Book of Psalms

This is an assignment done as part of the theology course on Book of Psalms taken by Rev Dr Mathew Olickal. This academic paper is an attempt to analyze the content of the Psalm 137. This Psalm is a memory of the Babylon Exile and the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.

청교도 설교자들의 왕이라고 불렸던 토머스 맨톤(1620-1677)의 시편 119편에 대한 설교들에 나타난 경건론은 팬데믹 시대에 어떻게 목회의 방향을 잡아가야 할지에 대한 여러 가지 통찰을 준다. 맨톤에 따르면 참된 경건이란 하나님에 대한 경외심과 사랑으로 구성된다. 그는 경건한 사람만이 유일하게 행복한 사람이라고 주장하는데, 경건한 사람은 행복의 목표와 그것에 도달하는 방법을 알기 때문이다. 맨톤은 최고선이 되시는 하나님 안에서 참된 행복을 발견할 수 있다고 하며, 경건의 목표점에 이르는 길은 오직 하나님의 말씀이라 가르친다. 맨톤은 묵상의 중요성을 매우 강조한다. 묵상은 지식과 경건의 어머니이자 유모이며, 모든 은혜의 직분들에서 위대한 도구가 된다. 맨톤에 따르면, 고난은 위기가 아니라 오히려 기회이다. 고난 속에서 경건한 사람들은 오직 하나님만이 우리의 유일한 위로가 되신다는 것을 깨닫는 까닭이다. 경건한 사람들은 고난 가운데 하나님의 말씀의 공급을 통해서 독특한 영적 유익을 얻는다. 그것은 곧 자기부인을 배우며, 하나님을 더욱 사랑하며, 예수 그리스도를 닮아가는 것이다. 맨톤의 경건론이 주는 통찰을 따른다면, 목회자들은 팬데믹 위기가 막연히 지나가기만을 바랄 것이 아니라, 오히려 이 시기를 기회로 삼아 신자들이 참된 경건을 배양하도록 도울 필요가 있다.
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Abstract --
Because of Covid-19, a social and ecclesial crisis surrounds our society like a dark cloud, and ministers of the church are pondering how to serve the church. The doctrine of piety in the sermons on Psalm 119 by Thomas Manton (1620-1677), who was called the King of Puritan preachers, gives several insights into how to orient one’s ministry in the pandemic era. True godliness, according to Manton, consists of fear and love toward God. He argues that only the godly person can be happy because only a pious person knows the goal of happiness and how to reach it. Manton teaches that one can find true happiness in God, who is the highest good, and that the only way to reach the goal of godliness is through the word of God. Manton strongly emphasizes the importance of meditation on the word. Meditation is the mother and nurse of knowledge and godliness and is the great instrument in all the offices of grace. For Manton, suffering is not a crisis but rather an opportunity, because, in suffering, godly people realize that God alone is our true comfort. In our suffering, we find unique spiritual benefits through the supply of God's Word: we learn to deny ourselves, love God more, and become more like Jesus Christ. Based on Manton’s doctrine of piety, pastors need not only hope that the pandemic crisis will pass soon, but also use this period as an opportunity to help believers cultivate true piety.

Psalm 78 contains the greatest number of uses of the hiphil verb stem in the Hebrew Psalter. Most uses are causatives which can emphasise arguments that were originally oblique or elliptical and also demote or omit arguments in the original clause. This study explores clauses with hiphil tokens in Psalm 78 in light of possible inner-biblical allusions. It is argued that the hiphil form is used in Psalm 78 as a syntactic tool to emphasise divine intervention in key biblical-historical events. God's activity is set in the foreground of the psalm by reporting divine acts in the third person through the divine authority of the opening first-person narrator. The use of the hiphil stem corresponds in most cases with the setting of God as subject, often by substituting human actors and syntactic demotion of inanimate objects as divine instruments. This literary technique of divine subject substitution is used to highlight the faithfulness of God in the past as grounds for the divine indictment against the unfaithful generations of Israel. There is also some evidence of reverse subject substitution such that divine hope for Judah and the mission of God's people is vested in the Davidic shepherd.

A tanulmány zsoltárok és Izráel története viszonyának főbb témaköreit vázolja, kitérve a kutatástörténet leginkább meghatározó kérdéseire: (1) Miként, milyen formában és milyen tartalmakon keresztül jelenik meg Izráel története a Zsoltárok könyvében? (2) Milyen irodalmi és teológiai viszonyban állnak a zsoltárok történeti utalásai az Ószövetség történeti könyveivel? (3) Hogyan határozzák meg a történeti zsoltárok a Zsoltárok könyvének kompozícióját és teológiai koncepcióját? (4) Melyek a zsoltárok történelemszemléletének sajátosságai?

In: Egeresi László Sándor - Kókai Nagy Viktor (szerk.):
Adalékok Izrael történetéhez. Ünnepi kötet Karasszon István 65. születésnapja alkalmából Komárom, Selye János Egyetem Református Teológiai Kar, Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem Hittudományi Kar, 2020, pp 295-323.

