While almost every Christian knows that there are 150 psalms in the Psalter,1 most are not aware that they are divided into 5 seperate collections or books (very probably "to imply a Davidic corpus of five books . . . on a par with the five books of Moses"2), despite the fact that these divisions are clearly noted in most English translations. They are divided thus:
Book 1:Psm 1-41
Book 2:Psm 42-72
Book 3:Psm 73-89
Book 4:Psm 90-106
Book 5:Psm 107-150
Except for the last book which ends with a series of hallelujah, each of the Books ends with a doxology and an Amen:
Psm 41:13 - Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.
Psm 72:19 - Praise be to his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with
his glory.
Amen and Amen.
Psm 89:52 - Praise be to the Lord forever!
Amen and Amen.
Psm 106:48 - Praise be to the Lord,
the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Let all the people say, "Amen!"
Praise the Lord.
This pattern suggests that, most probably, the five Books originally circulated independently of one another, and this device of a doxology followed by an Amen was used as a conclusion to each collection. This is further indicated by two other observations about the Books:
1) The second book, e.g., ends with a notice that "This concludes the prayers (tephillot) of David son of Jesse," (Psm 72:20), but we find at least one more "prayer (tephillah) of David" in Psm 89. This can only be explained on the assumption that the notification in 72:20 applies only to the collection we now know as Book II.
2) Psm 14:1-7 from Book I is repeated in Psm 53:1-6 of Book 2, and so is Psm 40:13-17 (from Book 1) in Psm 70:1-5 (Book 2). This suggests that the two books originally circulated as independent collections that happened to have included in them slightly different versions of the two songs. The two versions of the songs use different names for God; Book 1 seems to have a preference for the Lord (Yahweh) while Book 2 prefers 'elohim (God).3
It has interested scholars for centuries when and how the five Books came to be gathered together into the one we now possess. With regards to the date we can only say that it must have taken long enough before New Testament times so that there was never an occasion when the Psalter was not known to be what it now is even if individual psalms or compilations of them were found elsewhere. The process and the factors that brought it about is probably complex because it is obvious that even within the five Books, there are evidences of smaller possibly earlier collections. Psms 73-83, e.g., seems to be a collection of "psalms of Asaph," while Psms 44-49 are 'of the Sons of Korah," and Psms 120-134 are "songs of ascent."
Furthermore, the earliest Hebrew manuscripts did not divide the psalms into 150 psalms. The Jerusalem Talmud, e.g., spoke of 147 psalms, corresponding to the extent of Jacob's life,4 and some Jewish traditions regard Psms 1 & 2 as a single psalm. This lack of uniformity is also reflected in the Septuagint, which, on the one hand, treats Psms 9 & 10 and Psms 114 & 115 as single psalms, while dividing Psms 116 and 147 into two psalms each.
Scholarship of the psalms have been extremely vigourous in the last four decades and are beginning to change the way we understand the Psalter. A turning point in this movement may be traced to the work of Hermann Gunkel, Claus Westermann, and especially Brevard Childs.5 In calling for the Church to read the books of the Old Testament in their canonical context, Childs turned our attention away from the "micro-management" of individual psalm to appreciating the fact that, in affirming the psalms to be canonical and putting them together in the form that we find them in the canon, the Old Testament requires us to pay attention to the Psalter as a whole. It will be impossible, of course, to set out here a comprehensive summary of the aftermath, but here are some highlights.
It is now recognized that the Psalter as we now have it is the result of deliberate editorial arrangement, highly likely by a two stage process. How can we tell? We begin by looking at the distinctiveness of the five books:
A. Most of the psalms in Books 1-3 are characterized by author designations and genre terms in their 'titles' or 'superscripts,' while they appear in only 53% of them in Books 4-5.
B. Laments predominate in Books 1-3, while communal thanksgiving predominate in the last two books.
These differences suggest that the first three books (1-41, 42-72, 73-89) shared commonalities that to their compilation into one collection congenial. The same may be said of the other two books. Studies of the psalms manuscripts from Qumran (Dea Sea Scrolls) suggest that the first three books were brought together first.
Investigations of the contents of these texts and their arrangement reveal no significant variations in the first three books. In contrast, the last two books demonstrate widespread differences in content and arrangement in manuscript as late as the middle of the first century CE. As a result it seems certain that the canonical Psalter developed in two major stages: the first including Pss.2-89 and completed by the mid-second century BCE; the second consisting of Pss. 90-145 brought together with the earlier collection some time by the mid-first century CE. The lack of any indication of variant manuscripts after this date indicates that the canonical arrangement won the day at that point and other arrangements faded from use.6
These, however, are not the only significant differences.
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Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2022
Further Reading
Leslie McFall, "The Evidence For a Logical Arrangement of the Psalter," Westminster Theological Journal 62.2 (2000): 223-256.
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©ALBERITH, 2022.