Psalm 119 - Annotated Working Bibliography, Revised

Themelios 44.1, 2019

The NIV Application Commentary series is unique. Any student of the Psalms using this work will quickly find its accessibility a welcoming appetizer before being presented with the main course of world-class Psalms scholarship. This commentary is intentionally designed to be two-way—readers are not only guided backwards to what the text meant in its original contexts, but its meaning and implications are brought forward to bear on the readers’ present context. In this volume, Grant covers Psalms 73–106, while Tucker covers Psalms 107–150. Individually, they have worked on the Psalms for many years. Besides bringing to the table up-to-date scholarship from both sides of the Atlantic, the combination of their strengths makes this second installation a formidable one. Tucker’s earlier work, Constructing and Deconstructing Power in Psalms 107–150 (Atlanta: SBL, 2014), supplied the historical basis for his interpretation of these psalms. Likewise, Grant’s published dissertation, The King as Exemplar: The Function of Deuteronomy’s Kingship Law in the Shaping of the Book of Psalms (Atlanta: SBL, 2004), supplied the literary and theological frameworks for his interpretation of the exilic and Mosaic psalms in books three and four of the Psalter. In other words, they are suitably qualified for this mammoth task. Those familiar with the first volume by Gerald Wilson will be happy to know that Tucker and Grant, who represent a younger generation of Psalms scholarship, have continued the tradition. Even more so, they have now supplied in their introduction what was left unsaid by Wilson (pp. 19–37): two important hermeneutical perspectives—the editorial shape, and the theology of the Psalter. The discussions on the editorial shape of the Psalter have gone somewhat beyond what Wilson had accomplished. For instance, Grant has linked the loss of Jerusalem depicted in Psalm 74 all the way through Psalm 79 and beyond by highlighting certain motifs like “remembrance” (pp. 80, 97, 110, 140, 168, 182). Clearly, the commentary has benefited also from the slew of studies on the canonical shaping of the Psalter since the 1990s.

2016

Studies in the Psalms, 1911

JOSEPH BRYANT ROTHERHAM - STUDIES IN THE PSALMS, TRANSLATOR OF " THE EMPHASISED BIBLE." LONDON : H. R. ALLENSON, Ltd., Racquet Court, Fleet Street, E.C. J. GEORGE ROTHERHAM, 29, Ardoch Road, Catford, S.E. 1911.

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.

. The Interpreting Biblical Texts series have focused on the engagement of the text with readers in light of two aspects: textual and contextual consideration. Brown's work seems to fulfill the main goal of the series in that "the book proceeds from poetry to theory, from the most narrow to the most integrative, from the lively micro world of interacting poetic segments to the Psalter's complex macrostructure and theological framework" (p. ix).

Republished and updated version (2025): https://www.academia.edu/127547743 (pp. 323–345)

Psalm 1 is described in this paper as an entity, but also from a canonical perspective as an introduction into the Psalter, a capacity in which it was perhaps meant to guide the reader towards the ‘correct’ understanding of the book of Psalms. In the final section, the horizon towards a Biblical Theology is opened from Ps 1, since the psalm could be understood as the nucleus of such a theology.

OTS 55, 2007

Vaillancourt, Ian J. The Multifaceted Saviour of Psalms 110 and 118: A Canonical Exegesis. Hebrew Bible Monographs 86. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2019. (EProof Book Sample), 2019

Since Gerald H. Wilson's landmark work, The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter (1985), scholars have been divided on how to interpret the appearances of the king in Book V (Psalms 107–150). Many have agreed with Wilson in seeing a disjunction between Psalms 1–89 and 90–150, with Psalm 89 representing the apparent failure of the Davidic covenant, and signalling its replacement by a hope in the direct intervention of Yhwh without a role for a Davidic king. Although others have countered that Book V marks a return of the king, with references to David pointing to renewed hope in the Davidic covenant, in both cases scholars have interacted with the question as it was framed by Wilson. Vaillancourt moves the discussion forward by broadening the question to the portrayal of the figure of salvation in Book V of the Psalms, and by narrowing the scope to detailed canonical exegesis on two of its most salient psalms. Canonical exegesis of Psalm 110 displays a cosmic king at the right hand of Yhwh, who has a willing army at his disposal, who will mediate as priest between his people and Yhwh, and who will also accomplish a definitive victory for the people of God. Canonical exegesis of Psalm 118 displays a suffering and conquering king who leads the victory procession from the battlefield, one whose role resonates with a prophetic figure like Moses (cf. Deut. 18.18), as he echoes the songs of the first (Exod. 15) and of a second exodus (Isa. 12) in his responsive song of thanks (vv. 19–28). In the final form of the book of Psalms, the Saviour in these psalms emerges as an eschatological figure of salvation who encompasses many hoped-for figures from across the Old Testament in one person, the one who will achieve full-scale deliverance for the people of God.

