Review of Psalms, by James Hamilton, Jr.

2015

Bulletin for Biblical Research, 2020

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.

2016

What are the New Testament writers doing with Israel's psalms? Ben Witherington III attempts to answer this question by examining select psalms across the Psalter and their usage in the New Testament in Psalms Old and New. In this review, I highlight several issues that are worthy of further reflection.

The Heythrop Journal, 2007

The result is that these two commentaries differ considerably in what they offer to the readership for which they (in fact if not overtly) provide. As the NCBC definition would suggest, Matthews (who includes also Ruth and treats it similarly) does not attempt to reproduce the verse-by-verse style of commentary of an International Critical Commentary or an Anchor Bible volume, which are meant for more serious scholars. Instead, chapter by chapter he includes a translation of the text and engages in discursive commentary. Though every page is generously footnoted with references to literature bearing on matters raised, M. declines to enter into textual debate or scholarly discussion, an exception perhaps being made for Phylis Trible's Texts of Terror on the notorious incident of the Levite's concubine in Judges 19 (pp. 180-90). This admirable economy (in the light of the intended readership) can perhaps blur distinctions, as in the case (p. 181) of M.'s relating the Masoretic Hebrew text to the Septuagint and Vulgate (to clarify the status of the concubine in that chapter). The intention, then, is to point interested students in the direction of fuller treatment. This purpose is also well served by the lengthy chapter on 'Suggested reading', where listing and brief analysis occur of available commentaries, literary studies, redaction studies, feminist studies and more. Other student-friendly components include tables or sidebars and several sections aimed at 'personal reflection, teaching and preaching'. But not an illustration in sight. That intentional omission may serve as a token of the difference in real achievement of these two commentaries. Despite the BBC claim to offer 'a series of scholarly commentaries', to the browser its character may appear most clearly in the inclusion of scores of (often quaint) illustrations. (One wonders, for instance, why one such on the cover depicts Job and Satan.) There is a claim made (p. x) to incorporate patristic, rabbinic and medieval exegesis, which G. qualifies (1) by intending to 'offer a Western, post-Enlightenment perspective'. But any intention of providing 'scholars' with a scholarly approach to Judges is undercut by reducing the biblical book to nine chapters (text in no language included), which provide an uncritical and somewhat bewildering potpourri of superficial comments from all ages in parallel with a large range of illustrations. The result is to make one wonder if the aim is education or diversion. G. gives pride of place to the book's colourful characters, in which admittedly Judges abounds; so we get forty pages on Jael, whose claim to fame rests on her hammering a peg into the head of Sisera (Jgs 4), illustrated with three pages of eleven plates; likewise four pages of sixteen plates on Jephthah's daughter-and much more of the same on Samson! One can only wonder what the Deuteronomist redactor of the traditions behind the book would think of all this. The terms 'trite', 'quaint', 'sensationalist' come to mind; what have well been styled 'texts of terror' are trivialised. The final fifty pages of bibliographies, indexes, a glossary, biographies of a vast range of 'commentators' cannot rescue the work as a 'scholarly commentary'.

Biblical Interpretation, 2012

Soundings in the eology of the Psalms: Perspectives and Methods in Contemporary Scholarship. Edited by Rolf A. Jacobson. Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2011. Pp. xiii + 197. e theological opportunities and challenges posed by the Psalms are explored in this edited volume. e volume grew out of an invited session of the Book of Psalms section at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, at which early versions of four chapters were presented. Rolf Jacobson then solicited additional essays, ending up with eight contributors from an array of Christian theologies, including Reformed, Wesleyan, Roman Catholic, Baptist, and Lutheran, though none of the authors explicitly addresses specific faith-traditions. e opening chapter by Walter Brueggemann is a reprint of his important essay, "e Psalms and the Life of the Faith," originally published in JSOT in 1980. Drawing on Freud and Ricoeur, Brueggemann sees the Psalms functioning to shape reality for ancient speakers-and potentially for modern ones-in the face of earth-shattering experiences. In Brueggemann's typology, different genres of the Psalms serve to construct, maintain, and reinvent a coherent social and cultural ontology. Over the past thirty years, of course, Brueggemann has profoundly influenced the treatment of the Psalms in scholarly, pastoral, and sheer human terms. As a frontispiece for this volume, the essay reminds us how far we have come and raises expectations of new insights into the ways the Psalms mediate deep personal engagement with the divine. Harry Nasuti shares Brueggemann's emphasis on encounters between individuals and the divine. In his essay, "God at Work in the Word," Nasuti points to theologians across the histories of both Jewish and Christian traditions who recognized the power of Psalms and their use of the first-person pronouns for transforming worshippers and positioning them to encounter God. Part of the power emanates from metaphors in which praying individuals can participate, taking on a role vis-à-vis God. Once the roles afforded by the cult were no longer available, Nasuti argues, theologians focused more on metaphors offering roles that individuals could-and still can-inhabit, particularly God as healer or teacher or God as unaccountably absent prosecutor of the wicked. For Nasuti, the Psalms are indispensable; they mediate God's plans for each individual and for humanity. Due to Brueggemann's influence, theologians now recognize the costly loss of neglecting the Psalms of lament. Two authors in the volume, Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford and Joel M. LeMon take a daring step further, arguing that there is also a cost in the nearly universal avoidance of those Psalms of imprecation and violence. Of course the avoidance is understandable. LeMon spells out the theological problem: If prayer shapes belief and belief, in turn, shapes action, then a liturgy that includes imprecation will surely debilitate a community's moral beliefs and lead to degenerate behavior. Historically, this reasoning led some Christian theologians to excise those Psalms from Christian liturgy or hold them up as excuses for excoriating Jews. Both deClaissé-Walford and LeMon forthrightly reject these views. ey note that imprecatory language in the Bible cannot be so easily isolated and effaced; it occurs throughout the Psalter, and in the Christian as well as the Hebrew Bible. Further, they both recognize that imprecations can serve important functions. On some occasions,

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.

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

Irish Theological Quarterly, 2002

Update 90, 2025

In this regularly updated bibliography, literature on psalms and the Psalter from 1990 onwards is brought together; scientific sources as well as those which are more accessible are included (earlier literature in T. WITTSTRUCK: The Book of Psalms. An Annotated Bibliography. New York, NY – London 1994). The presentation is offered in thematic subdivisions so that a title may appear under more than one rubric. It comprises a combination of the bibliographies in my “Werkbuch Psalmen I–III” (Stuttgart 2001/2003/2010). The compilation has been updated and expanded and will be kept up to date – as far as I am able to do that. It is detailed, but not complete. Notes about errors that could be corrected, new editions that have appeared, as well as missing information or new entries (by the authors themselves or about publications via third parties) are gladly accepted (e-mail: [email protected]). The bibliography is made publicly available as a service to people who engage with psalms and the Psalter as well as with the history of interpretation and application of psalms. This digital version should enable users to search more easily for specific psalms, authors, titles, themes, year of publications, et cetera.

This is the original ms of the abbreviated version of the essay that appeared as “The Poetry of the Psalms” in The Oxford Handbook on the Psalms (ed. W. P. Brown; Oxford: Oxford University, 2014), 79-98. Ms dates from 2012.