Yahweh as Refuge and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter


Book Description

The Choice of Yahweh as Refuge makes a unique and creative contribution to an emerging direction in Psalms study: the shape and shaping of the Psalter. Building especially on the work of Gerald Wilson, James Mays, Klaus Seybold and Gerald Sheppard, Creach provides an abundance of helpful data and advances the discussion significantly with his judicious interpretation of the root hsh ('to seek refuge') and related Hebrew roots. He shows that the arrangement of Psalms 2-89 reflects an editorial interest in which ideas expressed by the hsh field are a foil for complaints of being 'cast off' by Yahweh and that ideas expressed by the hsh field are also among the primary motifs in Psalms 90-106.




Yahweh as Refuge and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter


Book Description

The Choice of Yahweh as Refuge makes a unique and creative contribution to an emerging direction in Psalms study: the shape and shaping of the Psalter. Building especially on the work of Gerald Wilson, James Mays, Klaus Seybold and Gerald Sheppard, Creach provides an abundance of helpful data and advances the discussion significantly with his judicious interpretation of the root hsh ('to seek refuge') and related Hebrew roots. He shows that the arrangement of Psalms 2-89 reflects an editorial interest in which ideas expressed by the hsh field are a foil for complaints of being 'cast off' by Yahweh and that ideas expressed by the hsh field are also among the primary motifs in Psalms 90-106.




The Narrative Effect of Book IV of the Hebrew Psalter


Book Description

"The Narrative Effect of Book IV of the Hebrew Psalter takes seriously the canonical form to the text and suggests that there is a narrative effect that occurs as a reader of the Hebrew Bible encounters the canonical Psalter. Rather than reading the book of Psalms as an anthology, the reader can find lexical and thematic connections within the text that tell a story. The turning point of that story comes in Book IV (Psalms 90-106) when the text emphasizes the kingship of YHWH rather than David and a return to the covenant of Moses." --back cover.




Covenant Relationships and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter


Book Description

An examination of the relationship between the Davidic covenant and Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants reflected in the editorial shape and shaping of the Masoretic Psalter. Hensley proposes that the editors of the Psalter understood these covenants as a theological unity, whose common fulfilment centres on an anticipated royal successor to David. To test this hypothesis Hensley examines the Psalter's references and allusions to covenant(s) in light of editorial evidence. The book is split into three parts. Part I reassesses different kinds of editorial evidence, their implications, and their utility for discerning editorial intent. It also re-evaluates the Qumran Psalms hypothesis championed by Sanders, Wilson, and others. Part II engages in extensive survey work on references and allusions to covenant(s) in the Psalter, assessing the extent to which they gravitate around David. Hensley traces phraseological and intertextual allusions to covenant promises and obligations, providing the first survey of its kind on the subject of covenant in the Psalter. Part III then investigates a strong allusion to the Abrahamic covenantal promises in Ps 72:17 in the context of Book II of the Psalter, and the Psalter's fullest echoes of the “grace formula” (Exod 34:6) in Psalm 86:15, 103:8, and 145:8 in the contexts of Books III, IV, and V respectively. Hensley shows that rather than the Davidic covenantal promises being “democratized,” the promises and obligations of the pre-monarchic covenants are consistently “royalized” throughout the Psalter and its books, depicting the anticipated Davidic figure as a Moses-like intercessor and mediator of covenant renewal, and the leader of a “new song” for a “new exodus.”




Mapping Metaphorical Discourse in the Fourth Gospel


Book Description

In Mapping Metaphorical Discourse in the Fourth Gospel, Beth M. Stovell examines the metaphor of Jesus as king throughout the Fourth Gospel using an interdisciplinary metaphor theory incorporating cognitive and systemic functional linguistic approaches with literary approaches.




Seeing the Psalter


Book Description

Seeing the Psalter is a unique insight into the Psalms. These 150 poems are at the heart of the faith of Israel and of Christendom. No book of the Bible is more popular. Seeing the Psalter highlights and shows the patterns of repeated word usage in each poem and across the collections of poems. In this book, the Psalter is read and analyzed in sequence revealing a deliberate organization and a coherent message formed over centuries: how do we learn to rule in the midst of enemies? Each poem is laid out in a very easy to read form. For the English reader, the translation is close and concordant, as far as that is possible. The concordance has been managed through a sophisticated database analysis of the glosses chosen. Seeing the Psalter includes a complete Hebrew-English and English-Hebrew glossary of all words used in the Psalter. The list of all uses of a Hebrew root in the Hebrew glossary enables an in-depth study of word usage. For the Hebrew reader, or for one who wants to learn Hebrew, the text is laid out in a form that enables memorization and the learning of the intricacies of translation. The poetry is phrase by phrase side by side with the English. Each chapter shows in color the patterns of word recurrence in the poems. Many chapters show the close (or distant) relationships of poems with each other. As you study this work, you will find that all sorts of questions open themselves to you related to the history of the collections, the character of the faith, and the construction of the Psalter itself. A comprehensive index of Biblical references, names, and themes is included allowing you to find things easily in the text. Each major section of Seeing the Psalter contains brief summaries outlining and highlighting inter-poem relationships and enabling the memorization of the whole. The Psalms are the dialogue between God and his people. It's not a conversation one would want to miss. You will love this book and reading it will show you the love that is before all things. With charts in full color.




