when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of יהוה (Ps 122:1);
I lift my eyes to you whose throne is in heaven (Ps 123:1);
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so יהוה surrounds [his] people both now and evermore (Ps 125:2);
When יהוה restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like people renewed in health (Ps 126:1);
Unless יהוה builds the house, its builders labour in vain (Ps 127:1);
Happy are all who fear יהוה, who conform to [his] ways (Ps 128:1);
The blessing of יהוה be on you! We bless you in the name of יהוה (Ps 129:8);
For יהוה is love unfailing, and great is [his] power to deliver (Ps 130:7);
Israel, hope in יהוה, now and for evermore (Ps 131:3);
Arise, יהוה, and come to your resting-place, you and your powerful Ark (Ps 132:8);
Lift up your hands towards the sanctuary and bless יהוה, may יהוה, maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion! (Ps 134:2,3).
Fourteen, the Davidic dynasty, too, came to be seen as the agent of God’s designs and the bearer of God’s promises. For the ancient cultures of the world of the Hebrew Bible, the king or ruler–the sovereign—was commonly viewed as embodying the presence of the divinity being worshiped. It is not surprising therefore that with important modifications reflecting Israel’s faith in the divine mystery, the nation’s royal line is celebrated in several psalms as having received a kind of divine adoption:
I shall announce the decree of יהוה: ‘You are my son,’ he said to me; ‘this day I become your father. Ask of me what you will; I shall give you the nations as your domain, the earth to its farthest ends as your possession (Ps 2:7);
יהוה, the king rejoices in your might: well may he exult in your victory (Ps 21:1);
God has enthroned you for all eternity; your royal sceptre is a sceptre of equity. . . . I shall declare your fame through all generations; therefore, nations will praise you for ever and ever (Ps 45:6f.);
I shall establish your line for ever; I shall make your throne endure for all generations (Ps 89:4);
יהוה says to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies my footstool’ (Ps 110:1).
Fifteen, there is the height of irony and ambiguity which attaches to the biblical tradition since the kings and their officials were often the very oppressors of the people. This oppression by the kings of Yhwh brought the continued judgment of the prophets—and Yhwh! It was only when the Davidic line no longer ruled in postexilic times that this theme could more fully establish itself as part of the nation’s confession of faith and hope. During this period, the theme of God’s kingship over all creation emerged-
Sing a new song to יהוה. Sing to יהוה, all the earth. Sing to יהוה and bless [his] name; day by day proclaim [his] victory (Ps 96:1, 2);
יהוה has become king; let the peoples tremble; יהוה is enthroned on the cherubim; let the earth shake. יהוה is great in Zion; [he] is exalted above all the peoples (Ps 99:1,2);
It is good to give thanks to יהוה, to sing psalms to your name, Most High, to declare your love in the morning and your faithfulness every night (Ps 92:1,2).
Israel’s self-understanding of its covenant with יהוה was beginning to extend to all the world. This is one of the Psalter’s greatest legacies. The various poets of the ancient psalms are of one mind. This is all the more amazing when one remembers that we are dealing with many texts, some of which are separated by nearly a millennium of history—from oral transmission, to their composition, to final editing and reception into the Hebrew biblical canon.
The little nation of Israel, which entered the world of the great religions of the Near East as a novice, had, with its faith in the one, true God, unflinchingly made its way against the primitive traditions of its environment. It took up many various themes from the other religions, but it fused them all and made them useful to its avowal that only this one God existed and that he alone was the Lord. Here again it becomes clear how much the history of Israel’s religion is our history. We stand quite obviously on this ground which Israel had created in its encounter with the other religions.11
There is a unanimity of purposeful reflection, theologically, throughout the various texts of the Psalter. One common and unifying theme is the idea of God as refuge, whereby the individual poet expresses an inherent trustingness toward יהוה; this is an abiding astonishment 12 to the poets and the following section serves to illustrate this phenomenon.
1. The following biblical citations are taken from the REB, The Revised English Bible (1992). I have inserted the Hebrew script יהוה for “LORD.” I am particularly indebted to William P. Brown, Seeing the Psalms: A Theology of Metaphor (2002) for the arrangement and discourse of some of the themes treated in this section.
2. Note: I choose the terms history, historic and historicity, when referring to the Bible, very cautiously. The Bible is not essentially a book of history though it does tell the story of salvation by יהוה assuming a human historical context. For instance, when Israel rejoices in Yahweh’s intervention in the event of the Exodus, the writers are relying on the memory of Yahweh’s objective action in history as it is remembered by Israel’s story-tellers. The Exodus story of her deliverance is recounted down to the present day and marks the regenerative continuance of Israel’s own unique experience of God’s mighty acts, retold in history, in time, from generation to generation. cf. Walter Brueggemann in Abiding Astonishment, writes: “Israel’s normative response to Yahweh’s rescuing fidelity is one of praise and gratitude. Gratitude (hodu) sets the parameters of Israel’s life with God, and there is in Israel a great deal for which to be grateful. Gratitude stands at the beginning and the end of Israel’s life.” 18
3. Harkness, The Providence of God. “God remains Lord of all that [He] has made. This is stated with marvelous beauty and power in the nature poetry of the Psalms, but it is implied throughout the whole Bible . . . and this is basic to our own understanding of God’s wonderful works . . . the biblical writers were not tempted to devise ideas of a deistic intervention . . . they saw the immanent presence of the transcendent God throughout [His] world.” 159.
4. Eaton, The Psalms: A Spiritual and Historical Commentary, “The faithful person turns to prayer and also witnesses to the good way, where there is awe of God, turning from sin, stillness and meditation, worship that finds and holds to God, and above all, trust in [him]. In such trust the psalmist concludes, confident that the Lord in [his] own time will fill the heart again with rejoicing, and make [his] peace known in every danger.” 72.
5. Brown, Seeing the Psalms, “. . . the metaphor of ‘refuge’ bears not only salvific weight, namely, blessing and protection, but also moral import. God’s refuge constitutes both home and destiny for the righteous, and seeking refuge connotes trust in and allegiance to YHWH to the exclusion of things that do not warrant ultimate reliance, from
