The Psalms In Israel's Worship (2 volumes)

587 Pages·1967·77.703 MB·English

by  Mowinckel, Sigmund (translated by Ap-Thomas)

THE PSALMS IN
ISRAEL’S WORSHIP

SIGMUND MOWINCKEL
THE PSALMS
IN ISRAEL’S
WORSHIP
Translated by
D. R. AP-THOMAS
Lecturer in Hebrew & Old Testament,
University College of North Wales
Bangor
In Two Volumes — Volume I
ABINGDON PRESS
new york • nashville
*967
© In this Translation
Basil Blackwrix, Oxford
196a
First printed 1962
Reprinted 1967
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
CONTENTS
Volume I
Chapter Page
I The Psal ms and t he Cul t i
1. The problem i
2. Testimonies about the cultic use of the psalms 2
3. Allusions to the temple cult in the psalms—
song, music and dance 5
4. The cultic origin of psalmody as such, and the
problem of the extant psalms 12
5. What is 'cult'? 15
Chapter
II The Met hod of t he Cul t ic Int erpret at ion 23
1. The form critical (form historical) view-point 23
2. The cult functional view-point 29
3. The sources for our knowledge of Israelite cult
Ity 35
4. Preliminary classification of the psalms 37
5. Psalms outside the Psalter 40
6. Ancient oriental psalm poetry 41
Chapter
III T and ‘We’ in t he Psal ms—‘Royal Psal ms’ 42
J. ‘Z’ and 'we'. 'Corporate personality' 42
Chapter III (continuai) Pogt
The Israelite conception of community and individuality»
42—The cultic community as an ‘I’, 43—The community’s
cultic representative, 43—T’ as an expression for the cor­
porate personality, 44—Smend’s theory of the ‘Collective I*
and its core of truth, 46—The king as the community’s cultic
incorporation and representative, 46
2. What are 'royalpsalms'? 46
No particular ‘psalm type’ but psalms in which the king
takes a leading place, 46—An actual Israelite/Judaean
king, 47—Not a future ‘Messiah’, 48—The king ideal as a
future-looking form for the empirical king, 49
3. The ancient Israelite conception of the king 50
Linked up with that of the Near East in general, 50—Ancient
Near Eastern king ideology, 50—The Israelite development
of the king ideology, 52—‘Yahweh’s anointed’, 53—The
king’s ‘divinity’, 53—His ideal world dominion, 55—His
relationship to Yahweh and people, 55—The king as repre­
sentative of the community, 56—Israelite modification of
the king’s ‘d*, ivinity 57—The king as Yahweh’s adopted son
and intermediary, 58—The king’s role in the cult, 58
4. The place of the royal psalms in the cult 61
In general, 61—The ritual of annointing and Ps. 2, p. 62—
Ps. 110, p. 63—PS. 101, p. 65—Ps. 72, p. 67—Ps. 20, p. 69—
PS. 21, p. 70—PS. 89, p. 70—Ps. 18, p. 71—Ps. 45, p. 73—
PS. 28, p. 74—Isa. 38.9fr., p. 74—Summing up, 75
5. Royal and national psalms 76
6. National psalms in the T’ form as royal psalms 76
Imagery, 76—The title ‘by David’, 77—Summing up, 78
7. ‘Democratization' of religion 78
Chapter
IV The Hymn of Praise 81
I. Form and content, composition 81
Introit, summons to praise, 81—The main section of the
hymn, 83—The two main types: the enumerative and the
descriptive style, 85—The themes, Yahweh’s ’excellencies’,
Chapttr IV (atUbuHi) Pag»
86—Mood, 88—Petition in the hymn, 89—Delivery, the
hymn’s place in the cult, 89
2. Varieties of the hymn 90
'Zion hymns’, 70—The hymn to God’s Law, 90—The reflec­
tive contemplation, 91—The '*,I-hymn 99—The individual
song of praise, 93—The ‘I-form’ as the most ancient, 93
3. The hymns and the annual festivals 94
Paschal psalms, 94—Harvest and epiphany psalms, 94—New
year psalms, 95
4. Hymnic elements in other psalm types 95
Hymnic motift in psalms of petition and of lamentation, 95—
Older and unmixed style, 96—Imitations of the hymnic
style, 97
5. The delineation of God in hymn and psalm 97
OtaļSer
V Psal ms at t he Ent hronement Fest ival of
Yahw eh 106
1. The meaning of * enthronement psalms' 106
2. The poetical situation {imagery) : the enthrone­
ment of Yahweh 107
3. The cultic situation: the interpretation of the en­
thronement psalms 109
The contemporaneous character of the psalms: Yahweh has
now become king, 109—Historical interpretation, no—
Eschatological interpretation, 110—Mythico-cosmic realities
experienced as contempomaeous, in—Gultie character of
such experience, 112—The poetic situation presupposes a
corresponding cultic situation: an enthronement festival of
