1. The idea of a “shaped” Psalter
The Psalter offers us a collection of 150 separate texts. We now examine how the individual pieces have been marshalled and arrayed in groups, to see if we can gain from the internal patterns any insights into the function of the Psalter as a whole.
1.) The extremities, the beginning and the end of the Psalter, are occupied by texts 1 and 150. Psalm 1 receives the reader with an opening blessing. The reader of the Psalter is greeted at the outset as a reader of the Law (the Torah), and is admonished. This is no doubt presupposes that the book in the hand of this reader already belongs to the Holy Writings, which make up the third part of the Hebrew canon, after the ‘Law’ and the Prophets’.
At the other end, Psalm 150 opens a gate in the other direction. Here we find an appeal to the liturgical choir, ‘let everything that has breath praise the LORD’, a call for cosmic praise from every being gifted with the power of speech. For the writer of this Psalm, the Psalter is only a beginning, an introductory exercise in praise. Now however, the circle widens, and the whole world is exhorted to take up the Hallelujah, without need of text and songbook. The universal congregation sings along in its own fashion.
2.) The Psalter is divided into five books, which is evinced by their concluding doxologies, the shift in authorship at the major disjunctions (for Books I-III), and the patterning of hōdû and halělû (for Books IV-V). The division of the finished Psalter into five books belongs to the last phase of development. The significants of the five books could be linked to the five book that Moses gave Israel. The analogy with the Five-Scroll-Book (the Pentateuch) and the parallel Moses-David are extreme...
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...ryline of the Psalter sheds light on God’s covenant faithfulness, namely, that it points to an eschatological reality beyond that which was experienced by the original authors or even editors. Even through the most trying times, the psalmists maintain hope in God’s faithfulness, so that perennial question of “how long?” did not betray despair, but a deep-seated hope that God would in fact deliver them; it was only a question of when his appointed time would come. Childs states, “There was a reinterpretation which sought to understand the promise of David and Israel’s salvation as an eschatological event.”
The function of the Psalms:
The psalms of praise dominate Books 4-5. In the Psalter praise is the nerve centre of the spiritual life. Even lament moves in the direction of praise. The Psalms themselves, while they do not consciously anatomize praise, do inform
It is the reader and his or her interpretive community who attempts to impose a unified reading on a given text. Such readers may, and probably will, claim that the unity they find is in the text, but this claim is only a mask for the creative process actually going on. Even the most carefully designed text can not be unified; only the reader's attempted taming of it. Therefore, an attempt to use seams and shifts in the biblical text to discover its textual precursors is based on a fundamentally faulty assumption that one might recover a stage of the text that lacked such fractures (Carr 23-4).
St. Albans Psalter Psalm 68 is not long, but it does have lots of detailed material to study the author’s choice of language, and the power of the images that are being conveyed to the readers through an emotional and sentimental way. The simplicity of this psalm’s gives it power, since it expresses an emotional despair in a careful shaped prayer, which comes from a human being in what seems to be a life-threatening situation. In the image and the content, the psalmist’s travels an arc of desperation to salvation, in a vivid personal plea to Christ to save him from what seems to be a swirling vortex of hopelessness that threatens to pull him under forever.
The letter to the Ephesians is a book of the Bible that creates many arguments between theologians and Bible commentators. It poses many questions about the critical issues in the letter and the authenticity of the letter. The arguments that are brought forth for each different stand or opinion are what make the book of Ephesians such an interesting piece of work, worthy of the critical eye of the reader.
The book entitled Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books written by Michael J. Kruger explains the canonical model by which the books of the New Testament were selected as the right word of God. The correctness of the canon has always troubled Christians; they have always wanted to know that the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are the rights ones. In his book, Kruger answers many typical questions asked by people in relation to the New Testament, its structure and its authenticity as God’s word. For example, he shows what all of the selected books have in common and why any of the existing apocryphal books is not in the Bible. The book Canon Revisited is for Christians who want to know what the canon is, what defines the canon, how its model is applicable to the New Testament books and in what way believers can be sure that the New Testament books are inspired by God Himself and are not the product of the human mind.
