Psalms

Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching

James Luther Mays

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781611641431
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblischer Kommentar

Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

BOOK ONE

Psalms 1–41

Psalm 1: Delight in the Law

The Book of Psalms begins with a beatitude. Not a prayer or a hymn, but a statement about human existence. Here at the threshold of the Psalter we are asked to consider the teaching that the way life is lived is decisive for how it turns out. This opening beatitude also serves as an introduction to the book. Its location as the first psalm is not accidental; the psalm is there to invite us to read and use the entire book as a guide to a blessed life. It introduces an agenda of themes that recur frequently in the book and play a fundamental role in its theology. So the psalm needs to be interpreted at two levels: first as a psalm in its own right and then in its relation to the whole book.

1. Psalm 1 has the form of a complex beatitude. The form is composed of the formula, “Blessed (is) the one …,” followed by a word or a clause that identifies a kind of character or conduct: for instance, “Blessed the one who takes refuge in him” (34:8). Here in Psalm 1 the basic beatitude is “Blessed the one whose delight is in the law of the LORD.” One way to analyze the elaboration of this central statement is to note the pattern of contrast in the psalm. Verse 1 says what the blessed do not do, and verse 2 says what they do do. Verse 3 uses a long simile and a short statement to describe the good outcome of the life of the blessed. Verse 4 uses a brief contrasting simile, and verses 5–6 use a long concluding statement to describe the failed life of the wicked. Behind this pattern in the literary structure is the antithetical pair of righteous/wicked, though the righteous are not specifically mentioned until the concluding statement, because the psalm is designed to emphasize one thing as fundamental to the righteous—engagement with the law of the LORD. That is the central purpose of the psalm, to commend joyous and continuous concern with the law of the LORD. “Blessed” is the traditional translation of the saying’s formulaic word; contemporary translations prefer “happy” in order to distinguish these sayings from pronouncements of blessing that invoke the beneficent work of God on persons and groups. In blessings, the formulaic Hebrew term is baruk ; in beatitudes, ‘ashre. The primary difference is that the blessing invokes God’s beneficent support of life, while the beatitude points to and commends the conduct and character that enjoy it.

This opening beatitude is followed by others scattered through the Psalter. The next one comes at the end of Psalm 2, and with this one it forms an inclusion that binds the two psalms together as a double introduction to the book. In all, there are twenty-five such sayings in the Psalms, compared to eight in Proverbs. The beatitude seems to have been a favored literary form in post-exilic psalm composition. The subject of the psalmic beatitudes is the religious life, piety as enacted or enjoyed. They commend both obedience and trust. Their presence in the psalms is one evidence of the instructional purpose that informs psalmody in its later history. This first beatitude prompts the reader to think of the entire book as instruction for life and commends a kind of conduct that uses the Psalter in that way.

2. The commended conduct is constant reflective meditation on the “law” (torah) of the LORD that grows out of delight in it and concern for it. The basic meaning of the term torah is instruction, not legal rules and stipulations. Commandments and ordinances are called torah because they instruct. The term is used variously in the Old Testament for material that directs belief and conduct ranging from prophetic oracles (Isa. 1:10) to a version of the Book of Deuteronomy (Deut. 31:24). Here “torah of the LORD” is used in a comprehensive sense to refer to the whole body of tradition through which instruction in the way and the will of the LORD is given to Israel. This psalmist knows torah in the written form, Scripture that one can read and absorb (see Josh. 1:8). It is from this written torah that wisdom for the living of life can be gained. It is the medium from which one can learn the way and the will of the LORD and store up that learning in one’s heart so that it shapes the structure of consciousness (40:9; 37:31). This is the reason why torah is the cause of delight, not because it is an available instrument of self-righteousness, material for a program of self-justification, but because the LORD reaches, touches, and shapes the human soul through it. For this psalm, torah is a means of grace. Jeremiah 17:7–8 says, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD…. That one is like a tree planted by water.” When Psalm 1 replaces “trust in the LORD” with “delight in the LORD’s torah,” it is not to substitute confidence in the law and self. The psalmist trusts himself to torah as a discipline of entrusting life to the LORD. The psalm represents the prototype of Scripture piety that is part of the heritage of Judaism and Christianity.

As introduction to the book, Psalm 1 invites us to expect and receive torah from the psalms, that is, to read them as Scripture. The reader will come upon two other great witnesses to torah piety in Psalms 19 and 119. Scattered through the psalms are recurrent references to torah and its constituent elements and forms that show how fundamental it is to the religion the Psalter represents and nurtures. Indeed, Psalm 1 wants the whole to be read as instruction—instruction in prayer, in praise, in God’s way with us and our way under God. The division of the Book of Psalms into its five component books doubtless expresses the same view of the Psalter by giving it an analogous shape to that of the first five books of the biblical canon, which came to be called “the Torah” in Jewish tradition (Mays, “The Place of the Torah Psalms in the Psalter,” pp. 3–12).

