congregation, of which he is a part, can influence the course of history and the course of nature – for good and for bad. This awareness explains the association, in Ps. 95, between the words of praise to God and the attendant moralistic teaching. The praise and thanks are for God’s acts during Creation and for His dominion over the world: “In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also / The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land ” (vv. 4, 5); the moralistic teaching warns against a relapse to the misdeeds of the wilderness generation: “Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness” (v. 8).38 Linking the two themes is v. 7: “For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture”: in other words, God the Creator, who rules over the universe, is also the redeeming God who governs history. The conclusive ideological lesson is stated in v. 11: “Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.” “Rest,” therefore, is the reward of whoever is at peace with the Creator of the world and its order. The difficulties and obstacles that afflicted the nation in the past were due to the clash between its “hardness of heart” and proper world order. The national dimension therefore adds a further aspect to the notion of conformity and mutual dependency between justice and world order – namely, that the course of history and its events are 38 For more on the various interpretations of Massah and Meribah – as two discrete stories, or as two versions of the same one – see S.E. Loewenstamm, “Merivat Mei Kadesh,” Encyclopaedia Biblica vol. 5 Jerusalem 1965, pp. 456–458 (Hebrew). On Massah and Meribah as representative of a pattern of complaint stories in the desert in general, see G.W. Coats, Rebellion in the Wilderness, Nashville – New York 1968. See also S. Gelander, “The Waters of Meribah: The meaning of the story in light of the complaint stories in the Torah,” Tura 2 (1992), pp. 9–18.

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a function of the nation’s conduct: not because God sits in judgment and dispenses reward or punishment on a case-by-case basis, but as a natural outcome the laws of the universe and its constitution. In contrast to the negative moralistic expression of this idea in Ps. 95, Ps. 97 makes a similar point in a positive fashion. Here, “righteousness and judgment” are among the primary elements of the Lord’s appearance in Creation: “Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne / A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about ” (vv. 2–3). The cosmic and the human appear side by side in their relationship to the manifestations of divine justice in Creation: “The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory” (v. 6). Hence, too, “Confounded be all they that serve graven images” (v. 7), and “Zion heard, and was glad” (v. 8), since it is clear that “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil” (v. 10): the retribution meted out to God’s deniers, like the rewards conferred upon the faithful, is the direct outcome of the fact that justice and world order are one and the same. The combination of these truths is the source of confidence that the Lord “preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked ” (v. 10). It is difficult, therefore, to accept the prevailing view in critical commentary that the clause “righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne” (v. 2) is merely parenthetical, inspired by Ps. 89: 14,39 or that vv. 7–9 and 10 were inserted from elsewhere for liturgical purposes.40 However, the presence of several issues within a single prayer does not necessarily indicate that it is meant to provide a “basket of topics” to cater to a widest possible range of needs of a congregation of supplicants. A liturgical poem need not to be restricted to a single topic. While it may seem as though each of these issues – world order, human morality, the distress of the individual and his salvation and its national counterparts – have little to do with each other, in fact the supplicant’s religious experience is due to his recognition of their mutual interrelationship. In Ps. 97 – apart from the 39 Per Briggs (Book of Psalms, p. 305), according to Gunkel. 40 As claimed by Chayut (Psalms, p. 210), who believes that Pss. 95, 96 are also “a compilation of writings from other poems.”

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moralistic praise – we see hints of a particular historical occasion, with echoes of triumph over enemies. At the same time, the triumph is of a clearly ceremonial character (especially in the expressions of festive joy and mention of “the daughters of Judah” midway through the poem). The ceremonial occasion provides a framework for the individual’s identification with the congregation, and by its very nature such an occasion calls for expressions of general moralizing. The supplicant attributes his salvation from his enemies and his triumph to the good world order, and draws confidence from the link between justice and that order. This also elevates his salvation to something more than the mere salvation of a single individual. The redemption is perceived in its wider sense, with the speaker seeing himself and his fate as part of a wider, universal scheme of things. This confidence, born of an appreciation of the world order and of the national dimension, is evident in other psalms, as well.

4.1  Psalm 39 (1) I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me. (2) I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred. (3) My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue, (4) Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. (5) Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. (6) Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. (7) And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. (8) Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish. (9) I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. (10) Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. (11) When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.

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(12) Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. (13) O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

This psalm is notable for the fact that it is an individual’s appeal to God to save him, not from his enemies, but from his own transgressions (“Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish” – v. 8). Unlike other supplication prayers, where the speaker pleads that, unlike his enemies, he is innocent, here there is not even the faintest suggestion that he is indeed innocent – nor, indeed that he is confident of being saved. He asks, instead, that God stop punishing him (“O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more” – v. 13), and rather than praying for life, asks God to tell him “Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am” (v. 4).41 At the heart of this psalm is the supplicant’s sense of his own insignificance. In Ps. 51, too, the speaker presents himself as inherently sinful by reason of his very birth (“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” – v. 5).42 In Ps. 22, he declares himself “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people” (v. 6). Not so in Ps. 8, which asks rhetorically: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (8: 4) – with a decidedly ironic overtone, for the psalm goes on to suggest that God’s favor has elevated man to the highest possible plane: “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels” (v. 5). In light of this, the conclusion of Ps. 8, which repeats the opening verse – “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! ” – attributes God’s greatness to the correspondence between these two phenomena – i.e. between His 41 The KJ translation, “make me to know […] that I may know,” ties in with Weiss’s interpretation of this verse (Faith and Ideas, pp. 71–91) as referring both to informing and making aware. He broadly accepts Craigie’s view that the speaker is confessing his sins in recognition of the brevity of his life, that he is nothing more than a transient passerby in the world, and that his real life lies in abiding with God. Therefore, despite his mental distress, there is still time to ask for God’s forgiveness, which gives him room for hope. See P. Craigie, Psalms 1–50, (WBC), Waco, Texas 1983. 42 See Weiss’s interpretations of these expressions in Weiss, Scriptures, pp. 63–68.

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complete dominion over the universe and man’s domination of His Creation on earth: “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet ” (v. 6).43 The wonders of the natural order of the universe and man’s supremacy on earth are intimately interlinked, and it this mirroring that glorifies God’s name: God’s greatness is reflected in the greatness of man – a theme that is reiterated throughout the poem. In Ps. 51, on the other hand, the supplicant, in the midst of his distress, imagines he is already experiencing his better future, while recognizing the moral value of worshipping God the “proper” way, and observing the rituals as He would like it: “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering” (v. 16) – versus “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise”(v. 17). As in the previous examples, here, too, there is an added national dimension: “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem” (v. 18), and a glimmer of hope for the desired future: “Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar” (v. 19).44 The same is true of Ps. 22: the supplicant imagines a “great congregation” around him in future, when he comes to pay his vows, which allows him to savor his coveted salvation in detail, as if it has already happened. He calls on the Lord’s faithful – “all ye the seed of Jacob” – to praise God, “For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted” (v. 24). In this psalm, as in Ps. 51, he is able to rise above his sense of insignificance thanks the ceremonial occasion, its national dimension, and particularly his recognition of the profound link between God the Creator and God the Redeemer.

43 Conversely, see W. Kelner, “Studies in Biblical Poetry,” Iyunim 36, 1966 (Hebrew), who believes that man’s greatness, which is linked to his insignificance, lies not necessarily in his knowledge, but in his dominion over other creatures. 44 For more about the composition of this psalm, see chapter 4 below.

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4.2  Psalm 147 (1) Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely. (2) The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. (3) He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. (4) He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. (5) Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite. (6) The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground. (7) Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God: (8) Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. (9) He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. (10) He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. (11) The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. (12) Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion. (13) For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee. (14) He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. (15) He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly. (16) He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. (17) He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? (18) He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow. (19) He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. (20) He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord.

In this psalm, too, the national dimension is very much in evidence. The Lord’s acts of lovingkindness (vv. 3, 6, 11) are in keeping with His acts and control of nature (vv. 4, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18). These are fulfilled through the divine favors that he bestows upon Jerusalem and Israel (vv. 2, 13, 14, 19), and through the advantage that He gives Israel over other nations (v. 20). The description: “The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel” leads on, subsequently, to the appeal: “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion / For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee”

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(vv. 12–13). These words appear to hint that the psalm was prompted by a particular historical event – namely, the restoration of Jerusalem. However, the verse about Jerusalem being built up is immediately followed by a reference to a more generic act of God’s lovingkindness: “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (v. 3). Were it not for the following verse, which is of an even more generic nature (“He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names” – v. 4), we might think that the “broken in heart ” refers not to all individuals who have suffered an acute loss of some kind, but the victims of conditions in Jerusalem prior to its restoration. This would have brought the situation that inspired the psalm into sharper focus, but the subsequent insertion of a celestial reference makes it plain that the thanksgiving is of a more general and broader nature: the same God who delights in “them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy” (v. 11) rather than in physical prowess (v. 10), is the same God that governs world order, which is manifested in his acts of benevolence. The particular tone of this psalm may have profound roots. The call to Jerusalem to praise the Lord is not a spontaneous cry of joy or momentary relief, but made in the same matter-of-fact manner in which God is described as “build[ing] up Jerusalem.” These statements are imbued with a sense of supreme confidence, in the belief that God’s acts of magnanimity are not extraordinary “favors” given on a whim, but natural consequences of His work in Creation. The advantage that His followers enjoy is that they know this and acknowledge it, while other peoples are oblivious and uncomprehending: “He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord ” (v. 20). Similarly, the word “judgments” (in Hebrew, mishpatim) here appears to be in the sense of “workings,” i.e. the fundamental, cosmic laws of Creation, rather than in the narrow sense of “commandments.”45 The same is true of Ps. 148. Here, the appeal to praise the Lord is more ceremonial and festive. The repeated call to “Praise” indicates 45 See A. Berkovitch, “The Meaning of Miŝpat in the Bible,” H. Gevaryahu (ed.), Zer Kavod [honorary volume] Jerusalem 1968, pp. 115–134 (Hebrew).

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the presence of a large festive crowd.46 Here, the praise for Creation and its workings has a decidedly national dimension. There may be a certain formal resemblance between its ending (“He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the Lord”) and that of the preceding psalm Ps. 147 (“He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord”)47 – whereby the expression “even of […] a people near unto him” is an echo of the closeness expressed in 147: 19: “He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.” This would suggest that the sense of a bond between God and His people is rooted in the latter’s acknowledgment of His laws and statutes. But this is only speculative, and would require some interpretive assumptions.48 Another example of the intimate association between justice and the laws of the universe appears in Ps. 65.49 It is doubtful that the first-person singular speech in v. 3 (“Iniquities prevail against me”) is an indication that this psalm was inspired by a personal experience.50 Gunkel and his followers believed that this psalm should be divided in two – with Part I (vv. 1–8) being a hymn of national thanksgiving, and the remainder being an individual’s prayer for rain.51 However, Schmidt argues that the two issues are fundamentally related, and that the psalm is a single ceremonial thanksgiving poem,52 and I would agree that this is indeed another example of the intimate relationship between confidence in the Lord and in His salvation and justice 46 For more on the ceremonial features, see chapter 4. 47 This, despite the customary classification of Ps. 148 as one of the Pss. 148–150 cluster of hymns. See N. M. Sarna, “Tehilim,” Encyclopaedia Biblica (Hebrew). 48 On the relationship between fixed and significant parallels in the psalmic literature, see R.G. Bowling, “Synonymous Parallelism in the Psalms,” JSS 5 (1960), pp. 221–255. 49 For more on this psalm, see chapter 1, section 4. 50 Albeit the Septuagint interpreted it as ημας – i.e, ménu – “against us,” to correspond with “our transgressions” in the second half of the verse. 51 H. Gunkel, Einleitung, p. 272. 52 His division of the psalm is also different from Gunkel’s, arguing it should be vv. 1–4, 5–13. See H. Schmidt, Die Psalmen, Tübingen, 1934, p. 121.

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(“By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea” – v. 5); and confidence in the Lord and the view of Him as the Creator who imposes His order upon the world (“Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power / Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people” – vv. 6–7). The juxtaposition of the various issues and realms is particularly striking here, and repeated: national motifs (“Zion,” “thy courts,” “thy temple,” “God of our salvation“), spliced with universal ones (“all flesh,” “the tumult of the people,” “them that are afar off ”), and the concept of justice, as previously noted, interwoven with that of Creation and cosmic order. Verses 6–7 contain mythological echoes of prebiblical myths of God’s victory over the seas – however, here it is related to His triumphs over many peoples, in a kind of historicization, as it were, of the myth, or attempt to transfer it to the realm of history. The sermonizing wisdom elements are also on display, with the purging of trangressions being linked to the blessing of the land (vv. 9–10), and “Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts” (Ps. 65: 4) – to remind listeners, as in Ps. 24: 3 (“Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?”) that the righteous are rewarded with the privilege of dwelling in the house of the Lord, i.e., with the assurance of His protection. With its ability to incorporate such diverse layers of a holy day’s significance into a single occasion, the festive ceremony appears to have provided a means of merging these themes together, forging a tradition that repeated, in various forms, in several psalms. Ps. 65 appears to have been written at a time when this tradition was a well-established part of the shared cultural heritage, and the authors knew very well what combinations of topics should feature in a psalm intended for a festive ceremonial occasion involving a large congregation. The precise nature of this ceremony and the experience that it alludes to are the subject of the next chapter.

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5.  The Ceremonial Experience

5.1  The procession or rally In this chapter we shall look at psalms that feature or suggest a ceremonial occasion. All psalms, as we know, have served as part of a prayer or ritual ceremonies of one sort or another over the centuries, and as such they are all worthy of serving as elements on ceremonial occasions, be it expressly for that purpose, or when cobbled together by editors. Therefore, in this chapter we shall deal only with the psalms whose descriptions or formal components depict a ceremonial celebration or some kind – particularly the preliminary part of festivities, namely the pilgrimage.1 The fundamental difference between this kind of experience and others is that in the others, the mental/spiritual aspect of the experience is derived from the content, i.e., the ideas and views expressed: the ideas and the speaker’s emotional reactions and perspectives of what is happening in the given situation being described affect each other. Here, however, the very sense of participation and belonging to the festive congregation is what gives rise to the ideas that serve in these contexts as symptoms of identification, i.e. as testimonies to the celebrants’ conscious identity. The tenets of morality and faith being expressed by the participants are, in the main, declarations about the superiority of the festive congregation over those who are not part of it. The speaker’s sense of festive elation stems from the power of the 1

For example, Bazak argues that Ps. 133 also depicts a pilgrimage celebration, and that the phrase “brethren to dwell together in unity” refers to the tens of thousands of members of Israelite tribes who make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. However, as we shall see presently, this psalm in fact lacks some of the hallmarks of a true depiction of a pilgrimage. See Y. Bazak, “Oh, How Good and Pleasant, (Psalm 133)” Beit Mikra 52 (2007), pp. 80–90 (Hebrew).

feeling of togetherness, which ensures the celebrant that God Himself is present among the congregation. This experience has several aspects to it, and for the purposes of examination, we shall distinguish between the sense of occasion at the cognitive level – as evident expressly in the details of the occasion – and ritual elements which do not necessarily relate to the cognitive level, but to the elements of mystery in the ceremonial experience. The hallmarks of the ceremonial occasion are as follows: a. An address to the congregation – usually cast as an invitation or demand in the imperative (after a general call beginning with “Praise the Lord”) – , but occasionally in the form of a rhetorical question. In his commentary on the hymn psalms, Gunkel refers to this appeal as a “call to praise,”2 but as we shall see, such appeals appear not only at the beginning of the psalm, but throughout. This indicates that there is a kind of celebratory dialogue, most likely between the conductors of the ceremony or leaders of the procession and the congregation at large, which from one instance to the next gradually escalates the participants’ sense of identification and belonging, in line with the subsequent ideological message: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?” (24: 3); “Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof / Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following” (48: 12–13); “Make a joyful noise […] Sing […] Say” (66: 1–3); “O bless” (66: 8); “Come and hear” (66: 16); “Sing” (68: 4, 32); “Ascribe ye strength” (68: 34); “clap your hands” (67: 1); “Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King […] sing praises with understanding” (67: 6–7)3; “O come […] let us make a joyful 2

3

H. Gunkel, Einleitung, 32, 42. See also: J. Licht, “A Group of Psalms on God’s Kingdom (Pss. 95–100),” A. Biram (ed.) Urbach (A Tribute to E.A. Urbach), Jerusalem, 1956, pp. 157–166 (Hebrew). Citing Gunkel, Weinfeld points out that the hymn grew out of routine worship rituals (unlike the other types of psalm – laments, complaints, thanksgiving – which were prompted by specific events). See Weinfeld, Early Jewish Liturgy, pp. 3–8. Weiser sees this psalm as a liturgy, and as such a depiction of a worshipping ceremony, in which someone – presumably a prophet or priest-prophet – comes

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noise” (95: 1), “Let us come […] and make a joyful noise” (95: 2); “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel” (95: 6)4; “O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth / Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day / Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people” (96: 1–3). Of all the appeals, only the one in the comparatively short Ps. 117 might be thought of as a general call to praise God for his lovingkindness, irrespective of any particular ceremonial context. All the others can easily be understood as a call to a festive congregation. In some of them – such as “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? ” and “Walk about Zion, and go round about her ” – this occasion is identified as a pilgrimage; in others, the call, in the imperative plural form, to sing, cheer, make a joyful noise, clap hands, etc. indicate that it is a celebratory ritual attended by many people. This is particularly evident when various musical instruments (98: 5–6), or singers, players, damsels with timbrels and choirs (68: 25), are called upon.

out, responding to the congregation’s supplication in the name of the Lord, whereupon the congregation, buoyed by this favorable response bursts out in praise and thanksgiving (see: Weiser, The Psalms, 571). On this point – the transition from supplication to thanksgiving – we shall return later, and discuss it at length later in this chapter, which is about the ceremonial occasion and its meanings. Pss. 85–100 lie at the heart of a dispute in the research literature over whether there was a ceremony of the “enthronement” of the Lord at the Temple on the Jewish New Year. The speculation that there was indeed such a ceremony was first proposed by P. Volz in his book, Das Neujahrfest Jahwes, Tübingen 1912, and expanded upon by Mowinckel in his fundamental investigation of the Psalms in general. See S. Mowinckel, “Das Thronbesteigungfest JHWH’s und der Ursprung der Eschatologie” Psalmenstudien, passim. Weiser also attributes these and other ceremonial psalms to the ceremony of the renewal of the covenant that occurred, in his view, every Jewish New Year. This interpretation, however, has been challenged, especially by Kaufman. For a more recent assertion that there was indeed such a ceremony, see A. Saviv, “Was there a Ceremony of Enthronement of God?,” Hadoar 33 (1980), pp. 536–537 (Hebrew), based mainly on an analysis of Ps. 47. This will be discussed at further below.

