Pattern:
l Repetitions: sing to the Lord
Structure:
l V1-3: A call to praise the Lord
encompassing all the earth (all the earth, nations, peoples). Salvation,
marvelous works.
l V4-6: Motivation/Why? Compare to
false idols.
l V7-10: Summons to nations. Action
required, ascribing glory to the Lord, worship to the Lord, come closer to the
temple. Ascribe: commanded to. V10: climax/turning point. Propositional
statement: an assertion of a fact: “the world is established, it shall never be
moved.”
l V11-13: Joyous judgment. Shift in
verb form, indicating a permission to do so. Kingship of the Lord, creation is
rejoicing.
Languages:
l positive language
l keywords: world, earth, sea, glory,
salvation, rejoice
Imagery:
God’s reign over the world/cosmos.
l Personification metaphors: treating
things that are not persons as persons. V9: Tremble before him all the earth. V11:
heaven be glad, earth rejoice, sea roar. V12 field exult, trees of the forest
sing for joy. Personification of creation. Who is appropriate to worship
Yahweh. The response of worship is an acknowledgement of sovereignty. All
creation exists to worship Yahweh. All creation finds its proper place in the
world when they praise Yahweh.
l V6: Yahweh’s attributes are
“reified”, given an existence, treated as things themselves.
Surprises:
judgment in the end, in positive tone
l When God judges, God makes things
right, and this is liberation. Creation is being portrayed here as waiting for
Yahweh to come and to set things right.
l Walsh: “The Mighty from their
thrones”: kings were described as implementers of justice. The aligning of
power to make things the way they’re supposed to be, a rightly ordered society.
To use power so it brings about righteousness. Canaanites has little kings:
keep people firmly in their place and if they go out of line you kill them. Israelites:
radically different from the Canaanites. The king was entrusted power to bring
things into line.
Key ideas:
l kingship, praising the Lord, hope,
judgment.
What ways
does the Psalm express and celebrate Yahweh’s kingship?
l Sovereignty, king of everything,
splendor, majesty, power, judgment.
What mood
does the Psalm convey? How does that influence your understanding of God’s rule
as king?
l Starts upbeat “sing to Yahweh”, ends
with “joy”.
l Rejoicing, confidence, anticipation
(waiting, it’s coming), patience.
l Completely positive, celebration.
Yahweh’s judgment is something to celebrate. Why celebrate? True justice is a
rarity. This is good news (if you think about the Middle East conflicts, plight
in the environment we live).
What
responses does the Psalm call for? How does that influence your understanding
of God’s rule as king?
l Worship and praise the Lord. Submit
to the reign of the Lord.
What role
might this understanding of the kingship of God play in informing Christian
faith and our conduct in the world?
l Try to do the right thing in our
conduct in the world.
l Promise: faith and trust in the Lord.
l The day will come.
l Unchangeable kingship of God.
Psalms of
Yahweh’s kingship, or ‘Enthronement Psalms’
l They are used in particular
festivals, in pre-exilic Israel, new year festivals in autumn.
l It is clear that ANE, there’s annual
enthronement of Marduk. The king took the part of the deity. The recounting of
these words and ritual acts enacts these events. Catholic theology of the mass:
the Eucharist means this is the offering of Christ: Christ’s offering for sin
is enacted again.
l Each year, Sukkot (feat of
tabernacles) was held for 7-8 days. In the feast of tabernacles, worship in
Jerusalem crying out Yahweh is king. Yahweh is repeating and actualizing what
he had done in the past. Heilsgeschichte: Sacred story/history.
l OT: no sukkot in the calendar. The new
year was Passover, which is the beginning of the Jewish year. Autumn is when
things die, and life renewal happens in spring.
l There are other gods who seed
kingship to Marduk.
l Psalm 82: gods have failed and being
dethroned and sentenced to death.
l Psalm 47: It can be odd to say God
is beginning to reign as if God has stopped reigning, because God is always
sovereign. Here it seems to suggest that from time to time God reigns because
if the events happening results from God reigning then it’s not a good reign.
When God does something significant in history, God begins to reign.
l There is recognition of what God has
done for Israel.
l The characteristics of Yahweh:
Yahweh’s attendance (splendor and majesty). Yahweh’s reign (almost always
justice is prominent). Eschatological elements (Yahweh’s presence).
l Function: Affirm Yahweh’s kingship.
When things are going well, they need to be reminded that things are going well
because Yahweh is king. When things are not going well, they need to be
reminded that Yahweh is still king. Yahweh’s kingship is to be celebrate
because it’s good news, that Yahweh’s kingship is the power to make things
right. It’s a cosmic kingship.
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