D. Firth and P. Johnston: Interpreting the Psalms: Issues and Approaches (IVP; 2005)
Reflective Questions on Interpreting
the Psalms
By Ted Hildebrandt (
1A. What new methodologies are being employed in Psalms studies? (23)
2A. How does the addition of linguistic study of Hebrew poetry supplement
the literary and structural approaches? (23)
3A. What contribution has
4A. What is the difference between the “old method” of reading the Psalms as
diverse compositions, loosely collected and the “new method” which
focuses on Psalms as a literary unit and canonical entity? (24)
5A. What is “sitz im leben” where does this term come from and how does
it function in Psalms studies? (24)
6A. What is the chronological focus of canonical approaches to the Psalms
as opposed to the chronological focus if individual Psalms are examined?
(24)
7A. How does Howard distinguish between psalmic “macrostructural”
approaches and “microstructural” approaches? What kinds of results
will each approach yield? (24)
8A. Why did
9A. What does
“Wisdom Frame” (Ps. 1, 73, 90, 107, 145)? (25)
10A. What are books I, III, IV, V? (25)
11A. What tension does
(25)
12A. Which books focus on the Davidic King and which on the divine king?
Why the shift? (25)
13A. How does Zenger’s insight that the Psalms are not cultic or liturgically
based but wisdom related and a literary “sanctuary” itself shift our
understanding of Psalms? Does “sanctuary” go well with the notion of
“wisdom”? (26)
14A. What different approaches are there for the function of Psalm 1, 2 and
3 and the relationship between these three Psalms? (26) What difference
does it make as to how one views the whole of Psalms?
15A. What is the relationship of the human Davidic kingship in Psalms with
the divine kingship of Yahweh? (26) How does that manifest itself in
Ps. 144 as opposed to Ps. 145?
16A. How does Mitchell see the relationship between the Davidic king and
divine King in Psalms? (27)
17A. Are the Psalms to be tied to historical pre-exilic and post-exilic historical
situations or only seen as eschatological? What difference does it make?
(27)
18A. What methodology did David Howard use in establishing the micro-
structural relations between Psalms 93-100? (28) What does Howard
see in the next step needed to supplement his research?
19A. How does Creach’s semantic approach differ from Howard lexemic
approach? (28) How would www.mapmyword.com be useful in semantic
approaches?
20A. How does Michael O’Connor describe Hebrew poetry? (29) What were
his contributions? (30)
21A. What two features does Adele Berlin see as marking Hebrew poetry? (30)
What
three levels does
22A. How does Morris distinguish between syntactic, semantic and pragmatic
parallelistic features? (31) What is morphology, phonology and semantics
and what role does each play in the description of poetry? (31)
23A. What contribution does Kugel make to the discussion of parallelism? How
does he see the relationship of the two parallel poetic lines? (32)
24A. What contribution does Robert Alter make to the relationship between the
two parallel poetic lines? How do the catagories ot complementarity,
focusing, heightening, intensification, specification, consequentiality,
contrast and disjunction go beyond the simple “synonymous” relationship
used in the standard description (Lowth)? (32)
25A. What is the difference between analyse structurelle (surface) and
analyse structurale (deep-structural) approaches to a poetic text? (33)
Structuralists look for repeated patterns what are the pros and cons
of this approach?
26A. What are deconstructive and reader-response hermeneutical approaches
to texts? (34)
27A. When Howard says that Bellinger uses: form, canonical, rhetorical, reader-
response, theological analyses and later physiological readings of a psalm,
what are each of these and what contribution and problems are resident in
each? (34f)
28A. What contribution has Sanders and the Qumran Psalms Scroll played in
understanding the development of the canonical book of Psalms? (35f)
29A. What arguments have been fielded against the order and fluidity of books
IV
and V of the Psalter as manifest at
30A. What two scholars dominated Psalms study in the twentieth century?
What approach did each take? (36f)
31A. How does Eaton’s taking individual laments as royal psalms of the king
change how those Psalms are understood? (37)
32A. What is the distinction between Westermann’s descriptive praise and
narrative praise psalms? Is it helpful in interpreting the Psalms? (37)
33A. What social settings of the Psalms does Gerstenberger use and how does
that differ from the settings proposed by Gunkel and Mowinckel? What
difference does it make? How do all of these differ from the historic
way of looking at the settings of the psalms?
