The Book of Psalms

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  • Psalm 138

    (of David) * * * Nearing its end in Psalms 138-145, the Psalter returns to the figure of David. A surprising number of readers have seen this string of psalms with David’s name in the superscription as evidence of a programmatic messianic eschatology. From these psalms especially, they build an argument that the book as Read more

  • Psalm 137

    * * * No psalm haunts more than this, among the most poignant poems of the horrors of war. David may have slain his ten thousand. Achilles may have his epithets, his tent and shield. But this song sings as it says it cannot, turning tears to gruesome smiles, aching through remembered trauma, lashing out Read more

  • Psalm 136

    * * * To think about Psalms 135 and 136 is to consider the relationship between history and poetry, between the blessing and praise of Psalm 135 and the thanking of Psalm 136, and between the instants of gratitude and the constant of care. Too often— in analyses of Psalm 136 in particular, but more Read more

  • Psalm 135

    * * * The liturgical postures of benediction and praise can seem to overlap, especially in standing and in the raising of hands. But blessing kneels and bows for what’s to come, while lauding sings loudly for now and what’s been. Psalm 135, which blends the two modes of worship, also spends a third of Read more

  • Psalm 134

    (a song of steps) * * * The last of the “songs of steps,” Psalm 134 picks up where Psalm 133 left off, with the “blessing | living ever and on,” which comes from “the mountains of Zion” (133:3). It also picks up where Psalm 133 began, with hinneh, the word of exclamation that is Read more

  • Psalm 133

    (a song of steps, of David) * * * Psalm 133 is as solid as it is liquid. Its hardness comes from simple structural strength— it is one argument (1) plus two analogies (2, 3)— as well as the firm rhetoric of sitting together in a specific place, “there [where] God ordered / the blessing Read more