3. The counterparts of those whose life is directed by the LORD’s instruction are the wicked. The psalm uses the opposing word pair “wicked/righteous” for pedagogical purposes. The terms are categories of discrimination that function as simple opposites, with no grading between the two and no ambiguity in either. But the categorical character of the terms does not imply that their use reckons with absolute moral righteousness or wickedness. The discrimen that determines which applies is theological. The issue is the relation of a pattern of living to the LORD, and in the psalm’s theology, life either is in the right with God or it is not. No partly righteous, no a-little-bit-wicked. Do life purpose and life performance confirm or deny the sovereign deity of the LORD? For the torah piety of this psalm, the central question is what directs life. If concern with and searching the revelation of the LORD informs and guides living, then one is in the right on this question. The wrong in the wicked lies in the fact that they offer another possibility. Their advice and path and position are their own. The direction given life by them expresses their sinfulness and cynicism. In their very autonomy they are wrong, and those who are guided by their torah are in the wrong with respect to the LORD’s torah (see Job 21:14). The psalm does not call those devoted to the LORD’s torah to withdraw from society into a defensive ghetto. What is to be avoided is not the wicked but their influence and effect on life. Jesus ate with sinners, but he did not follow their way. The psalmist does know about the power of socialization, so he warns against this corrupting effect.

The terms “wicked” and “righteous” are important elements of the psalmic vocabulary. They are used to characterize individuals and groups. The particular discrimen in question will differ, but always the basic criterion is the rightness or wrongness of one’s response to the reality and revelation of the LORD’s sovereign rule over human affairs. In the psalms the wicked play three principal roles. Their character and actions are described to warn against living that conflicts with the will of the LORD and to provide a background of contrast that sets the identity of the righteous in profile (e.g., 5:4–6, 9–10). They afflict the lowly, accuse the innocent, and undermine the trust of the faithful, and so constitute the distress from which the psalmists cry for deliverance (e.g., 3:7; 10:2; 11:2). In corporate form, they threaten the people of the LORD and put the course of the LORD’s providence in question (e.g., 9:5–6, 17). In all their roles the wicked represent the incongruence in the human world between the will of God and the will of human beings. Psalmic speech about them seems to simplify what could be understood as complex and ambiguous matters, but the necessity for faith to recognize the disastrous and tragic disparity between God and human beings gives this speech a significant grounding in God’s relation to the world.

4. Psalm 1 teaches that life is a journey through time; living chooses a particular route for existence. It uses the great biblical metaphor of the “way,” a road or path that one follows. Within all the individuality that particular lives express, there are ultimately only two ways for the journey to take, the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked (v. 6). The first way leads to the fulfillment of life, depicted by the favorite simile of a tree that bears fruit (v. 3). That way is incorporated in the providence of God (v. 6a), because it follows the direction given through the torah of the LORD. The fulfillment is not so much a reward as a result of life’s connection with the source of life. The second way is really an illusion. It has no more substance than chaff that the wind drives away (v. 4) and no future among the righteous who are vindicated by the judging of God, who watches over human life. The wicked are grounded and guided within themselves, a way that has no connection with the source of life. That way will perish. Let the readers understand and ask in what way their feet are set.

The first psalm teaches without qualification that each way has its distinctive destiny. The claim is the claim of faith, not experience. It will be reiterated at other points in the psalms (e.g., Psalm 37). But it will also be qualified in many ways. The prayers testify that the righteous meet affliction rather than fulfillment in life. Some psalms wrestle with the enigma of the prosperity and power of the wicked (e.g., Psalm 73). A few perceive that only the forgiveness of God can sustain life because of the sinfulness of the human condition (e.g., Psalm 130). Almost certainly verse 5 came to be understood in the light of apocalyptic eschatology like that of Daniel (see Daniel 7; 12) as a reference to a vindicating judgment beyond this life. Nevertheless, qualified in all these ways, the doctrine endures and is heard again in the New Testament from another teacher who uses beatitudes and warns that the outcome of life depends on one’s guidance by his torah (Matthew 5–7). “Blessed,” he says, “are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28).

Psalm 2: This Is My Son

The second psalm is paired with the first as a double introduction to the Psalter. Psalm 1 addresses the question of individual life faced with the problem of wickedness in society; its answer for faith is the instruction of the LORD as the guide to the fulfilled life. Psalm 2 addresses the question of the community of faith faced with the problems of a history made by nations contending for power; its word to faith is the announcement of the messiah into whose power God will deliver the nations. The second psalm is a poetic speech by the messiah. It is the only text in the Old Testament that speaks of God’s king, messiah, and son in one place, the titles so important for the presentation of Jesus in the Gospels. Its exposition can serve as an introduction to the other psalms whose subject is God’s king (18; 20; 21; 45; 72; 89; 110; 144). After we look at the psalm itself, we will consider its setting and use in Israel’s religion, its theology, its role and meaning in the context of the Book of Psalms, and its use as Scripture in the New Testament.

