Theological Themes of Psalms. Robert D. Bell

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      Arrangement of Psalms into Five Books

      The edition of the book of Psalms that has providentially come down to us has been divided into five groups, known as “books.”¹⁶ Robertson has presented charts in color to indicate how the books advance the themes introduced in Psalms 1 and 2, thus indicating the significance of these books for theology.¹⁷ My work on themes in Psalms, therefore, has given some attention to these divisions (especially, statistically). Table P.5 lists the psalms, verses, and Hebrew words in each of the five books. Many of the statistical tables in the following chapters of this volume have double lines to indicate the Psalm book divisions.

      Table P.5 The Five Books in Psalms

Books	Psalms	Verses	Words
I	1-41	616 (25.03%)	5097 (26.75%)
II	42-72 (31)	465 (18.89%)	3838 (20.14%)
III	73-89 (17)	358 (14.55%)	2689 (14.11%)
IV	90-106 (17)	321 (13.04%)	2411 (12.65%)
V	107-150 (44)	701 (28.48%)	5020 (26.34%)
totals:	150	2461	19,055

      Note that in this book theology Psalm commentaries are referenced only by last name and page number. Their bibliography information is listed above in the last section of Abbreviations (Bibliography of Commentaries). Scripture translations not identified in this book are from the King James Version (KJV) or are the author’s own very literal translations. The context will generally identify the latter cases (by the use of “literally”). Since Hebrew words are spelled out in the Masoretic script, the transliterations that usually follow are intended only to provide an approximate pronunciation and do not indicate a letter for letter match with the Hebrew; thus some Hebrew letters are not distinguished from each other (for example, both ט and some תs are transliterated as “t”). Both א and ע are treated as silent but indicated by single quote marks (distinguished as ’ for א and ‘ for ע). The velar fricative ח is indicated by “kh.”

      1

      Speech

      Theology is the study of God. It is thus appropriate for a book theology to focus on Him. In Psalms His personal name, Yahweh (usually indicated in English translations by “Lord”),¹⁸ occurs 689 times (not counting 6x in the Psalm titles). Additionally, there are five common titles used for Yahweh in Psalms: God (אֱלֹהִים, ’Elowhiym; 351x), another Hebrew word for God (אֵל, ’Eyl; 68x), Lord (אֲדֹנָי, ’Adownay; 63x), a shortened form of Yahweh, Yah (יָהּ, Yah; 43x), and Most High (עֶלְיוֹן, ’Elyown; 21x).¹⁹ Table A1.3 lists some titles that occur just a few times in Psalms, including the verses where Yahweh or God is connected to the armies of heaven (“Lord of hosts,” KJV). Thus God is mentioned by name or title well over 1200 times. If we include all the references to Him by means of pronouns, then there are well over 2500 cases where something is being said about God. Every single psalm mentions Him at least once.²⁰

      But what does the book of Psalms say about God? When we open our Bible, a truth that jumps out for us right in the very beginning is that God has spoken. We get to the third verse of the first book, and we find the simple words, “And God said” (Gen. 1:3a). As we proceed through this collection of books, we find this claim repeated thousands of times. Although we tend to think of Psalms as a book that records what the saints have said to God in prayer or to each other for instruction or encouragement, the fact is that in at least 29 passages we find direct quotations from God recorded for us. The human authors of the psalms claim that God said something and they wrote it down.

      The doctrine of inspiration (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:19–21) teaches that all Scripture is God’s word; therefore, direct quotations of God or Christ are not more inspired or authoritative than the rest of Scripture. When the New Testament quotes the Old Testament as Scripture, it does not distinguish between direct quotations of God and the remainder of the texts that Moses and the prophets wrote. The claim of the Bible is that what the Holy Spirit inspired the prophets and apostles to write is truly God’s very word. Since there are no quotation marks in the original manuscripts, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between Christ’s very words and the apostles’ declarations in the Gospels.²¹ In the Old Testament the distinction is not always clear between God’s direct speech and the prophets’ written inspired statements.²² This is also the case sometimes in Psalms. Thus what follows is not making a claim of superiority for the quotations of God over the psalmists’ words, which the Holy Spirit inspired.

      Cases of Divine Speech

      It is common to find copies of the Bible where the words of Jesus Christ are printed in red. What is rare, however, is to see a Bible in which all God’s direct quotations appear in the color red. In 1980 under the title The King James Bible Red Lettered, a little-known edition of the Authorized Version appeared that met the challenge.²³ Table 1.1 lists the references in Psalms for these quotations from the 2001 edition. The double lines in the table indicate the book divisions in Psalms; notice that each of the five books has about the same number of quotes. As this edition acknowledges,²⁴ there are difficulties identifying these because the original text does not use quotation marks and 14 of the 29 are not formally introduced. In these cases an interpreter has to make a judgment based on pronoun usage that indicates that God is directly speaking. What we find are first-person pronouns (I, Me, My) that cannot be referring to the psalmist author.

      Many of these cases are fairly obvious with general agreement that God must be speaking: for example, 46:10 (“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted ….); 50:7–15 (“Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God .…”); 89:3–4 (“I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant …”). Several other cases, however, call for special comment. (1) Psalm 27:8 contains three short clauses: “to You my heart said”; “Seek [2MP imperative] My face”; and “Your face, Yahweh, I will seek” (literal translations). Because of the difficult syntax many commentators and translators resort to emending the text,²⁵ but it is better to accept the MT and understand David as introducing a divine quotation.²⁶ Various translations add СКАЧАТЬ