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b. Identification of the participants: In addition to the above, some psalms address specific participants, who are identified, if only obliquely. Occasionally they are not identified, but it is clear that many participants are present (e.g. Ps. 122: 1–2). There are also instances where the call indicates that the congregation of celebrants have a common identity, based on shared values, such as: “This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob” (24: 6). This generalized definition is a summary of previously cited virtues that are required of anyone worthy of ascending up the mountain of the Lord. In Ps. 47: 9: “The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham” – suggesting that the call at the start of the psalm – “clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph” – is addressed not to all and sundry, but only to a specific audience, namely those who identify with “people of the God of Abraham,”5 either out of kinship and approval, or as allies.6 Examples: “Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments” (Ps. 48: 11) – like “Zion heard, and was glad; and 5

6

This psalm, commonly regarded as intended for God’s ritual “enthronement,” contains appropriate expressions such as “clap your hands” (cf. anointing of King Joash, II Kings 11, 12), or hailing (cf. anointing of King Saul, II Sam. 10: 24). See also M. Weiss, Scriptures, pp. 182–195. However, Weiss believes that the appeal to all the nations is not necessarily indicative of a festive ceremony or a particular historical occasion, but is more an ideological polemical statement. For this reason, some see the words “The princes of the people are gathered together” an incongruous regression of the language from poetic to prosaic. Z. Weisman (“Psalms 47; 51,” N. M. Sarna (ed.) The Psalms, vol. II, Tel-Aviv, 1995 pp. 206–210; 224–228 (Hebrew), presents some of the attempts to reconcile this discrepancy, including the suggestion that the “princes of the people” are the tribal heads of Israel. However, closer inspection of the characteristic features of ceremonial psalms reveals that the apparently “prosaic” identification of the ceremony participants is an integral part of the intention to uplift the participants in preparation for their full communion with the experience. According to Kimhi: “The notables of each and every nation” – and see note 7 below. Weisman suggests that this is an allusion to a universal purpose of Israel’s mission among the nations – a view whose best known proponent is Isaiah II.

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the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O Lord” (97: 8) – “The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels playing with timbrels / Bless ye God in the congregations[…]” (68: 25–27); “And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her […]” (87: 5) – in contrast to “this man was born there” in the previous verse, about foreigners). “Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon the Lord, and he answered them” (99: 6). The citing of the names of ancient leaders or priests appears to have been meant to elicit feelings of identification within the ceremony participants and to make them see themselves as the direct heirs of the long line of ritual leadership that have been favorably answered by the Lord. This is more clearly apparent in Ps. 115: 10–15: “O Israel, […] O house of Aaron […] he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron /He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.” (For more on the concatenated repetitions, see below.) Similarly: “Let Israel now say […] Let the house of Aaron now say […] Let them now that fear the Lord say”(118: 2–4), and “This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter ” (118: 20); “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord ” (118: 26); “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord /Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem” (122: 1–2)7; and see Ps. 135. In Ps. 129 we find a negative description that contrasts the congregation of celebrants with those “that hate Zion” (129: 5). “Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord ” (v. 8) – in contrast to “may Israel now say” (v. 1); “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (133: 1). However, as we shall presently see, the psalm’s additional characteristics explain why it is possible to see it as a ceremonial one, as well. “Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord ” (134: 1). For more on the meaning and function of the Songs of Degrees (Pss. 120–134) as ceremonial psalms, see below.

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c. Rhetorical questions: A number of psalms feature a rhetorical question beginning with the question “Who […]” In two in particular (15: 1; 106: 2), this question appears within the context of a general initiation.8 However, when other aspects of a ceremonial occasion are taken into account, this call to the congregation comes across as part of a dialogue between the enquirer (most likely one of the procession leaders) and the congregation.9 This is particular evident in 113: 5: “Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high?”; 24: 3: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? ”; and “Who is this King of Glory?” (24: 8, 10). d. Repeating refrains: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates” (24: 7, 9); “Sing praises […] sing praises: sing praises […] sing praises, sing ye praises (47: 7–8); “Come and see” (66: 5); “Come and hear” (66: 16); “Let the people praise thee, O God” (67: 4); e. A polemical element. This appears as either an open or implicit challenge, in a bid to unite the congregation and acclaim its uniqueness in relation to others and those who do not identify with it. These are concise appeals, often in a repetitive meter or cadence that indicate that they are not mere academic distinctions, but defiant challenges of others. These are most in evidence in the psalms about the Lord’s enthronement: “For the Lord is great […] For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens” (96: 5); “Confounded be all they that serve graven images” (97: 7). From the context, as well, it is clear that these declarations are not scholarly statements, but rallying cries aimed at galvanizing the procession crowd while reiterating the purpose of their gathering or festive procession: “Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength / Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts” (96: 7–8). References to the insignificance of pagan idols, like the calls of identification, 8 9

For more on how Pss. 15, 23 served as “initiation” psalms, or instructions on how to enter the Temple, see chapter 1, note 20. Ibn-Ezra, indeed, saw Ps. 118 as a dialogue between the Temple Mount priests and the pilgrims. See also Simon’s commentary in Four Approaches, p. 176.

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are part of the intent of evoking pride in the participants, while underlining how they are different from the worshippers of all other divinities (cf. Ps. 135: 15–17). Lest there be any misunderstanding, this is occasionally spelled out: “He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them” (147: 20). The confirming validation comes with a warning, however: “Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness” (95: 8) – to remind the assembly of the risk of lapsing into the bad ways of the wilderness generation – the “people that do err in their heart” (95: 10). This may also be the meaning behind the obscure phrase: “Though ye have lien among the pots” (68: 13) – an expression reminiscent of the rebukes of the Reuben tribe in the Song of Deborah, and similar to Ps. 68, which describes a victory march-like pilgrimage, and warns whoever hesitates to join the causes of the festive-victorious congregation.10 A similar assertive pride, designed to bolster the crowd’s sense of identification and belonging is behind the rallying cry: “Know ye that The Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (100: 3). In Ps. 87, this “them and us” distinction is highlighted by singling out (“I will make mention of ” etc.) outsiders within the crowd – representatives of other nations, who have come to pay respect to Jerusalem and praise it, or perhaps visiting Israelites from outside Judea, whose presence underlines the difference between past and present: “this man was born there” (87: 4), while “of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her” (v. 5).11 The declaration: “He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet” (47: 3), is clearly not an urgent plea uttered in a state of distress, but a proud proclamation of fact, an extension of the description of the Lord as “most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth” (v. 2), whom

10 See my commentary of Ps. 68, Biblical World: Psalms, pp. 276–284, and in One Nation, pp. 201–206. 11 See G. Brinn, “Psalm 87,” N. M. Sarna (ed.): Psalms, vol. II, Tel-Aviv 1995, pp. 73–74 (Hebrew).

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all nations are called upon to applaud and hail. National pride, therefore, plays a key part of this celebratory context. Adversaries – referred to as “[those] that hate Zion” – are lambasted, if not cursed: “Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion / Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up” (129: 5–6). Although this appears within a psalm of communal complaint, that psalm, too, is suggestive of a ceremonial public occasion, with phrases such as “may Israel now say,” and the identification of the congregation members by contrasting them to others: “Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord ” (v. 8). The opening curse “Let them all be confounded” is a counterpoint to the ensuing, coveted blessing “The blessing of the Lord be upon you” in the final verse. The two elements – curse and blessing – are defining expressions that bond the participants around a common sense. The same is true for the declaration in Ps. 118: 10. The repeating refrain, “They compassed me about ” (vv. 11, 12), coupled with “in the name of the Lord I will destroy them” (vv. 10–12) appear to give the words a magic charm-like quality, but in the context in question they are nothing but celebratory citings of past victories (the Hebrew amilam being an example of the future tense serving as past tense). This psalm was linked in the ancient sources to the celebrations of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles).12 It is the last of the hymn psalms known in the Jewish tradition as mizmorei hallel (“praise psalms”), and features all the hallmarks of ceremony that we have noted so far, plus others besides, as we shall detail below. The pronouncements about other nations are clearly directly related to the celebratory praise designed to uplift the participants and engender a sense of national pride.13

12 Mishnah Sukkah, 3: 9; “Sukkah,” Babylonian Talmud, 45, col. 2. 13 The fact that the speaker is using the first person singular form of speech does not necessarily mean that he is a key figure in the ritual proceedings, or the king recounting his victories. Many commentators have pointed out that the change of form of speech from singular to plural is not a sign of the change in the speaker(s). At times, an entire congregation – which is equated with the nation – speaks in first person singular; and on other occasions, e.g. Ps. 43, an individual

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f. Stating the location of events. The location of events is stated symbolically sense, either implicitly or explicitly: “God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness” (47: 8); “Walk about Zion, and go round about her” (48: 12); “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob” (87: 2); “Zion heard, and was glad ” (97: 8); “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise” (100: 4); “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord / This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter” (118: 19–20); “bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar” (118: 27); “which by night stand in the house of the Lord ” (134: 1). g. Praise of the celebratory venue. The primary purpose of all the aforementioned elements is to provide the setting and groundwork for the emergence of a ceremonial experience. The appeals to the crowd are designed to rouse the participants and of course communicate the purpose of their presence: to acclaim, to cheer, to sing, to thank, and to praise. The oblique or explicit identification of the participants is meant to unify them into a single entity. The defiant, polemical element is meant to further bolster their sense of uniqueness and kinship and rally them around it – while the repeated refrains cast the ideological notions into a neat, fixed meter, mediating between the cognitive ideology and the reflexive action. Thus, the unique experience becomes a tangible sense of reality.14 As we have seen, the main theme of the religious experience is that its subject feels as though he is transported from a state of distress and despair to deliverance – as if his salvation had already happened. However, the words said in praise of the venue is clearly using the first personal plural (e.g., Ps. 56: 1–2) to speak as a leader on behalf of the congregation, while in Ps. 44 the speech switches back and forth between singular and plural. See: Weinfeld, Early Jewish Liturgy, pp.3–8. As for the identification with a “king” in the symbolic sense of the word – see discussion below. J. Eaton, however (The Psalms, 404–406) does believes that it does involve a king. 14 Cf. Victor Turner’s notion of communitas – the sense of kinship that emerges between the ceremony participants: V. W. Turner, Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Aldine de Gruyter, 1995, chapter 4.

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of the event reflect the real essence of the experience itself. Most of the praise is about Jerusalem itself. Since, in some of the proclamations, the sights of Jerusalem are considered proof of the superiority of the God who dwells within it and of the presence of the Creator who rules the universe (“Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth” – 115: 15), the entire world is thought to be joining the celebration: “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice” (96: 11–12); “Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein / Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together” (98: 7–8). Jerusalem is presented as the very center of the world, linked to the general words of praise and thanksgiving: “Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us” (67: 6), or “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits” (68: 19). The abundance and blessing, after all, are but a manifestation of God’s presence. Other ceremonial elements link the participants’ sense of festive identity with God’s presence: “The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous […] This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter” (118: 15–20). The sights of Jerusalem assume a symbolic significance for the awestruck pilgrims: its gates are the “everlasting doors,”15 through which the King of Glory enters: Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in / Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle / Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors (24: 7–9)16 15 For more on “everlasting doors” as symbolizing the notion that the Temple is a gate to heaven, see O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World: Ancient Near Eastern Iconographics and the Book of Psalms (translated by T. J. Hallet), New York 1978, pp. 172–174. Also, cf. the words of Jacob: “this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28: 17). 16 For an explanation of the term “everlasting doors” as a reference to the antiquity of such openings (as it were, since time immemorial), see the review in H. J. Kraus, Theology, pp. 310–316, and his interpretation that this may be a ceremony of bringing the Ark of the Covenant to the Temple. Its title in the Septuagint – Τη̋ µια̋ σαββάτών – indicates that it is perceived as a psalm for the Sabbath.

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If this reading is correct, the initial call – “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?” (24: 3) – suggests that the entry of those deemed worthy of entry into the mountain of the Lord are a preamble to the arrival of the King of Glory Himself. This, then, is the climax that the procession builds up to. The metaphorical image of the appeal to the gates suggests that the arrival of the King of Glory is a sign that the boundaries of the world are expanding; thanks to the festive elation, reality becomes boundless. Not all these elements feature in each and every one of the psalms devoted to the ceremonial occasion experience. However, their appearance, in some or all instances, does affect how the ideological messages – which, are, of course, the very heart and climax of the experience – are presented. Both the preparatory elements, and those that serve as a kind of ideological framework, might be regarded as paving the way to inspirational revelation, where the ideas that are the express pillars of faith are put forward: now that the celebrants have been inspired, identified and have expressed solidarity and their distinctiveness, we delve further into their soul. The rallying cries, the pomp and circumstance of the ceremonial festivities and declarations of solidarity now make way for declarations of moralistic (“wisdom”) maxims. These statements represent the essence of the ideology. While their topics may vary, in terms of structure and wording they are more akin to festive slogans than to solemn ideological articles of faith that require quiet introspection and contemplation. For the most part, they are short and pithy declarations of absolute and resolute truisms, designed to fit in with the festive meter and internal rhythm of the other psalmic features. They express truths about God’s ways; about how the righteous are rewarded and the sinners are punished; about the proper world order and other truths from the wisdom canon. These maxims, along with a range of other issues, provide a kind of celebratory revelation mosaic that the celebrant experiences, encapsulating the sense of experiential elation, particularly with regard to his relationship with the sense of God’s presence. As we previously noted, a clear example of this is in Ps. 24. At the start of the psalm, God is presented as the ruler of the universe, 173

who establishes His rule by subduing the waters.17 The cosmological aspect of God’s dominion assumes yet another meaning at the end of psalm, thanks to the virtues and attributes of those eligible to enter the mountain of the Lord and His holy sanctum: the King of Glory is the one for whom the everlasting doors are called upon to be raised in preparation for His arrival, once approval has been granted to those who, by virtue of their righteousness and blamelessness, are deemed worthy of entering through those gates. The identifying description of the celebrants – “This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face” (v. 6) – therefore proclaims the association between the congregation of celebrants and the appearance of the “King of Glory.” The celebrants are made to feel that God himself is taking part in their ascent to the house of the Lord18 – a sense of elation that is indeed implicit in the reference to God as the “King of Glory,” which is a unique phrase that appears only in this psalm (albeit similar to the phrase “God of Glory” in Ps. 29). From all the above we learn that the participant’s experience of the ceremonial event is one of dual recognition: he feels solidarity with his fellow participants and sees himself part of this select congregation, and his very presence and privilege of belonging to this group is a sign that all is right in the world. Another aspect of the ceremony experience is revealed in Ps. 115: (1) Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth‘s sake. (2) Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? 17 The words “For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods” (Ps. 24: 2) are therefore an echo or refined incarnation of the mythological theme of the Creator God’s victory over the seas. A similar echo is found in Ps. 94, where there is even a hint of attempted uprising by the rivers and seas. 18 Some commentators speculate that the declarations about God’s presence are indicative of a ceremony of the bringing of the Ark of the Covenant – which represents God’s presence – to the Temple. But there is no real evidence to support this, nor is there any ideological need to pinpoint the historical circumstances and or to think that the reference is to a symbolic-tangible presence. See: Eaton, The Psalms, p. 125, about Pss. 47, 68, 132. However, only in Ps. 132 (v. 8) is the Ark explicitly mentioned.

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(3) But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. (4) Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men‘s hands. (5) They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: (6) They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not (7) They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. (8) They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. (9) O Israel, trust thou in the Lord: he is their help and their shield. (10) O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield. (11) Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield. (12) The Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron. (13) He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. (14) The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children. (15) Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth. (16) The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. (17) The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. (18) But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the Lord.

Here, the ideological messages take on a special significance because of the context between them and the ceremonial elements. Due to its content – especially in the opening verses – it is customary to identify this psalm as a national supplication, in which the Lord is called upon to help His people overcome their enemies. Chayut believes that the psalm’s main theme is polemical, in that it addresses the question why the other nations say that Israel has no God.19 However, this psalm contains all the hallmarks of ceremony that we have just described.20 Thus, the declarations about the idols and their supplicants (vv. 2–7) are not the main thrust of the ideological message, but only a polemical element designed to bolster the participants’ sense of being special. It concludes with a negative blessing (v. 8) that opens the way for a blessing of the participants.

19 Z. P. Chayut, Psalms, pp. 245–247. 20 M. Dahood (Psalms 1–50, 138–143) asserts that these verses are a dialogue with a choir or the congregation, despite the lack of any clear separation between the forms of speech.

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On the face of it, the entire psalm is nothing but a collection of appeals and declarations to be proclaimed during a ceremonial rally. But even if we accept the premise that these statements are only tenuously held together by a broad associative, common denominator, we must still try to distill what they have in common into a single and coherent ideological foundation, since therein lies the cause that the participants of the occasion are asked to rally around. The crux of this ideological message is on vv. 16–17: “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men / The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” The concluding verse (18) is a clear extension of this declaration, and a counterpoint – namely, it is not the dead who praise the Lord, but us – while also providing one of the standard elements of the supplication prayer: the undertaking to continue to worship God forever more. Other than the opening verse that justifies the appeal (“Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth‘s sake”), all the psalm’s verses are typical hallmarks of a ceremonial occasion. The participants are identified by the rallying cries addressed to them (“O Israel, […] O house of Aaron, […] Ye that fear the Lord” – vv. 9–11),21 and they are blessed “the Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron /He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great /the Lord shall increase you more and more […] /Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth” – vv. 12–15). The remaining verses (2–6) are polemical in nature: targeting the pagan worshippers, coupled with a wistful prediction of the sorry fate that awaits them, all in a negative wording (v. 8). The experience arising from this juxtaposition is a direct extension of the logical conclusion from the contrasting description: the pagan idols are lifeless lumps of metal or wood, with no life force – and such, too, is the fate of those who worship them. In contrast, those who trust in the Lord will be rewarded with life. (Cf. “I will walk before 21 The Talmudic Sages believed that “Ye that fear the Lord” are a specific group – namely, converts (Midrash Tehilim: Psalm 22: 24; and Jerusalem Talmud, 3: 2), or “resident converts” – i.e. foreigners who had accepted only the seven noachide laws (Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, 18).

