יהוה was mediated by the nation’s common confession of faith. This confession is a profoundly personal one. Yet it is also communal. For centuries scholars interpreted the “I”, which is so prevalent throughout the Psalter, as finding a voice in an individualized piety, an inner ethic seeking expression for itself.9 Today it is understood more and more that in the Psalms—as is the case for the Hebrew Scriptures as a whole—it is primarily the communal faith of Israel that is being expressed.
It is this faith that resonates throughout the multi-faceted contributions of the Hebrew poetic genius. When we read the “I” as also a “we”, and understand “servant” as also applying to Israel, we find there is a common embrace of both the personal and the communal. The personal/individual and the communal/corporate are held throughout in dialectic tension. We can hear them, then, as the liturgies of the temple in Jerusalem, which was the central locus of Israel’s worshiping life. This neither means that the Psalms are impersonal nor does it exclude their adaptive power to speak personally to the individual seeking a connection to יהוה.
What it does mean is that all Israel, gathered in the temple at Jerusalem or in other shrines, sanctuaries, and assemblies, as in old Israel, appropriated both dimensions: the personal and the corporate in worship, much as we experience worship and liturgy today in our common gathering and individual exercise of prayer and praise in our worship of God. All Israel’s worship and praise is addressed to יהוה. Again we will follow the Psalter’s five book arrangement as we track the Psalter’s representation of Israel as the worshiping people who are in love with יהוה and with the place of worship—the temple.
Book One
Through your great love I may come into your house, and at your holy temple bow down in awe (Ps 5:7);
My God who ordered justice to be done, awake. Let the peoples assemble around you; take your seat on high above them (Ps 7:6,7);
Sing to יהוה enthroned in Zion; proclaim [his] deeds among the nations (Ps 9:11);
יהוה is in [his] holy temple; the throne of יהוה is in heaven (Ps 11:4);
יהוה I shall praise you among the nations and sing praises to your name (Ps 18:49);
May the name of Jacob’s God be your tower of strength. May [he] send you help from the sanctuary (Ps 20:1,2);
Be exalted, יהוה, in your might; we shall sing a psalm of praise to your name (Ps 21:13);
Let all the ends of the earth remember and turn again to יהוה; let all the families of the nations bow before [him] (Ps 22:27);
Lift up your heads, you gates, lift them up, you everlasting doors, that the king of glory may come in (Ps 24:9);
יהוה, I love the house where you dwell, the place where your glory resides (Ps 26:8);
יהוה will give strength to [his] people; יהוה will bless [his] people with peace (Ps 29:10);
Sing a psalm to יהוה, all you [his] loyal servants; give thanks to [his] holy name (Ps 30:4);
Shout for joy to יהוה, you that are righteous; praise comes well from the upright (Ps 33:1);
Rescue me from those who would destroy me, save my precious life from the powerful. Then shall I praise you in the great assembly, I shall extol you in a large congregation (Ps 35:17, 18);
In the great assembly I have proclaimed what is right; I do not hold back my words, as you know, יהוה (Ps 40:9).
Book Two
Send out your light and your truth to be my guide; let them lead me to your holy hill, to your dwelling-place. Then I shall come to the altar of God, the God of my joy and delight, and praise you with the lyre, God my God (Ps [43:3,4]); 10
God, within your temple we meditate on your steadfast love. God, the praise your name deserves is heard at earth’s farthest bounds (Ps 48:9, 10);
I am like a spreading olive tree in God’s house, for I trust in God’s faithful love for ever and ever. I shall praise you forever for what you have done, and glorify your name among your loyal servants, for that is good (Ps 52:8,9);
My heart is steadfast, God, my heart is steadfast. I shall sing and raise a psalm (Ps 57:7);
I shall raise a psalm to you, my strength; for God is my strong tower, [He] is my gracious God (Ps 59:17);
So I shall ever sing psalms in honour of your name as I fulfill my vows day after day (Ps 61:8);
With such longing I see you in the sanctuary and behold your power and glory. Your unfailing love is better than life; therefore, I will sing your praises. Thus all my life I bless you; in your name I lift my hands in prayer (Ps 63:2, 3);
Let all the earth acclaim God. Sing to the glory of [his] name, make [his] praise glorious. Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds!’ (Ps 66:1,2);
Your processions, God, come into view, the processions of my God, my King in the sanctuary; in front the singers, with minstrels following, and in their midst girls beating tambourines. Bless God in the great congregation; let the assembly of Israel bless יהוה (Ps 68:24–26);
Awesome is God in your sanctuary; [he] is Israel’s God. [He] gives might and power to [his] people. Praise be to God (Ps 68:35).
Book Three
Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock. Shine forth, as you sit enthroned on the cherubim. Leading Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, rouse your might and come to our rescue. God, restore us, and make your face shine on us, that we may be saved (Ps 80:1–3);
Sing out in praise of God our refuge, acclaim the God of Jacob. Raise a melody; beat the drum, play the tuneful lyre and harp (Ps 81:1,2);
יהוה of Hosts, how dearly loved is your dwelling-place! I pine and faint with longing for the courts of the temple of יהוה; my whole being cries out with joy to the living God (Ps 84:1,2);
יהוה teach me your way, that I may walk in your truth. Let me worship your name with an undivided heart. I shall praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart (Ps 86:11, 12);
The city of יהוה founded stands on the holy hills. [He] loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken about you, city of God (Ps 87:1–3).
Book Four
It is good to give thanks to יהוה, to sing praises to your name, Most High, to declare your love in the morning and your faithfulness every night to the music of a ten-stringed harp, to the sounding chords of the lyre (Ps 92:1–3);
Come! Let us raise a joyful song to יהוה, a shout of triumph to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into [his] presence with thanksgiving and sing psalms of triumph to [him] (Ps 95:1,2);
Enter in! Let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before יהוה who made us, for [he] is our God, we are the people [he] shepherds, the flock in [his] care (Ps 95:6,7);
Sing a new song to יהוה. Sing toיהוה, all the earth. Sing
