Psalms by Geoffrey Grogan

I recently received a copy of Geoffrey Grogan’s Psalms from the Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary series. I am roughly half way through it and from what I have read thus far it is excellent.

Description:
Geoffrey Grogan here tackles the growing field of Psalms research and presents an accessible theological treatment of the Psalter. He begins by surveying and evaluating the main scholarly approaches to Psalms and then provides exegesis of all the psalms, emphasizing their distinctive messages.

Grogan follows with a full discussion of the Psalter’s theological themes, highlighting the implications of its fivefold arrangement. He considers the massive contribution of the Psalter to biblical theology, including the way the psalms were used and interpreted by Jesus and the New Testament writers. The volume closes with an analysis of the contemporary relevance of the Psalms and a step-by-step guide to preparing a Psalms sermon, based on Psalm 8.

Contents:
Preface
Important Advice to the Reader
Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION
The Familiar and Yet Unfamiliar World of the Psalms
Textual Criticism
Sense Rhythms of the Psalms
Historical and Source Criticism
Superscriptions
Psalm Genres and Form Criticism
Redaction Criticism
Canonical Criticism
Rhetorical or Literary Criticism
Reader-Oriented Criticism
Appraisal of the Various Types of Criticism
Use of the Psalms Today
Excursus: The Davidic Psalms

EXEGESIS
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5

THEOLOGICAL HORIZONS OF PSALMS
The Psalter’s Key Theological Themes
The Basic Convictions of the Psalmists
The Covenants and the Theological Significance of the Exile
Yahweh as the God of the Future, the God Who Plans, the God of the Messiah and His Kingdom
The Contribution of the Psalter to Biblical Theology
A Warm Doctrine of God
A Firm and Confident Doctrine of Historical Revelation
A Heartfelt and Expanding Sense of Community
A Profound Doctrine of Sin
A Realistic Doctrine of Suffering
A Responsive Doctrine of Prayer and Worship
An Unshakable Doctrine of the Messiah
The Psalter’s Relevance to Present-Day Theological and Other Issues
God and Creation
Humanity and Sin
Christ’s Person and Work
The Grace of God, the Work of the Holy Spirit, and the Christian Life
The Church
The Last Things
Holy Scripture

Appendix: Preparing a Sermon on a Psalm
Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
Index of Scripture References

Information about the series:

Two features distinguish THE TWO HORIZONS OLD TESTAMENT COMMENTARY series: theological exegesis and theological reflection.

Exegesis since the Reformation era and especially in the past two hundred years emphasized careful attention to philology, grammar, syntax, and concerns of a historical nature. More recently, commentary has expanded to include social-scientific, political, or canonical questions and more.

Without slighting the significance of those sorts of questions, scholars in THE TWO HORIZONS OLD TESTAMENT COMMENTARY locate their primary interests on theological readings of texts, past and present. The result is a paragraph-by-paragraph engagement with the text that is deliberately theological in focus.

Theological reflection in THE TWO HORIZONS OLD TESTAMENT COMMENTARY takes many forms, including locating each Old Testament book in relation to the whole of Scripture — asking what the biblical book contributes to biblical theology — and in conversation with constructive theology of today. How commentators engage in the work of theological reflection will differ from book to book, depending on their particular theological tradition and how they perceive the work of biblical theology and theological hermeneutics. This heterogeneity derives as well from the relative infancy of the project of theological interpretation of Scripture in modern times and from the challenge of grappling with a book’s message in its ancient context, in the canon of Scripture and history of interpretation, and for life in the admittedly diverse Western world at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

THE TWO HORIZONS OLD TESTAMENT COMMENTARY is written primarily for students, pastors, and other Christian leaders seeking to engage in theological interpretation of Scripture.

Singing In The Reign

Michael Barber’s book Singing in the Reign: The Psalms and the Liturgy of God’s Kingdom looks quite interesting especially as he takes a canonical approach to understanding the Psalter.

You can preview the book here.

Michael Barber’s blog can be found here.

Blessed is he who comes

This is a summary of the sixth chapter of Mark Futato’s Transformed by Praise which is entitled “Blessed Is He Who Comes: The Psalms and the Future”.

