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

Chapter 2: History of Psalms Studiesimplications for our understanding of the formation of the FiveBooks and the Book of Psalms as a whole.With special reference to the composition of Book I of the Psalter,Labuschagne writes:Far from being a conglomerate of psalms simply broughttogether to form an anthology, the psalms in Book I of thePsalter constitute a carefully designed and skilfully assembledcorpus. This literary composite is made up of two categories ofpsalms – and this applies to the other books as well. First,existing psalms originating from the pre-exilic sanctuaries, andsecond, new ones specifically composed in view of theformation of a Hymnbook. The psalms of both categories werecontrived and adapted to form close-knit numerical compositionswith a specific role in the book. (Labuschagne 2007:2)Based on numerical patterns he observes, Labuschagne sees the 40 psalmsof Book I (counting Psalms 9-10 as one psalm) as composed of five (or six,depending on whether Pss 30-31 are separated from Pss 19-29) sub-groups.1) Psalm 1 serves as the introduction to Book I.61