34A. What insights result from Broyles’ distinction between ‘psalms of plea’
and ‘psalms of complaint’? (38) How is God viewed differently in each of
these? When the complaint goes out against God who is seen as an aloof
bystander or antagonist what is the function of the Psalm?
35A. Jacobson looks at direct discourse in the Psalms of the enemies, psalmists
themselves and God. What benefit would isolating those sections have?
36A. What are Brueggemann’s three functions of Psalms? How are these
catagories beneficial? (39) What is the difference between Psalms of
Orientation and Reorientation? Are such categories a simple
multiplication of categories without benefit or are such classifications
useful?
1A. What are the two factors Longman sees as shaping the tone and tenor of
prayer? (41)
2A. What implications does Longman’s observation that “The majority of
psalms are prayers? (41)
3A. How does prayer in the Bible differ from polytheistic prayers in the
Ancient Near East? (41)
4A. Longman distinguishes the majority of prayers from written prayers.
What is the difference? What is the difference between prayers recorded
for literary versus prayers recorded for ritual purposes? (42)
5A. What does Longman note about the shift in person in the hymn to Enlil
from
6A. Longman points out the early Sumerian ‘Hymn to Ekur’ as a hymn to
a temple dedicated to Enlil. How is this similar and dissimilar to the
role of the temple in biblical psalms? (43)
7A. How does the Shulgi hymn which features neo-Sumerian kingship differ
from the way the king functions in the biblical psalms? (43f)
8A. What is an example of an author who authored Akkadian hymns of
love and war? Is the association of a name to a hymn only seen in
the biblical titles? (44)
9A. Lambert translates a hymn to Shamash the sun god. What role does
the sun play in the biblical psalms? (44)
10A. Sumerian lament psalms are embedded with what other type literature?
(45)
11A. What is “The balag” type of lament and in what historical periods does
it occur? What biblical book is close to this type of lament? (45) What
is the root meaning of the term “balag”?
12A. What shift in pragmatic usage takes place in the balag from its early
Sumerian origin to its later use? (46)
13A. What was an Ershemma lament? What is the root meaning of the term?
What three contexts did the Ershemma lament function in? (46f)
14A. What is the root meaning of a Sumerian Shuilla lament? (47)
15A. What was one of the basic motives for the Sumerians providing the
reason for their prayers? (47) How did one’s actions impact God in
the biblical prayers?
16A. What was the function of letter prayers? Are there manifestations of
similar
to that at the Western wall in
the similarities and differences?
17A. What is the function of the later ershaunga prayer? (48)
18A. What grows in significance in later Mesopotamian prayers that is similar
to biblical prayers? (49)
19A. In
arena in which the biblical psalms functioned? (49)
20A. What three periods and transitions are seen in the Egyptian hymns?
Who developed these hymns and what was their function? (49)
21A. What is unique about the hymn to Aten featured by pharaoh Akhenaten?
Who is the speaker in the hymn to Aten? (50f)
22A. Longman parallels the hymn to Aten with what biblical psalm? (51)
23A. In
How is that different than Israelite psalmity? (51)
24A. What are the three aspects of Hittite prayers (ca. 1500 BC)?
25A. What parallels are found in Israelite prayer with the Hittite arkwar?
How is the Hittite juridical and legal terminology similar and
dissimilar
to that of
26A. What role does the mugawar play in Hittite pray and are their parallels
in biblical prayers? (53)
27A. What is the Hittite walliyatar and how is
that paralleled in
(53)
28A. How does Ugaritic [Syro-Palestinian] prayers seem to differ from
the prayers of
missing?
29A. What is shared with the petition to Baal and several biblical Psalms?
(54)
30A. Why does Longman see “parallelomania” as a problem? How does
he seek to avoid this fallacy? What word does he use? What is it’s
significance? (55)
31A. What Psalm does Longman cite as describing Yahweh in the language
of Baal? (55)
32A. What do you think of Miller’s statement:
“when
Lord, it did so in the midst of peoples whose arms had long been raised
and whose heads had been bowed to the gods that directed their lives and
delivered them from disaster”? (56)
33A. What four areas does Van der Toorn see in the laments of the Ancient
the biblical laments? (56)
34A. What four areas does Longman see as parallel between the Mesopotamian
and biblical prayers? (56)
35A. What three areas of difference does Longman see between Mesopotamian
and biblical prayers? (57f)
36A. What hymn from
texts and what similarities and dissimilarities may be seen? (58)
37A. What do you think of Longman’s closing assessment: “The similarities
that we have seen above, in large measure, are born not from influence
and borrowing but from common concerns and similar experiences.” How
does this impact how we understand the psalms in their original settings?