1 THE LORD IS COMING: HE IS THE LORD
1.1 The Lord is King

1.2 An Eternal Kingship

The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The LORD is clothed,
He has girded Himself with strength.
Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved.
Your throne is established from of old;
You are from everlasting.(Psalm 93:1, 2)

1.3 A Coming King

1.3.1 How the Lord becomes King

1.3.2 When the Lord becomes King

1.3.2.1 Consumation

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying,

“The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:

“ We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
The One who is and who was and who is to come,
Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.”(Revelation 11:15-17)

1.3.2.2 Redemption

Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and spoke, saying:
“I will sing to the LORD,
For He has triumphed gloriously!
The horse and its rider
He has thrown into the sea!
The LORD is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation;
He is my God, and I will praise Him;
My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
The LORD is a man of war;
The LORD is His name.
Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea;
His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
“The LORD shall reign forever and ever.” (Exodus 15:1-4, 18)

1.3.2.3 Creation

For God is my King from of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
You divided the sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters.
You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces,
And gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
You broke open the fountain and the flood;
You dried up mighty rivers.
The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;
You have prepared the light and the sun.
You have set all the borders of the earth;
You have made summer and winter. (Psalm 73:12-17)

Also

The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The LORD is clothed,
He has girded Himself with strength.
Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved.
Your throne is established from of old;
You are from everlasting.

The floods have lifted up, O LORD,
The floods have lifted up their voice;
The floods lift up their waves.
The LORD on high is mightier
Than the noise of many waters,
Than the mighty waves of the sea. (Psalm 93:1-4)

2 THE LORD IS COMING

2.1 The Lord is Coming in Triumph

Oh, sing to the LORD a new song!
For He has done marvelous things;
His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.
The LORD has made known His salvation;
His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. (Psalm 98:1-3)

Also

Oh, sing to the LORD a new song!
Sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless His name;
Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonders among all peoples.
For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
But the LORD made the heavens.
Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns;
The world also is firmly established,
It shall not be moved;
He shall judge the peoples righteously.”(Psalm 96:1-3, 5, 10)

2.2 The Lord is Coming to Judge

Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice
before the LORD.
For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth.
He shall judge the world with righteousness,
And the peoples with His truth. (Psalm 96:12, 13)

And

Let the rivers clap their hands;
Let the hills be joyful together
before the LORD,
For He is coming to judge the earth.
With righteousness He shall judge the world,
And the peoples with equity. (Psalm 98:8, 9)

3 THE LORD IS COMING: HE IS THE MESSIAH

Also

“I will declare the decree:
The LORD has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession. (Psalm 2:7, 8)

4 THE COVENANT WITH DAVID HAS NOT BEEN ABORTED

4.1 A Plea to the Lord

Against the hopelessness of…

But You have cast off and abhorred,
You have been furious with Your anointed. (Psalm 89:38)

It is prayed…

For Your servant David’s sake,
Do not turn away the face of Your Anointed. (Psalm 132:10)

4.2 A Promise from the Lord

YHWH responds saying…

The LORD has sworn in truth to David;
He will not turn from it:
“I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body. (Psalm 132: 11)

Going on to say…

For the LORD has chosen Zion;
He has desired it for His dwelling place:
“This is My resting place forever;
Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
I will abundantly bless her provision;
I will satisfy her poor with bread.
I will also clothe her priests with salvation,
And her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
There I will make the horn of David grow;
I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed.
His enemies I will clothe with shame,
But upon Himself His crown shall flourish.” (Psalm 132:13-18)

4.3 The Son of David is Coming

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We have blessed you from the house of the LORD. (Psalm 118:26)

5 THERE WAS AN EXPECTATION OF ‘ONE TO COME’

5.1 He Comes in Triumph

The king also said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and take him down to Gihon. 34 There let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel; and blow the horn, and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ (1 Kings 1:33, 34)

Hence

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout,O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zecheriah 9:9)

5.2 His Triumph is Through Suffering

The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone. (Psalm 118:22)

5.3 He Gives a Promise for the Future

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

E. W. Bullinger on the Psalms

E. W. Bullinger provided a number of appendices that were related to the Psalms in his Companion Bible. They can be found at the following links:

Appendix 63 The Book of Psalms. Miscellaneous Phenomena
Appendix 64 “To the Chief Musician”
Appendix 65 The Psalm Titles, and the Words employed in them
Appendix 66 Hebrew Words in the Text of the Psalms. I. Higgaion. II. Selah
Appendix 67 The Songs of the Degrees

A condensed version of his comments on the Psalms can be found here.

