PSALMS: A SONGBOOK FOR POST-CHRISTENDOM

“Mit meinem Gott überspringe ich eine Mauer”/“By my God I can leap over a wall”: Interreligiöse Horizonte in den Psalmen und Psalmenstudien/Interreligious Horizons in Psalms and Psalms Studies, Christian Frevel, ed. (Herders Biblische Studien 96; Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder), 2020

In diesem Aufsatz wird die Stellung der Psalmen im jüdischen Leben und in der jüdischen Liturgie dargestellt. Fragen der Beziehung der Psalmen zur Tora und der Zuschreibung zu König David werden im ersten Teil behandelt. Im zweiten Teil geht es zuerst um den Gebrauch der Psalmen im Rahmen des täglichen jüdischen Gebets. Danach wird das Rezitieren von Psalmen zu besonderen Angelegenheiten im jüdischen Leben kurz angesprochen. Schließlich wird die Frage der aus moderner Sicht schwierigen Stellen in den Psalmen, die in der Liturgie vorkommen, erörtert.

OTE, 2022

Today, the Jewish world has adopted a popularist-if not theurgical approach to the Book of Psalms, where the Psalms take on a mystical and almost magical function. 1 However widespread, this is only one facet of a kaleidoscope of multifaceted and divergent methodologies that lie within the rubric of rabbinic Psalm interpretation. This article looks at some of the theology underpinning the essential structures of the Psalms as seen through the eyes of the classical rabbis. The analysis begins with the overall edifice of the Psalter, its division into books and their order, discusses the nomenclature and the aspect of musicology, and rabbinic views concerning their authorship and provenance. The article proceeds to investigate diverse and sometimes mutually exclusive rabbinic opinions regarding the essential intent, usage and status of the Psalms. In the final analysis, readers are left bewildered as to whether the Psalms hold the key to the secrets of the universe or whether Jews are even allowed to pray by using the Psalms because of their exalted spiritual stature, or on the contrary, whether the Psalms are merely human expressions of prayer and grappling attempts at making sense of a difficult world, and therefore, of diminished and mundane status.

2014

This work by Nancy deClaisse-Walford, Rolf Jacobson, and Beth Tanner is the most complete and detailed one-volume commentary available on the Psalms. Significantly, the volume reflects the combined insights of three superior (younger) biblical scholars. DeClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, and Tanner offer a succinct introduction to the Psalter, a new translation of all the psalms that takes special account of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and individual entries on each psalm unit. Throughout the book they draw on state-of-theart research on the canonical shape and shaping of the Psalter and evidence a nuanced attention to the poetic nature of the psalms.

Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 33/2, 2019

The included link allows for FREE download of the article for the first 50. ABSTRACT: This study deals with the question of why there is a Book of Psalms in the Hebrew Bible. In previous studies the question has typically been seen as an either-or issue between liturgical, educational, and prophetic use of the psalms. It is shown in this study that all these different uses persisted at least until the end of the Second Temple period, were common to both now biblical and apocryphal psalms, and together contributed to the emergence of a canonical book of psalms. While it will be demonstrated that a division of psalm material cannot be based on such functional indicators or a sense of prestige given to a specific collection of psalms, it will be argued that the Maccabean revolt led to a historical process that incidentally created a watershed between most psalms composed before and after this gradual process. Such markers are visible in the style of the psalms and their functional markers but most of all in a marked shift of perspective from a more general aim to influence the whole people of Israel common to earlier psalms to the consistent use of group perspectives in later works. This shift in the perspective of psalms also contributed to the recontextualization of many earlier psalms to new settings, which further contributed to a later perceivable boundary between the earlier and later psalm material. By focusing on the historical processes instigated by radical societal changes this study offers fresh alternatives for understanding the complex developments that led to the eventual canonization of a book of psalms.

OTS 55, 2007

Women in Judaism a Multidisciplinary Journal, 2011

For me, one of the delights of Jewish religious experience is its resemblance to theatre, with all of us as the actors. Jewish spiritual practise provides the opportunity to enact drama, to take on the roles within our narrative. The easiest examples to access are those in the Passover Haggadah, where we are explicitly invited to see ourselves as having personally gone out from Egypt. The Jewish calendar has days that ask us to truly feel joy, truly feel mourning, truly feel awe. Our texts also provide chances to enter into exciting dramas. The book of Psalms is praised for its wide range of emotions, its scope of narrative from creation through exile to redemption, and the vividness of the many voices-individual, collective, and divine-that appear within its poetry. Psalms are recited for healing and comfort. They are studied and simply read and enjoyed. And they have become an integral part of Jewish liturgy. Miriyam Glazer, a rabbi and professor of literature, has written a book guiding the reader through the psalms that are included in full in the liturgy, approaching prayer in a way that I consider drama-personal, emotional, explored in real time. Psalms of the Jewish Liturgy is a lovely, clear, easy to read book. Its small size and straightforward organization make it a good companion for services and for private contemplation. Especially helpful is the inclusion of entire psalms rather than excerpts, in Hebrew and the author's own translation. I enjoyed it at my bedside and carried it with me to read on my way. Glazer spells out her goals early and restates them at intervals. She encourages the reader not only to read and study the psalms, not only to pray the psalms as part of a service, but to find ways to experience the psalms in order to find personal self-understanding, meditative practise, and approaches to God. She looks at the psalms that appear in Conservative Jewish liturgy. In each chapter, she provides a psalm or group of psalms in Hebrew, then in her own translation, and then presents a potential use for the psalm. The author suggests two main contexts in which to experience the psalms: during prayer with groups, that is, the liturgical context of these psalms, and in slow private

Leaven, 2012

2009

the customary matters such as the historical setting of the Psalms, the collection of the Psalms, and the nature of Hebrew poetry. Alter gives special attention to the difficulty of translating Hebrew poetry into English and to matters related to the textual traditions behind the current text of Psalms. Although the book lacks bibliographic footnotes, Alter's translation shows considerable evidence of engagement with recent research in the Psalms. The book closes with a slender bibliography of suggested readings.

Old Testament Essays, 2019

Book V of the Psalter (Pss 107-150) is an interesting collection of psalms. After the opening Ps 107, celebrating God's rescue of humanity from various dangerous situations, psalms attributed to David appear again after a virtual absence since Book II. These Davidic psalms (Pss 108-110 and 138-145) "frame" a grouping of festival psalms that are introduced by two brief alphabetic acrostics (Pss 111 and 112). Seemingly tucked away just after the Songs of Ascents (Pss 120-134), and before the resumption of psalms of David, lie Psalms 135-137, two magnificent community hymns followed by a heartfelt community lament. This essay explores the role of these psalms in the "shape" and "shaping" of the story of the Psalter. It will conclude that the psalms offer a highly stylized recitation of Israel's history that made a world for the postexilic community, recounting Yahweh's work in creation, summarizing the Pentateuchal stories of the ancestors (Pss 135-136) and providing a snapshot of exilic life in Babylon (Ps 137). Their assurance of Yahweh's presence and provisions allow David, in Psalms 138-145, to lead the postexilic people in blessing, praise, and thanks to the sovereign God.