Psalms Through the Centuries, Volume 3. Susan Gillingham

to the pre-existent Christ who achieved such salvation ‘in the midst of the earth’ through the womb of a Virgin, by his incarnation.³⁷ *Cassiodorus read ‘God my King’ in the same verse also as a reference to Christ, and verse 13 (‘you divided the sea by your might’ as not only an allusion to the crossing of the Red Sea but also a prefiguring of Jesus’ Baptism, when the water was purified by ‘breaking the power of the heads of the dragons’ (unclean spirits), also in verse 13.³⁸

The *Utrecht Psalter (fol. 42r) connects verse 12 with the incarnation. Here we see an image of the birth of Christ, and two midwives are bathing the Christ Child in the presence of Mary and Joseph; at the bottom of the image the sea is writhing with serpents.³⁹ The same interpretation is captured more clearly in the related *Eadwine Psalter (fol. 128v), as seen in Plate 1.

An example of an image of baptism is found in the historiated initial letter for Psalm 74 in the *St Albans Psalter. The image is of a haloed Christ, with a hammer, slaying a dragon held by a figure personifying the waters.⁴⁰

Visual exegesis in the Byzantine tradition, with its propensity for anti-Jewish polemic, focusses neither on the incarnation nor on Jesus’ baptism but on the cross. Both the *Khludov and *Pantokrator Psalters (fol. 82v and fol. 98r respectively) use this image.⁴¹ The illustration next to verse 12 depicts Jerusalem at the centre of the cosmos (referring back to verse 2: ‘Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell’) but the image is also of Christ on the cross outside the city, with Mary and John on the right, and a figure (apparently a Jew) stabbing with a spear at the cross. This is a statement against both Judaism, which denied the passion of Christ, and Islam, denying Christ actually died on the cross. The reference in verse 9 (‘we do not see our emblems.,’) is read as the refusal to see the cross, specifically the ‘emblem’ of the Greek letter Tau, as pertaining to Christ. A similar image is also found in the *Theodore Psalter (fol. 96r).⁴²

      These different illustrations also reveal the use of the psalm in various forms of Christian liturgy: at Christmas in the western churches, at Easter in the eastern churches, and at Epiphany in both traditions when the Baptism of Christ was commemorated.

      An interesting musical association of this psalm with Christmas is found in J. S. *Bach’s ‘Gott ist mein König’, composed in 1708 for an annual church service in Mühlhausen. Parts I and IV were based on Psalm 74, verses 12 and 16: God in Christ has been born as a King, working salvation from of old.

Poetic reception has responded especially to the grief expressed in this psalm. Mary *Sidney, for example, compares the destruction of the Temple (verses 4–7) with the destruction of a forest, thus circumventing the difficult Hebrew in these verses and maintaining a sense of urgency through her use of rhyme and rhythm:⁴³

      As men with axe on arm

      To some thick forest swarm,

      To lop the trees which stately stand:

      They to thy temple flock,

      And spoiling, cut and knock

      The curious works of carving hand.

A late twentieth-century Jewish perspective which takes up the same theme of grief and bereavement is Laurance *Wieder’s ‘Why always angry, O God?’: here we see many connections with the post-Holocaust reflections by *Buber on Psalm 73 previously.⁴⁴

      Why always angry, God? Why smoke against us and inhale

      Sacrifices? Zion’s rubble. Temple hacked

      To splinters, they burn children with their teachers…

      You taught us, now deliver us

      From those who worship templed darkness. Look,

      We blush for you, your name,

      Though we are poor, and weak, and strangers roar.

It does seem as if the integrity of the psalm as a whole is best understood when it is attuned to the perspective of the Jewish people. As a recent Jewish commentator observes, it is as if ‘Asaph’ asks throughout this psalm why God has abandoned his people for eternity; when the Holy One responds that they have abandoned him (Hos. 8:2), the people reply that the Holy One’s reputation will be imperilled if he does not save them. The Shepherd of Israel comes to protect, not to destroy (verse 1).⁴⁵

      Psalm 75: God’s Abode is in Zion (i)

Psalm 75 contains an additional title ‘Do not destroy’, showing a link made by the editors with ‘Do not forget’ in the last verse of Psalm 74. Psalm 75 has several associations with 1 Sam. 2:1–10, the Song of Hannah (which also refers to insolent talk, to the arrogant horn, to the world on pillars, and to God casting down and lifting up) although the direction of borrowing is difficult to ascertain. The psalm can be divided up into the following strophes: verse 1 is a hymn, verses 2–5 appear to be a divine oracle, verses 6–8 are a prophetic-like judgement speech by the psalmist, verse 9 is another hymn, and verse 10 suggests another oracle where God speaks through the psalmist.⁴⁶ These prophetic elements have played an important part in the psalm’s reception history, as also have three vivid metaphors: the world being shaken on its pillars (verse 3), the cup of foaming wine (verse 8) and the horns of the wicked (verses 4, 5 and 10). The second of these has been particularly potent in Christian interpretation, as will be seen below.

The only pertinent addition in the *Septuagint which changes the tenor of the psalm is the reference to the ‘boastful’ in verse 4, who are now the ‘violators of the law’, reflecting the debates about the authority of the Torah in later Judaism. *Targum makes other changes: verse 1 (Heb. v. 2) is expanded to read, somewhat typically, ‘the *Shekinah of your name’ and the references to ‘east and west’ in verse 6 are expanded to include ‘the north, the place of wilderness’ and ‘the south, the place of the mountains’. These changes suggest a greater sense of God’s transcendence and hence power over the entire cosmos. The most significant addition is in *Midrash Tehillim: the reference to the ‘horns’ in verse 10 (Heb. v. 11) is seen to allude to the ‘ten horns’ in Jewish tradition (of Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Samuel, Aaron, the Sanhedrin, Heman the Levite, Jerusalem, the King Messiah, and David the King to come). This is seen as a messianic reference to the coming king (also using Hannah’s Song in 1 Sam. 2:10), soon to become the light of the world (Ps. 132:17).⁴⁷

As was seen in Psalm 75, the main tenor in Jewish commentary tradition is to read this psalm from the viewpoint of a community still in exile: hence, according to *Rashi and *Kimḥi, for example, ‘the righteous’ in verse 10 (Heb. v. 11) are Israel, the people of God.⁴⁸ The ‘cup of foaming wine’ (verse 8 (Heb. v. 9)) is the one which Israel has been compelled to drink from first (Isa. 51:17) but when the exile is at an end Israel’s enemies will then be forced to drink it.⁴⁹ Not surprisingly the psalm is one of those recited throughout the day the week before *Rosh HaShanah.

In Christian reception this ‘cup’ had a very different connotation. *Cassiodorus focusses on the reference in verse 8 to the wine being ‘well mixed’, and notes that the Jews had the ‘unmixed wine’ of the old covenant, whilst the Christians possessed the ‘mixed wine’ of the old and new covenants; this is actually an attack on the *Manicheans, whom Cassiodorus saw as having only the ‘unmixed wine’ of the New Testament, in their rejection of much of the Old, and so as guilty of false religion as the Jews.⁵⁰ This interpretation does not seem to fit the context of judgement on the wicked in the rest of the verse; hence a different reading might be to read verses 8 and 9 together, so that the Cup is of the Passion of Christ; verse 8 is thus about judgement on the Jews and verses 9–10 are a reference to Christ’s kingdom, achieved through his drinking the cup to its dregs.⁵¹ This association of the ‘cup’ with the passion of Christ has resulted in this psalm being frequently used on Maundy Thursday. As with Psalm 74, Christian reception of this psalm is more optimistic than Jewish reception.