Bound in Love

Book III: Collapse

The third book is quite short, only 17 psalms in total. And only one of those is attributed to David. Most are by the Sons of Kora or Asaph, members of the choir David set up to compose and sing psalms.

The tone of most of the psalms is dark, with lots of laments about injustice, such as the wicked men prospering at the expense of the poor. There is a long psalm (78) which is a recount of salvation history up to that point noting how many times Israel was unfaithful to God. Two of the Psalms (74, 79) refer specifically to the destruction of the Temple. And in Psalm 81, we have a unique setting in which God seems to be asking Israel to repent; all the other psalms are the person begging God for something.

Book IV: From the Perspective of the Exile

Book IV has a thoughtful or meditative tone to it. It really makes a lot of sense if it is understood as being related to the perspective of the exiles. This is where we have Psalm 90, which is titled “a  Psalm of Moses.” It’s not that Moses wrote it but that it’s sort of written from the view of Moses. Seven of the eight times that Moses is mentioned in the Psalms occur in this book. It is asking for God to return and rescue his people; you can see verse 13 is a good example of that.

So although Psalm 90 is written as though Moses wrote it, it works well as a Psalm of lament for Israel in exile. It is followed by 10 more that share a number of themes that fit a time of Israel in exile. They speak of God as “rock” and also “refuge” for now Israel has no physical dwelling place. Remember that they were sent to Babylon or dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire. These Psalms look forward to the “reign of God”, who the songwriters acknowledge is still enthroned even if the human king, the son of David, has been dethroned. They speak of God’s glory being displayed in creation, which is still visible even if God’s king is no longer ruling in Zion and the temple has been knocked over. They praise God by singing a new song. Psalm 96 and 98 are particularly well-known, for we hear them a lot during the lectionary cycle for Mass.

Psalm 102 is a lament that calls for God to restore Jerusalem from exile. It says:

You will arise and have pity on Zion;
it is the time to favor her;
the appointed time has come. (Psalm 102:13)

The last three Psalms of Book IV, 104, 105 and 106, recount in succession God’s mighty deeds in creation — that’s Psalm 104 — and in the period from Abraham to the Exodus — that’s Psalm 105 — and in the period from the Exodus up through the exile — that’s Psalm 106. These three psalms together give a more or less complete recounting of salvation history. Throughout these three psalms God’s faithfulness is contrasted with Israel’s unfaithfulness.

Book IV does seem to be a reflection on the reality of the apparent failure of the kingdom of David and his successors, for they are now in exile. The psalms acknowledge Israel’s sin, they plead for its restoration, and they reorient the theological framework to the earlier covenants with Moses and Abraham.

Book V: Lament to Praise

The tone of Book V is joyful, for it seems that the temple has been restored. Psalm 107, which opens this section of the Psalter, opens with these three verses:

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in and from the lands,
from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

Book V is the longest and perhaps the most complex of the books of the Psalter, and Bible scholars suggest that this may be so because additional materials were being added to the final book. Book V is 43 Psalms, and it can be grouped in three sections or cycles. There is a cycle of 12 Psalms that takes you from lament to praise. After that introduction to Book V – which is Psalm 107 – there are some laments of David including Psalm 109. This is one of the Psalms which were determined by the experts after the second Vatican Council as being too harsh to be used in the reformulated Breviary that priests and deacons promise to pray. This is the Psalm that Peter quotes when they are picking an Apostle to take the place of Judas, and I’ve always been curious why it’s good enough for Peter in the Book of the Acts but too much for us modern people.

This cycle pivots to divine blessings of the Davidic priest king: this is the famous Psalm 110 which talks about this Messiah and priest-king being a priest in the order of Melchizedek. We talked about this in other sessions that related to the expectations especially by the Essenes for a priest and king who would be of a line that predates the Levites and the other sons of Aaron who had been the priestly tribe since the time of Moses.

Then follows the praise Psalms; the Hebrew word where we get hallelujah is hallel, and it means praise, and we have the little praise and the great praise. Again we have talked about these in the context of the Fourth Cup and how the Jewish Seder meal that Jesus celebrated was transformed into the sacrifice of the Lamb on the cross for the redemption of all people who responded to it rather than just for the Jews.

The second cycle is a sequence of about 16 Psalms, and most of these are Psalms of the ascent to the temple. The singer/author of the Psalms is journeying toward the temple going up into the temple or even already in the temple courts.

The third cycle starts with a lament in the Exile, this is the famous Psalm 137 which Bob Marley used for one of his songs and speaks of the sadness of being asked by your captors to sing the songs of Zion. It is followed by some more laments by David, and then it hits to David’s praise of the kingdom of God and then a series of praises to wrap up the Psalter.