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the Lord in the land of the living” – Ps. 116: 9). The statement “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men” (115: 15) is linked to the blessing conferred on the participants: “Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth” (v. 15). The earth, in other words, has been given “to us” – i.e., to those identified as “us,” as opposed to “them.” The ceremonial experience of solidarity lies, therefore, in the supreme confidence that the earth and life are given to whoever identifies with the participants of the ceremonial occasion, and denied to everyone else. Participation in the ceremonial experience, therefore, confers upon the celebrant the knowledge that life and the world are assured him – in marked contrast to the opening verse, which is an abject supplication from a state of despair. We find a similar blend of ideology and ceremony in Ps. 118.22 This and Ps. 115 are, as is well known, part of the hymn psalms, and have many elements in common. Here, too, there are calls that identify the participants, which are mostly identical to those of Ps. 115. (“Let Israel now say […] /Let the house of Aaron now say […] Let them now that fear the Lord say” – vv. 2–4).23 Further identification is embedded in the praise for the ceremony participants (“The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly” [v. 15]; “This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter” [v. 20]), and in explicit blessings upon them: “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord ” (v. 26). This is also somewhat polemical, as it highlights the contrast between the participants and their opponents (“the Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me” – v.7). So, too, are the descriptions and declarations in vv. 10–12 (“All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them […] They compassed

22 In this respect I prefer to see this chapter as a single literary entity, although in various manuscripts, and in the view of Rashi and other commentators, this psalm is made up of two or more discrete poems (according to prayerbooks, of five units: vv. 1–4; 5–20; 21–24; 25; 26–29). 23 On the identity of the “ye that fear the Lord,” see note 18 above.

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me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them”),24 and the repeated refrains. There are explicit allusions to a festive occasion: “bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar” (v. 27).25 However, while Ps. 115 begins with a national supplication, from what is clearly a state of distress, Ps. 118 opens with praise and thanksgiving.26 The repeated slogan: “in the name of the Lord I will destroy them” denotes a confidence based on past experience, and the context as a whole suggests that the present situation is one of a danger that has passed, and that the occasion is in celebration of salvation and deliverance (“I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place” [v. 5]; “I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation” [v. 21]). The repeating calls: “Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity” (v. 25) are generic in nature, morale-boosting cries, part of the festive proclamations in the procession, and not necessarily related to any specific crisis in the present.27 But in this psalm, whose dominant tone is of defiant confidence in divine justice and the benefits accruing to those worthy of it, the moralistic messages are also part of the slogan-like declarations. These are also presented in similar fashion and wording. Truisms such as “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man / It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes” (vv. 8–9) complement the participants’ identification and distinction from others, since they have 24 Dahood (Psalms 1–50, 154–160) interprets the Hebrew amilam in accordance with B. F. Brown, S. R. Driver, & C.A. Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament – i.e., in the sense of “I will circumcise them” – based on I Sam. 18: 25–27. But it is possible, and perhaps preferable, to interpret it in the broader sense of the root m.h.l. – as k.r.t. (as in Job 14: 2). 25 According to one of the interpretations of this expression, its meaning is as in the Akkadian eseru – i.e., to surround, go around – and if that is the case, this may be a direct reference to one aspect of the festive procession. 26 Most commentators see this psalm as a victory song, sung at a festive ceremony, and as in Ps. 115, the calls are exchanged between the participants. See esp. H. Lamparter, Das Buch der Psalmen II (73–150), Stuttgart 19652, pp. 253–260. 27 In line with the view of most commentators. See Kimhi, and see also A. Pollak, Elucidations, p. 433; and Eaton, The Psalms, p. 406.

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already been identified as those who trust in the Lord, as noted in the opening calls (vv. 2–3), while the “others,” the opponents, are those who put their trust in man. This distinction does not necessarily hint at any particular historical juncture. Cf: “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, […] Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord ” (Jer. 17: 5–7). It is therefore a general moralistic maxim. In its present context, however, it relates to the reversal of fortune brought about by the alluded salvation (vv. 5, 10–13, 18, 22), and to the contrast between the celebrants and their adversaries. Both of these lead to the conclusions about the ways of divine justice. The evidence for the existence of the promised thanksgiving (“I shall […] declare the works of the Lord ” – v. 17) is, as in Ps. 115, a recurring element in both the supplication and the thanksgiving prayer.28 However, here the promise is worded as a conclusion, as well: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord”).29 Essentially, this declaration is similar to the one in Ps. 115: 17: “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence” – however, here it appears to spring more directly from the ceremonial experience: the speaker, recalling his reversal of fortune brought about by the salvation, and noting the superiority of the celebrants over their opponents, is full of confidence because he is experiencing the revelation of divine justice. And while in Ps. 24 the doors of the Temple that open before the congregation of celebrants are bidden to be raised to allow the entry of the King of Glory, in Ps. 118 these doors are “gates of righteousness” (v. 19), and are both a “gate of the Lord” and one “into which the righteous shall enter” (v. 20). While the declaration in Ps. 115: 17 – “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence” – is almost identical to the one in 28 Justifying the plea by promising to continue worshipping the Lord appears in the thanksgiving prayer as the fulfillment of that pledge, and in that respect, as in the manner in which the other elements are revealed, the prayer of thanksgiving and praise might be regarded as the opposite of the supplication prayer. 29 Dahood proposes that this be understood as being in the past tense: “I did not die, but lived.” However, from the context and our analysis earlier, this statement may be understood as a pledge for the future and as a general declaration of acknowledgment.

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Ps. 118, in Ps. 115 it comes across as an plea to God,30 while in Ps. 118 it is proclaimed with full confidence. This is because, as previously noted, Ps. 115 is fundamentally a supplication prayer, recited in a state of distress, while in Ps. 118 is primarily a prayer of thanksgiving and praise, in the wake of salvation. Nonetheless, the mechanism of the ceremonial experience works identically in the two situations.

5.2  Raising sacrifices as a ceremonial experience (26) Rabbi Yohanan says: “As you live, the corpse does not defile, nor does the heifer purify, nor the water cleanse […] but the Holy One said: ‘ I have set down a statute, I have issued a decree.  You are not permitted to transgress my decree.  This is a statute of the Torah.’” (Numbers Rabbah 19: 2; 31: 21)31

I begin this section with this quote, because it contains hints of my position. The practice of sacrifices undoubtedly lies at the very heart of the ritual ceremony. For that reason, it is all the more surprising that in the Psalms there is no experiential, emotional or ideological expression, while in the other elements of the ceremony, the emotions and thoughts involved in various aspects of the religious experience are alluded to in the psalm. The experiential expression involved in raising sacrifices is different: the symbolic significance of the actions is markedly absent: while the sacrificer’s emotional responses are evident in various ways, how they relate to the details of the ritual ceremony of the actual sacrifice is unclear.

30 Similar to Pss. 10 and 88: 11–12. See also chapter 5: “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live,” on the nature and meaning of these declarations. 31 The passage is taken from a story of a convert who wondered aloud about the red heifer in front of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, and his students who debated his reply to the convert. It appears in Midrash Tanhuma, Ḥukkat 5: 8, and in other versions in Pesikta Rabbati 14; Numbers Rabbah 19: 5; Yalkut Shimoni 19: 5, remez 759.

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Sacrifices are mentioned in thirteen psalms in various contexts.32 But of these, only Pss. 66 and 96 are unmistakably ceremonial psalms, judging by the characteristics we noted earlier. In all the others, the sacrifices are incidental to various prayers – supplication prayers (27; 51; 54; 56; 69), songs of praise and thanksgiving (40; 116), or as general guidance in “wisdom” psalms (50; 119). In the two first types, sacrifices is mentioned as part of the usual elements; in the supplication prayers, the promise to pay one’s vows and thank the Lord with sacrifices serves as justification for the appeal – i.e., the undertaking to continue the ritual. While in the thanksgiving prayers – which, as we previously noted, are the opposite of supplications – the speakers proclaim that they are indeed keeping their promise and paying their vows. However, closer examination of the mentions of the sacrifices in these contexts reveals that the speaker’s emotional or cognitive experience springs mainly from the festive occasion as a whole, rather than from the sacrificial practice itself. We know that it is commonly accepted that the sacrifices were not enough in themselves to satisfy God. This view was put forward most clearly by the prophets, who in various ways and degrees of vehemence rejected the value of sacrifices as a substitute for a moral way of life.33 In contemporary studies there has also been a clearer distinction as to the role of the sacrifices, and for our purposes it is important to note that the offering did not

32 Pss. 20; 27; 40; 50; 51; 54; 66; 69; 96 (“bring an offering, and come into his courts” – v. 8); 116; 119; 132. 33 That said, we must not overstate the prophets‘ opposition to the actual ritual. Statements such as Amos’s “Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?” (5: 25) or Jeremiah’s “For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices” (7: 22) indicate only that sacrifices are not a commandment per se, nor a prerequisite for communication between the Lord and His people. Indeed, the prophets themselves were active in various ways within and as part the ritual at the Temple. See A. Rofé, “The Prophets and the Temple,” in Prophetic Literature and Z. Weisman, “The ‘Rib’ Prophecies,” The Prophetical Work, Tel-Aviv, The Open University (temporary edition) 2005, pp. 301–316 (Hebrew).

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purify the sacrificer:34 although the blood of the offering was considered a ritual cleanser when handled by the priest, the sin offering was not intended to atone for the sin, but to cleanse the Temple of the sacrificer’s impurity due to his physical and spiritual defects, since God’s holiness is driven away by its presence. In addition to the action of cleansing through the sacrifice, the sacrificer must cleanse his soul, through fasting and repentance. The distinction between impurity and purity is based on physical or formal criteria, which are sometimes arbitrary.35 The same is true for the guilt offering: it cannot atone for the transgression, unless accompanied by confession and a spiritual process of repentance.36 Accordingly, when we examine the experiential dimension of the sacrifices, we must distinguish between the external aspects of the ceremonial occasion, and the feelings and spiritual responses involved in the sacrifice act itself (as best as can be inferred from the text).37 With the other ceremonial elements – the pilgrim procession and the mass rally – we found that the text directly links the external features of the ceremony and the participants’ emotional and ideological declarations. Whether they are expressions of emotional elation from the festive celebration, or ideological-philosophical assertions about God’s ways or the world order, they are directly and explicitly related to the details of 34 Milgrom also suggests that the sin offering served as an important bridge linking the ritual in Israel to its roots in the ancient East. What they have in common is that the impurity, by its very nature, is inimical to the holiness, and even though in Israel the impurity has been purged of any independent magical connotations, it is revived in relation to the holies, due to man’s physical and mental defects. See J. Milgrom, “The Function of the Hattat Offering,” Tarbiz 37 (1970–71) pp. 1–8 (Hebrew). 35 “Defilement” is defined as anything that deviates in any way, or does not fully comply, with one of the prescribed classifications, the criteria for which are not necessarily founded on logic or benefit. See M. Douglas, Purity and Danger (trans. Y. Sela), Tel-Aviv 2004, pp. 67–82, 135–148 (Hebrew). 36 J. Milgrom, Cult and Conscience: The Asham and the Priestly Doctrine of Repentance, Leiden 1976. 37 For a critical review of the research into the various meanings of sacrifices in Israel, see J. Klawance, “Pure Violence: Sacrifice and Defilement in Ancient Israel,” HTR 94 (2001), pp. 133–155.

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the occasion or to the hints of the depicted situation. Commentators are inclined to attribute an experiential aspect to the sacrifices in the sacrificer’s cognitive response – possibly because they view the various ceremonial elements as a single entity, and the sacrificers’ declarations about their commitment to God, as though they were an emotional expression and a direct interpretation of the sacrificial act.38 We must examine, therefore, whether what is said in the psalms about the sacrifices really reflects the sacrificer’s emotions, and whether they are enough to shed light on the significance of the ritual act,39 or whether the sacrifices are merely just another detail among the many ceremonial elements – one which accompanies the experiential dimension, but is not identical to it. When we do so, we find that in fact there is no mention at all in the psalms about the emotional or symbolic

38 Kraus emphasizes that unlike Leviticus, where the description dwells on various sacrificial parts, in the Book of Psalms it is the sacrificer’s emotions that are expressed. To my mind, we should distinguish between the emotions of the celebrant toward the ceremony as a whole, and his feelings as someone raising a sacrifice (more of this below). For a partial review of the evidence in this matter, see A. J. Kraus, Theology of the Psalms (trans. K. R. Crim), Minneapolis 1986, pp. 67–71, 84–100. 39 A. Regev, in a comprehensive and systematic review, attributes various experiential aspects to the raising of sacrifices. Like Westermann – who asserts that the ritual psalms are distinctive for their authors’ linking of the praise, confession and supplication to the bringing of an offering or to the entry into the Temple – Regev argues that the various references to the significance that the speaker sees in the sacrifice and in the supreme experience of visiting the Temple are not merely background details, but part of the spiritual climax of the psalm. Accordingly, Regev sees the aspects of the religious experience in the psalms as being: the bringing of the sacrifice; the redeeming of the vow; the act of thanksgiving as an essentially religious experience; a recognition of the greatness of God; a social experience; an expression of the sense of righteousness and security in God; an expression of faith and obedience to God; and a prayer and expression of closeness to God. See C. Westermann, Praise and Lament in the Psalms (trans. K.R. Crim and R.N. Sorelen), Atlanta 1981, and A. Regev, “Sacrifices of Righteousness: The Visiting of the Temple and Sacrificing as a Religious Experience in the Psalms,” Tarbiz 73 (2009), pp. 365–386 (Hebrew).

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significance of the ceremonial elements, namely about the experiential aspect of the sacrifices. In the psalms that talk about sacrifices there is an occasional parallelism with the payment of vows: “I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows / Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble / I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; / I will offer bullocks with goats” (Ps. 66: 13–15); “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord / I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people ” (116: 13–14); “I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord / I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people (116: 17–18). In other instances, the focus is on sacrificing while giving thanks to God or making God’s acts of lovingkindness and miraculous deeds known far and wide, including among the nations: “And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy 40; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord (Ps. 27: 6); “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice” (50: 5); “I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O Lord; for it is good ” (54: 6); “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts /O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth / Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth[…]” (96: 8–10)41; “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! /And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing” (107: 21–22). Elsewhere, the sacrifices are not mentioned explicitly, but the hint is fairly obvious: “The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever / All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall 40 This unusual expression appears to mean thanksgiving offerings – “joy” meaning simply shouts of joy and rejoicing (Job 5: 21). See also: Chayut, Psalms, p. 30 (p. 59). 41 The expression “bring an offering” appears to refer to raising sacrifices, but it is not entirely certain.

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worship before thee” (22: 26–27)42; “Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God ” (43: 4); “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice” (141: 2). Perhaps it is from these contexts that the hypothesis grew that offerings were equivalent to payment of vows43 – as if the vow itself was nothing more than an undertaking to give sacrificial offerings, and indeed the act of sacrificing itself was a form of thanksgiving to the Lord, and thus a religious experience in its own right. This, of course, was done on the understanding that a perfunctory sacrifice in and of itself was not enough, but had to be accompanied by sincere feelings (an awareness that is somewhat summed up in the words of Pss. 50 and 51).44 However, this interpretation should be rejected, for two reasons. One relates to the essence of the vow in general. In the Hebrew Bible we find five instances of a sworn vow: Jacob’s vow at Beit-El (Gen. 28: 20–22); the Israelites’ vow before their battle with the Canaanites in the Negev (Num. 21: 2); Jephthah’s vow (Judges 11: 30–31); Hannah’s vow (I Sam. 1: 11); and Absalom’s vow (II Sam. 15: 8). In all these, the person making the vow assumes a very serious commitment to dedicate themselves to a prolonged, perhaps lifelong undertaking, to surrender themselves utterly and faithfully to their belief, or to sacrifice their dearest possessions to God. Moreover, the wording of the vow complies with a fixed schematic structure of standard elements, suggesting that it was rooted to ancient, sacred traditions.45 Eccelesiastes, too (4: 3) makes 42 The meek (or the poor) in the Book of Psalms are those who seek the Lord. Here, the speaker presents himself as one of them, and it is with them that the songs of thanksgiving are sung, and the vows redeemed. See: M. Malul, “Psalm 22,” N. M. Sarna (ed.), The Biblical World: Psalms. Cf: Ps. 69: 30–31 in an identical context. 43 B.A. Levine, In the Presence of the Lord: A Study of Cult and Some Cultic Terms in Ancient Israel, Leiden 1974, pp. 135–137. 44 See B. Schwartz, “Psalm 50,” Schnaton 3 (1979), pp. 77–106 (Hebrew). 45 The vow’s schematic structure comprises: a] A standard opening form (“And […] vowed a vow unto the Lord”); b] Stating the condition in the word “if ”; c] Stating the stipulation; d] Repeated word roots (in the Hebrew: e.g., ve-

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it clear that the commitment undertaken in a vow was to be treated very seriously, and could not be discharged by mere offering of sacrifices, nor were the sacrifices a form of payment of vows. The second reason is that, unlike the previously cited mentions of sacrifices, there are quite a few references to the payment of vows or thanksgiving and proclaiming the Lord’s wonders far and wide, with no mention of sacrifices whatsoever: “Have mercy upon me, O Lord; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death: / That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation” (9: 13–14); “Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name” (18: 49); “I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people” (35: 18); “Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee” (56: 12)46; “Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed ” (65: 1); “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving / This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs” (69: 30–31). That said, the last example differs from the others: while the others emphatically commend prayer over sacrifices (e.g., 40: 6, 9–10), it implies that the speaker thinks sacrifices are a highly valuable token of thanks, exceeding in value even that of the choicest offerings: 47 “My hayáh […] yehiyéh – “And it shall come to pass […] that […] will”; éser a’asréhu – “I will surely give the tenth unto thee”; im natón titén – “If thou wilt indeed deliver”; hayotzé asher yetzé – “whatsoever cometh forth”; im raóh tir’éh – “If thou wilt indeed look”; im yashov yashiveni – “If [He] shall bring me again”). See S. Gelander, The Book of Genesis, Raanana: The Open University 2009 (Hebrew), pp. 174–175, in CTA 14 (Keret) IV, pp. 199–206. See also: E. (Ed) Greenstein, “The Epic of Keret in Light of Wisdom Literature,” Teudah 16–17 (1981), pp. 1–13 (Hebrew) (Also: “Kirta,” S. B. Parker (ed.) Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, Atlanta 1997, pp. 9–48). 46 Although most commentators – including Kimhi; E.G. Briggs, Book of Psalms, p. 33, and J. Eaton, The Psalms, p. 218 – interpret “praises” in this instance (in Hebrew: todot) as actual thanksgiving offerings. Nonetheless, judging by the ensuing detail, one cannot say for certain whether the author did in fact mean actual thanksgiving offerings, or just thanksgiving in the general sense. 47 As von Rad concludes, it would be wrong to infer from this verse that there was a trend of rationalization or spiritualization of the sacred view of the ritual.

