V. The Psalter As A Collection: Development And Design
A. Development
The amazing work we call “The Book of Psalms” represents the product of a long and complex process of inspiration, worship, composition, collection, and editing, a process of which we are poorly informed. Some clues do surface in the anthology, but many questions remain.
For instance, the present compilation clearly incorporates earlier smaller collections. Four collections of psalms of David, which may originally have been a single “Davidic psalter,” presently stand in the Psalter: Pss 3-41 (possibly excluding Ps 33), the major Davidic psalter, along with Pss 51-70 (excluding 66-67), Pss 108-10, and 136-45. Only seven Davidic psalms stand outside these groups (Pss 86, 101, 103, 122, 124, 131, 133). Ps 72:20 reads, “This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse,” and shows awareness of such Davidic collections, calling these psalms “prayers.”
Two collections of the psalms of Korah appear, Pss 42-49 (perhaps except Ps 43) and 84-88 (excluding Ps 86). The psalms of Asaph now stand as Pss 73-83. Beyond these collections grouped by authorship or archival attribution, the Songs of Ascent (Pss 120-34) form an obvious set, apparently related to pilgrimage or procession. Finally two Hallel collections, the “Egyptian Hallel” (Pss 113-18), traditionally associated with Passover observance, and Pss 146-50 take their name from the exhortation “Hallelujah,” i.e., “Praise Yahweh,” which figures prominently in both. This rubric opens or closes Pss 113-18 (excluding Ps 114), and both opens and closes the final five songs of the psalter.
These smaller collections along with other psalms are now compiled in five “books”: Book 1, 1-41; Book 2, 42-72; Book 3, 73-89; Book 4, 90-106; and Book 5, 107-50. Books 1-4 each conclude with a doxology, 41:13 (MT v.14); 72:19; 89:52 (MT v. 53); and 106:48, e.g.,
Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
106:48
The final Hallel forms the climactic doxology for Book 5 and the entire collection.
Repeated psalms and psalms composed by combining other works in the Psalter give additional clues to the growth of the Psalter. Ps 14 is nearly identical to Ps 53, except Ps 53 has been edited to increase the use of the divine name Elohim and reduce the occurrence of the name Yahweh. Ps 40:13-17 appears again as Ps 70. Pss 57:7-11 and 60:5-12 are combined to produce Ps 108. In these cases originally independent psalms found their way into collections now joined in the Psalter, and/or material from previous collections has been edited for inclusion in still another.
Perhaps the most striking evidence of editorial activity in the Psalms is the thoroughgoing revision of Pss 42-83 to reduce use of the divine name Yahweh, replacing it with Elohim, as noted regarding Pss 14 and 53 above. In Book 1 the name Yahweh occurs 272 times and Elohim 15 times (standing alone). In Books 4 and 5 again the name Yahweh predominates. But Pss 41-72 and 73-83 show just the reverse preference, with occurrences of Elohim outnumbering Yahweh 200 to 43, or 5 to 1! These data suggest the deliberate formation of an “Elohistic psalter,” perhaps edited in a period when public or perhaps even private use of the name Yahweh was unacceptable, or where Elohim was at least preferred (cf. Chronicles). Such a revision, it seems, would have followed the gathering of Davidic psalms (51-65, 68-70) and those of Korah (42-49) and Asaph (50, 73-83) but may have preceded the formation of Books 2 and 3 whose boundary that revision now spans. There is obviously much concerning all this and the rest of the process about which we simply do not have adequate information. At some point the materials were given their final shape, with the whole collection given the design we now have before us.
B. Design
Does the book of Psalms have a “design”? Until recently scholars despaired of discerning the editorial design of the Psalter, if indeed it was arranged according to a plan. The repeated suggestion that the five “books” of the Psalter were intended to correlate with or somehow reflect the five books of Moses simply fails for lack of convincing evidence and the need to force what evidence there is to fit the desired patterns. The designation of the Psalter as “Israel’s Hymnbook” conjured the idea of a work from which one picks and chooses, without much thought to overall design.