(59)
38A. What is one major difference in the object of prayer in the ANE and
in the biblical prayers? (59)
1A. How does
you agree with his descriptions? (63)
2A. How do the enemies appear in the Psalms of distress? When does
God appear as the source of the distress in Psalms? (63)
3A. Are there more distress Psalms early in the Psalter and fewer at the
end? What does that say about the development of the Psalter as
a unified text? (63)
4A. How does the struggle to maintain faith in trying circumstances fit
the Psalmist’s situation to parallels today? (64)
5A.
Lament but also in thanksgivings, royal psalms and even wisdom. Is
distressed the same way in each of these very diverse genres? (64) Why
does giving such short quotes not really allow the reader to distinguish
how distress is manifest in each of these Psalms (cf. Ps. 73:2 and 129:3 in
their contexts)?
6A. What genre does distress not occur in? Why do you think that is? (65)
7A. In the descriptions of personal distress how are the parts of the body
described as participating in the distress? (65)
8A. How does the distress statement in Ps. 22:6 “I am a worm, and not human”
fit with the passages that talk about humans being made a little lower than
the angels (Ps. 8) and made in the image of God? (66)
9A. When describing personal isolation notice how birds are used to portray
that. How are animals used in the psalms? (67) Why are animals used?
10A. How does the communal lament differ from the personal lament? (67)
11A.
communal laments? (67)
12A. How do you tell where the Psalms of Lament (Individual and communal)
are in the Psalter? What use is the appendix pp. 296ff?
13A. How do you think about the blaming of God or the portraying of God as
enemy in certain of the Psalms? Is this to be faulted to the psalmist as
inadequate theologically or how are we to understand it? (67)
14A. How are the enemies portrayed in the Psalms? How frequent is the enemy
theme? Why is it so prevalent? (68f)
15A. How are the enemies as animals compared and contrasted with the use of
the animal themes in other ways in the Psalms? (69)
16A. How does the fact that the water image is both a sign of life and blessing
and also a source of distress shape the way we look at metaphors? Does
a metaphor always trigger the same concepts? (70)
17A. How is the underworld described in the Psalms (water, bars, gates...)? (71)
18A. What is the most negative feature of sheol and how doest the Psalmist use
it to argue for God’s deliverance from it? (71)
19A. What are some the implications of Brueggemann’s observation: “The
surprise
of
silence
or censor
second extravagance, the extravagance of complaint, lament, accusation,
petition, indignation, assault, and insistence.” (72)
20A. What was the point of Johnston’s comparison of Ps. 116:1f in the NRSV
and the NJPS? (tense) (73)
21A. How do the stereotypical stock phrases and images fit with the uniqueness
of each psalm and situation? (73)
22A. How comfortable are we with the expressions pointing to God as the
source of distress in prayer? How are such expressions suppressed today?
How does theology help or hinder such expressions? (74)
23A. In what senses does the petition for God not to hide, be silent, forsake or
cast
off the psalmist to be understood? While
petitions are they really solely petitions? (75)
24A. How do the enemies in communal psalms differ from those of the
individual psalms? (75)
25A. What developed form of expression does Westermann link to the
description of the enemy? (76)
26A. How to you handle the linking of sin and suffering in several psalms? (77)
27A. If, according to some, all humans are sinful at the core how do you explain
the protestations of innocence in the psalms? (78)
28A. What distinction does
lamentation? (78)
29A. How do communal laments differ to the individual laments?
30A. Why is Psalm 88 unique? (79) How does this psalm temper
Westermann’s statement that all psalms move beyond lament?
What is it about lament that bothers us?
31A. What three explanations are given from the movement beyond lament in
so many lament psalms? Is the cultic oracle supported by specific psalms?
How does a vow or the renewed trust in Yahwah as divine warrior supply
the answer for why the shift from lament to hope in many psalms? (80f)
32A. How strong is the divine Warrior motif in the Psalms and what
implications does that have for our view of war? Why is this metaphor not
developed in Christianity today? (81)
33A. What do you think about Weiser’s explanation that most laments are really
thanskgivings to which a powerful lament was tacked onto the beginning?