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mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof / I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. /O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works” (71: 15–17); “I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel./ My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed ” (71: 22–23); “But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob” (75: 9); “Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared ” (76: 11); “I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old / I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings” (77: 12–13); “I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore” (86: 12); “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being” (104: 33); “Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy judgments” (119: 108); “I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee / I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name” (138: 1–2); “I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee” (144: 9). These examples demonstrate that the practice of sacrifices appears either beside other elements related to keeping one’s promise (payment of vow, proclaiming the glory and praises of God for his deeds and acts of kindness and thanksgiving to the great crowds through story, song and music playing), or conversely these promises appear without even the slightest hint of sacrifices. By the same token, we find only one example in which sacrifices are mentioned with no mention of other promises: “Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord ” (Ps. 4: 5). This invites closer scrutiny: as we noted earlier, detailed and explicit declarations of sacrifices appear only in Pss. 40, 50, and 51. The position of the author of Ps. 40, for example, is very clear: in this song of thanksgiving, the speaker declares: See G. von Rad, Old Testament Theology vol. I (translated by D. M. G. Stalker), Edinburgh-London, 1962, p. 362.

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“Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required ” (40: 6) – that is to say, God has heard and listened to his prayer without asking for sacrifices by way of payment. This favorable response involves the many things that God has done: “Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered” (v. 5). In other words, he feels that “doing God’s bidding” means simply that he must spread His word to as many people as possible: “I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest / I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation” (vv. 9–10). Hence, not only is the thanksgiving prayer, in its various means and guises, preferable to sacrifices, but sacrifices themselves are in no way an acceptable means of showing appreciation for God’s benevolence. Generally, the prevailing approach in the Psalms is that God does not desire sacrifices, and the poems do not include a description of the emotional or ideological experience involved in the ritual act of raising sacrifices. Ps. 51 takes a slightly different tack. Here, too, the speaker acknowledges that “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (v. 18) – that is to say, the sacrifices that God wants are submissiveness, subservience, and modesty, rather than arrogance. What God wants is the worshipper’s appreciation and devotion, not “burnt offering and whole burnt offering.”48 But in the final verses (18–19) the psalm moves from the personal realm to the national one.49 Here, the approach changes: God’s return to Jerusalem 48 The phrase “whole burnt offering” is the KJV’s translation of the Hebrew veeténah (lit. “and I shall give”) – a word that has stumped many commentators. The suggestion that it should read ve-etnan (“and reward”), based on Hosea 2: 12 is highly tenuous, because there are no instances in the Hebrew Bible of the word etnan meaning “sacrifices.” It might, perhaps, be read as matanah (“gift”) – or perhaps the word simply was slipped in for some reason, since without it the two clauses work perfectly as a synonymous parallelism. 49 Ibn-Ezra, and many commentators in his wake, thinks these two verses were inserted later, perhaps during the Babylonian Exile, and was accepted for the

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and the reconstruction of its walls will also reignite God’s desire for various types of sacrifices: “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem / Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar” (vv. 18–19). The common view among commentators is that these words are a later insertion and not part of the original psalm,50 but the apparent discrepancy between those two verses and the rest of the psalm might be reconciled by the notion that what the author meant was that Jerusalem’s reconstruction also involves rectifying the faults that preceded its destruction – i.e., a renewed, stronger and more introspective faith, similar to the prophecies of the End of Days (e.g. Jer. 31: 30–33). This would be made symbolically complete by conducting a full and proper ritual – indeed, the proper conduct of such a ritual would include “a broken spirit ” (v. 17).51 If this interpretation is correct, then Ps. 51 is the only psalm containing hints of the spiritual experience involved in the practice of raising sacrifices and in the consciousness that these are “sacrifices of righteousness.”52 purpose of ritual prayer at the Temple. See also Z. Weisman, “Psalms 47; 51.” 50 Briggs (Book of Psalms, 9) regards this verse as a parenthetical clause. See also J. Eaton, Psalms, pp. 207–209. 51 See J. Eaton, ibid. p. 208, who compares these words to an example from Babylonian literature, where the temple’s construction is contingent upon placating and pleasing the god. See: ANET, p. 390. 52 The term “righteousness” has a similar, if not identical, meaning in the terms “sacrifices of righteousness” and “gates of righteousness” (see also: Ps. 4: 5; cf. Deut. 33: 19). According to Ps. 118, “gates of righteousness” are the gates into which the righteous shall enter (vv. 19–20). Therefore, the “everlasting doors” of Ps. 24 are also the gates worthy of the blameless who enter through them – and both represent and express the perfection and correctness of the world order. Accordingly, the “sacrifices of righteousness” also do not appear only in the narrow sense of seeing the sacrifices as an expression of the sacrificer’s righteousness, which strengthens his confidence in God (per Thompson and Craigie), or as an opportunity given to the sacrificer to prove his innocence after being falsely accused by (per Kraus): the sacrificer of “sacrifices of righteousness” thereby expresses a kind of recognition of the perfection of God’s deeds as a Creator and as a judge of the entire world. Cf. R. J. Thompson, Penitence and Sacrifice in Early Israel Outside the Levitical Law, Leiden 1963, p. 141; P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1–50, Waco 183, p. 51; H. J. Kraus, Theology, pp. 95, 148–149.

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By extension, the three psalms that dwell on the issue of sacrifices more than in other psalms, also reinforce the prevailing attitude in Psalms toward sacrifices. Sacrifices are an integral part of the ceremonial occasion, but they are not part of its experiential aspect.53 Since even these psalms center on the participants’ religious experience which they describe in various ways, we must conclude that the sensations evoked by the act of raising sacrifices remains obscure. One might easily imagine that the rituals surrounding the sacrifices, with all their intricacies and strict protocols and incidental practices, left a deep impression in the minds of those making the offerings, and stirred them emotionally.54 As it stands, however, the text only offers us only enigmatic elements with no emotional or ideological clues with which to decipher them. This aspect of the ceremonial occasion is clearly not what the author of the psalm is interested in, and the sacrifices play no part in the participants’ spiritual experience of the ceremony.55 We must conclude, therefore, that the religious experience of the 53 We should note that A. Regev, too (“Sacrifices of Righteousness”), who sees the sacrifices as an expression of various aspects of the religious experience, is obliged to examine the rules of sacrifices, as set out in Leviticus, to establish the meaning of the sacrificial act. 54 The performance instructions at the start of the psalms (and often within them, such as in Pss. 68: 25–26; 92: 3), might suggest that they are designed to indicate something of the emotional and cognitive meanings of the psalm. Ibn Ezra’s detailed interpretation of the musical performances in the Psalms may reinforce this impression (see Ibn Ezra’s commentary as cited by U. Simon in Four Approaches, 197). However, while the musical performance undoubtedly gives the psalm an added dimension of experience, we know nothing about the nature of this music, nor can we even identify with certainty many of the instruments mentioned in the opening verses. We must assume, therefore, that Ibn Ezra’s intention was to prevent and head off free interpretations that would change over time and circumstances, and therefore, this aspect, too, remains as vague as the ritual as a whole. 55 In his interpretation of Ps. 73 (not one of the ceremonial psalms), A. Rofé sees an expression of an inner ritual-free, religion. He also notes the approach of researchers of the late nineteenth century, who saw this faith as the legacy of the classical prophecy, which demanded compassion rather than offerings (Hosea 6: 6), and pledged personal answerability (per Jer. 31: 28–29; 18: 18). Thus according to Pfeiffer (R.H. Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament, New-

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ceremonial occasion had two complementary aspects: one that is given a clear emotional or ideological expression, and the other mysterious and inconceivable, to be executed in a precise and unquestioning manner, but whose meanings remain undeciphered in the celebrant’s consciousness.56 These two aspects, with all the dichotomy entailed in leaving them unreconciled, represent the full constituents of the religious ceremonial occasion.

York 1948, p. 632). See Rofé, Psalmic Poetry, p. 41 and note 74 there. See also my commentary above, chapter 2, note 28. 56 M. Greenberg sees the act of raising sacrifices a simplistic form of “give and take,” i.e. an attempt to create a form of mutual dependency between man and the gods, in man’s bid to make his dependency less one-sided. But the celebratory context, in which other, more spiritual and uplifting aspects of the occasion made sacrifices redundant in this relationship. In any event, the fact remains that the experiential aspect of the sacrificial practice is not described in the Psalms. See M. Greenberg, On the Bible and Judaism, Tel-Aviv 1984, pp. 198–207 (Hebrew).

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6.  The Promised Life Experience

(27) What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth? (Ps 30: 9)

From this reading, which ends with a dual rhetorical question, it appears that not only does the speaker know for certain that the dead cannot give thanks to God, but also that the profit – i.e., the benefit that God Himself derives – are the thanksgiving and testimonial of His truth.1 These words – although ostensibly of a pleading nature – also have a ring of defiance about them: noting the illogicality in his death, the speaker is declaring that saving him from death is not necessarily merely a one-sided act of compassion by God. This interpretation is supported by the fact that these words are uttered not as a desperate plea or within a supplication prayer, but within the context of praise and thanksgiving: “I will extol thee, O Lord; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me / O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me” (30: 1–2). In other words, they appear to be said after he has been saved, and the argument “What profit is there in my blood” is not an entreaty, but as part of praise for God – God Himself, as it were, must recognize that there is no profit in the supplicant’s death. Moreover, it later transpires that this is not an issue of personal salvation, either, but a feeling within the community at large that this is indeed in God’s nature – which the congregation is called upon to recognize: “Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness” (v. 4). In other words, it is precisely from a state of well-being and salvation that the poet links his praise of God with his consciousness that God saves, because He needs the thanksgiving 1

As in many expressions in the psalmic literature, here, too, it is apparent from the parallelism that “thanks” is a declaration of recognition, namely praising God for His virtues and deeds. Westermann speculates that, in the Psalms, the Hebrew word todah is used not so much in the sense of “thanks” as in the sense of hodaah, i.e., “confession.” See C. Westermann, Praise of God, passim.

and testimonial. This appeal also links the individual salvation with the thanks of the congregation, which the speaker is part of, rendering the psalm into a national song of praise. This view is shared by the congregation as a whole, and is also self-evident – as evident from another psalm: “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence / But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the Lord ” (115: 17–18). Here, the argument is even more forceful, since it is said in the context of a ceremonial psalm. In the previous chapter we saw how such occasions feature short, slogan-like calls that are often a kind of dialogue between the conductors of the ceremony and the festive congregation, and encapsulate certain ideas. These reflect faith principles and emotions that are common to the entire congregation, reinforcing its members’ feeling of identification and belonging. In some cases, these calls also have a polemical element, highlighting the difference between the participants and others. Clearly, therefore, the declarative slogans that are uttered in these situations are self-evident to the wider audience – ideas that are thrown into the air and easily grasped. Hence, the notion that “The dead praise not the Lord ” is not a novel idea or the preserve of only a handful of individuals, but the crux of a prevailing and widely accepted belief. In the light of these words, the supplicant’s promise to praise God may take on a special meaning: the praise is not a general acclamation of all of His works, but for being “The God of Life,” who, by virtue of His very nature, saves his believers. Furthermore, the relationship between salvation and praise is one of mutual dependency: just as the worshipper is dependent on God’s salvation, God, too, is dependent on his worshippers for their praise.2 2

In his investigation of the issue of praise for God, Lewis finds it difficult to accept the suggestion that the worshippers are called upon to praise the Lord more than He himself demands (see Ps. 50: 23) – and the worshipper’s attitude and the utilitarian nature in the thanksgiving. As he sees it, God does not need human praise at all, and praise is an not expression of the mutual dependency of man and God, but merely an “appropriate response” that complements the experience of pleasure while involving a great crowd. See G. L. Lewis, “A Word About Praising,” Reflections in the Psalms, London 1958, pp. 90–98 (and above, chapter 1, note 103). In Hittite prayers, too, the supplicant’s argument

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This outlook extends across all psalm categories. We see it in the songs of praises and in the supplication psalms: “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? ” (6: 5).3 The same is true of the arguments in Ps. 88: “Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah / Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction? / Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? ” (88: 10–12). These verses imbue the thanksgiving with further meaning – namely, that the worshipper’s testaments about God’s works and wonders are the very reason and purpose of life. Indeed, life itself is a testament of God’s works, whereas in death there is none. The theme repeats in the ceremonial song of praise: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord / The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death ” (118: 17–18). Therefore: “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord ” (v. 19): here, the gates, which in Ps. 24 are described as “everlasting doors,” are the “gates of righteousness,”4 and from the association we learn that the story of God’s works, which is one of salvation from death, is also one of recognizing

3

4

for reduced punishment is that if the gods persist in putting their believers to death, there will eventually be no one left to bring them offerings and the oblations of daily worship. However, there the businesslike “give-and-take” aspect of offerings appears to be particularly underlined, as the prayer emphasizes that the Hittite gods would not be so favorably received in any other country. See: I. Singer, The Hittites and their Civilization, Jerusalem 2009, p. 181 (Hebrew). See also above, chapter 2 (about the citing of continued worship of the Lord and preservation of His worshippers in part justification for the supplication), and chapter 1, note 27. In my view, these are the entreaties that bring about the turnaround from despair to confidence. However, Weiss believes that the main thrust of the appeal is in the words “O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure” (Ps. 6: 1), in which the supplicant is referring to torments that neither add nor fortify a person, but are a needless waste of time that could have been spent doing God’s bidding. He bases this interpretation on various Talmudic midrashim (Tanhuma, Ki Tetze 3; Brakhot 5, col. 1), but it is doubtful that this interpretation has any real basis in the text itself. See Weiss, Scriptures, pp. 140–144. For more on the connection between “everlasting doors” and “gates of righteousness,” see the discussion in the previous chapter.

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that the world – at the heart of which lies the Temple – is governed by justice. The duty and recognition of those who come through its gates are added to the other conditions required of the supplicants deemed eligible to dwell in the Temple and seek refuge in it. Of course, we must wary of sweeping generalizations: not all supplications are alike, nor do all psalms share the same outlook, or indeed the same degree of confidence. In previous chapters, we saw psalms in which the supplicant sees his salvation as an act of divine generosity and lovingkindness,5 and others where he bases his hope and confidence on God’s virtues, rather than on God’s “dependency” on testimonials and thanksgiving6 – e.g., in the declaration: “Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence” (94: 17). However, in the very same psalm we find: “Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? ” (v. 20)7 – a rhetorical question similar to the arguments in Ps. 5 (vv. 4–5): “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee / The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.”8 However, while in Ps. 5 the words are a form of self-persuasion – a kind of whispered prayer uttered by the supplicant to reassure himself that God is indeed not siding with his enemies – in Ps. 94 they are said in a tone of defiance. This use of similar elements in different prayers with variations in tone and nuance indicates both the strong control of convention on the psalm genre, and the great scope for creativity and subtle differences through change of tone and emphasis. The examples we have seen of the reciprocal and mutual relationship between salvation and thanksgiving reflect an extreme degree of faith which is not necessarily true of psalmic literature as a whole. However, while the promise 5

6 7 8

See Pss. 10; 11; 12; 13; 14, 17; 35. This is also evident from the declaration “Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence” (94: 17), and elsewhere. Similarly in Ps. 118: 18: “The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.” However, in the preceding verse it says: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” See Pss. 3; 22; 24, 28, and others. This is somewhat obscure, but appears to mean: “Will you tolerate rule by the wicked?” See also above, chapter 1, note 40.

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to give thanks to the Lord, as one of the “supplication devices,”9 is representative of a wider, more extensive religious outlook that rules out any sort of existence after death.10 The defiance in these rhetorical questions may therefore be not only an expression of the worshipper’s “internal dispute” within himself, or between him and God, but a challenge of the belief that there is existence after death. However, that discussion lies beyond the scope of our inquiry – nor is there any evidence for the existence of a belief in the afterlife in Israel at the time that these psalms were composed.11 It is better, therefore, that we limit ourselves to what can be gleaned from the arguments themselves and their literary contexts. The notion of an afterlife is unequivocally rejected in other wisdom writings in the Hebrew Bible, too, with no allowance of opposing views within the same context. Thus, in Ps 88: 5: “Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.”12 So, too, Job’s 9 See also Greenberg (chapter 1, note 27). 10 On this topic, see Lewis, “Death in the Psalms,” Reflections, 34–43, which notes the absence of any notion of “life after death” in the Hebrew Bible (in contrast to the Christian commentaries), and the emphasis of reward and punishment in this world. Lewis also examines when the perception of the link between reward and punishment and “life after death,” but suggests that this change hinges on an inner evolution, i.e. on the changes involved in deepening one’s faith, rather than changes of the historical reality in their wake, with exile and loss of sovereign territory – the notion of ex-territorial reward and punishment emerged. 11 From certain descriptions in the Hebrew Bible one might learn that the authors were aware of the ideas of existence after death. Thus, in the description of the raising of Samuel’s spirit (I Sam. 28); from Elijah’s ascendance to heaven in a whirlwind (II Kings 2); and even in the final words in the Book of Malachi (4: 5–6). However, these are exceptions that prove the rule, and even these descriptions have nothing to do with the notion of reward and punishment after death. For further examination of this issue, see M. Rotenberg, On Life and Immortality, Jerusalem, 2008 (Hebrew). However, he focuses mainly on the elements that shape behavior in the three monotheistic religions, i.e. the ways in which revelation is expressed, and the use of the notions of “the afterlife,” rather than the developmental aspect. 12 “Free,” in this instance, in the sense of abandoned, disowned. See Eaton, Psalms, p.313, and the JPS translation of this verse. Brinn, however, in his

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assertion: “As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more” (Job 7: 9),13 and in the words of Eccelesiastes: “[…] for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest”(9: 10).14 However, the linking of the rejection of death with the importance of thanksgiving in the eyes of God is also found in the supplication prayers and in the hymns of praise and thanksgiving. In both instances, the supplicant experiences the same emotional and ideological confidence in their comparative advantage and in the triumph of life over death. Moreover, in these psalms there is no expression of the contrast between God’s eternality and man’s transience. Rather, at the heart of each of these psalms God’s eternal nature is portrayed as being manifested in, or even dependent on, the continued existence of worship, which is mainly about thanksgiving. In other words, the supplicant’s experience stems from his keen awareness that his God is “the God of life”: life is the supreme and sacred purpose in eyes of the supplicant and in the eyes of his God, and the only means by which faith can exist. With this in mind, the supplicant rejects the possibility interpretation of Job 3: 19 (“The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master”), suggests that “freedom” is relative to the hardships that Job is suffering in his life (see “Psalm 88,” Psalms). 13 In Zophar’s rhetorical question, as well (“It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? ” – Job 11: 8), heaven and hell are presented as two metonymical polar opposites, representing the infinite and the unknowable, respectively, to illustrate the limitations of the human mind. Similarly in the words of Isaiah: “[…] either in the depth, or in the height above” (7: 11). 14 In the absence of abstract concepts, in most of the instances where hell is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, it is in a rejectionist context – i.e. as a “place” of nothingness. It appears, therefore, that the authors knew about the existence of underworld, but unlike in other beliefs, the biblical faith associates it only with void and emptiness, and at most it features an echo of a myth, especially the Canaanite myths, that the underworld pulls down human beings and swallows them alive (e.g. Proverbs 1: 12). But in the Talmud (Iruvin, 19, col.1), the underworld and oblivion are the names of hell, while medieval commentators (Rashi, Malbim, Metzudot), in their commentary to Prov. 15: 11, argue that the underworld represents all that which is hidden and unknown to us. See also S.E. Loewenstamm, entry “She’ol,” Encyclopaedia Biblica, vol. 7 Jerusalem 1967, pp. 454–457 (Hebrew).