Recent Psalms research has called attention to two phenomena that hold promise for answering the puzzle. First, the introduction (Ps 1) and centerpiece (Ps 119) of the Psalms transform the entire work into a resource for individual piety, specifically “Torah piety” (Mays, 4, 12). Placed without superscription at the outset, Ps 1 places the following psalms in the category of Torah in which the righteous person delights and meditates day and night (1:2). By this a person is distinguished from the ungodly and opens the door to the blessing of Yahweh 1:1, 3-6). By its sheer size and unusual design, Ps 119 stands as the pillar of the collection, dominating especially the concluding books. It gathers from a wide spectrum of previous biblical teaching forms and sources and presses them all into the service of a prayer for the salvation of the one who loves and lives Torah, not just the Law of Moses, but all the “way of the Lord.” So the psalms as we have them are not simply songs to be sung or recited in worship, though they have continued to be that in both the synagogue and in early Christian worship (Mk 14:26; Eph 5:19; Col 3:16). They are profound resources of prayer, meditation, and reflection on the full set of agendas raised by the Psalter regarding the Lord, his will, his world, and his people.
This transformation of the Psalms from a collection of liturgical pieces to a Torah anthology correlates well with the omission of extensive liturgical notes from these poems. Regardless of the source of scattered individual poems, the psalms have obviously come to us through the worshiping community by way of the temple archives (note “For the director of music” on 55 psalms). That we have the few remnants of that liturgical history catalogued in the superscriptions above (see Ps. 0:5-Ps. 0:8) is not remarkable. That we do not have more is the striking thing, as is the fact that what remains has been transmitted in ways totally useless for liturgical direction, already obscure to the translators of the LXX, Jews living centuries before Christ. Such an introduction, centerpiece, and editing policy hint at design.
Second, Gerald Wilson (The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter, particularly 139-228) has, in this writer’s opinion, demonstrated that the final editors of the Psalter used the superscriptions, especially the author and genre notation (as well as the lack of superscription) together with thematic considerations, to group materials according to an overall editorial plan. In addition to the fact that the whole corpus is put before the reader as a resource of Torah piety with its introductory frame and pillar, the editors have tackled the OT community’s most staggering question and provided an answer applicable to all persons of all times, “Our God reigns!”
The theological problem driving the Psalter’s design appears to be kingship, the issue raised by Ps 2. In fact, it is possible that Ps 2 should be thought of as linked with Ps 1 as part of the introduction (Pss 1 and 2 both seem to be set apart from Book 1 by lack of superscription and are perhaps intended to be at least loosely tied together by the inclusio of blessing, 1:1; 2:11.) The Psalter’s first unit, after Ps 1, opens with the “proclamation of [Yahweh’s] special covenant with his king in Ps 2” and closes with “David’s assurance of God’s continued preservation in the presence of [Yahweh]” (Wilson, 210), a theme extended through Book 2. Book 3 with its startling conclusion (Ps 89) turns to the crushing problem inherent in the history of Israel’s kingship—the failure of the eternal covenant with David.
You have rejected . . .
You have been very angry with your anointed one.
You have renounced the covenant with your servant . .
.
You have broken through all his walls . . .
You have exalted the right hand of his foes . . .
You have turned back the edge of his sword . . .
You have put an end to his splendor . . .
89:38-40, 42-44
To this staggering loss and agony of the Exile and Restoration communities, Books 4 and 5 give answer. Pss 90-106, in Wilson’s opinion, “function as the editorial ‘center’” of the present Psalter, the heart of the answer to the problem posed in Ps 89 (Wilson, 215). Elaborated throughout Books 4 and 5, these psalms present a four-pronged answer to the Exile and Restoration community’s plight: (1) Yahweh’s kingship, (2) his ancient and enduring faithfulness to Israel, (3) the faith that he will continue as their refuge now, and (4) the blessing of those who trust Yahweh (Wilson, 215). Now the Psalter develops the splendor and universal scope of Yahweh’s eternal kingship, concluding in a symphony of praise (Pss 145-50) to this One who reigns forever (Ps 146:10). The design of the Psalter was produced by arranging groups of material and juxtaposing individual songs and previous collections with various themes and emphases. Such a work cannot proceed with the precise and economic logic of a theological essay like Romans. But the movement and design appear to be there nevertheless, and they yield to those who “meditate in it day and night.”
In it all an astounding transformation has taken place under the inspiration of God’s Spirit. In spite of the fact that we often read the Psalter as though we were reading the ancient temple or synagogue’s full book of liturgy, it is not so. We have no such documents. We do have words that in many, if not most, cases originated in the cult or passed through the cult. They are prayers, praises, and doxologies—the words of worshipers to their God. But these poems no longer stand in a primarily liturgical collection, a simple anthology of psalms. They are “The Psalms,” standing in Scripture as God’s holy Word. Indeed, “Israel’s words of response to her God have now become the Word of God to Israel”—and to God’s people of all times and places (Wilson, 206).