Psalms

1
Psalms

• HUMA 3810

2
What are Psalms?

• ??????/tehillîm/psalmoi ? religious poetry (to
  musical accompaniment?)
• number ca. 150
• Ps 151 Pss 9-10 actually one poem
• fundamentals of Hebrew poetry
• (synonymous) parallelism (cf. Matt 211-9 // Zech
  99)
• antithetic parallelism (cf. Ps 16)
• formal parallelism (2nd line completes 1st ? Prov
  2518)
• climactic parallelism (combines 1 3 ? 2nd line
  echoes adds ? Ps 291)
• according to Kugel, 2nd line expands elaborates
  1st ? not really parallel
• chiasm
• alliteration
• paronomasia (word plays/puns)
• line/colon/stich couplet/bicolon tricolon
  stanza poem

3
Structure

• Division into five books Torah
• a) Pss 1-41
• b) Pss 42-72
• c) Pss 73-89
• d) Pss 90-106
• e) Pss 107-150
• Doxologies (aka benedictions)

4
Collections

• Davidic 73
• Asaph 12 (Pss 73-83)
• Korah 11
• Anonymous 49
• elohist Pss 42-83
• Songs of ascent Pss 120-134

5
Types

• Herrmann Gunkel
• Literary types (form criticism) Sitz-im-Leben
• Ps 137 one of the few that can be dated with
  confidence
• Hymns (74/104 Egyptian influence? cf. Ps 29
  for Canaanite)
• Thanksgiving psalms (106/23)
• Laments
• Individual (13/69/88)
• Communal (74)
• Royal psalms (132/2/89)
• Zion psalms (126)
• Wisdom psalms (1)
• include acrostics (119)
• Liturgies (24)