(82)
34A. Is Williamson’s suggestion that “laments should be seen as composed in
the perspective of their hopeful conclusion, not their sorrowful beginning”
worthy? (82)
35A. What do you think of the canonical shape reinforcing the movement from
lament to praise? (82)
36A.
genre analysis. Is there a typology of “distress” that could be developed
to better understand what is going on in Psalms? (83)
37A. How does
in the contexts of enthronement (Mowinckel), covenant renewal (Weiser)
or
38A. How would one go about organizing a study of “distress” in the Psalms?
What other disciplines such as psychology, literature etc. could be brought
to bear on these expressions? Does God himself ever express distress?
4.
1A. What is the
relationship of praise and selfishness?
Do the psalmists
“turn their thoughts away from themselves”
and onto God? (85)
How does that relate to the Psalms are human
response?
2A. What does the
fact that hll (hallelujah root) found in the Psalms 75
times tell about “praise” as a major theme in
Psalms? What is the
relationship between the various lexical
terms for praise? Does
seven parallel verbs? (86) How do thanking, glorifying, magnifying,
extolling, blessing, inoking and rejoicing
relate to each other and to
praise? (86)
3A. What are
several problems with tying the notion of praise to lexical
words?
What problem does Ps. 8:1 suggest? (87) What does
lexical analysis alone? What is wrong with
What lexical items does he isolate as
referring to praise and how
does he distinguish them? (not)
4A. How does
theologically? Is his argument solid using
the plural form to support
congregational praise and hence diminish the
value of praise of a
lone individual? (88) How does that relate to
modern worship?
5A. Is the
congregational nature of praise supported by the phrase “in the
midst of the congregation (Ps. 109:30; Ps.
26) as
suggests? (88)
6A. Does Ps. 136
support the notion of praise as “advertising” [not just
vertical but horizontal in its direction of
expression]? What is the
difference
of praise spoken about God and praise spoken to God?
(88)
7A. How does the
praise directed to God (Ps. 66:3; 92:4) undermine the
exclusive corporate nature of praise
develop? (89)
8A. What does
about God to praise to God? (89)
9A. Note the shift
in Psa. 118 between talking about God and to God? (89)
Is there and difference in the types of
things that are addressed in
one and not the other?
10A. What distinction does Westermann draw between
descriptive praise
and declarative praise? (89)
11A. What frequent
phrase indicates that sometimes it is difficult to
distinguish between descriptive and
declarative praise (Ps. 136:1;
118:1)? (90) ki leolam hasdo
12A. What two different ways can “ki” be taken? What difference does it
make (vid. Ps. 95:6-7)? (because, that) How does it give the motive
for praise in Ps. 100:5? (90)
13A. The grounds
for praise is God’s attributes [which ones in particular]
and also his marvelous deeds (salvation,
creation...). What are
example texts to support this observation?
(91)
14A. What three
levels of praise are seen in Ps. 103 and how does that
relate to
congregational form of expression of praise?
(91)
15A. What is
parataxis in Hebrew poetry? (91)
16A. How does
form and its relationship to the emotional
expression of praise? (92)
Is such a connection valid? Can one slide so easily from poetic form
to praise implication?
17A. How does
critical reason in the poetry of Psalms? (92)
18A. How does
grammatical and poetic approach to
praise? Do you agree with
underdeveloped straw men and then blowing
them away? (93)
19A. How does a
Gattung/genre approach help open the notion of praise in
the Psalms (cf. Ps. 8)? (93)
20A. What type of
praise does
thanksgiving type psalms to be? (94)
21A. What is
enthronement festival sitz im leben? (94)
22A. How does
embraced in the midst of crisis? Does that seem to be
comprehensive and valid? (95) What Psalms are cited in support of
this?
Do they really fit?
23A. How does
one’s very
existence? (95)
24A. What is
lacking from
95)
25A. How do each
of the five books of the Psalms conclude? (96)
26A. What is the
difference between form criticism and canon criticism?
(96)
27A. Where do the
sections of psalms of praise exist and what does that
suggest about the canonical shape of Psalms?
(96) Where is there a
concentration of praise psalms?