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of death for the simple reason that it is so illogical, and as such he no longer has any reason to fear it, since God’s eternality requires the testament of he who is saved, i.e. in his own continued existence. This view is expanded upon and reflected also in other declarations, that make no mention whatsoever of death or salvation from it. Thus, for example: “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (116: 9). The phrase “walk before the Lord,” for example, undoubtedly encapsulates meanings other than observing God’s commandments – such as having special privilege of closeness to God15, which is only possible in “the land of the living.”16 The same is true of other declarations of the same nature: “Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name ” (63: 4),17 and “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being ” (104: 33 – cf. 146: 2: “While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being”). In the original Hebrew, it is clear from the parallelism that the word beḥayai (lit., “in my life”) means “as long as I live” (as indeed translated in the KJV and elsewhere) – and if so, the same implicit, if only hinted, message is that blessings and thanksgiving have no place 15 This is particularly apparent in the various interpretations of the words of Enoch (Gen. 5: 22, 24) and about Abraham (ibid, 17: 1). From the various legends about Enoch, as they appear in the external books and in the Sages literature, we see echoes of ancient traditions, some of which suggest that he was looked upon highly favorably by God, being the seventh in the “history of man”: “All the sevenths are favorite…” Psikta deRav Kahana, Baber Publishing, p. 154 col. 2 – 155 col. 1; Vayikra Rabah, P 29, m 9, etc.). In some of the sources we find a denial of the legend that Enoch did not experience death. See Breshit Rabbah p25, m 1; and the Aramaic translation: ‫“( ’יחיה אמית ארי ’ה‬when the Lord killed him”). This is apparent also in the description of Noah in the prelude to the story of the Flood (Gen. 6: 9), and in the Lord’s words to Abraham: “walk before me, and be thou perfect” (ibid. 17: 1) – the preamble to his circumcision, denoting an unusual closeness between him and God. 16 This unique expression might also suggest that it was intended as an implicit polemic against the notion of the “land of the dead” in various mythologies – but I have no evidence for that. 17 In this psalm, which is a supplication prayer, this declared pledge has renewed meaning in view of the preceding verse – “Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee” – i.e., the reason for the praise is the eternal nature of divine lovingkindness.

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in the afterlife. However, even if we interpret the word to mean “for as long as I live” – i.e., always and continuously – we find that praising God, the thanks and blessing, are the essence of life and all that it entails. The rejection of death has a broad and extensive background. The positive attitude toward the advantages of life is evident in various descriptions that are not necessarily related to the appeal for salvation or thanks for deliverance already obtained. Closeness to God involves enjoying the pleasures of life, not abstaining from them: “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot / The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage” (16: 5–6), and see also 127: 3: “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward ”. So, too, is the reward for those who fear the Lord: (1) Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways. (2) For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. (3) Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. (4) Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. (128: 14)

With this in mind, we should understand the praising of “brethren [dwelling] together in unity”: the social enjoyment is illustrated in metonymic descriptions that represent both the glory of the sacred priesthood (the good oil on Aaron’s beard), and references to certain landscapes of the north and south, respectively (“dew of Hermon […] the mountains of Zion”) – i.e. Israel and Judah. The comparison of the delights of “brethren [dwelling] together in unity” with easily identified and understood sights enhances the sense of camaraderie and the ability to identify with the symbols and emblems of the nation’s landscape, which is blessed with eternal life:18 18 According to the Metzudat David commentary, Berlin believes that this psalm reflects a hope for the reunification of Judah and Israel. See A. Berlin, “On the Interpretation of Psalms 133,” Directions in Biblical Hebrew Poetry, Sheffield 1987, pp. 141–147. I have examined this issue of appeasing and reconciliation between Judah and Israel elsewhere (Gelander, From Two Kingdoms, esp. 201–205),

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(1) Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (2) It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; (3) As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.19 (Ps. 133)

However, in the communal prayer for deliverance from enemies, as well: “Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children” (144: 7) and “Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood ” (v. 11).20 We find that the outcomes and benefits of salvation are in the present, in the form of abundance and material blessings: with particular focus on the efforts by King Hezekiah, especially in view of Ps. 68. However, it appears that this present situation in this psalm lies beyond such an aspiration, where the virtues of the societies are illustrated through symbols which probably represent a permanent condition. I. Bazak sees this psalm as a pilgrimage song, and interprets its descriptions accordingly. It seems to me that in this regard he has gone too far, and judging by the hallmarks of the ceremonial occasion, as described in the previous chapter, it appears that Ps. 133 should not be seen as that kind of poem when it clearly lacks those characteristics. See I. Bazak, Psalms, p. 133. 19 We shall look further into the significance of camaraderie and the individual’s identification with his surroundings as part of the religious experience in the next chapter. 20 The appeal for salvation appears here as a kind of refrain, but with a varying meaning: in v. 11 the enemies are defined as “strange children” (in Hebrew, bnei nekhar = “foreigners”), while in v. 7 the distress is said to be “great waters” – i.e., a major catastrophe. In chapter 3, above, we examined the use of water(s) to describe distresses in various kinds (“thy waves and thy billows”[42: 7] etc.), which to my mind are echoes of ancient myths, in which the Creation and establishment of world order involved God’s victory over the seas and rivers. Hence, the appeal for deliverance in this psalm is answered by means of the abundance and blessings described in the final verses, resulting in a correlation and parallel between God’s works in the world and the blessings promised to man, and once again, the pleasures of life are also perceived as a reflection of proper world order.

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(12) That 21 our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace: (13) That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: (14) That our oxen may be strong to labour (144: 12–14)

This view is also apparent in other expressions. The pronouncement “I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me” (3: 5) suggests that awaking from sleep is an act of divine grace, but is also an expression of the speaker’s confidence that the Lord’s support is a repeated and regular act on His part, a fundamental part of who He is. The same is true of the declaration: “I will both 22 lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety” (4: 9). These descriptions also convey the view that the righteous man is rewarded in this life, not the next. This is particularly true of the wisdom psalms, which do not necessarily relate to any particular historical situation, and therefore put forward supposedly eternal truths: (12) What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? (13) Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. (14) Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. (Ps. 34: 12–14).23

The demands mentioned here are similar to those in Ps. 15, but while in that psalm the fulfillment of those demands entitles one to dwell in the God’s temple, here it confers a long and good life. In Ps. 37, these details are presented in greater detail: “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed / Delight thyself also in 21 This is the literal translation of the original Hebrew word, asher – but its actual meaning appears to be ad asher = “until such time as.” 22 The Hebrew word is this case is yaḥdav (“together”) which (along with its other form, yaḥad), is occasionally used as a rallying cry of emphasis and encouragement. See Isaiah 40: 5; 52: 8–9, and elsewhere. 23 Similar to Ps. 25: 12–13: “What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose / His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.” However, in v. 16 onwards, the tone changes, from a wisdom psalm to a supplication psalm.

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the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart ” (vv. 3–4); and “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace” (v. 11); “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever” (v. 29). A similar meaning is evident in the description of securing divine grace: “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures / For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light” (36: 8–9). These words expand the meaning of confidence in the speaker’s declarations, showing it to be founded on a notion that prevails in most psalms. The transitions from despair to hope, and from supplication to thanksgiving,24 take on an additional facet: very few psalms among the prayers of supplication are entirely devoid of hope – even in the psalms dominated by despair, there usually is a glimmer of hope, a glint of light to which the worshipper addresses his hopes and dreams. So it is in Ps. 13: (1) How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? (2) How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? (3) Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; (4) Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. (5) But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. (6) I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

In this psalm, the oppressive presence of distress is clearly evident, particularly in the repeated refrain “How long?” The question about the continuing suffering – which relates to the dimension of time, i.e., “Until when?” – is translated into spatial terms – to, as it were, “Until where”? However, even this curtain of despair, that looms over the sense of space, rises in the confident declaration leading to the optimistic promise: “But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation” (v. 5) – on the grounds that “Lest mine enemy say” that God refrained from saving the speaker. This argument is similar to 24 See chapter 1, section 3.

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the previously noted reasoning on why God should be persuaded and respond favorably to the supplicant’s appeal. The same theme appears in Ps. 17. As with the other prayers, here, too, the desperate plea for deliverance is based on a proclamation of innocence (“Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress” – v. 3), and by an appeal for God’s guidance (“Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not ” – v. 5). Here, too, the cruelty of the speaker’s predator-like enemies is described (“Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places” – v. 12). But here, too, the psalm ends with confidence that salvation will appear: “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness” (v. 15).25 Even where despair prevails, we find a confidence that at least the wicked will get their just deserts: (28) His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. (29) I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high. (Ps. 7: 16–17)26

While the speaker’s distress is described in great detail, hope appears in the form of the supplicant’s promise to thank the Lord and tell of His greatness: “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee” (22: 22); “For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard / My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him” (vv. 24–25). Only in a handful psalms, then, do we see absolutely hopeless despair. They are the exceptions that prove the rule – however, they 25 A similar expression of hope – albeit more muted and generalized – can be found at the conclusion of Pss. 142, 143. In the former, hope appears only in the second half of the final verse: “the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me” (v. 7b), and in the final verse of Ps. 143: “And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant ” (v. 12). 26 For more on this form of retribution for the wicked, based on measure for measure, see S. Gelander, “Language of the Wicked,” pp. 37–42.

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also indicate that the speaker’s confidence, where it appears, is not merely a conventional element, but an expression of a unique experience, based on a prevailing outlook. Ps. 38 is devoted entirely to describing the worshipper’s suffering and distress. Here, the situation being described is as bleak as can be, without the barest hint of hope. So, too, in Ps. 39, which, while propounding a moralistic conclusion about man’s fate (“Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them” – v. 6), is essentially pessimistic in nature, aimed primarily at justifying the appeal for guidance (“Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am” – v. 4).27 The contemplation of man and his fate is rooted in the speaker’s sense of the brevity of his life and impending death,28 and arises from his distress: “Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity” – v. 5). Here the psalm ends with a desperate cry – ”O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more” (v. 13). The same is true of Ps. 88. Indeed, the fact that there are only a handful of such examples indicates that in the great majority of the appeals, the supplicant does indeed derive his confidence from faith that his life is necessary to God, whose nature is revealed to man through the good things in life.

27 The precise meaning of this verse is unclear. The prevailing view is that the supplicant is appeal to God to help him recognize how brief his life is (see: Eaton, Psalms, pp. 169–180). The Septuagint’s rendition – Γνώρίσον μοί, κύρίε, το περ ας μου – is no different from the Masoretic version. But some – like the Common Prayer Book (CPB), have translated it literally, meaning the supplicant is indeed asking how much longer will he live. If we follow that interpretation, this means that the supplicant is asking to be a “full partner” in the knowledge of what awaits him, and thereby gaining full control over his fate, and this knowledge strengthens his sense of confidence. But the context of this psalm, which is first and foremost about despair, discourages such an interpretation. 28 Similarly for the national lament in Ps. 137, 7–9.

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6.1  Confidence in salvation in the communal prayers This is not the case in the communal supplications or appeals.29 In these public prayers there is no sign of total confidence in salvation. Even where there are signs of hope, they are mostly nothing more than wishes of revenge and ill wishes on one’s enemies. Where there is a promise to give thanks to God, such as 79: 13 (“So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations”), or 80: 19 (“Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved ”), it is clear from the wording that it is merely a conventional device: unlike the individual prayers, the worshippers are not giving thanks as individuals who have been saved and are revelling in their deliverance. The exceptions to this are the instances where the individual is speaking on the public’s behalf, as we shall see below. Generally speaking, the view implicit in the individual prayers – that God has a duty toward the living, and that there is no point in death – does not apply to the communal prayers. The nature of the God who operates in history is different from the God manifested in the individual’s world and in the dialogue that he conducts with God. Here, the supplicants appealing to God to help them usually do so based on past precedent – that is to say, there is no reason why God, who eradicated the wicked and saved His people from His enemies in the past, should not do so now, as well. However, past salvations do not necessarily mean that God is obliged to do the same now. The descriptions of past deliverances are, at most, a kind of insistent pleading. They lacks the defiance inherent in linking the rejection of death with a thanksgiving that is contingent upon deliverance, as one finds in the individual prayers. Instead, we find that the distress expressed in the national prayers is one that crushes confidence and hope, and is felt very keenly by the supplicants, almost to the point of losing hope in salvation. 29 These are defined by Sarna and others as “congregation complaints.” See: N. M. Sarna, “Tehilim,” p. 451.

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In Ps. 44, past deliverances are mentioned only in very general terms: “We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old” (v. 1). The lesson learned from these actions is that the enemies “got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them” (v. 3), and therefore “Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us / For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me” (vv. 5–6). But this awareness only heightens the contrast, rather than inspire greater confidence – for although the supplicants persisted in their praise and glorification of God (“In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah” – v. 8), God abandoned them (“But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies” – v. 9). This gives added poignancy to the declaration of innocence, which, as in the individual supplication prayers, is a key component in this national appeal, too: “All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant / Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way” (vv. 17–18). In other words, God forsook them despite their loyalty to Him, and the descriptions of distress dominate the entire psalm. In Ps. 59, as well, succor appears as a wistful desire (“But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision” – v. 8), and as a detailed appeal for revenge: “Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield” (v. 11); “Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be : and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob” (v. 13).30 So, too, in Ps. 60: “Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me” (v. 10),31 and the wishes for revenge and the curses in other psalms, such as: “Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name” (69: 6, and much of Ps. 109). 30 On the transition from the individual prayer to presenting the enemies as “all the nations,” see below, in the discussion of Ps. 102. 31 Among the various interpretations of this expression, I prefer Chayut’s: “And I believe it should read ‘Pleshet titroéa’ – i.e. Philistia will stumble, break, crumble,” and as in Isaiah 24: 19.

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In the citing of past salvations, we see various degrees of the power of God’s actions. In Ps. 44, salvations are mentioned only in a general way and as a distant echo, but Ps. 74 contains a detailed description of God’s victories during the Creation, with explicit references to ancient myths – (13) Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters (14) Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness (15) Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.

We have already discussed how theomachy is depicted in the psalms.32 In Ps. 77 this theme is developed further: here, theomachy is associated with God’s actions in history – that is to say, God’s victory over the waters is linked to His dominion over the universe and the course of history, as evident in the Exodus from Egypt: (16) The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. (17) The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. (18) The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. (19) Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. (20) Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

However, in Ps. 80, the story of the Exodus and conquest of Canaan are depicted in metaphors whose imagery extends to describing the supplicants’ present distress: (8) Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. (9) Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. (10) The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. (11) She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. (12) Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? (13) The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. 32 See above, chapter 2, note 111 there.

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This image, and others of the same ilk, extends to the appeal for deliverance: “…look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine /And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself / It is burned with fire, it is cut down” (vv. 14b–17a). In all these examples, salvations are portrayed as wondrous acts that God renders by virtue of His control over nature, rather than in response to a specific distress in a particular historical event. Only in Ps. 83: 9–11 does it explicitly refer to specific historical instances of deliverance: (9) Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison: (10) Which perished at Endor 33: they became as dung for the earth. (11) Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna 34

While the troubles inflicted by the enemies are presented in this psalm in general terms, various enemies that harried Israel and plotted to destroy it at various points in the past and under various circumstances (not necessarily at the same time) are cited by name: “The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes / Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre / Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot” (vv. 6–8). The impression one gets from all these examples is that, the greater the danger and the more it is real, the more the congregation of worshippers needs encouragement by recalling salvations of a mythic nature or from the distant past. And the reverse is true, too: the more the danger is of a generic nature and not very tangible, the more the congregation needs encouragement by means of a tangible, defined and recognizable deliverance from the comparatively recent past.

33 This place is not mentioned in Judges 4, but see: Joshua 17: 11, where it is apparent from the context that in that chapter it is indeed about the victory over Sisera – although some commentators suggest that it should be read Ein Hared, and therefore the reference may be about victory over the Midianites (Judges 7: 1 – see BH). 34 The victory over Sisera is also alluded to in Ps. 68: 8–9, and the victory over the Midianites is explicitly mentioned in Isaiah 10: 26, and implicitly in Isaiah 9: 3.

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This distinction becomes more acute where the individual and the congregation alternate within the psalm. The first part of Ps. 102, for example (vv. 1–11), is an individual prayer: (1) Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. (2) Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily. (3) For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. (4) My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. (5) By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. (6) I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. (7) I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. (8) Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me. (9) For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping, (10) Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. (11) My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.

Here, the suffering is described in great detail – to a degree quite unlike any other psalm, and without the merest glimmer of hope. But in v. 12, which begins with a national prayer, the confidence suddenly appears, amidst thanksgiving and the joy of salvation (vv. 12–22): (12) But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations. (13) Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. (14) For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. (15) So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. (16) When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. (17) He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. (18) This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. (19) For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; (20) To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death; (21) To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; (22) When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.

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Although some commentators see this psalm as a fusion of two discrete prayers,35 I prefer to see it as a single psalm36 – particularly since, in its third and final part (vv. 23–28), the individual and communal appeals merge together.37 Precisely because many of the expressions in this psalm are based on common expressions38 (particularly those relating to the supplication), one might assume that the structure itself is conventional. In other words, since in the individual prayers the speaker’s confidence is total and harbors no doubt, and he counts on God’s good nature and proper world order, here, too, the confidence projected in the communal prayer is drawn from the confidence of the individual, who represents the congregation and speaks on its behalf. His total identification with the congregation is evident in various ways. Here, it is in the direct association that he makes between his personal fate and that of the nation, and his confidence in his own personal salvation is imparted to his confidence in national redemption. As with the individual prayers, here, too, the confidence is based on God’s nature and the manner in the proper world order that He presides over. The merger of individual and communal appears in the third part of the psalm (vv. 23–28): (23) He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days. (24) I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. (25) Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. (26) They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: (27) But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. (28) The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee. 35 See Briggs (Book of Psalms, pp. 316–323), C.A, Briggs – E.G. Briggs, The Book of Psalms, vol. II (I.C.C.), Edinburgh 1907 (1969). pp. 316–323. 36 According to Eaton (Psalms, p. 355), the reason for the transition from singular to plural is that the speaker is the public’s representative – e.g. a king or his heir, from the First Exile period. 37 Briggs (Book of Psalms, p. 316), see these verses as parenthetical clauses. 38 Cf. (in order of appearance in this psalm) Pss. 18: 7*; 27: 9*; 39: 13*; 59: 17*; 31: 3*; 69: 18*; 56: 10*.

