Philip Sumpter, «The Coherence of Psalms 15–24», Vol. 94 (2013) 186-209
This article develops recent arguments that Psalms 15–24 constitute a relatively self-contained sub-collection that is chiastically arranged. It seeks to uncover the logic underlying the arrangement by attending to three points: 1) the manner in which the content of each psalm is 'expanded' and 'brought forward' in its chiastic parallel; 2) the nature of the relation between the framing psalms (15; 19; 24) and those that intervene; 3) the significance of David and Zion. In short, it argues that the editors were concerned to situate David within his true theological context.
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THE COHERENCE OF PSALMS 15–24
distinction is introduced between the proleptic experience of God’s
presence in the “valley of the shadow of death†(v. 4; cf. Jer 2,6) and
the abundance of the “house of the LORD†46, the destination of the
king’s difficult journey, which is located beyond the “wildernessâ€.
This dynamic sense of movement links up with the movement I have
just described for Psalm 24 as a whole and which is encapsulated in
the different way in which it poses the question in v. 3: not Psalm
15’s “who may dwell with the LORD†but “who may ascend to the
LORDâ€. There is a mountain to be climbed, a journey to be under-
taken. The experience of God in Psalm 16 is thus theologically clar-
ified by Psalm 23. Although Psalm 16 was also composed in a
context of suffering (cf. v. 1), Psalm 23 highlights that the blessed
reality tasted in Psalm 16 is only fully realized at the end of a labo-
rious journey of suffering, in which God travels with his king to the
place of consummation, the temple in Zion. In Psalm 24, we see this
couple on the verge of arrival.
Psalm 23 does more than embed Psalm 16 within a broader theo-
logical narrative, it also serves to turn David into a type of the true
Israelite. This is because, as a number of interpreters have noted, the
experience sketched in Psalm 23 is a recapitulation for an individual
of the experience of Israel as a whole 47. The imagery of provision
and guidance through the wilderness by a shepherd king who brings
his flock to the temple, the place of his special presence, is an echo
of the themes of the Exodus from Egypt and of the New Exodus from
Babylon (cf. Pss 77,21; 78,52-53; Isa 40,11; Ezekiel 34; Deut 2,7;
Neh 9,21), now individualized within the flesh of the king 48. Psalm
Other translation possibilities for the difficult Hebrew phrase twmlc are
46
“very deep shade†or “total darknessâ€. Cf. P. CRAIGIE, Psalms 1–50 (WBC
19; Nashville, TN 1985) 207.
D. FREEDMAN, “The Twenty-Third Psalmâ€, Pottery, Poetry, and
47
Prophecy (Winona Lake, IN 1980) 275-302; M. BARRÉ – J. KSELMAN, “New
Exodus, Covenant, and Restoration in Psalm 23â€, The Word of the Lord Shall
Go Forth. Festschrift for D.N. Freedman (ed. C.L. MEYERS) (Winona Lake,
IN 1983) 97-127; HOSSFELD – ZENGER, Psalmen:1, 152-154.
FREEDMAN, “Psalm 23â€, 276: the experience of the Exodus is both per-
48
sonalized and universalized. The connection with the Exodus had long been
picked up by the Targum: “1. A psalm of David. It is the LORD who fed his
people in the desert; they lacked nothing. 2. In a place of thirst, he makes me
rest … 3. He restores my soul with manna; … 4. Even when I go into exile in
the valley of the shadow of death … 5. You spread a table before me, manna
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