28A. What types of concerns are found in the psalms at
the “seams” of the
five books of the Psalms according to
29A. What event
cause some doubt to the continuity of the Davidic
covenant? What role does
play in the psalms? (96f)
30A. What is the relationship of the eschatological
vision and Davidic
covenantal expectations in the post-exilic
psalms? (97)
31A. What setting
does
32A. What is the role of the enemies and their demise in
relation to the
notion of praise? (98)
33A. How did
119) into the theme of praise? Did his argument work? (99)
34A. Do you buy
Lewis’ comment that praise is ‘inner health made
audible’? (99)
35A. Is praise to
be seen exclusively in relation to God manifesting his
covenant faithfulness? (100)
1A. Does the
Davidic superscriptions link Psalms into the kingship
motif? (101)
2A. Grant
acknowledges that kingship is not as big a theme as praise,
lament or the cult in the Psalms. Is this
correct? (102)
3A. Where are
the royal psalms found and what are their characteristics?
(102)
4A. What does
it mean that the royal Psalms are placed at the “seams”
canonically? (102)
5A. If the book
of Psalms came together long after the demise of the
monarchy why are they still in the psalter?
(102)
6A. Is there a
divergence between the way the historical and law sections
portray the kingship and the Psalms? Why the difference?
7A. Does a
“kingshp” reading really make any difference to how we read
the Psalms today? (102)
8A. How did
Gunkel define the “royal psalm” genre? What are some
examples of this genre? What faults with
“royal psalm” as a genre
have according to Grant? (102f)
9A. What are
characteristic marks of the “royal psalms” genre according
to Gunkel? (103)
10A. How do Ps.
101 and 110 show flaws in Gunkel’s thinking according
to Grant? Is Grant’s criticism valid? Has Grant really developed the
notion of the royal genre or is he simply
critical of it? (103f) How
does Grant seek to expand the notion of the
genre of kingship
Psalms?
11A. How does
Eaton seek to expand the “royal psalms” genre of Gunkel?
(105) What characteristics does Eaton take as
indicating a royal
background for a psalm? (105)
12A. Do the
Davidic superscriptions necessarily trigger a “royal” setting
and theme connection? (106) Are anonymous psalms to be
automatically understood as “royal”?
13A. What was the
major contribution of
impact how we understand the Psalms today
differently than what
Gunkel and Mowinckel proposed? (107)
14A. In
special significance for the book of Psalms
as a whole? (108) Do
you agree or disagree with such an approach
and what are its
strengths and weaknesses?
15A. Which
beginning/end/seam psalms highlight the royal or kingship
theme? (108)
16A. Why do you
think the royal psalms play a lesser role in the
collections of books IV-V? (109)
17A. What shift
does
(109)
18A. In which
adjacent psalms is an eschatological presentation of the
Davidic monarchy seen? What are some specific
examples
illustrating this within those psalms? (109)
19A. Why did the
editors of the Psalms keep the royal Psalms long after
the Davidic monarchy had collapsed?
(110) What techniques are
utilized in the hermeneutical understanding
to extend the royal or
kingship aspects of the psalms to a broader
audience? How does one
move from specific author and context to a
more universal
application?
20A. How would a
Davidic era reader read Ps. 2 differently than one from
the later-pre-exilic period, the post-exilic,
Christian and later Jewish
communities? (111f) What would be a possible connection between
the eschatological interpretation of the
kingly or royal psalms and
Messianic interpretation of those same
psalms? (112)
21A. How does the
view of the kingship presented in psalms differ from
that presented in the historical books? (113)
22A. Is the
problem that
real issue in the failure of
(cf. Deut. 17; pp. 113) Why is Grant wrong on
this point? (cf.
wisemen)
23A. How does
Grant use the fact that the psalms are “occasional”
literature to support the psalms uncritical
attitude toward the
institution of the kingship? (114)
24A. How does
Grant portray the royal psalms as developing an
eschatological expectation of a future
Davidic monarchy in line with
Deut. 17:14ff? What does this understanding suggest about a
possible relationship between the negative
historical portrayal of the
kingship and the psalmic portrayal? (114)
25A. Canonically
how does Grant see the psalter as highlighting the
connections between the kingship and the
torah? (115)
26A. If one were
to develop the psalter’s view of the kingship what would
be the key elements and passages? (116)
27A. How does
Grant see a shift in the kingship description from the
Messianic descriptions found in Ps. 2, 72,
110 and the now expanded
psalmic texts on kingship? (117)
28A. What two
psalms does Grant focus on as showing the king as an
exemplar of piety and being rooted in torah?