A growing area of research in the field of biblical studies involves questions of how reading the biblical text through the lens of trauma studies can illuminate the text, its meaning(s), and the ways its audience(s) engages with it. One underexplored facet of this research area focuses on the concept of “resilience,” which has been described simply as the ability to “bounce back” from negative experiences or, more complexly, as the ability to survive and sustain wellbeing in the face of long-term adversity and/or oppression. Psychologists have identified various resources (biological, environmental, spiritual, etc.) upon which human beings can draw to foster resilience. This chapter builds upon this existing scholarship to explore the resources for resilience present in the book of Psalms. While these resources are myriad, I focus my attention on how the presence of stories in the book of Psalms contributes to the development of resilience in the faith communities that have read—and continue to read—the Psalter as Scripture. To this end, I first highlight the building of relationships and the ability to tell one’s story as key factors in the development of resilience. Next, I will out how the book of Psalms contributes to both of these factors by weaving connections between psalmists and readers and between readers and God and by providing a framework for cathartic and restorative storytelling. I use Ps 69, an individual lament psalm, as a sample text for exploring how these ancient worship songs foster resilience in their audiences.

Le Ps 119 est le plus long de tous les Psaumes. Son importance n'est pas seulement due à sa longueur exceptionnelle. Il occupe une place et une fonction tout à fait particulière dans le Cinquième et dernier livre du Psautier (Ps 107-150). En effet, il se trouve au centre du livre, comme sa clé de voûte, et sa clé de lecture. Il est intitulé par la Bible de Jérusalem « Éloge de la loi divine », par la Bible Osty « Éloge de la loi », par la traduction de Dhorme « Psaume alphabétique sur les avantages de la loi ». Le titre de la traduction espagnole de La Casa de la Biblia est plus proche du texte ; en effet, il reprend à peu de chose près le premier verset du psaume : « Heureux ceux qui suivent la loi du Seigneur ». En réalité, ce psaume est une longue supplication, où le psalmiste demande à Dieu de lui faire connaitre sa loi, de lui enseigner ses commandements, de lui donner la force de les suivre, parce qu'il en est incapable. Une des demandes qui revient le plus souvent est « fais-moi vivre ». La vie ne vient pas de ma pratique de la loi, elle est un don gratuit de Dieu. Abstract Ps 119 is the longest of all the Psalms.

By Martin Klingbeil -- Based on a comprehensive survey of metaphors of God in the Hebrew psalter, a total number of 507 occurrences are identified in which God is described by means of a metaphor. Applying modern metaphor theory, these occurrences are classified according to their main metaphor, submetaphor, metaphor type, and metaphor category. It is shown, that a proportionally small number of 17 main metaphor groups with their respective submetaphors exist which describe Yahweh in mostly anthropo-morphic categories. Focusing on the God of heaven and warrior metaphors, a group of eight psalms is selected which display a recurrence of the two metaphors: Psa 18, 21, 29, 46, 65, 68, 83, and 144. Each psalm is discussed according to its transmitted text, semantic peculiarities, and literary structures, followed by short comments on the passage. It appears that the authors of the psalms under consideration used imagery familiar to them from their Syro-Palestinian background, but adapted and shaped it accordingly to their literary. Intentions in the form of an interpretatio Israelitica. The notion of Yahweh fighting as a warrior from heaven on behalf of his people encompasses the spectrum of meaning for the God of heaven and warrior metaphors in the most comprehensive way. In the iconographic part of the study, the visual sources are presented in three groups, i.e., depictions of gods or goddesses displaying warrior attributes, those with god of heaven attributes, and a group manifesting attributes which are reflective both imageries. A total number of 93 images are presented of which approximately one-third come from Syro-Palestinian archaeological sites. It is noted that the more aggressive depictions of gods. Can generally be associated with earlier time periods and are well represented in Syro-Palestine. As the most prolific source for iconographic images reflecting the God of heaven and warrior metaphors, the Neo-Assyrian glyptic of the 9th-7th centuries can be established. In comparing the two bodies of evidence, it appears that the biblical authors employed metaphors reflecting motifs from ANE iconography, although it is not possible to speak of a one-to-one relationship. Rather, the reutilization and adaptation of the imagery and its ascription to Yahweh demonstrates the tendency to indicate the superiority of Yahweh over the deities of the ANE in a strong monotheistic fashion.

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.

[NB. PDF is accepted copy, not published version - to cite, please use published version]

A number of scholars have recognized a verbal allusion to Jon. 4.9 in Mk 14.34. However, the Gethsemane account (Mk 14.32-42) may allude to the narrative of Jon. 4 in other ways not previously observed. Some modern interpreters have suggested an allegorical messianic interpretation of Jonah’s gourd as Zerubbabel, despite lacking any basis for this interpretation in early Jewish literature. Mark’s allusion may be formerly unrecognized evidence of such an interpretation from the first century CE. This article will examine the wider allusion to Jon. 4 in Mk 14, suggest what kind of exegesis of Jon. 4 might motivate that allusion, and argue for the coherence of such an allusion within the immediate Markan context.