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

Chapter 2: History of Psalms StudiesHis second monograph was The Prayers of David, Psalms 51-72 (1990).Goulder noted many similarities between these psalms; these persuaded himthat they form a unit. He argued that they were written during the latter half ofDavid’s reign (perhaps by one of David’s sons) in response to various eventsin the king’s life, beginning with his sin against Uriah (Ps 51) and ending withthe accession of Solomon (Ps 72). The canonical order, said Goulder, followsthe chronological order of events and composition. The corpus shows amovement from penitence towards peace.The Psalms of Asaph and the Pentateuch (1996) was third in Goulder’s“Studies in the Psalter” series. The central thesis of the work is that the “thePsalms of Asaph were composed in Northern Israel in the 720s in response tothe Assyrian threat, and were then taken and re-used in a (slightly) editedform in Jerusalem” (Goulder 1996:36). He positioned all the Asaphite psalmswithin a tentatively reconstructed autumn festival, treating them in pairs (Pss73-74, 75-76, 77-78 and 82-83; Ps 50 is grouped with Pss 73-74).In his fourth monograph, The Psalms of Return, Book V: Psalms 107-150,Goulder (1998) treats Book V of the Psalter as consisting of three collections:(a) Psalms 107-119, (b) Psalms 120-134 and (c) Psalms 135-150. He arguesfor a liturgical rationale for the collection and arrangement of each grouping.He associates Psalms 107-118 “with Ezra 1-6 and rebuilding the Temple,49