(117) What
connections can be drawn between the king and
the people?
29A. How does
Grant see the relationship between Ps. 1 and 2 related to
the kingship question? Does this approach do justice to Ps. 1?
30A. What aspects
of Jesus the King are featured by Grant’s kingship
understanding of the Psalms (118)
6. Jerome Creach: The Psalms and the cult
1A. Creach says
that the cultic approach is now being replaced by the
canonical approach to Psalms. How are these
two approaches
different? (119) Which critical approach was most closely
associated with the cult in Psalms research?
(120)
2A. On what
basis does Creach argue for retaining the connection
between the cult and psalms? (120) What are the pros and cons
of his view?
3A. When Gunkel
began his studies how were most people
understanding the setting of the psalms
before him? (120)
4A. What did
Gunkel believe about the date and authorship of the
psalms? (120f)
5A. What does
Gunkel argue on the basis of the connection between
2 Sam. 1:19-27 and the psalms of the psalter?
(121) Is his argument
cogent?
6A. What is the
strength and weakness of assigning all genres of psalms
to the same sitz im leben or original
setting? (121) Is it possible the
setting or origin and the setting of use may
be different?
7A. What was
the sole group of psalms that Gunkel viewed as outside
the cultic setting? Is such thinking between the wisdom
literature
and the cult still valid today (vid. Perdue’s
book on Wisdom and
the Cult)? (121)
8A. What
objections does Creach have to the cultic approach of Gunkel?
What two questions that Gunkel addressed are
still worthy of
investigation according to Creach? (121)
9A. How does
Creach define the “cult”? (122)
10A. What
passages does Gunkel cite as supporting the connection
between lyrics and the cult in historical
sections of the Old
Testament? (123f)
11A. What
connections between the historical account in Num. 11 and
the psalms does Gunkel make? Is it valid? (123)
12A. How does the
historical account in 2 Sam. 6 differ from the account
of the Chronicler (1 Chr. 16) differ in the
story of the bringing of the
ark to
(124f)
13A. How strong
is Creach’s connection between the verbalization of
thanks and the thanksgiving offering? (125)
14A. What does
Creach see as the “clearest indicator of the cultic use of
psalms”? (125f)
15A. What
indicators of cultic use does Creach find in the superscription
of the psalms? How does the mention of the types of
instruments
in a psalm heading support the cultic use?
(126)
16A. What types
of things are mentioned inside the psalms (not including
the superscriptions) that highlight the
connection of many psalms to
cultic expression? (127)
17A. How does
Creach use a shift in voice in the psalm to argue for a
cultic setting of the psalm? Is that valid?
(128)
18A. What did
Mowinckel use as a paradigm from
paralleled to and brought into his thinking
about Israelite worship?
(129)
What benefits and problems do you see with such an
approach?
19A. What psalms
and themes did Mowinckel highlight in his study of
the Psalms? (129)
20A. How did
Mowinckel’s paradigm change the way he interpreted
psalms particularly in how he understood the
“I” referred to
in many psalms? (129)
21A. What is
“corporate personality” and how did Mowinckel use it in
the psalms? (130)
22A. How did the
Myth-Ritual school push Mowinckel’s ideas too far?
Why do many see problems with Mowinckel’s and
his Akitu or New
Years’ cultic approach? (130)
23A. How did
Weiser tweak Mowinckel’s New Year festival setting for
the Psalms? What data does Weiser’s
redirection of the setting for
the psalm explain that Mowincel’s view was
unable to handle? (131)
24A. What are the
anti-cultic psalms and what themes do they relate?
(131)
25A. Do the
historical texts support the notion of a temple court judgment
situation which could then be a link between
psalms and the cult?
(133)
Do the psalms Beyerlin alleges fitting with a judicial process
and associated ordeal necessarily fit with a
cultic setting?
26A. Does the
ordeal described in Num. 5:11ff fit well with the psalms?
(134)
Is the ordeal process (e.g. river ordeals) really supported much
in the OT elsewhere?