1. The structure. Psalm 2 is composed of four easily recognizable parts. The first part, verses 1–3, is an exclamation in the form of a long rhetorical question. It expresses astonishment at the rebellion of the nations and their kings against the dominion of the LORD and his anointed. A quotation dramatizes their purpose. The second part, verses 4–6, describes the scorn and wrath with which the LORD, the heavenly king, responds. A quotation announces the action the king of heaven has taken to meet the revolt of the kings of earth; the LORD has installed his own king on his holy mount. In the third part, verses 7–9, the king reports the content of a decree that records the identity and dominion that the LORD has granted him. He has been made son of the LORD by the LORD’s fathering that very day and has been promised universal dominion and power to achieve it. Then, in the fourth part, verses 10–12, the rulers of earth are exhorted to submit to the LORD’s kingship. They are offered an alternative to his punishing wrath against all who defy his rule. The psalm is concluded by a beatitude that commends those who take refuge in the LORD.

The subject of the psalm is apparent in its structure. It is concerned in all four parts with the relation between the kingdom of the LORD and the kingdoms of the earth and their rulers. The psalm deals with the question of power. Where does power to control the powers at work in world history ultimately reside? The thesis of the psalm is that the answer is given in the messiah, the son of God to whom the sovereign of heaven has given the right and power to rule the world.

2. The context of Israel’s religion. The stupendous and sweeping thesis of the psalm poses a question about its central figure. Who in Israel was the son of God to whom world dominion is given by the LORD of the universe? How was the psalm used and who spoke in it? The conclusion of Old Testament scholarship is that the psalm was composed for use by a Davidic king of Judah on the occasion of his installation. Psalm 2 is one of the royal psalms, so called because their text clearly indicates that they concern rituals and ceremonies for the king. It is the first of a number that belong to the proceedings of the inauguration of a king, or perhaps to a festival celebrating that inauguration (110; 72; 101). We know something of the importance and proceedings of putting a person in a position of power from the installation of officials in our time—presidents, bishops, judges, and others. Such occasions and their ceremonies are historical descendants of the inauguration of kings in the ancient world. In that world and culture, the king was the preeminent person. He had a special relation to the gods, and it was through their relation to the king that the gods dealt with the nation or people in certain ways. He was the agent of defense, justice, and welfare (see Psalm 72). Power was mediated through him. The language and the rituals of installation were based on and expressed this view of the king. They were adopted and adapted for the sacral ceremony centering on the king in the Jerusalem temple along with the rise and development of monarchy in Israel. Many of the elements of Psalm 2 correspond to features of royal ritual and liturgy in the surrounding nations, especially that of Egypt. The notions that the king was created or selected by the deity, was given special names, titles, and identities in sacred actions, was granted universal dominion, and was endowed with the prowess to establish it over nations and defend it against enemies are common to ancient Near Eastern royal literature (see Keel, pp. 243f.).

In interpreting Psalm 2 and its companion royal psalms, we must remember that this way of believing and speaking about the king had a specific social location where it had its meaning and function. Its subject is the relation between God and king. It is really more about God than about the king. It is confessional, formulaic, poetic, and ideal. It transcends human existence and human history. It is not the language of actual or practical politics or government, nor is it individual or biographical. Israel had other ways of talking and believing about kings and kingship that are present in narrative, law, and prophecy. The idiom found in the psalms was used to express faith in what the LORD, the God of Israel, was working out through the office of the Davidic kingship. The office, not the individual or the particular historical situation, was its theme.

3. The theology of office. Psalm 2 seems designed to serve as the public proclamation of the king before the audience gathered for his installation. In it he declared the significance of his kingship for the other nations and their rulers. Though it is at its conclusion rhetorically addressed to these other rulers, it was an interpretation of his office for his own court and people.

The basic assertion is that the king’s installation is a divine act. The entire process of his designation and inauguration was a sacred enactment of the choice of the LORD who had installed him on the holy mount. On the double election of the king as the LORD’s earthly regent and the holy hill of Zion as God’s capitol, see the comment on Psalm 132. The two titles, “his anointed” and “my son,” are symbols of the divine choice. Anointing was a ritual of designation and endowment. Consecrated oil was poured from a sacred horn onto the head by a representative of God. The importance of the rite in selecting a king seems to have been unique in Israel. The representative of God was traditionally a prophet. The designated one was called “the anointed” (Heb. mashiach; Gr. messias, christos). “The anointed” was the principal royal title in Judah; it is found in narrative as well as psalms (e.g., I Sam. 10:1; 12:3; Ps. 18:50; 20:6).

“You are my son” (v. 7) is the only appearance of “son” as title of the Davidic king in the psalms. It is the ritual counterpart to the prophetic promise, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son,” given to David in II Samuel 7:14 (see its echoes in I Chron. 17:13; 22:10; 28:6). In Psalm 2 the king is re...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Interpretation
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Series Preface
• Preface
• Contents
• Introduction
• Book One: Psalms 1–41
• Book Two: Psalms 42–72
• Book Three: Psalms 73–89
• Book Four: Psalms 90–106
• Book Five: Psalms 107–150
• Selected Bibliography