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The verse “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands” (v 25) explains the transition to hope and confidence: the proper world order that God established at Creation, which leaves no room for evil, is what guarantees that the supplicant himself will not be taken “in the midst of my days,” and indeed “They [the enemies] shall perish.” God’s eternal nature is also manifest at two levels, unlike the existence of fleeting mortals: at the level of the individual (“thy years are throughout all generations“), and at the level of national enemies (“but thou shalt endure“): (30) take me not away in the midst of my days / (31) thy years are throughout all generations. (32) They shall perish/but thou shalt endure (33)

– and bridging between the two: “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.“ This blend of individual and communal prayer is also present in Ps. 120. Here, too, because of the mention of enemies, the individual is speaking on the public’s behalf. But here, as in other psalms we have discussed, there is no expression of hope or salvation. The psalm ends with a complaint: “I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.” On the other hand, v. 2 might be interpreted in two ways. The words “Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue” might be a reference to God, and serve as part of the entreaty in the appeal. If so, they are similar to the defiance in the individual supplications: the worshipper is addressing his God with a rhetorical question, which purports to reject the purpose of his suffering. In summary, there is an essential difference between the individual prayers and the communal ones: in the individual prayers, despite the suffering and hardship, the worshipper experiences his desired salvation through his confidence, which rejects any other outcome. He trusts in his salvation, because it vindicates God’s nature and the good and just world order that He created in His Creation. Salvation is assured by virtue of the very foundations of the world’s existence, as one in which evil has no part. Not so in the communal prayers. 212

Although the supplicant sees the nation’s suffering as similar to his own, the communal prayers contain no direct or significant expression of the sought-after salvation. Indeed, the nation’s salvation is not at all assured by the inherent legitimacy of God’s wondrous deeds. The course of history and the fate of the nation are different from the individual’s fate. This contrast may be a consequence of historical evolution: the communal prayers were virtually all composed during times of a very tangible threat to the independence of the Jewish state – if not during the period of exile and destruction – while the individual prayers were forged in the crucible of faith during the period of independence, with all the conventions that that entails.39 In any event, the fundamental difference between the individual prayers and the national ones is clear: the former are dominated by the view that the individual’s salvation is assured because God wants him to live and needs his praise and thanksgiving, whereas in the national prayers salvation is an act of divine grace, and is solely dependent on His goodwill.

39 On the distinctions between the respective periods of composition of the psalms, see: A. Hurvitz, Ben Lăshon le-laŝon: The Transition Period in Biblical Hebrew, Jerusalem 1972, pp. 67–170 (Hebrew). The psalms in which Hurvitz found linguistic signs of a later period are not among those discussed in this chapter. See also: A. Rofé, “Dating psalms by their language,” Psalmic Poetry, pp. 61–64.

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7.  Every Man a King

This chapter focuses mainly on one aspect of the king that appears to have been comparatively neglected. Admittedly most of the psalms conventionally known as the Royal Psalms have fairly self-evident messages. Even when the historical circumstances they are referring to are uncertain, there is no difficulty in identifying the intention.1 Thus, Ps. 110 is clearly a prediction of victory for the king going to battle2; Ps. 72 is a paean to the king – most likely, to mark his ascent to the throne; Ps. 132 is a prayer for the king’s well-being; and Ps. 45 is a psalm in honor of the king’s wedding.3 But there are psalms where the king is mentioned, or perhaps even one of its primary elements, and yet are still not regarded as “Royal Psalms” – either in terms of the subject itself or in the manner in which the speaker refers to the subject. A re-examination of these psalms may shed light on the nature of the experience in which the king is presented. Let us begin this examination with Ps. 61: (1) Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. (2) From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. (3) For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. (4) I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.4 1 2 3

4

See, in particular, H. Gunkel’s division and definitions: “Biblical Literature,” in Legends of Genesis; Biblical Literature (trans. Dalia Amara), Jerusalem 1998, esp. p. 137. See A. Rofé’s definitions, Psalmic Poetry, p. 21. It should be noted that Mowinckel marked out Ps. 55 as the only psalm in the entire Psalter that can be truly said to be a hymn to a king. See S. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel ’s Worship, vol. I, Edinburgh 1990, pp. 15ff. For his part, Sarna sees it as the only secular psalm: Sarna, The Psalms, p. 452. For a more extensive discussion of this image, see chapter 2, section 1, and note 12 there.

(5) For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. (6) Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations. (7) He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him. (8) So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows. (34)

At first sight, this appears to be a supplication psalm for deliverance from enemies, and – despite being set initially in the first person singular – it is commonly seen as a national prayer.5 However, because of the transition from first to third person (in v. 6), many commentators believe it to be a prayer for the king’s well-being, and offer various explanations for the transition.6 To my mind, there are no incontrovertible signs that the supplicant in this instance is the king. In previous chapters we saw many examples of supplication prayers where the supplicant identifies with the congregation to the point where he sees the nation’s troubles as his own, which accounted for the switch from first person singular to third person plural.7 We have also found many examples where enemies are 5 6

7

See Briggs, Book of Psalms, vol. II, p. 65. Some believe that v. 8 is a later addition, and disrupted the textual flow. Briggs finds many parenthetical expressions in it, and believes it to be primarily a psalm from the kingdom period, that was later adopted during exilic redacting – as indicated by the expression “From the end of the earth.” Eaton sees in some expressions evidence that the supplicant himself is the king, and that in the final three verses the prayer for his well-being are proclaimed by a choir that joins the prayer. At the same time, he believes there may be another explanation: the transition to third person was a common custom in the ancient East, whereby the king speaks of himself in the third person, as in the case of Zedekiah in Jer. 38: 5, or in a Phoenician prayer cited by Dahood, in which the worshippers cite God’s promises given to the king, as in Ps. 89 (vv. 1–4, 19–37). At the same time, the danger and source of the distress are not explained, and the enemy in question may be military, and the reference to the perils of war. See Eaton, Psalms, p. 230. Eissfeldt examines the issue of “I” in the psalms. In biblical research this question has been discussed mainly in the context of the national laments, and following Gunkel and Begrich commentators have been inclined to interpret the “I” as an individual expression. But Eissfeldt supports Smend’s view that in both the Royal Psalms and in the national laments the reference is to the

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described as combative enemies – the speaker’s personal rivals – even when the situation is not necessarily one of war, or when the speaker’s suffering and distress are described in terms of siege, defeat, or perils of war. God, whose salvation is solicited, is therefore likened to a tabernacle, a sheltering wing, a tower of strength (literally, in the Hebrew), and a place of refuge – expressions evocative of the descriptions of God when protecting His people in times of war. Accordingly, the allusions in our psalm are of a generic nature, and do not denote a real physical danger – nor are they enough to point to a specific historical occasion. As customary in lamentation prayers, here, too, past salvations are cited in the same breath as a supplication for salvation in the present, if only obliquely. Therefore, the expression “From the end of the earth” need not be interpreted in its literal sense as the words of an exile or a king in exile, but rather, in the broader, borrowed sense of salvation from a state of distress – much like “in a large place” (Ps. 118: 5), or “Out of the depths” (130: 1).8 Thus, a double and balanced tension emerges: between the distress of the present and salvations of the past (“From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed […] For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy” [vv. 2–3]), and the cry of despair and hope for protection and deliverance (“will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. […] I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings” [3–4]). There is also a tension between the start of the supplication (“Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer” – v. 1) and the

8

collective “I.” This is Mowinckel’s view, as well. Se e R. Smend, “Über das ‘Ich’ in den Psalmen,” ZAW 8 (1888), pp. 49–147; S. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel ’s Worship (transl. D.R.Ap-Thomas), Oxford 1962, pp. 42–80, 225–246; O. Eissfeldt: The Old Testament: An Introduction (transl. P.R. Ackroyd), Oxford, 1965, p. 115. Eaton (Psalms, p.230) also expands the meaning and compares this expression to “The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me” (Ps. 18: 5), and “from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar ” (42: 6) and especially “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me” (42: 7).

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pledge at its conclusion (“So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows” – v. 8). The interface between the two extreme situations – the present distress versus the salvations of the past, and past salvations versus the hope of a favorable response – is also the climax of the supplication, which enables the transition from the negative to the positive. Here, the climax is in what is said about the king – “Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations /He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him” 9 (vv. 6–7). The “king,” as the anchor of hope and security, therefore serves as the pivot between the elements of tension. Accordingly, just as “from the end of the earth” is not necessarily a reference to the speaker’s geographic location, the king is essentially a metonymic reference – a symbolic personification of the hopes for stability and security. The supplicant, who may be anyone, sees in stable rule (as manifest in the king’s long reign) the fulfillment of his desire for peace and security, and a condition that is the opposite of “from the end of the earth,” i.e. one in which all is well in the world. This symbolism may also explain the kings’ apparent anonymity in the various Royal Psalms. Anyone praying for the king’s well-being, long life and stable rule is mindful of his own security. Indeed, ‘twas ever thus: anyone praying for the kingdom’s well-being is conscious, to some extent or other, that they are effectively praying for their own well-being.10 Anyone singing the British national anthem, God Save the Queen (or King), which is a prayer for the monarch’s longevity or rule, sees the monarch as the embodiment of the fulfillment of their own hopes, even if there is no such explicit reference in the anthem. Such an identification is clearly the outcome of a very long tradition that has survived through the ups and downs of history. For every community and every individual, the associations attached to the words allow them to transcend their simple meaning and express their own personal desires and feelings. However, this psalm goes further: In Hebrew, man yintzeruhu – whereby man is an abbreviated form of the imperative manah (see Chayut, Psalms, p. 131). 10 For more on this topic, see Gelander, From Two Kingdoms, pp. 183–184, and note 31 below. 9

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in it, we find the notion, part implicit, part explicit, that the supplicant equates himself with the notional king. We see this in the tensions we mentioned earlier, and in the transition from first person to third. An examination of Ps. 63 bears this out: (1) O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; (2) To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. (3) Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. (4) Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. (5) My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: (6) When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. (7) Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. (8) My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me. (9) But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. (10) They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes. (11) But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

As in Ps. 61, here, too, the king is explicitly mentioned only at the end of the psalm. However, here the allusions to the personal plight are more detailed, and the descriptions more likely to make a substantive positive identification. Just as in Ps. 61 the phrase “from the end of the earth” need not necessarily mean “remote” in the geographic sense but rather the more abstract sense of feeling distant from God in every sense of the word, here, the phrase “in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” might be understood in the abstract sense – particularly in view of the preceding words, “my soul thirsteth for thee.” The yearning to be close to God is perceived as a physical feeling, as is the sought-after feeling that will ensue once God answers his prayer: “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness”11 Similarly, the threat presented by the enemies is explicitly stated, while in Ps. 61 it is very vague: it is unclear if the supplicant’s distress is because the enemy (who is alluded to by only a single word) is literally or metaphorically at the gate,or merely 11 For more on this, see chapter 2 about the experience of being close to God, and chapter 3, note 37.

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an echo from the God’s past salvations. In other words, he is asking God to guide him now (“when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I”) as He has always protected him (“For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy”) , and there is no knowing why his heart feels overwhelmed. Moreover, in this psalm there is a detailed request for the enemies to be destroyed, just as they seek his own destruction – while in Ps. 61 he seeks not punishment for the enemy, but only a reward for himself, as befits a blameless person, who is entitled to dwell in the house of the Lord and seek shelter in it. For all these reasons, the significance of the transition to third person in relation to the king is more pronounced in Ps. 63 than in Ps. 61. The context appears to imply that the “rejoicing” (“But the king shall rejoice in God”) is a direct consequence of the fulfillment of the desired retribution against the enemies. To paraphrase, one might say that the king here is celebrating the “happy ending” of the supplicant – i.e., of his subjects, and the king is the symbolic pinnacle of the fulfillment of everyone’s aspirations. This might be seen as a refinement of the common belief in the ancient East that the nation’s well-being and health was contingent upon those of the king.12 In the Ugaritic tales, the king’s well-being and health is dependent on his relationship with the gods, and thus the country’s well-being is dependent on a state of passivity (especially in the Keret tale), while in the Psalms this is developed further to mean that prosperity is contingent upon the king’s moral rule (see below, regarding Ps. 72). We see another version 12 In the tale of King Keret, the king’s illness leads to a drought and rapid depletion of the food stores (KTU.1.16.III.1–17 [transliteration], in D. Amir, Gods & Heroes, pp. 92–93). In the legend of Aqht, the entire country is hit by a severe drought when Baal, god of storms and rain, halts the rain for seven years because of the murder of Aqht by the king’s son Danel. Danel then conducts a series of ritual ceremonies of magical power (including kissing the plants) to renew plant growth and fertility (1 aqht 61–74). See: D. Amir, ibid., pp. 108–112. According to Gasper, this is a ceremony of a mythological nature meant to mark the harvesting of the last stalk of wheat, in which the king or the local ruler takes part. See T.H. Gaster, Thespis, New York, 19612, p. 359. For more on this issue see below, particularly in relation to Ps. 72: 6, and above, chapter 2, note 36.

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of this idea in the prophecies of the End of Days, in which the prescription of an ideal future includes other, interrelated elements: an ideal rule, i.e. a righteous king, coupled with an ideal and harmonious relationship with nature, and between man and nature.13 The “rejoicing” in v. 11 also depends on “the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.” But the deceitful tongue denotes not only the harm to the king and his troubles. As we saw in previous chapters, lies, deceit, and duplicity are the hallmarks of the evildoer, and feature mostly in the supplication psalms – so by asking to be relieved from his plight and to find the straight and paved path of the blameless, the supplicant (whoever he might be) is asking first and foremost to be saved from false judgment. In other words, even if originally this were a prayer dedicated to the king, convention dictated that the supplicant must identify with the king when asking to be found innocent and saved from the harm inflicted by deceitful people. This interpretation is borne out by what we noted earlier, that the term “king” had long served as a metonymic symbol of a just regime, a rule of law and order, where man lives in harmony with the world. The parallelism in the structure of the final verse confirms that the king is identified with “every one that sweareth by him” – i.e., all those who swear by God.14 As further evidence for this, let us examine the details of the structure of Ps. 72: 13 Particularly in the visions of the End of Days in Isaiah (11: 1–10), but also in Jeremiah’s prophecies of “Behold, the days are coming” or “On that day,” etc. In all of these, the House of David is the key link, as a condition for the fulfillment of the prophetic vision. See also Jer. 23: 5–6, 30: 8–9, 33: 14–16, 18: 23–24, 34, 37: 24–25; Hosea 3: 4–5; Amos 9: 11–12; Prov. 2: 12–13, 5: 1–4; Zachariah 9: 9–10; and also Jer. 17: 24–25, 22: 1–4. See: Y. Zakovitch, “The Image of the Future King in the Prophecies,” Migvan 4 (1994), pp. 13–28 (Hebrew); Gelander: “Visions of the End of Days,” Methods of Teaching the Prophecy, Tel-Aviv: Mofet (2004), pp. 85–89 (Hebrew). 14 Eissfeldt also believes that psalms of a spiritual nature – which were mostly Royal Psalms – were removed during the exile and later periods from their royal ritual context, and given a metaphorical meaning instead. However, he notes that we cannot know for certain if these meanings were added to the psalms over time, or were intended by the poet from the outset (alas, he does not state which psalms he meant). See: Eissfeldt, Introduction, p. 105.

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(1) Give the king thy judgments, O God and thy righteousness unto the king’s son. (2) He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment. (3) The mountains shall bring peace to the people and the little hills, by righteousness. (4) He shall judge the poor of the people he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. (5) They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. (6) He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass as showers that water the earth. (7) In his days shall the righteous flourish and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. (8) He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. (9) They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. (10) The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. (11) Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him. (12) For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. (13) He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. (14) He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight. (15) And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised. (16) There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. (17) His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed. (18) Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. (19) And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen. (20) The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

Unlike Pss. 61 and 63, Ps. 72 is a true Royal Psalm – all about praising the king. The opening suggests that these praises are proclaimed upon his ascent to the throne, since expressions such as “thy judgments […] thy righteousness,” which God bestows upon the king, echo a long tradition in the ancient East of the king receiving the double divine blessing of judgment and righteousness (or similar pairings, such as “justice and level plane” or “justice, belief/truth” – similar to the Akkadian expression kittum (u)mišarum) upon ascending to the 222

throne.15 In any event, these and similar pairings in various contexts are seen as hallmarks of kingship or kingly rule. The structure of the psalm provides further clues about the nature of the occasion: most of its verses are constructed on a special kind of parallelism, with the parallel clauses in each verse16 built upon common word pairings or idioms that have been pulled apart and divided between the two clauses. This is a fairly common device in prophetic literature and biblical poetry,17 but in this psalm it is particularly evident, and is the poem’s distinctive structural characteristic. The pairings are the ones underlined above: judgment and righteousness; righteousness and judgment; mountains and little hills; the poor of the people and the children of the needy; sun and moon; rain and showers; the poor and needy. These were undoubtedly common phrases at the time, of the sort that anyone hearing the first half of the expression could easily complete the other half. It is quite likely, therefore, that these verses are purposely divided in two to form a kind of dialogue – such as between a cantor and the congregation, or two parts of the congregation, with one reciting the first clause, and the other side responding with the second.18 If so, the psalm suggests that the festive congregation took an active part, with each participant thereby expressing his identification with the person being blessed, and indeed – by varying and repeating the blessings – becoming a recipient

15 See Isa. 11: 4, 33: 15, 45: 19; Ps. 9: 9*, 58: 2*, 98: 9* and cv: II Kings 3: 6; Isa. 11: 5, 59: 4; Zach. 8: 8; Pss. 85: 12, 96: 13, and others. See: Weinfeld, Justice and Righteousness, pp. 12–25, 26–33, 34–44. 16 I accept the argument that in the so-called “synonymous parallelism” in poetry, the second clause is intended not to precisely mirror the meaning of the first in different words, but to refine and focus it. See J.L. Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History, Yale 1981, pp. 1–58. In this respect, the parallelism in biblical poetry might be seen as diverging from the schematic parallelism of Canaanite poetry. See also: Avishur, Hebrew and Ugaritic Psalms, pp. 152–163. 17 See E. Z. Melamed, “Disassembled idioms in biblical poetry,” Biblical Studies in Texts, Translations and Commentators , Jerusalem, 1984, pp. 160–192 (Hebrew). 18 Much as is customary to this day in Arabic and in other languages, when a saying or proverb is inserted in a dialogue, and one person completes the sentence for the other.