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.

2018

2009

In the first installment of this two-part article that appeared in the November 2008 issue of this journal we presented Gerhard von Rad’s important redefinition of the proper object of a theology of the Psalms and his rejection of 19th century biographical approach to psalmic interpretation. Moreover, in view of the popularity of the psychologizing biographical approach, we noted that von Rad’s position raises two important problems in psalmic interpretation. The first concerns the validity of the traditional psychologizing biographical approach to the interpretation of individual psalms. In connection with this problem, we briefly outlined the history of the mirror of the soul approach to the Psalms and presented N. H. Ridderbos’s important qualifying statements to the traditional psychologizing biographical exposition of the Psalms. In this second installment we would address the second problem, which concerns the status of the Psalms as the inscripturated Word of God: is the Psal...

Trinity Journal 42:1, 2021

In Discovering the Psalms, Jerome Creach adheres to the purpose of Eerdmans's Discovering Biblical Text series: To provide a comprehensive, upto-date, and student-friendly introduction to the Psalms that emphasizes content, structure, theology, interpretive debates, and major turning points through its reception history. The book's main body consists of ten chapters divided into three parts: Part One covers Issues in Reading the Psalms and the Psalter, Part Two looks at Reading the Psalms Together, and Part Three develops The Psalms as Prayers. It also includes a brief introduction titled The role of the Psalms in the life of the Church and a brief conclusion titled The Psalms and Jesus Christ. The author writes from the perspective of a Christian biblical scholar and is concerned with reading the Psalms as "Christian Scripture" (p. 5). Chapter 1 ("What is a psalm?") provides a general introduction to basic features of the Psalms, such as the general structure of the division of the Psalms into five books, each closing with doxologies, with Pss 1-2 serving as an introduction and Pss 146-50 as a conclusion. The author writes, "The arrangement of the psalms is one key to the meaning and purpose of its individual parts, and as a whole, the book has a meaning that transcends its parts (p. 24). Chapter 2 ("It's poetry!") deals with poetic features, such as progress in the study of parallelism and an introductory discussion of "the LORD is king" and "refuge" as metaphors in the Psalms. Chapter 3 ("Did David write the Psalms?") deals with the perennial question of authorship and its complexity. The author affirms, questions, and clarifies what Davidic authorship is and is not for the Psalms. He espouses "the Levites" as a group to be a more likely candidate for the authorship and compilation of the Psalms, a group who looked upon David as a "prime example of how to pray in times of trouble" (p. 58). Creach maintains that the link between David and the Psalter is an essential theological connection (pp. 59-60). Chapter 4 ("A Psalm for every occasion: types of psalms") surveys the Psalms as a genre and the developments therein following a discussion of Gunkel, and it affirms the limits of genre labels, noting that often psalms combine features of more than one genre (p. 79). Chapter 5 ("Settings for the performance of the Psalms") acknowledges Gunkel's insight that the Psalms originated in an Israelite worship setting or the cult, which at face value, though having complex understandings among authors, shows that psalms "grew out of real-life problems and celebrations" (p. 80). The author notably argues that the proposed setting for Israelite worship is not decisive and reliable for interpreting the Psalms, given that "Israelite worship underwent changes as the Israelites reread and re-used" the Psalms (pp. 96-97). This concludes Part One of the book, paving the way for a new direction in the study of the Psalms, focusing on its present form and function within an immediate literary context, especially in reading the Psalter as a whole. The second part envisages the Psalter as a book with "a theologically significant 'shape' that provides a context in which to read and interpret individual psalms" (p. 102). This new direction in the study of the Psalms affirms that "as the various psalms came together to form the present book, they took on a different context from their original context in Israel's cult" (p. 102). Chapter 6 ("Going by the book: The Psalter as a guide to reading the psalms") provides justification and elaboration for reading the Psalms together. This includes textual evidence for coherence and further elaboration