Smith DTh Thesis (final).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

Chapter 6: Composition of Psalms 3-8approached the idea of the thematic grouping of psalms in a very differentmanner to Walton’s (1991) cantata theory. Brueggemann’s thesis was that thefinal shape of the Psalter was designed to move the reader from the idealisticmoral world of Psalm 1 to the unrestrained delight in Yahweh of Psalm 150.The Psalter begins with a series of psalms that protest “against the simplistictheological affirmations of Psalm 1” (Brueggemann 1991a:72) and wrestlewith the apparent failure of Yahweh’s covenant love and promises. As thePsalter unfolds, the tone gradually changes to trust which leads to praise.Implicit in Brueggemann’s proposal is the belief that the final editors of thePsalter grouped psalms with similar overall themes at different points in thePsalter. The most obvious division is that in the first half of the Psalter lamentpsalms predominate, while in the second half praise psalms come to the fore.Although Brueggemann (1991a) does not discuss the detailed arrangement ofsmall corpi of psalms, his approach is consistent with a completely differentmethod of final arrangement to the approach of Walton (1991). In myunderstanding, Brueggemann’s approach would expect to find the editorsgrouping psalms with similar motifs in similar portions of the Psalter. One272