Bullinger is interesting for at least two reasons. 1stly, he defends the work of Dr. J.W. Thirtle arguing that the word lamenazzeah translated as “To the chief Musician” is a subscription and not a superscription hence it should appear at the end of the Psalm. 2ndly, with regards to the Songs of Ascent he argues that they were related to Hezekiah and that the “degrees” refer to the degrees on the sundial of Ahaz as we read of in 2 Kings 20:8-11.

He argues,

The number of these Psalms (fifteen) adds to its testimony to the certainty of this interpretation. It corresponds with the number of the years (fifteen), which were added to Hezekiah’s life: while the number written by himself (ten) corresponds with the number of “the degrees” by which “the shadow of the sun went backward”.

Rediscovering the Psalms

A pleasant article by Joe Holland can be found here.

The Divine Warrior

Below is an extract from Tremper Longman’s “The Divine Warrior: The New Testament Use of an Old Testament Motif” in which he deals with some Psalms. I hope this taster encourages you to read the full article.

In the OT, the Divine Warrior frequently appears on his cloud war chariot. More specifically, Yahweh is described as riding a storm cloud into battle against his enemies (Ps 18:9-15):

He spread out the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him-
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
The Lord thundered from heaven;
Elyon gave forth his voice.
He shot his arrows and dispersed them,
great bolts of lightning and confused them.
The channels of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

The psalmist here calls to his Lord for aid, and the Lord responds by doing battle against his enemies and by saving him. Salvation and judgment are the two halves of the same great warring activity of Yahweh.

A second example of Yahweh as the cloud rider comes in Ps 104:1-4, a section replete with Canaanite imagery. In this connection, it is appropriate to mention the well-known Canaanite background to Yahweh as cloud rider. After all, one of Baal’s main epithets is “rider on the clouds” (rkb ’rpt).

Enthronement, Isaiah and New Exodus

I was asked recently:

Just out of interest, how are the enthronement psalms and Isaiah 40+ related to the new-exodus motif?

Below is my reply. It is in a very embryonic form I admit. This will form the basis of a future post when I get the time.

The details need to be fleshed out and an article on this is currently a work in progress but in brief:

1. A new exodus is spoken of by Isaiah. The theme begins in the 40th chapter hence we find “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” as being fulfilled in John the Baptist.

2. The theme continues into Isaiah 42 with “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth” finding fulfillment in Christ hence at his baptism (annointing), “And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

3. Still in Isaiah 42 we read “Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.” Familiar? Well now we can visit Psalm 98, ” O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.”

4. What is this victory? “The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” Kraus notes that this pictures YHWH leading his people home from Babylon through the desert to Jerusalem. What we find is the psalmist looking backwards to the first Exodus and then forward to the second exodus which is brought about by a great theophany, the incarnation of the Second Person of the Godhead as Jesus, who keeps the Torah, is the revelation of YHWH’s hesed, who dies and is raised for our justification and enthroned on high at whose name all nations shall bow the knee and acknowledge him as Lord (Phil. 2:8-11).

5. Keep this going; the enthronement psalms are those declaring YHWH mlk or “The LORD has become king” or “The LORD is king” (Pss. 93, 95-99) and this is Isaianic hence we read in Isaiah 52:7-10, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. ”

This all is found upon Psalm 2 where YHWH declares to the Messiah in covenant, “I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”

Suffering as The Path to Glory

Dr. Mark D. Futato’s “Suffering as The Path to Glory: The Book of Psalms Speaks Today” is available online.

Singing the cover versions

Jamie Grant’s Singing the cover versions: Psalms, reinterpretation and Biblical Theology in Acts 1-4 makes for interesting reading.

Introduction to the Psalms: The Genres of the Religious Lyric of Israel

Beth Tanner reviews Hermann Gunkel’s Introduction to the Psalms: The Genres of the Religious Lyric of Israel here.

David M. Howard reviews this book here.

You can view it in Google books here.