본문 바로가기
  • Home
Basic Search

The Equivocality of Psalm 80: From Communal Lament to Royal Psalm

  • Korean Journal of Old Testament Studies
  • Abbr : KJOTS
  • 2018, 24(2), pp.93-117
  • DOI : 10.24333/jkots.2018.24.2.93
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Old Testament Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology
  • Received : April 1, 2018
  • Accepted : April 28, 2018

Keun Jo Ahn 1

1호서대

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to delve into the equivocality of Psalm 80. It has been discussed that psalm 80 is a communal lament derived from the Northern Tribal cultic settings. However, verses 16 and 18(MT versification) demonstrate evident expressions of Messianic terms such as “the one at your right hand” or “the son of man strengthened by God” which must have been used in Southern Kingdom in relation to the Davidic Covenant. How does a psalm contain both traditions of Northern and Southern Kingdom? Also, what does “the son of man” whom God strengthens signify? Is he the king of Northern or Southern monarchy? Or is he the future Messiah who will rebuild the whole Israelite community? In order to respond these questions the paper first discuss the characteristics of equivocality of psalm 80. Due to the complicated history of literary transmissions of the psalm, the text displays a complexity that any specific methodology of interpretation could dissolve. That is why this paper utilizes a literary-canonical criticism to exegete the text. Because the literary critical perspective regards the text as it is. It considers the contradictions and disparities of a text as a signal for some changes in the literary context resulting in new meanings for each canonical community. Second, the structure of the third Book of Psalm which is composed of 17 psalms has been analyzed. We have found that the 17 psalms form a chiasmus centering psalm 81, which in the only communal praise in the third corpus. Our text psalm 80 includes the central psalm 81 with the other pair of psalm 82. It is surprising that both psalm 80 and 82 emerge as “Royal Psalms.” It demands that the psalm 80 should be read as in the royal psalms instead of communal psalms. Third, the doublet of verses 16 and 18 have been interpreted by a rhetorical critical methods. Even though the two verses seem to be miswritten in repetition, the literary context shows an intentional significant change of the meaning of “the stock” in verse 16. As the word is changed from “son”(!B) in 16 to “son of man”(~d"a'-!B) in 18, the meaning of the vine in is transformed from Israelite community to future messianic king. Finally, it mentions about three messianic points that the psalm 80 signifies. They are its relationships with the Nathan oracle in 2 Samuel 7, with the concept of Saviour in the future and with “the One who is right side of God” in Psalm 110:1. The paper is concluded with two points. One is that the literary-canonical reading is an appropriate interpretative tool to elucidate the equivocal meanings of psalm 80. The other one is that the future study of psalm 80 should be concerned with a deeper level of investigations on the tradition of the “Son of Man” in relation to psalms 8, 89, 110 and other prophetic literature as well as Daniel 7.

Statistics

  • 511 Viewed
  • 303 Downloaded

Tools

Issue List

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

Basic Search Advanced Search