AbstractThe Lament Psalms are among the Old Testament texts that do not have much influence and impact for the Christians of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. This is due to the inherited Western Christian traditions which regarded complaints to be incompatible with the Christian faith. As a result, the Tanzanian Church has overlooked and failed to integrate two of her religious heritages in prayer and worship. I contend that the devaluation and absence of the Lament Psalms stem basically from the lack of proper interpretations of these texts. The flaws and distortions in interpretation have censured these psalms from the practical life of the Church. This study seeks to bridge the gap and to bring harmony between the Lament Psalms and the Church practices. The gap Gan be bridged through effective interpretation of the Lament Psalms. The effective reading in this thesis is doing a close reading of the Lament Psalms, that is, reading the biblical laments in conjunction with African lament traditions. In this research, five Psalms of Lament have been critically examined in conjunction with African lament songs. This critical analysis comes immediately after the introductory chapter. The emphasis has been on translations, close readings, literary contexts, and central theological themes for each Psalm. Chapter three concentrates on the broader theological motifs of the Lament Psalms, and examining how these motifs relate to the rest of the Lament Psalms. Chapter four introduces the reading of the Lament Psalms in the Tanzanian context. This includes the study of the traditional lament prayers, an investigation of the worship material in the ELCT, and the use of the biblical Psalms in the life of the Church. Hermeneutical implications of this study are deliberated in chapter five, where the problems and prospects of such interpretation are emphasized. Tanzanian lament songs and traditions pose several significant elements that can enhance and illuminate our reading of the Psalms of Lament. Among these, aspects such as community, rituals, and language need to be considered in order to read effectively the Lament Psalms in a given cultural context. Finally, the thesis concludes by arguing that any anthropologically and culturally sound theology has to take into account the people's experience, in a way that they can grasp and integrate culture and their new faith.

AbstractThe biblical psalms of personal lament show certain characteristics which can assist African youth struggling with various issues to voice their own laments. In this empirical study, "pain-bearers" from various sectors in South Africa (refugees, AIDS-sufferers, and members of the LGBT community) participated in short workshops where they studied Psalms 3 and 13. They then composed their own laments using features of biblical lament: complaints, petitions, requests for justice, and an honest expression of their mood (often oscillating between negative and positive statements). Analysis of the lament compositions shows they include the elements considered essential by trauma-therapists (establishing safety, reconstructing the trauma-story, and restoring connections with one's community), and lament-researchers (restoring the voice of a subject, providing a sense of justice, and connecting with God), and could result in biological healing, a possible application of the work of neuro-researchers. Thus one can posit that the expression of lament could promote wholeness for sufferers.

AbstractDistressing situations call for concerted prayer, but in practice traumatised people often battle to express themselves adequately to find release and comfort. Fortunately, the Bible contains prayers that can be used helpfully, in particular the Lord’s Prayer and psalms of lament. In this study, the value of lament prayer is first explored, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Then it is noted that lament psalms utilise a basic structure that contemporary sufferers can follow to compose their own lament prayers. The Lord’s Prayer is also helpful in that it calls for the coming of God’s Kingdom and thus provides a way to name injustices and pray for the Lord’s will to be effected. Empirical studies with these two prayer-forms helped participants in a South-African township to express their pain to God. The structure of biblical laments helped them express their own personal pain, and the Lord’s Prayer gave space for them to voice their frustrations against the lack of justice in their situations. In these days of much trauma, this study presents a way in which pain-bearers can learn to release their concerns and feel empowered.

AbstractPsalms of lament characteristically include affirmations of trust and sometimes a vow to praise God in the future. This article questions the motivation behind such vows by looking carefully at whether future praise is conditional on God’s positive response and what other rhetorical devices are linked to the promise God makes. Attention is given to the nature of praise and lament psalms (considering the power dynamic) and foundational principles of Persuasion Theory. Five biblical psalms of lament are considered, with particular attention to their use of a vow and other persuasive tactics to encourage God to intervene. Although a vow of future praise (and other persuasive tactics) may be used, the psalmist’s most critical means of persuasion (as apparent in Ps 88) is the character of the psalmist’s covenant-partner.

