Psalms Through the Centuries, Volume 3. Susan Gillingham
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than remembered (78:67–72).5 The following analysis will start with the placing of individual psalms into coherent collections, noting that this work by the compilers marks the first stage in the process of reception.
Psalms 73–83: The Asaphite Collection: ‘How Long, O Lord?’
Looking at the first part of Book Three, it seems that the editors carefully combined the end of the so-called ‘Davidic Psalter’ (Psalms 51–72) in Book Two with the beginning of Book Three. Psalm 72 (Book Two) reflects positively on the importance of justice whilst 73 (Book Three) considers the consequences of injustice in the world. Both 73:3 and 72:3 contrast the ‘prosperity’ (shalom) of the faithful people and the wicked; and 73:6, 72:14, 73:8 and 72:4 speak of the effects of ‘violence’ (ḥamas) and ‘oppression’ (‘osheq) on the poor.
The entire *Asaphite collection (Psalms 73–83), set in the heart of the entire Psalter, is possibly the oldest part of it. As we have noted, it has many references to the northern kingdom (and so some of it must precede 721–22 BCE when the kingdom fell), and its nationalistic and militarist focus, reminiscent of the prophetic voice in this period, suggests some psalms were composed before the exile. It is a coherent collection, set in two parts (73–77, 78–83) to which Psalm 50 also belongs: as noted in Volume Two, the Second Davidic Psalter (51–72) is enclosed by Asaphite psalms (50, 73–83).6
Psalms 73–77: ‘Has God Forgotten to be Gracious?’
Psalms 73–77, the first *Asaphite sub-group, is a collection with several internal correspondences. For example, Psalms 73 and 74 each reflect on the absence of God, from a context of violence and blasphemy. 73 is a psalm of instruction; 74 is a communal lament. 75 and 76 are set as two divine responses to these questions, affirming that God’s presence is still in Zion. 77 is an individual lament.7 The theme of ‘violence’ (ḥamas) in 73:6 is continued in 74:20; 73:23 speaks of being held by God’s ‘right hand’ (yad-yemini) whilst 74:11 asks why God has withdrawn his ‘hand’ (yad); 73:17 refers to God in his sanctuary (miqdeshe-’el, or ‘the sanctuaries of God’) and 74:7 also refers to the sanctuary (miqdashekha, or ‘your sanctuary’) which has been set on fire. Other shared themes in the entire collection are of a common experience of God’s anger (Pss. 74:1; 75:8; and 76:7); an affirmation of God’s Name (Pss. 74:10, 18, 21; 75:1; and 76:1); and pleas to God to judge fairly (Pss. 74:22; 75:2, 7; 76:8–9). Other inter-psalm connections include the term ‘God of Jacob’ in 75:9 and 76:6, the centrality of Zion in 74:2 and 76:2, and the pleas to God not to forget (’al-tishkaḥ, or ‘do not forget!’) in Pss. 74:23 and 77:9.
Psalm 73: A Didactic Psalm about the Impious
Psalm 73 stands not only at the beginning of Book Three but close to the centre of the Psalter. It is both protest and affirmation: it questions the rewards for obedient faith expressed in Psalm 1 (see 73:2–14) yet it ultimately affirms the vision of Psalm 150 where God is praised (see 73:23–26).8 It contains three strophes (vv. 1–12; 13–17; and 18–28), each starting with ‘truly, indeed’ (’ak). Verses 1–17 reflect on the problems and possibilities of the injustice in the world, whilst verses 18–28 address God: here there is an unusual ‘vision’ of God and some rare reflections about life beyond death. In terms of its reception history, it stands somewhat apart from the other psalms in the *Asaphite collection because of its more personal nature and its consideration of universal themes of justice.