David said his soul will “make a boast in the Lord” (v:2). David does not dwell on his experience, nor even on his deliverance, but on his Deliverer. The Lord is both the subject and the object of David's praise. Psalm reminds me of the fellowship of praise, for the most part praise can be private, However, that is not the kind of praise which psalms practice and promote. When David publicly praise God at worship, he did so purposing to promote worship on the part of the entire congregation., for the most part, those who loved God, as David did, have the right to rejoice and praise God with him. In Romans 12:15, Paul's teaching indicates that the new testament worship should be a sharing in the joys of the fellow- Christians: “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. David therefore urges his fellow-worshipers to join with him in magnifying the Lord so that His name will be corporately exalted (v:3). In Psalm 34 speak of David's deliverance, this poor man cried and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles, and the angels encamped around those who feared Him, and rescues
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Metzger, B. (1997). The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. New York.
Hopefully when one sings or hears a hymn or praise chorus they will be able to recognize biblical and theological themes. In the two songs that I have chosen the imagery is present and powerful. These two songs are among my favorites and hopefully I will do them justice within this paper.
Psalm 113 reads like a 1st century pep talk for those with spiritual burnout. The writer makes his case for the Lord by pointing to the many ways that God earns our praise. These nine verses of scripture are saturated with three specific reasons to praise the Lord – He is Su...
On Easter Sunday, a dozen adults and half that many children gathered at the Perry City Friends Meeting an hour before their usual worship time. They came, bringing plates of food for a time of fellowship before worship. The children had an Easter egg hunt, while the adults visited over coffee and snacks. After a while, the group moved to the meeting room for a time of singing. The meeting room, a plain room with a stage at one end and a few small tables holding brochures along the wall, has simple benches arranged in a circle around a central space. Someone had put a small table with a vase of fresh picked daffodils in the middle. Music is not a part of the worship at this meeting which is unprogrammed, so this time of singing together was special for the Easter holiday. One person played the piano, while people looked through the hymnal for their favorite hymns. Anyone was free to suggest a hymn, as no one is in charge of planning a worship service. When worship time approached, the hymnals were gathered up and put away, and one adult led the children downstairs for First Day School. Without announcement, everyone lapsed into silence. The silence at Meeting for Worship is not a passive silence; it is the deep, comfortable silence of people accustomed to joining together this way. It was not broken when a few more people entered the sanctuary to join the group. The silence continued for about an hour with each worshiper communing with the Holy Spirit in his or her own way, not interrupted when the children reentered to join in the silent worship. One man broke the silence to say a few words about the simplicity of Jesus’ teachings, and then the silence returned. At the end of the hour, without announcement, one woman turned to gr...
Today’s culture is one where people like to do as little work as possible. Even when it comes to reading our own scripture, The Holy Words of God, a lot of people like to look up one verse and reference it to something without knowing what the rest of the passage says. Psalms 109 is no exception, it is one the more widely misused passages as of late. A popular verse from Psalms 109 is verse 8 which reads “Let his days be few; and let another take his office”, this is seen in reference to our current president, but what people fail to realize is what else David is actually praying. This paper is going to go through Psalms 109 and unpack it verse by verse to show the true meaning of what David was praying and to give us a new look at how to pray.
...pse." In Current Issues in New Testament Interpretation, edited by W. Klaasen and G.F. Snyder, 23-37. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1962.
The Hebrew Bible is studied, analyzed, and worshiped by millions each day, it gives insight into the teachings and laws of God. The article “Pentateuch”, obtained from The Zondervan Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible by Merrill C. Tenney, deeply examines the authorship of the Pentateuch and displays two compelling arguments of weather the Pentateuch is of Mosaic authorship, or written by authors other than Moses. The Pentateuch is the bases of the entire Bible, it contains the first five books, including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, thus the literal meaning of “five volumes”. Theses five books make up the Old Testament and are roadmap to God’s teachings.