Psalms Through the Centuries, Volume 3. Susan Gillingham

Читать онлайн.
Название Psalms Through the Centuries, Volume 3
Автор произведения Susan Gillingham
Жанр Религия: прочее
Серия
Издательство Религия: прочее
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781119542261



Скачать книгу

contrast, the *St Albans Psalter encloses the illuminated letter ‘D’ (‘Domine Deus salutis meae die’) with an image of the psalmist drowning beneath the waves, surrounded by four fish. This is a very different illustration of verses 4–7, and it is of the psalmist praying to Christ: ‘I spread out my hands to you’ (verse 9). Christ, flanked by two other figures, leans over to listen. Though a different reading, this psalm somehow still evokes hope.

      This is one of the few psalms whose reception really wrestles with unanswered personal questions about the character of God: in Christian tradition, the questions are about the extent to which God in Christ suffers with and for his people, and in Jewish tradition, the questions are about his justice and power to ‘restore’ his people.

      Psalm 89: Remembering the Covenant with David

      Early Jewish reception of Psalm 89 nevertheless contrasts more starkly the two parts of Psalm 89: on the positive side of the covenant made with David (verses 1–4; 5–18; 19–37), and on the negative aspects of that covenant having been broken (verses 38–51). The *Septuagint makes some interesting changes to the prominence of the king, often applying to the whole people what was once intended to refer to the king. For example, in verse 40 (Eng. v. 39) the Hebrew speaks of the king’s ‘crown’ (nezer) being profaned; the Greek text, interested in the fate of Jerusalem, reads this as ‘the holy sanctuary’ (hagiasma) which has been defiled.

      *Targum traces the history of this psalm back beyond David to Abraham (who in Jewish tradition is often seen as the composer of the psalm). Of its title, we read ‘Good insight, which was spoken by Abraham who came from the east’. This translates ‘Ezrahite’ as ‘from the east’ and ‘Ethan’ as ‘he came’. One other feature in Targum is the reinterpretation of mythological details: for example, the ‘heavenly beings’ in verse 7 (Eng. v. 6) are now ‘angels’; the reference in verse 11 (Eng. v. 10) to God crushing Rahab, the mythological dragon, is now also a reference to ‘Pharaoh, the wicked one’. The most telling reference, because it has an eye not only on the end of the monarchy after the Babylonian exile but on the end of the Temple itself, is verse 45 (Eng. v. 44). Rather like the Greek transformation of verse 40 (Eng. v. 39), 89:45 (Eng. v. 44) now reads: ‘You have caused the priests who sprinkle upon the altar and cleanse his people to cease…’ This is a bitter tale of exile, from Abraham to David, and from David to the loss of the Temple in the present day.

      This psalm was used to speak of Jesus as the ‘anointed one’ as early as New Testament times; he becomes the means of God continuing to ‘remember’ the covenant made with David. In Peter’s first speech in Acts 2:25–36, Ps. 89:4–5 is one of four psalms to be used to show that Jesus is even greater than David, for he alone has risen from the dead. In Paul’s speech in Acts 13:17–41, Ps. 89:20 is adapted, along with Pss. 2:7 and 16:10, to argue that Jesus is the Messiah.