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

Chapter 2: History of Psalms StudiesIn an article entitled “The Division and Order of the Psalms”, Anderson (1994)worked his way through the Books I-V of the Psalter in canonical orderdiscussing diverse points of interest, which ranged from authorship toordering. He saw the compilation of the Psalter evolving Book by Book,beginning in the Davidic era (Book I and possibly also Book II) and endingaround the time of Nehemiah (Books IV and V). He dates the compilation ofBook III during the reign of Hezekiah. 9 He is sceptical of high-level literaryarrangement, and tends to see the development of the final form as asomewhat piecemeal evolutionary process. He draws the followingconclusions:In summation we have seen that the division of the psalter intofive books is indeed not only warranted, but gives evidence of ahistorical development of compilation over the ages since thetimes of Hezekiah or earlier. This work of compilation into known9 With reference to the date of the final editing of the Hebrew Psalter, Gerald Wilson (2000)argues that Books I-III took on a stable form during the fourth century B.C., but that the finalarrangement of Books IV-V only took place in the first century A.D. In the same article, Wilsonalso argues that the placement of a Mosaic psalm (Ps 90) at the beginning of Book IVrepresents “a call to a pre-Davidic lifestyle characterized by direct reliance on God alone”(Hegg 2003).40