Yahweh, 113
4. Enthronement psalms: the age of the literary
type and of the corresponding festival 116
5. The enthronement festival 118
Chapter V (continued) Page
Connexion with the festival of epiphany, harvest, taber­
nacles, new year, consecration of the temple, 118—The
enthronement festival of Yahweh a special aspect of the
old new year festival, the feast of tabernacles, 121
6. The pre-Israelite background and prototypes
of the festival 130
The Canaanite festival of the new year and renewal of life,
and survivals thereof in the Yahweh cult, 130—The general
pattern of ancient oriental cultic new year festivals and its
influence upon the Yahweh cult, 135
7. The specifically Israelite character of the
festival 136
The elimination of the idea of the death and resurrection of
the deity, 136—History as Yahweh’s act of salvation, 139
8. The festal myths 140
Psalms of other types which belong to the enthronement fes­
tival or derive from its plexus of ideas and experiences, 140—
Yahweh’s ‘coming’, his epiphany, 141—The myth of creation,
the fight with the dragon or primaeval ocean, 143—The
Judgment’ : what is to happen in the re-created earth, Le.,
allotting the fate of the new year, 146—Yahweh’s relation­
ship to the other gods and their judgment, 148—The myth
of the fight of nations, 151—The election and the exodus:
the exodus myth, 154—The renewal of the covenant, the
covenant myth, 157—The commandments, 157—The
promises of Yahweh, 159—Yahweh’s admonition and rebuke,
the problem of theodicy, 160—Universalism and parti­
cularism, 161—The gifts of the kingdom of Yahweh, 162—
The earthly king, 164—The epic formulation of the festal
myths, 165
9. Some of the main acts and rites of the festival 169
The processional road (via sacra), 170—The great proces­
sion, Ps. 68, p. 72—The cult drama of the re-finding of the
ark, Ps. 132, p. 174—Pss. 24 and 15, and the ‘laws of e*,ntry
177—The procession up to the altar, Ps. 118, p. 180—The
‘sham f*,ight Yahweh’s fight and victory, Pss. 46 and 48,
p. 181
10. Form and content of the true enthronement
psalms against the background of the experiences of
the festival 183
Chapter V (continued) Page
11. The emotions and mood of the festival 184
12. The retrospective and prospective elements in
the festival and its psalms 186
13. The relationship of the festival to the Jewish
hope of restoration and to eschatology 189
Chapter
VI Nat ional Psal ms of Lament at ion 193
1. Days and rites of penitence 193
2. Psalms for such days ofpenitence and prayer 194
3. Form and content of the psalm of lamentation 195
Invocation, 195—Hymnic introduction, 196—The lament;
description of the need (danger) and of the enemies, 196—
The enemies’ curse ÇVwen), 19g—The petition, 201—The
execration of the enemies, 202—Pleas for revenge, 203—
Motivation for hearing the plea, 204—Motive of compas­
sion, 204—Motive of confidence, 206—Motive of innocence
and psalsm of innocence, 206—The ’r*ighteous and the
**wicked in the psalms, 207—Motive of penitence and psalms
of penitence, 214—The ideal of religious humility, 215—
The vow, 216—Certainty of the hearing of petition, 217
4. Protective psalms; 'psalms of confidence 219
5. Psalms for the annual days of penitence and
prayer; petitions for the nation's return 220
6. Psalms of general petition 221
7. Intercessory psalms 224
Chapter
VII Nat ional Psal ms of Lament at ion in t he I-form 225
J. The king (T) as the people's representative in
the properly national psalms of lamentation 225
I, b
Chapter VII (continued) Page
2. Royal psalms of lamentation and petitions on
the occasion of public disaster or danger 225
5. The lament over wicked tongues and false
accusers 227
4. Style, form, and content 229
The various ‘moments’ : invocation, petition, lament, motive
of confidence of being heard, vow, assurance of the hearing
of the petition, the anticipatory song of thanks, 229—
Examples, 230—Differentiations in form and content be­
tween ‘we’ and T psalms of lamentation, 235—‘Protective
psalms’ and ‘psalms of confidence’, 237
5. Need or danger envisaged as a dwelling in the
realm of the dead, a concept common to psalms of
both lamentation and thanksgiving 239
6. Real suffering or cultic ‘mock suffering'? 241
7. Analogies with Babylonian T psalms 246