GroshLink

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge." To God be the glory!

Photo taken en route to The Power of Forgiveness: Lessons From Nickel Mines (Sponsored by The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College. 9/22/2011)

In Responding to "The heavens declare the glory of God" (12/8/2011), I noted the focused attention I was giving to Psalm 19. I finished the final paper for Dr. Dorsey's Psalms class at Evangelical with more to proces, more say, more to revise, but such is the writing of a recovering perfectionist embracing the mystery of God manifested in His creation ;)

In order not to overwhelm my readers (and to encourage them to come back for more), I've divided the posting of the paper by sections. May you find the piece a blessing. Feel free to recommend revisions, corrections, affirmations . . . Heading out the door with my small upright dolly to help a family involved with the Penn State Hershey Christian Medical Society (CMS)/CMDA with a mid-academic year move. Pray for God's blessing upon their household. Catch-up with you later :)

Introduction

The beauty and structure of Psalm 19 led C.S. Lewis to consider the psalm “the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world” (63). But when one turns to the field of biblical studies, a significant difference of opinion exists regarding the origin, central theme, and structure of Ps 19. What can be gleaned from the contrasting perspectives? God rules over and guides all of creation, including man, by the gift of his law from the word of his mouth.

A Survey of Modern Theories

Based upon significant differences between the two sections of Ps 19, i.e., verses 1–6 and 7–14, some maintain the psalm is a combination of two psalms from different periods. Such a perspective, given additional strength by a lack of a historical event to tie the psalm to David, leads to a significant questioning of Davidic authorship. Mitchell Dahood states:

The psalm clearly divides into two distinct but related parts. The first seven verses are probably an adaptation to Yahwistic purposes of an ancient Canaanite hymn to the sun. Verses 8–15 are a didactic poem describing the excellence of the Law, often in terms which properly describe the sun. If the use of the double-duty suffixes is a safe criterion, the author of both parts of the psalm was the same poet. Compare vs. 6, orah with vs. 8, nepes (121).

Hans-Joachim Kraus agrees and proposes Ps 19 originated from the fusion of two psalms from the cycle of autumn festivals, the later half to enlighten material in the first (269, 275).

In contrast to Moses Buttenwieser, Dahood, Kraus, and Artur Weiser, J.J. Stewart Perowne advances:

The apparent suddenness of transition . . . may not only be accounted for by the nature of lyric poetry, but was probably the result of design in order to give more force to the contrast. That such is the effect it is impossible not to feel” (221).

Peter C. Craigie identifies “numerous points of contact between the two portions” and “is reasonably certain that the psalm in its present form is a unity, either composed as a single piece, or else the author took a fragment of an old hymn (vv 2-7) and extended it by means of a theological commentary and comparison” (179). In opposition to the argument for the sun (creation) hymn’s origin in Ugaritic poetry, he proposes the origin as Gen 1-3. Craigie recognizes the praise offered to one true Creator God, in contrast to a deification of nature, a distinguishing mark to the other hymnody of the ancient Near East (181). Even if one were to support the sun hymn origin, Gerald H. Wilson claims recent scholarship uncovered unity in the psalm by “recognizing that sun and law/justice are commonly associated in the ancient Near East, where the sun deity (Utu, Shamash) is indeed the god of justice” (365).

Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg and H. C. Leupold come at the topic from a different angle, subordinating “the first part to the second by having it present the praises of the great Giver of the law and thus prepares for the unique glory of the law which comes from the hand of so great an Author” (Leupold, 177). Leupold attributes the introductory section’s length to the author being “swept along by the magnitude of his subject as he describes the glory of Him who is the Author of the law” (177). He asserts original unity by pointing to their current unity as argument for why they may have originally been united, the symmetry of the two parts, and that the rough transition between the sections would have been smoothed out by a compiler (177). Leupold’s focus upon the law stands in contrast to the view of the psalm emerging from a hymn to the sun.

Through the wide lens of the Psalter, John Goldingay reads Ps 19 as a bringing together of two important, although often separately treated, themes of “attentiveness to Yhwh’s teaching (see Ps. 1) and a stress on the cosmos’ acknowledgement of Yhwh (see Ps. 148)” (284). Although finding a “sharp” “disjunction” in the psalm, he doesn’t take a position on its union, except that whatever the origin they are now one (284). He also notes the attribution to David, along with the use of “your servant” in verses 11, 13, may suggest “the psalm was written for David or for one of his successors, or was reapplied to such a person” (286).

Saturday Scripture Series continues on Sunday: Psalm 19 Part II (Historical Setting/Central Point)

Psalm 19 Research Paper Bibliography