The Book of Psalms

Posts

  • Psalm 72

    (of Solomon) * * * Of all the judgments and dispositions we bring to bear as we read, maybe none matters more than disinterest. High levels of disinterestedness correspond with analytical distance and curiosity. Low levels of disinterestedness—high levels, that is, of interest and commitment—correspond with sympathy, close identification, and application to practice. Pure disinterest Read more

  • Psalm 71

    * * * The opening words of Psalm 71 call to mind the opening of Psalm 25: “In you Lord.” But instead of an image of reclining—“To you Lord | I lift my throat / God on you | I lean” (25:1-2)—this psalm depends on scenes of retreat. There is a beautiful and potent spilling-over Read more

  • Psalm 70

    (director: of David, to remember) * * * This brief psalm is almost identical to Psalm 40:13ff. This fact raises a number of questions. Why repeat? Why repeat lines from near the end of the first collection in the Psalter (Psalms 1-41) here, near the end of the second collection (Psalms 42-72)? (Note that 40 Read more

  • Psalm 69

    (director: on “The Lilies,” of David) * * * Interpretation always risks being wrong. Vital clues might be missing or missed. Contextual signals from the primary scenes of writing and reading might be tuned too low, while noise from we the interpreters’ own culture and bent might be turned up too loud. We might not Read more

  • Psalm 68

    (director: of David, a lyric, a song) * * * Like the shorter, less specific psalm that precedes it, Psalm 68 cares about the relationship between God and “us” and “them,” not any personal, individual relationship. Like Psalm 67, what matters to this song are the dynamics of local and universal. How can Israel’s God Read more

  • Psalm 67

    (director: strings, a lyric, a song) * * * This brief benedictory song celebrates a very particular triangle. At the start and end of the psalm, there’s “us,” an unnamed first-person plural, always the object of a verb (twice in verse 1, once each in 6 and 7). Throughout the psalm, there’s “God,” named six Read more