The Book of Psalms

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  • Psalm 102

    * * * A striking collage of personal lament and Zion’s praise, Psalm 102 holds together powerfully if we hear the lament as spoken in Zion’s voice. “Lord | hear my prayer,” the psalm begins generically, in the voice of conventional address (1). In verses 3-11, however, clichés gradually fade. A tight five-stanza complaint follows, Read more

  • Psalm 101

    (of David, lyric) * * * It’s not quite Arma virumque cano, but Psalm 101 does start by announcing its theme. It isn’t Virgil’s “arms and the man” the psalmist sings, but the ethical pair of chesed and mishpat, the divine relationship between loyal caring and legal rectitude, virtue and propriety brought together. That phrase Read more

  • Psalm 100

    (lyric of thanks) * * * The crest of the wave of psalms that begin Book Four, Psalm 100 is as taut as can be. A single twelve-line composition, it works as three quatrains, even better as four tercets. In four tercets, the psalm’s seven plural imperatives are patterned 3-1-3 across the first three stanzas. Read more

  • Psalm 99

    * * * In its syntax, Psalm 99 is rough going. Commentaries have called it “extraordinarily agitated.” At least at its start, finding its seams is frankly a bear. From the second verse, some half-lines seem like interruptions, pious asides, or call-and-response. The Lord’s made king | the peoples quiver      he’s sitting with cherubs | the earth quakes                   the Read more

  • Psalm 98

    (lyric) * * * Given evidence of careful placement here in Book Four of the Psalter, Psalm 98 has to be seen as part of an editorial pattern. Like Psalm 92, this song shares “lyric” in its superscription. Like 96, it’s a “fresh song.” Each of these three (92, 96, 98) is followed by a Read more

  • Psalm 97

    * * * Of the three “Lord king” psalms (with Psalms 93 and 99), Psalm 97 is the most jarring, especially when its verb forms are rendered accurately, darting back and forth from completed actions to continuing ones. Like the psalms that immediately precede it, it considers how the Lord’s ascendancy affects the rest of Read more