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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
PSALMS
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The Book of Psalms is an anthology of treasured Hebrew songs ("psalms" =
"songs") that give a wide range
of religious feelings poetic expression, often with effectively concrete
imagery. Hebrew poetry relies on rhythm, repetitions, and parallelisms
(not meter and rhyme).
The Psalms were probably meant as occasional poems in many cases,
intended for public
performance at service in the Temple. The subject matter of some -- such
as coming into sight of Jerusalem, being at the entrance to the Temple,
etc. -- strongly suggest their use as liturgical accompaniment. So the
Psalms function as personal expressions, but for the communal unit.
Although collected in post-exilic times, some of these are very early.
Psalm 74 notes the destruction of the Temple vividly. Psalm 137 reflects
Babylonian captivity. Tradition wants to credit David as the composer of
the Psalms. He was a patron and very likely a musician/poet. Certainly
some of them are intended for the occasions of royal coronations and so
are associated with later Davidic monarchs. But there is also a tendency
for later writers to make additions, so the style of some suddenly shifts
(e.g., Psalm 51).
Leviathan:
Leviathan has been interpreted as meaning "whale" -- but did the ancient
Hebrews know about whales? (The Jonah story involved a common
mistranslation of an unspecified "big fish.") Job 3:8 evokes a
mythological dragon of chaos, the embodiment of darkness and disorder
that Yahweh subdued but did not annihilate. Job 40:20 - 41:25 gives an
unserpentlike description. A crocodile? The ancient Hebrews would
certainly know about these. But Psalm 104 implies a deep-sea creature.
Leviathan (or Lothan) was known in northern Canaanite texts as the
primeval sea-monster foe of the storm god Baal at least as early as the
14th century bce (var. Lotan, Lawtan, and Lat = goddess in Canaanite).
Leviathan represents the chaos existing before creation, subdued when
order is brought to the cosmos by the conquering male deity; but it
remains as a primal energy, unassimilated into the new stable order.
Works Cited
Psalms. The Norton Anthology of World
Masterpieces, Volume I. 7th ed. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999.
88-91.
Harris, Stephen L. Understanding the Bible. 3rd ed. Toronto:
Mayfield Publishing Co., 1992.
Wilkie, Brian, and James Hurt, eds. Literature of the Western World,
Volume 1. 5th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
2001. 66-67, 121-127.
Several sequences of Psalms seem to some to be distinguishable:
Some Psalms are rather shocking to modern tastes in religious matters
because they seem so vicious with regard to retaliatory justice and the
God of wrath. But sometimes one simply longs for the old God, the old
father. Perhaps it's not the fashionable model in the age of 12-stepping,
but sometimes one simply wants the security of having something to be
scared of. The law was the law. Dad beat you because he loved you. He was
an alcoholic bully who usually brawled down at the bar, occasionally at
home, but he brought home the paycheck and you knew where you stood.
Psalm 1 (a general introduction)
Among the types of Psalms to be found are:
Psalms 1-41 (the oldest edition)
Psalms 42-72
Psalms 73-89
Psalms 90-106
Psalms 107-150
Psalm 150 (a concluding doxology, or expression of praise)
hymns of praise (e.g., Psalms 8, 23, 139)
enthronement (e.g., Psalm 2)
laments / petitions (e.g., Psalms 42, 43, 74)
blessings / curses (e.g., Psalms 1, 137)
wisdom mediations
An interesting side-note about Psalms: in a few of these (e.g., 104, 74;
"Rahab" in 89) as well as in the Book of Job (26:13) and Isaiah (27:1)
are references to Leviathan and/or a primordial battle with Yahweh. One
tradition tries to make this monster a symbol for Egypt within an Exodus
allegory, but the mythology is older and serves as the only collection of
remnants of a shadowy ancient belief in keeping with other Akkadian
creation myths (such as the Babylonian myth of Tiamat overpowered by
Marduk). That is, at some early point in Hebrew myth, Yahweh was a
conqueror over a reptilian or lizardine enemy, Leviathan (similar
etymologically with other middle-eastern cultural serpents' names),
associated with the earth or, typically, with the seas.