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

Chapter 2: History of Psalms Studiescelebrated at Passover, with Psalm 119 as a glorious conclusion atPentecost” (Nowell 1999). Rather than a pilgrimage setting, Goulder linksPsalms 120-134, the Songs of Ascents, with the Israelites’ return from exile inBabylon. He proposes they were used as morning and evening readings atthe Feast of Tabernacles. Finally, he proposes that the Sitz im Leben forPsalms 135-150 relates to the return under Ezra.If Gerald Wilson’s (1985a) dissertation was the first landmark work on theediting of the Hebrew Psalter, the publication of a short JSOT Supplementcalled The Shape and Shaping of the Psalter (edited by JC McCann 1993a)was the second landmark work in the field. This short 130-page volumecontained nine articles by many of the leading lights in the field (Mays,Murphy, Brueggemann, Wilson [2], Howard [2], Miller and McCann). It offereda succinct summary of the state of research on the shape and shaping of thePsalter as it stood at the time. A brief synopsis of the articles in this volume isin order.Mays (1993:14-20), “The Question of Context in Psalm Interpretation”, arguesthat the editors of the Psalter transformed independent cultic pieces into aliterary-theological collection. He sees the final shape of the Psalter asreflecting both (a) wisdom or Torah and (b) kingship, both Davidic and divine,concerns. The final form of the Book of Psalms can thus be considered as50