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of the blessings by proxy.19 If this is true, it lends support to our contention that Pss. 61 and 63 the reference to the king – as a symbolic embodiment and climax – pervades the entire prayer, and the king’s well-being represents the well-being of any supplicant. This interpretation might help in our understanding of other royal psalms and reveal other facets that they may have. Psalm 101, for example, is a kind of prescription for an ideal king:20 (1) I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. (2) I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. (3) I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. (4) A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person . (5) Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. (6) Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. (7) He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. (8) I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord.

In this psalm, the king’s speech includes certain undertakings that in Psalm 72 were presented as good wishes bestowed upon him. There (particularly in Pss. 7, 12, 13 and 14) the supplicant wishes the king to be blessed with the same qualities that he attributes to himself in this psalm, in an echo of much of what we saw in the supplication prayers earlier:21 a declaration of innocence, coupled with a request for guidance (v. 2), followed by (as in the affirmation of the Lord’s virtues) a proclamation of his own attributes (which are similar to God’s in the

19 For a review of the approaches about the composition of Ps. 72, see J. Ben Dov, “A New Exegetical Method for the Book of Psalms,” Shnaton XVII 2007, pp. 336–337 (Hebrew). 20 See A. Rofé (Psalms, note 2). 21 See above, ch. 2 and note 18 there.

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supplication prayers). This is presented in inverted fashion, as in Ps. 5 (which, as we noted earlier, is a special supplication prayer):22 Psalm 5 V. 4: For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.

Psalm 101 V.3: I will set no wicked thing bedorre mine eyes. I hare the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. V. 5: The foolish (‫ )הוללים‬shall not V. 4: A forward (‫ )עקש‬heart shall depart stand in thy sight: Thou hatest all work- from me: I will not know a wicked ers of iniquity. person. V. 5: Who so privily slandereth his neighbor, him I will cut off (‫ )אצמית‬: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. V. 6: Thou shall destroy them that V. 7: He worketh deceit shall not dwell speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the within my house: he that telleth lies lies bloody and deceitful man. shall not tarry (‫ )לא יכון‬in my sight.

In Ps. 101, as in Ps. 5, the speaker feels the need to renounce and cleanse himself of anything negative, before he can go out and proclaim, in positive fashion: “Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me” (v. 6). The king, therefore, as the one responsible for justice and righteousness, also sees himself as “in the image of ” God Himself, in terms of his own undertakings. Another aspect, with further implications, is apparent in Ps. 21: (1) The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! (2) Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips Selah. (3) For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. (4) He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever. (5) His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.

22 See above, ch. 1, section 2, dealing with this psalm.

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(6) For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. (7) For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved. (8) Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. (9) Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. (10) Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. (11) For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform. (12) Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them. (13) Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.

This is a sample blessing of the king, in two parts: the first (vv. 1–7) is addressed to God, on the king’s behalf, to give thanks for everything God has bestowed upon the king. In the second part (vv. 8–13) we learn that these thanks are in reference to the past, to pave the way for future blessings, including direct blessings of the king. In other words, all of God’s blessings upon the king are meant to ensure the fulfillment of his wishes for the future. The concluding verse (14) closes the circle and bridges the two appeals, telling us that the king’s strength and bravery are intertwined with those of God: The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! (v. 1), and conversely: “Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power” (v. 13). Accordingly, just as in Ps. 72, the king is shown as someone who personifies God’s own attributes, who represents God’s strength and might.23 This psalm, which was certainly originally part of a ritual ceremony centered around the king,24 has a 23 In Ugaritic writings, too, we find the idea that the king is perceived as someone who guarantees God’s power on earth, and embodies the union between the people and its god (on the Tales of Keret and the Epic of Aqht, see above, note 12). See J. Gray, The Legacy of Canaan, Leiden, 1965, p. 221. 24 Eaton (Psalms, p. 114) believes this psalm to be one of the royal rituals of the autumn festival, which reputedly celebrated his enthronement or re-ascent to the throne. This view is based mainly on the notions of the “Myth and Ritual”

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symbolic significance that allows all worshippers to identify with him, whom they see as the earthly embodiment of God’s might. As in other psalms that have been presented earlier, the worshipper sees the king’s figure as the fulfillment of justice and righteousness, and proof that all is right in the world. We should note that, while in modern cultures the tendency is to distinguish the symbol from what it represents, with the latter residing at a cognitive level and the symbol itself in the recesses of emotion, this was not the case in ancient cultures – at least, not as depicted in the Bible. Here, those two planes are one and the same. This is evident, for example, in how a name or title was used: the name, especially when it is given, is an expression of an essence or idea. The bearer of the name is the symbolic embodiment of the idea summed up in their name. Therefore, when Isaiah appears before King Ahaz with his son Shearjashub (Isa. 7: 3, 20–23), the son who bears this name (meaning “the remnant shall return,” in Hebrew) guarantees the fulfillment of the idea embodied in it by virtue of his very existence. The same is true of other names, such as the names of the children of the prophet Hosea (such as Jezreel – “for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of school of thought, whose chief spokesman is Hooke (see S.H. Hooke, The Labyrinth, London 1935). Hooke bases his conclusions on a ceremony that was held at the New Year celebrations, in which the king re-enacted the role of God’s death and rebirth: see Myth and Ritual, London 1933. The Ugaritic narrative poems have also been analyzed by this approach. Engnell believes that these works must not be seen as myths – not even ritual myths – but as ritual ceremonies containing mythological elements. See I. Engnell, Studies in Divine Kingship in the Ancient Near East, Oxford 19672, ch. 3–4, esp. p. 104. Some even found evidence of this in the biblical literature – esp. G. Widengren, “Early Hebrew Myths and their Interpretation,” in: S. H. Hooke (ed.), Myth, Ritual, and Kingship, Oxford, 1958, pp. 158ff. In fact, well before him, Snaith dismissed the idea that a celebration of the king’s enthronement even existed in Israel: N. J. Snaith, The Jewish New Year Festival, London 1947. For a review of this topic, see Y. D. Safran, “The image of kingship in Uragit versus in Israel,” Beit Mikra 64a (1976), pp. 12–44 (Hebrew). See also Mowinckel’s hypothesis about the identification of Pss. 47, 93, 96–99 as psalms intended for an annual celebration known in the research literature as The Festival of the Lord’s Enthronement: Mowinckel, Psalms, pp. 106–192.

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Jezreel upon the house of Jehu” [Hosea 1: 4]). Therefore, the term “king” serves as a metonymic, representational expression of the broader meanings embodied in it. In this way, the psalms allow us to extract the ritual ceremony from its literal meaning and transfer it to a symbolic, metaphorical plane. The same is most likely true of psalms containing quintessentially ceremonial terms, such as Psalm 110: (1) The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. (2) The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. (3) Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. (4) The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. (5) The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. (6) He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries. (7) He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head. (35)

It is difficult to decipher the historical situation behind this psalm. As we know, opinions are divided on this issue: some believe the psalm to be a prophecy about the king as he ascends the throne, while others think it is a prediction of victory for the king about to go into battle.25 I’m inclined towards the latter interpretation. Those in favour of the former interpretation base their view mainly on a comparison with Ps. 2, given the similarity between Ps. 110: 3 (“in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth”) and Ps. 2: 7 (“Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee”) – and the fact that Ps. 2 also has a detailed depiction of victory over the enemies:

25 See Eissfeldt’s division below, and note 32. Eaton Psalms, pp. 384–385, prefers the former interpretation. For a review of the two approaches, see Garsiel, “Psalm 110,” p. 159.

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(8) Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. (9) Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

There is, however, an important distinction, in my view: the Ps. 2: 7 expression “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee” is an echo of a common ancient wording used in adoptions, which in this case denotes that the king, on ascending to the throne, is considered a son of God, or adopted by Him.26 This is not the case in the expression in Ps. 110 – “Sit thou at my right hand ” – a symbolic act and metonymical representation of an “ad hoc” joint action, i.e. for a specific and defined purpose (cv. I Kings 2: 19).27 This suggests that the inviter and the invitee have a shared interest, and in our psalm the meaning is that the king’s battle is God’s battle, too (“The Lord at thy right hand” – v. 5). The description of the king’s designation from womb in this context relates to the divine promise of victory: the divine vow, as it is worded here, puts the promise of victory on a ritual footing (v. 4). Accordingly, the king’s assured victory is also of a very extreme, graphic and tangible nature (vv. 5–6), in contrast to Ps. 2, where the promise to the king is of a generic nature about the future and “the heathen” in general, and the king prevailing over them. Furthermore, Ps. 2 concludes with a wisdom-like, moralistic statement, and an appeal to the heathen kings to learn their lesson, while the description of victory in Ps. 110 is about violent retribution – a familiar indication of the speaker’s dire straits in the present. There, the conclusion hints at a possible reversal of fortune: the expression “therefore shall he lift up the head ” (v. 7) parallels that of “until I make thine enemies thy footstool ” (v. 1), while “He shall 26 The common view is that in Israel – unlike Egypt or other ancient kingdoms – adoption is expressed solely in its symbolic sense. For more on this, see G. Brinn, “On the History of the Formula ‘He shall be my son and I will be his father,’” Issues in the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Tel-Aviv 1994, pp. 97–104 (Hebrew). 27 See also 18: 16, 46. But we should distinguish “Sit at my right ” from “stand to the right of ” or “upon thy right hand did stand ” (Ps. 45: 9), inasmuch as “stand” is equivalent to “stand before,” which metonymically means “willing to serve” (II Chron. 6: 39: “And his brother Asaph, who stood on his right hand ”).

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drink of the brook in the way” is a hint perhaps of salvation, perhaps victory and conquest.28 In the psalms we saw earlier, the worshipper sees the king’s well-being as the fulfillment of his own, and therefore the realization of the kingly “prescription” as that of his own hopes and dreams. In God’s commitment to the king’s victories he sees his own revenge against his own oppressive enemies. Although there are similar, or even identical, elements in the various Royal Psalms, one may sometimes gain a glimpse of the specific historical circumstances in each psalm through the wording, the vocabulary, and descriptions. But the fact that everyone can identify with the king and find an expression for one’s own personal condition in the various situations is what makes the Royal Psalms transcend the boundaries of the traditional classifications. Eissfeldt, in keeping with the prevailing classification, identifies Pss. 2, 18, 20, 21, 72, 101, 110, 132 and 134 as Royal Psalms. He divides them as follows: • • • • • •

2, 21, 110 are psalms dedicated to the king’s ascent to the throne 101, 132 are also suited to the “annual royal festival” Ps. 20 is sung by the people as it goes to war 144: 1–11 is the king’s own prayer at such an event (perhaps based on v. 10) Ps. 18 is the king’s psalm of thanks, while Pss. 2: 7–9*, 20: 7*, 21: 5*, 110: 1–4*; 132: 11–12* feature prophecies about the king.29

28 The brook, like wells or water sources, symbolizes control of a territory. He who drinks from foreign waters thereby marks his taking over, or penetration of the other’s land. Hence Rabshakeh’s boast: “I have digged and drunk strange waters” (II Kings 19: 24 = Isa. 37: 25). Hence, too, there may be an implicit, special significance to the conduct of Jacob and Moses, who used other people’s wells as though they were their own (in contrast to Abraham’s servant, who asked Rebecca’s permission). The uncommon Hebrew word karati (“I have digged”) means “I have drawn [water],” from the same root as makor (source). 29 Eissfeldt, Introduction, pp. 102–104.

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7.1  Psalm 20 (1) The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; (2) Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; (3) Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah. (4) Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel. (5) We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfil all thy petitions. (6) Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. (7) Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. (8) They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright. (9) Save, Lord: let the king hear us when we call. (36)

As in the supplication psalms that feature a sudden transition from supplication to thanksgiving, here, too the declaration in v. 7 may be the supplicant’s response to the words of the oracle at the same occasion, which were omitted once this psalm was added to various ritual ceremonies, to make it suited for other situations. However, the hope and encouragement spring perhaps from the words of the supplication in the first half of the psalm, as we saw earlier.30 The nature of the supplication is generic, with no hint of an imminent or tangible danger. This is particularly evident in the conclusion of the first part: “We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfil all thy petitions” (v. 5). It can, therefore, serve for any situation. The first half of v. 6 also contains a typical element of supplication prayers, with a pledge to thank God and strengthen their faith in him. The second part of the psalm, much like the first, also fails to reflect a sense of relief or liberation as a result of triumph and redemption. Its conclusions are essentially moralistic, and the declaration: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God ” (v. 7) a polemical one, similar to those proclaimed 30 See above, ch. 1, section 3, and note 52 there.

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at a ceremonial procession or ceremony, to strengthen and galvanize the congregation, while emphasizing the contrast between its members and anyone who is not a member.31 The general statement about the absolute supremacy of faith in God over reliance on physical brawn allows every worshipper to draw additional hope whenever they are oppressed by strong enemies. In the following verse – “They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright” – the circle is closed by the supplication cry: “Save, Lord…” Hence the declaration “Now know I” is said not necessarily after actual divine deliverance or salvation, but – as is often the case in such prayers – because of the supplicant’s illusion of experiencing the desired outcome as if it had been realized. Moreover the generic/moralistic nature of the psalm elements is indicative of a ceremonial occasion, in which the king personifies the congregation of worshippers. Their identification with him is manifest also in the transitions from the plural form (“We will rejoice […] we will set up […] we will remember […] hear us when we call ”) to second or third person singular (“thy salvation […] thy petitions […] his anointed […] hear him”). This ties in with the question of the king’s anonymity in these psalms: far from referring to a particular king,32 such pronouncements reflect a clear intent of detaching the psalms from any particular historical occasion or figure, to render them into prayers that are suited to anyone identifying with what the king stands for, the values that he is supposed to fulfill, and the various situations in which he finds himself.33 The psalms that are attributed directly to King David – by 31 See above, ch. 4, the fifth characteristic. A hint of the ceremonial occasion in this psalm may also be found in the reference to sacrifices in v. 4. 32 Ps. 72 is dedicated to King Solomon, but the meaning of this dedication is unclear. Some commentators believe that it was perceived as David’s prayer for Solomon, while Ps. 127, which is not a royal psalm, was attributed to Solomon because of its words of wisdom. Isaiah 38 (9) is dedicated or attributed to Ezekiah, and see Starbuck in the following note. 33 Starbuck discusses the question of the anonymity of the Royal Psalms – namely, why the king’s name is not mentioned in the Psalms (even in Ps. 45: 8, which pledges to preserve the king’s name for generations to come). He notes that this is a unique attribute of the Psalms, in contrast to, say, many Sumerian royal

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which I mean their key content, rather than their titles – may complete the explanation of this point. To this end, let us examine first Ps. 132, and following it Ps. 89 – even though the latter is not in a royal psalm, but a national supplication.34

psalms, where the king’s name or titles are essential to ensure divine protection. (For more on the king’s intimate relationship with God, see W. Mayer, Untersuchungen zur Formsprache der babylonischen “Gebetschwörungen,” Rome 1976, p. 47). Starbuck believes that the omission of the king’s name in the book of Psalms is not accidental, but his suggestion is not unequivocal. On the one hand, he suggests that this was done to enable the re-use of psalms at various royal occasions, but there is no evidence in the Hebrew Bible for such a practice (notwithstanding the quoting of certain psalms – or parts thereof – in the Book of Chronicles, and the similarity between II Samuel 22 and Ps. 18, which suggest some ritualistic re-use), and in the literature of the ancient East as a whole there are only a handful of examples of this – such as the Egyptian victory hymns, or certain similarities between the Yev psalms of the Persian era and Ps. 20. In my view, a similarity in themes or idioms is not enough to indicate “re-use.” One of Starbuck’s main contentions is that the absence of a name and the lack of reuse may indicate simply that such psalms were not unique to a certain specific royal ritual, but may serve anyone, and on various occasions. He also finds that Ps. 20 is only loosely related to the kingship, while Ps. 72 is a prayer for the king’s well-being that anyone can recite (in contrast to Kraus, who saw it as pertaining to a royal ritual). See H.J. Kraus, Psalms 60–150, Minneapolis 1989, p. 76; and S.R.A. Starbuck, Court Oracles in the Psalms (Dissertation Series), Atlanta 1996, pp. 67–102, 103–120. On the dating of Ps. 132 (which Ibn Gikatilla ascribes to David’s old age, based on v. 13, as prayers and nonprophetic songs, or as sacred prophetic poetry, while Ibn Ezra interprets it as an allusion to David’s suffering at that time, based on “and all his afflictions” – v. 1), see Simon, Four Approaches, p. 17. 34 In contemporary research there is no consensus as to the makeup of Psalm 89, in terms of the relationship between the original and later additions. Various suggestions have been put forward about the stages of the psalm’s composition – see, in particular, Ben-Dov, who focuses on Hossfeld’s interpretation. See Ben Dov, “A New Exegetical Method,” pp. 337–338 (Hebrew), and Hossfeld, A Commentary, pp. 402–406.

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7.2  Psalm 132 (1) A Song of degrees. Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions: (2) How he sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; (3) Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; (4) I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, (5) Until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. (6) Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood. (7) We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool. (8) Arise, O Lord, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength. (9) Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy. (10) For thy servant David‘s sake turn not away the face of thine anointed. (11) The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. (12) If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore. (13) For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. (14) This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. (15) I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. (16) I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. (17) There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. (18) His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish.