The first issue in its reception is one of translation in the first verse: is God good ‘to Israel’ or ‘to the upright’? Some manuscripts divide these words differently in Hebrew, and because the vowels were a later addition it is possible to insert different vowels or break the line in a different place—both of which change the meaning.9 ‘God is good to Israel, to the pure in heart’ (tob leyisra’el elohim: lebarei lebab), which the Greek translation also follows, gives the psalm a more national tenor; ‘God is good to the upright, Elohim to the pure in heart’ (tob leyasar ’el: elohim lebarei lebab) suggests more individual concerns. Given that all the other Asaphite psalms have more communal interests, ‘to Israel’ is probably preferable; but the psalm is undoubtedly more personal than the others, and this small issue of translation can change the emphasis and so the reception of the psalm.
The first part of verse 4 presents another problem: the Hebrew reads literally ‘for they have no torment in their death’, although the NRSV reads ‘For they have no pain’ (with no reference to death). The Greek however translates ‘torment’ as ananeusis, a feminine noun found nowhere else in the *Septuagint, probably from the verb ‘to refuse, reject’ and a loose translation of the Greek would be, literally, ‘There is no refusal for their death’, that is ‘For they refuse death’. The *Vulgate reads this a little differently: ‘non est respectus morti eorum’ which could mean, simply, ‘they have no care about their death’.10 This could however be translated (in the light of the interest in death in verses 23–24) as ‘the wicked will not return from death’ which alters the meaning altogether.11
Another example is an additional phrase in the Greek at the end of the psalm (not brought out in the NRSV) which gives the psalm a more national bias: the final phrase reads ‘to tell of all your works in the gates of the daughter Sion’.12
*Targum reads verse 1 as being about ‘Israel’, and the mockery and pride of the ‘wicked’ in verses 2–9 relate to the Gentiles who threaten the entire people. Verse 10 is amended to read ‘Therefore he is returning for the sake of the people of the Lord, and they shall strike them with hammers and cause many tears to run down’. Verses 18–20 are also about the Gentiles: ‘…as a dream from a drunken man who awakens, O Lord, at the day of the great judgement when they awake from their graves, with anger you will despise their image.’13 Here a personal reading has been absorbed into a communal one.
There is no evidence of this psalm in the New Testament. Later Christian commentary is not very creative with it, although, unlike Jewish readings, the psalm is usually seen in more personal terms in its view of the good life in the face of death. According to *Ambrose, it is about ‘growth in moral perfection’: it is important to rejoice in chastisement, knowing that future consolation will come, for the peace of sinners is deceptive.14 Ambrose also ‘Christianises’ the psalm by reading the reference to God holding the psalmist’s ‘right hand’ (verse 23), as meaning our holding of Christ’s right hand, so that we possess Christ alone in heaven.15 *Augustine is mainly interested in the moral impact of this psalm: he compares verses 15–20 (describing the fate of the wicked) with the parable of Abraham and Lazarus in Luke 16:20–31.16 A more explicitly Christian reading is attributed to *Bede, who, following *Cassiodorus, sees Psalm 73 as an expansion of Psalm 72: the hymns of David have failed (72:20) and the temporal rule of Jesse has now been fulfilled in one from the stem of Jesse, Christ himself (Isa. 11:1; Matt. 1:5–16); hence Psalm 73 is about that Son who conquers sin and oppression.17 A reading associated with *Aquinas could not be more different from Targum: now the ungodly are the Jews, of whom Christ speaks in verses 18–19: ‘…Those who brought to nothing the image of God in their earthly city, shall have their image brought to nothing in his city.’18
Typical anti-Jewish readings are also found in Byzantine Psalters. For example, the *Khludov Psalter (fol. 70v) illustrates verse 9 (‘they set their mouths against heaven’) with Jewish *iconoclasts: the inscription reads ‘the ones who are heretics and speak against God.’19
*Carolingian Psalters are less polemical and more practical in their illustrations. For example, the *Utrecht Psalter (fol. 41v) is a narrative about the victory of the righteous over the wicked. At the top right the psalmist is sitting on a hillock, and below him is a mare and colt (a literal translation of the Hebrew ‘beasts’ in verse 22, to