As You See the Day Approaching


Book Description

We are in the last days. Living well in such a time depends upon believing that Christ has conquered sin and death and is ruling today, alive at God's right hand. These essays on the end time will help Christians live like people who really have eternal life already--the life of the Spirit of Christ who lives and moves in both Christ and Christians. Whether your question is about heaven, the soul, hell, the new earth, about how believers in the Old Testament thought of these things, or about what redemptive progress God brought by the resurrection of Christ, you will find answers here. Readers will also be warmly encouraged by the practical and realistic chapters about the Christian's calling in social and political matters and about the ways that the church's worship is a participation in heavenly realities. Central to everything about the end time is the fact that by dying and rising, Jesus Christ brought the whole world forward into the last days and has in principle brought Christians into a fullness that Moses and even Adam did not yet know. Read, and be encouraged! Contributors include: 1. Introduction, by Dr. Theodore Van Raalte 2. Eschatology: The Letter and the Spirit in Second Corinthians 3:6-18, by Dr. Lane Tipton 3. Finding Eschatology in the Old Testament: The Psalms as Case in Point, Dr. Jannes Smith 4. Working Politically and Socially in Anticipation of Christ's Coming, by Dr. Cornelis Van Dam 5. In Between and Intermediate: Living in Heaven's Glory, by Dr. Theodore Van Raalte 6. Is Hell Obsolete? The Place of Eternal Punishment in Preaching Today, by Dr. Jason Van Vliet 7. Will We Really Live on a New Earth?, by Dr. Gerhard Visscher 8. Until He Comes: Eschatological Aspects of Reformed Worship, by Dr. Arjan de Visser.




Trusting YHWH


Book Description

To open the Book of Psalms is to enter the world of God. To read the Psalms is to read the words of God and hear the words of these ancient people in response to this God who has graciously drawn them into an eternal covenant. The Book of Psalms is one continuous conversation that ranges over many centuries—perhaps nearly a millennium—between the God of Israel and the people of Israel; or more accurately, the God of glory and this particular people who have been called to live life on the edge of glory as the people of God. There is no mystery to this conversation. It is all an embroidery of grace. Modern day readers may find themselves caught in the nexus between personal experience and the desire to live a life of faith on the other. These will find a voice in the Psalms. Ancient Israel strove to put their trust in the One God of All—in the face of myriad challenges throughout her long history. What we find here is a bold witness to their hard-won faith and confidence in the sheltering presence of the One God of All. This is a message that is especially timely for people who may desire the deeper dimensions of life and faith amid the inescapable incongruities and anxieties of postmodern life.




Marked Quotations from Psalms in the Gospel of Matthew


Book Description

There are five marked quotations from Psalms in the Gospel of Matthew. These are: (1) Ps 91:1–12 in Matt 4:6; (2) Ps 78:2 in Matt 13:35; (3) Ps 8:3 in Matt 21:16; (4) Ps 118:22–23 in Matt 21:42; and (5) Ps 110:1 in Matt 22:44. Piotr Herok argues that the investigated texts are related to each other not only by the presence of the introductory formulas, making clear that a given citation comes from Scripture, but also through mutual thematic convergence, concerning in various degrees king David, the temple, and the theme of Jesus' identity. Thanks to the new literary context, in which the quotations are embedded, Matthew reinterprets them significantly while giving them a new dimension clearly distinguishing them from the rest of the psalm quotations found in his work. This aims at presenting Jesus as not only the Son of David, but first of all the Son of God.




God's Kingdom and God's Son


Book Description

How is the kingdom of God related to Messianic kingship (or divine sonship)? Starting from what he terms a 'two-tier' kingship in the Psalms, Robert Rowe explores the linkage of these terms in Mark's gospel. The linked concepts - God's kingship and Davidic (Messianic) kingship - are traced from the Psalms and Isaiah 40-66, through the Dead Sea Scrolls and other inter-testamental documents, into Mark's gospel. Mark's characterization of Jesus as Messiah is shown to centre around four royal Psalms (2; 22; 110; 118). Contributing to the continuing study of the Old Testament in the New, Rowe argues that the concepts of God's kingdom and the Messiah are inherently closely related. This has importance both for the study of the historical Jesus, and for Mark's presentation of God and Jesus in his gospel.