This psalm has been defined as a Royal Psalm,35 and to be more precise – to a leader of the House of David.36 Although there are uncertainties as to when it was composed,37 the general view is that it is after the 35 According to K. Seybold – Introducing the Psalms, Edinburgh 1990, pp. 15ff. 36 According to Chayut (Psalms, p. 276), arguing that “if this were from the time of the Hasmoneans, he would not have said “Of the fruit of thy body.” 37 Horovitz contends that, on the one hand, one could say that this is about the days of Solomon – both because of v. 8, which supposedly features the most recent event, i.e. the rising of the Lord to his rest, namely, the fixing of the Lord’s abode in Zion, and because of ancient linguistic elements in the poem. On the other hand, it may be a reference to Zerubbabel, based on the king’s prayers to God for a reward for his good deeds, which was common in Mesopotamian prayers. To my mind, the reading of “Arise, O Lord, into thy rest ” is simply a ritual refrain designed to evoke the Ark’s ancient traditions, based on Num. 10: 36, just as the archaic expressions are meant mainly to serve the

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return from Babylonian exile.38 It is clear that it centers around an appeal for a Messiah (anointed one), in light of God’s pledge to David. The latter is conveyed in the psalm as a variation of the account in II Samuel 6–7, or – as A. Rofé puts it, “a variation in the romantic spirit of the conventional historical narrative.”39 The same is true of Ps. 89. In principle, the essential difference between the story in II Samuel and its variation in the Psalms is that in the former it is a divine pledge, in the Psalms it is presented as a vow and covenant. However the situation depicted in these two psalms is completely different: Ps. 89 is a national lament, uttered in a state of severe distress and humiliation, while Ps. 132 bears clear signs of a celebratory ritual procession to mark the transporting40 of the Ark of the Covenant to the Temple41 – such as various and extensive repetitions; the inclusion of a type of refrain (vv. 9, 16); a reference to the procession itself (v. 7); praises for the venue (vv. 6, 13, 15); a reference to the participants or some of them (vv. 9, 16); and the promise of a bright future for the congregation, and a dire one for the enemies (v. 18).42 However, there are also other hints, that may help pinpoint the particular circumstances in question: on one hand, the primary description praises the choice of Zion and the promise of eternity to the House of David; on the other, the repeated reference to “the mighty God of Jacob” (vv. 2, 5 – in Hebrew, abir Yaacov = the “bull of Jacob”) is, to the best of my knowledge, an

38 39

40 41 42

paraphrased-like description of bringing of the Ark to Jerusalem, and Nathan’s Prophecy, according to II Sam. 7. See A. Horovitz, “Psalm 126.” Per H. Ewald, Commentary, pp. 13–14. By which he means the literary form found in the literature of the Second Temple period, in translations (the Apocrypha) and in the Kumran writings, including adaptations of this sort, including Ps. 151. In Rofé’s view, one can see the beginnings of this form in psalms such as 151 and 132. See: A. Rofé, Psalmic Poetry, pp. 65–72. From v. 14 – in which God declares that this is his chosen abode – we realize that the call “Arise” in v. 8 refers not to the present, but is an echo of a past appeal. See, in particular, Eaton, Psalms, p. 444. For more detail of the characteristics of the celebratory ceremony, see above, ch. 4.

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essentially northern expression.43 This positive allusion to the northern kingdom of Israel suggests that this psalm was part of a general initiative of reconciliation and appeasement between Judah and Israel in the late First Temple period onwards, especially during King Ezekiah’s religious-political reforms. If so, Ps. 132 has a similar purpose to that of Ps. 68, which also describes a pilgrimage on a particularly celebratory occasion, as befitting the historical circumstances and intentions of King Ezekiah,44 and dates not to the Second Temple period but to the time after the fall of the northern kingdom. However, for our purposes, what is important is not the dating of the psalm, but its ideological meaning and the experiential message being conveyed to the participants in the ceremony. In this respect, we find that, over time, this ancient text assumed a special significance that served two very different types of situations: clearly the text in II Samuel, which is more prosaic in nature, is the more ancient one, and probably authentic.45 The paraphrases in Pss. 89 and 132 indicate us that Nathan’s Prophecy was known to the psalms’ authors, but they sought to use its content and spirit for their own uses. The rendering of the divine pledge into a vow and covenant speaks to the purpose of the prayer in the psalms: to remind everyone that God’s commitment to answer prayers still holds true in every time of crisis, because of His commitment to David: be it a state of distress and humiliation, or a ceremonial occasion held to mark the continued rule of “thine anointed,” the ties between God and David are a guarantee. The relationship between 43 See Gen. 49, 24. As for Isa. 49: 26 and 60: 16, see below. The use of the Hebrew word abirim in the sense of “bulls” appears also in Isa. 34: 7; Ps. 22: 13*, 50: 13*, 68: 31*; and Job 24: 22 (besides its meaning of “horses” in Judges 5: 22; Jer. 8: 16, and 47: 3). The bull (like the calf) – i.e. a young bull in its prime – was a common symbol in the northern kingdom (see Hos. 4: 16; Amos 4: 1). 44 The reference is mainly to Ezekiah’s attempts to bring together the different parts of the people by various means, including celebrating the Festival of Passover together, and the various means used to assimilate the remnants of the northern kingdom in his kingdom, after the destruction of Samaria in 722 BCE. For a more extensive description of this, see S. Gelander, From Two Kingdoms, esp. pp. 202–206. 45 On the antiquity of Nathan’s Prophecy in II Sam. 2: 7, see S. Gelander, David and His God, Jerusalem 1991, pp. 75–105.

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God and David becomes a powerful and representative symbol of all of God’s obligations to His people, throughout their trials and tribulations in the course of history. For the worshipper, the symbolic figure of David is key to ensuring God’s positive response, with “thine anointed” in the present – be he a direct descendant of David, or merely someone claiming an affinity of some sort – serving as the link with this symbol. By the same token, it might be said that, over time, David’s personal experiences and crises may have served as a symbol for the hardships endured by anyone. This is the idea behind the allusions to events from David’s life (as described in I Samuel and II Samuel) in the titles of some psalms.46 However, these linguistic and other types of associations are not enough to establish a significant and experiential connection between the psalms and the events cited in their titles.47 In Ps. 3, for example, the link between its contents and the title’s reference to a father forced to flee from his son, is highly tenuous. If this psalm were truly an expression of such a horrendous experience, we would expect it to reflect the emotional anguish and pain of someone whose son has become his sworn enemy, whose soul is torn between his love as a father and his duty and position as ruler. Instead, the psalm contrasts the “many” who deny him any hope (“Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God.”–v. 1), with the hope that he clings to nonetheless (“I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill ”–v. 3), 46 See Y. Zakovitch, “On the ‘Historical’ Titles in the Psalms,” Migvan 3 (1993), pp. 13–28 (Hebrew), where he explains the links between the ancient, prosaic text and the psalms based on linguistic associations and repeated expressions. For example, he links the title of Ps. 3 (mizmor leDavid, bevorḥo miAvshalom bno – “A psalm of David, in his flight from his son Absalom”) with the story of David’s flight in II Samuel 2, through the Hebrew root b-r-ḥ that appears in David’s words in II Sam. 15: 14 – Kumu venivreḥah (“Arise, and let us flee”), and the expression hakamim (“they that rise”) with “yihyu kana’ar oyvei adoni hamelekh vekhol asher kamu aleikha lera’ah (“The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is” – II Sam 18: 32) versus mah rabu tzarei rabim kamim alai (“many are they that rise up against me” – Ps. 3: 1). See also Gelander, From Two Kingdoms, p. 184. 47 The thirteen psalms with “historical” titles are: 3, 7, 18 (=II Sam. 22), 34, 51, 52, 56, 57, 59, 60, 63, 142.

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and how, thanks to his faith, he is not afraid “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about”–v. 6). The expression “the many” recur in various guises in supplication psalms, in which the supplicant inveighs against his enemies. The speaker’s distress is therefore a kind of test of faith, and his personal enemies are perceived as God’s enemies – there is no real evidence here of a personal rivalry between father and son. The linguistic associations made in the intra-biblical midrash of this psalm to David’s story in the Books of Samuel (see note 46), are therefore meant simply to enable expressions such as “in his flight” and “they that rise up against me” to symbolize any flight and any uprising, in the broadest sense. In other words, anyone whose close associates have become his enemies or who has suffered the bitter disappointment of being betrayed, of having good repaid with evil, is akin to someone whose opponents have forced him to put his faith and his confidence in God to the test. The psalm’s title therefore turns the personal experience into a symbolic experience of identification,48 and, David’s personal tragedy into something emblematic of any tragedy of disillusionment and frustration.49 Hence, in addition to the innumerable commentaries on this topic, we may say that this marks the point when David is perceived as a symbol, whereby anything related to his personal story transcends his earthly figure as a flesh-and-blood king, and is perceived in the believer’s mind in the most general allegorical sense, allowing him to identify with him completely. David’s personal crises are raised to the level of the personal distress of anyone praying for salvation, as are the acts of salvation and deliverance. This is most likely a late redactive stage, parallel to that of the Book of Chronicles, where David is also perceived more as a symbol then as a flesh-and-blood king. 48 See Yefet Ben-Ali’s detailed commentary on the issue of the titles and biographical comments in Pss. 1 and 3, as cited by Simon, Four Approaches pp. 67–69. On the four approaches themselves, see above, in the Introduction. 49 Ibn Ezra, in his commentary on this psalm, sees vv. 8–9 as tangible requests, a supplication to the Lord to help David’s men in their struggle against Absalom (even though he interprets the psalm on the whole as a prophetic prayer, i.e. David already knew that he would win, but still harbored some doubts). For more on this issue, see Simon, Four Approaches, p. 177.

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Conclusion

When ancient poetic prayers endure and become part of the traditional prayer liturgy, the situations they describe take on an increasingly symbolic meaning over time, as the circumstances that prompted them grow ever more remote – allowing them to be associated with a wide range of situations. Anyone reciting a psalm from the Book of Psalms is probably not reading it as a historical document, nor even as a literary work of art, but rather as a distillation of an experience they can identify with. Thus, the various guises of the phrase “dwelling in the house of the Lord ” became imbued with a variety of meanings that developed over space and time, to reflect a broad spectrum of expressions of the notion of God’s proximity and the sense of entitlement to His protection. The same can be said about the concept of sheltering under God’s wings, which evolved from a metaphorical illustration to a common turn of phrase. This process, by which a particular adjective or concept eventually takes on a multitude of meanings, allows one to identify with all that it represents, in a variety of situations. The meaning of the word “king” – either in the psalm titles associating with the life of King David, or any other, unnamed monarch – is an extreme example of this. Literary analysis makes it possible to draw conclusions about the experience depicted in each psalm. Each of the six chapters of our investigation dealt with a different type of religious experience. The ideological and emotional message has, of course, varied from one type to another, but in terms of the fundamental features of the experience, certain basic features are common to them all: (a) The experience of conversion. This, to one extent or another, is the starting point of all prayer themes. At its most extreme, it involves a complete reversal of reality, whereby the speaker’s true circumstances appear to give way to his desired condition, as if it had actually come true. Although he is still in distress, he 239

experiences the fulfillment of his hopes as though it has already happened. Among the individual prayers, the most striking of this is Ps. 23; among the communal or national prayers – Ps. 126. In other psalms there is a slightly less dramatic reversal in the form of a transition from despair to hope. In some instances this is sharp and sudden, in others it is moderate and gradual, but in every case it denotes distress followed by salvation. It follows, therefore, that the speaker in these psalms is not quite experiencing the full effect of the magical transition, so his confidence in deliverance needs some bolstering – which he does, mainly by acknowledging the Lord’s virtues, including the belief that God wants – even needs – him to be saved, so that He might have someone to thank Him. Often, the form and details of the appeal, or the wording of the thanks and praise, hint at the circumstances involved. Specifically, the more detailed and tangible the description of the distress, the more likely it is that the speaker is still in its throes (notwithstanding his words of praise and thanks for his salvation) – and vice versa: the more understated the descriptions of distress, or only hinted at, the more we may assume that he is merely recalling it from memory, but in reality he has already been saved. (b) The sense of identification is another fundamental feature of the various types of experience. This is seen most clearly in the ceremonial psalms, where the speaker extols the attributes that sets him and his fellow believers apart from the rest of humanity, and sees himself as an integral part of a community that shares his feelings and outlook. In some psalms, the identification is through the figure of the king, who acts as the focus of national aspirations. (c) The dichotomy – i.e., the contrasting tension in the relationship between man and God – is a third common feature. It involves a feeling of closeness to God – which at times, seems almost physical – versus a sense of Him becoming more distant, or hiding, or man’s feeling of insignificance in relation to the sense of power that he receives from God. This interweave of tensions 240

brings us back to the experience of the reversal: it contrasts the circumstances of reality, which prompted the prayer, with the sought-after condition – i.e., between the desired and the actual. This is sometimes evident in the speaker’s success in quelling his sense of distress and gratitude for his wondrous salvation – i.e. his emotions – in a bid to view the reversal of fortune in purely moralistic terms, leading to conclusions about God’s virtues and the marvelous correlation between world order and governance, and justice and morality. In other words, his personal experience is translated into ideological conclusions that merge to form a doctrine of faith. His ability to distance himself from his particular, unique circumstances, enables him to identify and focus on the intellectual ideas, whereby the descriptions of the situation take on representational and symbolic meanings. The fundamental features found in our examination of the supplication prayers, may be found in all types of psalms – explicitly, implicitly, or obliquely. The speaker’s declarations of innocence, his promise to continue to worship the Lord and repay his vows or pledge to thank the Lord in public and to praise Him, and his affirmation of the Lord’s virtues and other elements, all appear in various guises in the supplication prayers, in the praise and thanksgiving prayers, in the festive ceremonial prayers and in the Royal Psalms. The presence of the same elements across the various genres allow us to discern the nuances and fine differences that highlight the distinctiveness and uniqueness of the experience in each psalm. Anyone capable of making out the conventional elements, would also know how to see beyond them to appreciate the individual originality of each piece and its particular experiential expression. Through the rich range of experiences of various kinds, a picture emerges of a consistent faith with regard to the relationship between God and his believers. The omnipotent God is also one who is close at hand, and who is sure to save the speaker by virtue of His very nature. The correspondence between world order and laws and justice guarantees a reality in which there is no room for evil. The festive ceremonies allow the celebrant to identify with the congregation of celebrants, 241

and in both the various supplication prayers and in his celebratory declarations he see his enemies as the Lord’s enemies, too. The king’s well-being , as the Lord’s anointed one, ensures that of the worshipper and of the nation. There are two notable exceptions to this general picture of consistent faith. One is the difference between the individual’s prayer and the communal one with regard to the confidence in salvations: in the former, the worshipper’s deliverance and survival are obvious to him, in that God wants – indeed needs – him to live and to be saved. This is not so with the communal prayers: there the nation’s deliverance is not taken for granted, and occasionally despair edges out hope. The second is between the main ceremonial elements: while the pilgrimage and participation of the masses are given emotional and cognitive expression, the ritual occasion of raising sacrifices is not evident in either the descriptions or the allusions. This is because this part of the ritual remains obscure to the celebrant, and the ceremonial experience includes the tension and contrast between these two planes.

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Abbreviations

ANET  J, B, Pritchard (ed.) Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament ATD Das Alte Testament Deutsch BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research Biblischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament BKAT BMECCI Bulletin of the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan BN Biblische Notizen Biblische Zeitschrift BZ BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly EI Eretz Israel HAR Hebrew Annual Review HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual The International Critical Commentary ICC Israel Exploration Journal IEJ JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society Journal of Semitic Studies JJS A Variety of Opinions and Concepts of Judaism Migvan OTL Old Testament Library Oudtestamenische Studien OTS PROCEEDINGS Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies Review Biblique RB Vetus Testamentum VT VTSupp. Supplement Volumes to Vetus Testamentum ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentlische Wissenschaft Zeischrift für Theologie und Kirche ZThK

DA S A LT E T E S TA M E N T I M D I A L O G an outline of an old testament dialogue

Herausgegeben von / edited by Michael Fieger & Sigrid Hodel-Hoenes Diese Reihe will den wissenschaftlichen Dialog zwischen dem Alten Testament und benachbarten Fächern fördern. Im Mittelpunkt des Interesses stehen der weit verzweigte Dialog zum Neuen Testament sowie die wechselseitige Beziehung mit den Humanwissenschaften, die durch die Vielschichtigkeit des Alten Testaments hervorgerufen wird. Dazu gehören neben der Theologie, Anthropologie und Ethik auch Gebiete wie Psychologie, Pädagogik, Soziologie, Ökonomie, Geschichtsschreibung, Musikwissenschaften und Sprachforschung. Aber auch zu naturwissenschaftlichen Fragen wie beispielsweise in der Medizin gibt es einige wichtige Bezugspunkte. In diese international ausgerichtete Reihe werden sowohl Monographien und Tagungsbände als auch Dissertationen und Habilitationen in deutscher, englischer, italienischer und rumänischer Sprache aufgenommen. Ein wichtiges Anliegen ist es, dass sich die Bände nicht ausschliesslich an Fachleute richten, sondern eine breitere wissenschaftlich interessierte Leserschaft ansprechen. This series intends to promote and stimulate the scientific dialogue between the Old Testament and its interrelated subjects. The interest is focused on the New Testament and its relationship with the human sciences. In addition to theology, anthropology and ethics and aside from areas relating to psychology, pedagogy, sociology, economics, historiography, music and linguistics, there are some important points of reference to scientific questions, including medicine. This international series will publish not only monographs and conference volumes but also theses and dissertations in German, English, Italian and Romanian. Of vital importance is the desire that these volumes address themselves not exclusively to specialists, but to the general interested reader.

Band/Vol. 1

Michael Fieger & Sigrid Hodel-Hoenes Der Einzug in Ägypten. Ein Beitrag zur alttestamentlichen Josefsgeschichte. 2007. ISBN 978-3-03911-437-5.

Vol. 2

Michael Ufok Udoekpo Re-thinking the Day of YHWH and Restoration of Fortunes in the Prophet Zephaniah. An Exegetical and Theological Study of 1:14-18; 3:14-20. 2010. ISBN 978-3-0343-0510-5.

Vol. 3

Jin-Myung Kim Holiness & Perfection: A Canonical Unfolding of Leviticus 19. 2011. ISBN 978-3-0343-0580-8.

Vol. 4

Michael Fieger & Jörg Lanckau (Hrsg.) Erschaffung und Zerstörung der Schöpfung. Ein Beitrag zum Thema Mythos. 2011. ISBN 978-3-0343-0479-5.

Vol. 5

Nicoletta Gatti & George Ossom-Batsa Journeying with the Old Testament. 2011. ISBN 978-3-0343-1006-2.

Vol. 6

Michael Fieger & Marcel Weder Krankheit und Sterben. Ein interprofessioneller Dialog. 2012. ISBN 978-3-0343-1105-2.

Vol. 7

Janusz Kucicki Eschatology of the Thessalonian Correspondence. A comparative study of 1 Thess 4, 13-5, 11 and 2 Thess 2, 1-12 to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. 2014. ISBN 978-3-0343-1474-9.

Vol. 8

Andreas Beriger, Stefan M. Bolli, Widu-Wolfgang Ehlers, Michael Fieger & Wilhelm Tauwinkl (Hrsg.) Vulgata-Studies Vol. I. Beiträge zum I. Vulgata-Kongress des Vulgata Vereins Chur in Bukarest (2013). 2015. ISBN 978-3-0343-1478-7.

Vol. 9

Jonathan Grossman Ruth: Bridges and Boundaries. 2015. ISBN 978-3-0343-1674-3.

Vol. 10

Shamai Gelander The Religious Experience in the Book of Psalms. 2016. ISBN 978-3-0343-2091-7.

Vol. 11

Jonathan Grossman Abram to Abraham. A Literary Analysis of the Abraham Narrative. 2016. ISBN 978-3-0343-2077-1.