27A. What three
cultic settings have been suggested by Gunkel and then
Mowinckel and now more recently? How would such differences in
cultic setting impact how these psalms are
understood? (136) What
contribution has Gerstenberger made to the
suggestion of a possible
cultic setting?
7. Psalms and Cult Symbolism: Cherubim
1A. What
shaping does liturgy and ritual do to a text that is
different from literary, thematic or
theological concerns? (139)
2A. How does
the statement: “Psalms were not simply to be read;
they were to be performed. Belief was expressed verbally and
visually” fit with a digital and other ways
of performing the
message of the psalm? What is Broyles
suggesting here?
3A. How does
Broyles link the cult and the king? (140)
4A. How
frequently are the cherubim and ark mentioned in the Psalms?
What does such data suggest for the hermeneutical
process?
5A. How was the
ark portrayed in the Pentateuchal narratives?
What is the “priestly strand of the
Pentateuch that Broyles
refers to? (140)
6A. How was the
ark used to “lead” the people in the wilderness? (141)
7A. How does the
taking of
portrayal of the ark’s function in ancient
8A. How was the
ark harnessed for battle? (141) How is
the name
Ichabod linked into the ark narrative in
Samuel at Aphek?
9A. How does 2
Samuel and Uriah manifest the presence of the ark
in battles and its use in warfare? (142)
10A. What was the
relationship of the cherubim, ark and the Solomonic
temple? (142)
11A. In Deut.
10:1-9 what does Broyles see as the main purpose of the
ark? Why does Broyles discuss Deut. 10 after
the Solomonic temple
placement of the ark? How does he use Deut. 8:8 to support this?
(143)
12A. What does
the Chronicler situate around the narrative of David’s
bringing the ark to
the carrying up of the ark in Chronicles?
(143)
13A. David refers
to which Psalm when talking of rest for the ark and
its being footstool of God (1 Chr.
28:2)? What does the reference
to that particular Psalm manifest of the
canonical formation of the
Psalms as a book? (143)
14A. How did the
role of the levites shift once the ark was placed in
the temple (2 Chr. 35:3)? (144)
15A. In what
prophetic book are the cherubim prominent?
16A. What
different aspects does Broyles see of the cherubim-ark
symbolically? (144) What does the ark symbolize?
17A. How does
Broyles understand the “ark of your might” in Ps. 132?
(145)
What is the appropriate response to this symbol of divine
presence?
18A. What does
Ps. 132:6-8 re-enact? To what does
historical events
does Ps. 132 refer? Why does Broyles say it is “probably
post-exilic
in its final form? What might this suggest
about the group known
as the songs of ascent?
19A. How is Psalm
78 linked to an historical narrative? (146)
20A. What are the
pros/cons of Broyles attempt to link Ps. 105 to the
ark? (146)
21A. What terms
does Broyles use to link Ps. 96 to the ark?
Is such
a linking legitimate do you think?—how strong
or weak is it? (146)
22A. How does
Broyles link Ps. 99 and 132? (147) The statement
of Yahweh’s kingship as seen as enthroned on
the cherubim
has what connection to the ark? What new
dimension does this
add to understanding the Yahweh melek (Yahweh
is king) psalms?
23A. In Psalm 80
Yahweh’s enthroning on the cherubim has to do
with his strength as a warrior. How is Yahweh portrayed as
a warrior in Psalms? What implications does that have for
us today? (147) What is the meaning of the phrase “Lord of
hosts” and how is it related to the warrior
theme and linked to
the ark?
24A. Where is the
song of the ark? What does it say? (148)
25A. What
contribution does Ps. 68 make to Broyles’ discussion of
the ark? (148) In Ps. 18 how did Yahweh ride the clouds?
(149)
What does Broyles conjecture the relationship
between the
ark below and the cherubim above?
26A. Upon what is
Yahweh said to sit enthroned? (149)
27A. What
accompanies the psalms of God’s ascent? (150)
28A. What does
Broyles see as personified in the cherubim figures
in Ps. 97?
How tight is such a linking? (150)
29A. How is Ps.
97:7 extend the understanding of “bow down” in
relation to the cherubim-ark? (151)
30A. What themes
and images does Broyles see as being pulled
together in Ps. 89? Do such “attribute themes” necessitate
references to ark and cherubim? (151)
31A. How does
Broyles get the ark into Ps. 24? Is it
legitimate?