The Psalms (4 Volume Set) (eBook)

Preface

The Nature and Purpose of This Commentary

I am persuaded that the Psalms belong to Jesus Christ. I believe that the Psalms themselves point to a fulfillment only possible in the divine-human person of Christ. Through its quotations and echoes of the Psalms, the New Testament bears witness to a textured understanding in which Christ is central. For the larger part of church history, this has broadly been the way Christians have read the Psalms. This commentary is therefore a Christ-centered commentary, in which I seek to see Christ front and center when reading the Psalms. I have attempted to explain and argue my case in volume 1, Introduction: Christ and the Psalms.

Since the so-called “Enlightenment” in the eighteenth century, Christ has been eclipsed in much Psalms scholarship and preaching. With a few notable exceptions, recent commentaries tend either to omit Christ from many or all of the Psalms or mention him as little more than an afterthought. But I have become persuaded that Jesus Christ is the subject and object of the Psalms, that his majestic divine-human person is woven into the warp and woof of the Psalter, and that he is the preeminent singer of psalms, the focus of the Psalter, and the one without whom the Psalms cannot be understood aright. I therefore want to place Christ in the foreground of our reading of every psalm and to do so in ways that are shaped by the New Testament. I want to set before us what the Psalms might look and feel like if in truth they do belong to Christ.

There is much you will not find in this commentary. My background is that of a preacher and pastor rather than a trained biblical scholar. I have sought to interact with a representative sample of writers across the centuries (surveyed in volume 1, Introduction: Christ and the Psalms) but have not, for the most part, attempted to interact with the voluminous and ever-growing secondary literature. I hope I am sufficiently aware of the more significant debates, but for a full study of these things, readers should consult one or more of the recent technical commentaries. I have worked from the Hebrew text but have no particular expertise in the language, especially as regards Hebrew poetry, translation of tense forms, and poetic parallelism. Much scholarly debate surrounds theories of the dating, possible contexts of origins, and putative redaction histories of various psalms. Too often it seems to me that scholars construct theories on the basis of inadequate evidence; furthermore, I am not persuaded that these debates are always useful to Christian disciples seeking to weave the Psalms into their lives of prayer and praise.

This commentary is not, therefore, a substitute for technical, scholarly commentaries. What you will find here, I hope, is the Psalms read with the breadth of a whole-Bible perspective allied with the depth of a clear focus on Christ, the center of history and the fulcrum of the Bible story. I thus hope to do four things:

1. To help you understand the lyrics of these songs, what the words mean and what the poetry signifies

2. To assist us in feeling the “tune,” that is, the affectional and emotional dimensions of these songs

3. To point to the volitional commitment that is asked of disciples when we join in the Psalms—for to say the Psalms means moving from the audience, where we listen without commitment, to the choir, where commitment is expected

4. To motivate you to take that step and actively to make the Psalms a part of your lives of prayer and praise

I hope this commentary will prove useful to all kinds of Christian people—and especially to those who preach, teach, or lead studies on the Psalms.

How Each Psalm Is Treated

After one or more chapter epigraphs of quotations from other writers, each psalm is considered in three sections.

The orientation section involves consideration of how we ought to view the psalm in the light of Jesus Christ. This includes reference to New Testament quotations and echoes and to the context of the psalm in history (if known) and in its canonical context, especially with reference to nearby psalms. I hope that setting this section first helps the reader engage in a manner that places Christ at the center, rather than on the periphery.

The text section begins with consideration of the structure. Since there is an extraordinarily wide variation in perceived structures, I have sought to be cautious and tentative except where the structure seems very clear. The text section continues with verse-by-verse commentary, taking into account the orientation section and seeking to make clear the meaning of the words and lines as well as the flow of the poetry.

The reflection and response section points to what a Christian response might look like when appropriating this psalm.

Three Questions in Psalms Interpretation

Three questions are often asked when reading the Psalms that merit even concise mention at the outset of this commentary. For a fuller discussion, please see volume 1, Introduction: Christ and the Psalms. These questions, with my very brief conclusions, are listed below.

1. Who are “the righteous”? A careful analysis of the Psalms gives us a portrait of those who delight in the covenant God and find assurance of final vindication in him. This assurance is rooted in the righteousness of their covenant head. Because neither David nor his successors lived with perfect righteousness, they clearly foreshadow another covenant head who will. “The righteous” in the Psalms, then, are righteous by faith in the covenant God.

2. Can Jesus Christ be considered to be praying the Psalms when the psalmists confess their sins and plead for forgiveness? My conclusion is that he does so as the covenant head of a sinful people, just as he submitted to John the Baptist’s baptism of repentance. The shadow of the cross fell on him, who had no sin, as he prayed these psalms and our sin was imputed to him.

3. How are we to understand the prayers for God to punish the wicked in the Psalms? A study of the New Testament supports the conclusion that Jesus Christ prays these prayers from a pure heart, and so we pray them—cautiously and with trembling—in him. Every time we pray, “Your kingdom come,” in the Lord’s Prayer, we pray for this punishment on the finally impenitent, even as we pray for many to repent before it is too late.

The Superscriptions and the Shape of the Psalter

Much scholarly attention has focused in recent years on the canonical order of the Psalms and the ways in which the five books of the Psalms and the superscriptions may help us understand the significance of this order. I am persuaded that the canonical order is as much the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s direction as is the composition of the Psalms themselves. But I have sought to be cautious in making claims about discerning the meaning of this structure in detail. At the start of each book of the Psalter, I have included a very brief introduction to that book.

I accept the reliability of the superscriptions, while recognizing that we do not understand all the terms used in them. I have commented briefly on these terms (and the word Selah) the first time each appears. In particular, I accept that “of David” and similar expressions indicate authorship, and I have sought to argue this position (a minority among scholars) in vol-ume 1, Introduction: Christ and the Psalms.

Texts and Translations

I have followed the normal Jewish and Christian understanding that the Masoretic Text is the most reliable witness to the original form of the texts. Some modern translations give considerable weight to the Greek translations (and sometimes also to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ancient Versions), but I have erred on the side of caution, except where there are overwhelming reasons for rejecting the Masoretic Text. I have indicated where there is significant uncertainty.

When quoting Hebrew or Greek, I provide both the original forms and the transliteration in the main text. In footnotes I provide only the original Hebrew or Greek.

I have used the English Standard Version (ESV) as my base text (though I have at times taken liberty to break stanzas differently from the ESV). I have found this an admirable translation for the purposes of detailed study. Where there are significant differences, I have sometimes referred to the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), the King James Version (KJV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the New International Version (NIV), the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), and the Revised English Bible (REB).

Hebrew Tense Forms

Scholars vary in the terminology they use for the two tense forms in Hebrew. One form may be called the perfect, the perfective, the suffix conjugation, or the qatal. The other may be called the imperfect, the imperfective, the prefix conjugation, or the yiqtol. For simplicity I use the traditional terminology perfect and imperfect, even though these do not translate simply into English perfect or imperfect tenses,...