AbstractPsalms 65–68 constitute an editorially arranged and adapted cluster of psalms expressing universal praise and thanksgiving near the end of Book II of the Psalms. The article describes the theological purpose of the four psalms. There is a strong emphasis on God’s presence in the temple in Zion as a source of blessing for his elected people, the cosmos he created and all humanity. Through his magnificent involvement in creation and the history of his people, his fame as creator, righteous judge, and supreme ruler of the world will spread to the ends of the earth. By linking the cluster through keywords with Pss 1–2, the editors demonstrated how God’s benevolent and just involvement with his people would lead to his being universally recognised as the only God.

AbstractPsalms 65–68 form a tight collection or “cluster” of psalms close to the conclusion of Book II of the Psalter. The implied redactors’ purpose with this cluster was to offer thanksgiving and praise to God for manifesting his eschatological rule over the entire world. This article investigates the function of spatial descriptions in defining God’s rule over the cosmos in these four psalms. After establishing harmony in the world, God is present as King in his temple in Zion. To dwell in his vicinity is the pinnacle of his people’s blessing and privilege. Further away from Jerusalem, all nations, even to the ends of the earth, worship and praise God and bring him gifts. There is a centripetal movement of joy, worship, praise, and tribute toward God from all who accept his benevolent rule over the world, but also a centrifugal movement away from him by those who oppose his rule and refuse to accept it.

AbstractPsalm 75 is often assumed to be a psalm of thanksgiving. Others regard it as part of a cultic liturgy celebrating God's judgement on evildoers. But few researchers have recognised the important role played by the social values of honour and shame in the psalm. It is argued in this paper that it is not possible to understand the text as an instrument of communication if the social context is not taken into consideration. The psalm is analysed on a poetic and a social-critical plane. It seems that the purpose of this text was to confirm the belief of a group of Israelites in the power and willingness of Yahweh to intervene on their behalf. As such it also constitutes a prayer that the national honour of this group of believers will be restored.

AbstractThe relationship between the dramatis personae mentioned in Psalm 118 is investigated to determine for whom the psalm was intended in its present form and what the author or final editor wanted to communicate with the composition. From this investigation is concluded that the psalm should probably be understood as a liturgy of thanksgiving of Israel. The setting that fits the psalm the best seems to be a celebration of Israel's restoration from international shame to a position of honour.

AbstractThe article identifies the root metaphors used in Ps 32 and uses these to identify the purpose and strategy of the psalm as a means of communication between its author and its original audience. It argues that the psalm should not be read as a psalm of thanksgiving with wisdom elements, but a wisdom-teaching psalm which replicates a psalm of thanksgiving. The author and/or editors used the composition, which is ascribed to King David, as a means of exhorting members of the in-group in a post-exilic setting in Judah to trust in YHWH and to stay faithful to him. The implied author’s experience of suffering because of pent-up guilt, as well as an authoritative first-person address by YHWH, was used in conjunction with a range of wisdom features by the author to communicate this message to its original audience.

AbstractPsalm 67 has been interpreted for a long time as part of an agricultural liturgy of thanksgiving for Yahweh's grace. This paper argues that the psalm's contents, its structure, and its immediate context in the book of Psalms do not justify such an interpretation. It should probably be seen as a call to Yahweh to display and publicly claim his honour, so that all the peoples of the world will recognise Israel's special relationship to him. The strophic structure, poetic features, and ideological intent of the psalm and its neighbours are investigated.

AbstractPsalm 30 is subjected to two readings, the first of which takes the psalm as an expression of the traditional form-critical genre of the individual song of thanksgiving. The second reading seeks to consider the same motifs within the same structural organisation of the poem under the impact of the caption. The heading, whether itself edited at a later time than its original insertion or not, enables the reading of the psalm as a collective instead of an individual thanksgiving prayer. It is suggested that this kind of redactional criticism is theologically significant, laying bare as it does what exegesis has been doing all along, even when it claimed to be objectively practising historical criticism. It is also suggested that such an approach may help to counter the primacy, if not the papacy, of the 'final text' as this seems to be accepted by conservative as well as progressive currents within the biblical disciplines.

AbstractThe authors of the psalms implemented body rhetoric, especially the notion of the ‘whole body’ as the ideal body, in the various genres of psalms, with specific purposes in mind. The whole body as ideal body served as a defining paradigm within the ancient Israelite culture. In this article, the relationship between the embodied God-concept, the ideal societal body and the individual body is investigated in order to determine the purpose of the implementation of this ideology of whole-bodiedness in selected psalm genres. In Psalm 2, the political body as cultural construct plays a prominent role in directing the individual to think of the body in a specific manner. In Psalm 6, the ‘broken body’ drives the lamentation of the psalmist towards recovery. Psalm 29 reflects the poet’s ability to sketch, in hymnic-embodied language, God’s relationship with his creation and his people and the poet’s worship for God’s fullness of existence and activity. Psalm 32, as a psalm of thanksgiving, pictures God as the whole body in terms of the saviour, protector and healer of the broken (sinful) body.