AbstractThe thesis argues that certain aspects of death in the individual lament psalms when viewed in the light of socio-economic perspectives provide new insights into the Old Testament definition of death. These aspects are clarified in an exegetical study of selected psalms (Pss. 88; 7; 64; 13; 6; 30; 49) and elaborated through the examination of expressions such as 'wyb, sr, 'nsy dmym, mwt, dwmh, rs', p'ly 'wn. There is a good use of socio-anthropology dealing with personal causality, its relationship to the healing process, and Yahweh's link to the kinship and social order as a necessary ingredient for change in the social order as previously known. The research is located within the history of psalm interpretation, with emphasis on the works of Christoph Barth, Mitchell Dahood and Nicholas Tromp. The evidence that death may be conceived as a form of socio-economic oppression, and as a pattern of ideology is located within the milieu of sorcery, magic, witchcraft, and within the political context of the Israelite monarchy in the 8th and 7th centuries B.C.E. The dissertation begins by defining the problem, its parameters, and the methodological principles for the study. This is followed by a detailed critical exegetical analysis, and a discussion of the various aspects of death. The conclusion is reached that death was perceived in the psalms as a diminution of life and as a matter of degree; that death motifs are pervasive in the psalms; that interpreting the psalter with socio-anthropological data while using the biblical material as the controlling factor is tenable. The dissertation's implications are theological and missiological. Theologically, it opens up the way for a cross-cultural dialogue between the Hebrew scriptures and African theologians, and the possibilities for liberation hermeneutics. Missiologically, it provides the key for understanding the African's need to be Christian and African without losing essential parts of her cultural heritage.

AbstractZion is explicitly mentioned in Psalm 69:36a. This article will endeavour to outline its significance for the interpretation of the text of Psalm 69. The text of Psalm 69 functioned as an individual lament in the pre-exilic period. In the crisis of the exilic / early post-exilic period, as well as later in the post-exilic period, it became a vehicle for a divided Jewish community to express their laments as the personified 'I'. Consequently, a new perspective has been created in this text: the sufferer of the basic text has now come to reflect the suffering community in the different epochs in the post-exilic Judah. Moreover, it is significant that the end of this text discovered the hope for Zion and the cities of Judah in God's faithfulness expressed to the suffering individual.

AbstractThe idea of lament as part of human worship experience is foreign within the Pentecostal tradition. This is the case not only in Pentecostal literature, but also in Pentecostal liturgy. This negative viewpoint regarding the place of lament in worship goes hand in hand with the negativity towards the whole of the Old Testament within the Pentecostal tradition. Pentecostals usually regard the New Testament as more applicable to the life and worship of the Church. This viewpoint is in contrast with Pentecostal hermeneutics, with its emphasis on "shared experience". The aim of this paper is to show that lament should be part and parcel of Pentecostal worship. Guidelines on how lament can be utilised in the Pentecostal Church are presented.

AbstractPsalm 88 has been called an embarrassment to conventional faith. The psalm is unique when compared with other psalms of lament. In Ps 88 we find the desperate cry of someone who seeks to connect with YHWH, but YHWH keeps silent. The psalmist finds himself in the deepest darkness of abandonment and despair. Yet, his unanswered cry does not silence the poet. YHWH may stay quiet, but not the psalmist. He continues to hurl his cries into an empty sky, convinced that even in the face of YHWH's inattention, YHWH must still be addressed. Even when confronted with the reality of death, death caused by YHWH, the poet sticks to his protest, to be met yet again with more silence. YHWH doesn't speak, He doesn't act, and He doesn't care. The poet is ignored, snubbed, shunned, and rejected. The last word he speaks is darkness. What should one do about this complete silence and this bottomless darkness? What is this psalm doing in the Bible? What does this psalm say about the life of faith? What should one's response be when facing this dark night of the soul? Should one abandon God in the face of his desertion? This paper argues that Ps 88 stands as a signpost for realism in the life of faith.

AbstractHonour and shame were core social values of the ancient Mediterranean world. Nearly everything pertaining to relationships was determined by these two concepts. Honour was the goal, passion and hope of everyone wishing to succeed in life. Being shamed was a social catastrophe. Honour was thus understood as the direct contrast of shame, specifically negative shame, because positive shame, usually ascribed to females, was understood to be a virtue. Honour and shame took a central place in relationships between humans, but also in the relationship between God and human. These concepts of honour and shame play a central role in Psalm 44. The first stanza with the joyful exuberance of Israel remembering and celebrating God's glorious deeds on their behalf, serves as an expression of Israel's honour, and the other nations' shame. In the lament of stanza 2 God is blamed for the people's suffering. God has rejected and humbled them; they are disgraced and shamed. God's rejection is experienced in various ways; the end result is that Israel is covered with disgrace and shame. In the third stanza the plea of innocence is an expression of their conviction that they don't deserve their position of shame, and that they should be restored to a position of honour. In stanza 4 the people petition God to act on their behalf again and thus change their shame into honour.

AbstractThe genre of laments (both individual and communal) can be traced historically, even up to today, to periods of crisis. The psalms of lament in the Hebrew Bible point to periods both of national crisis such as wars, exile, and individual crisis, namely attacks from enemies and illness among others. The crisis of the exile was typified by death (in the literal and metaphorical sense), pestilence, disease and war. It was also typified by hope as some of the prophets such as Jeremiah could prophesy both doom (read: death) and salvation (read: hope). If there is any crisis that people of African descent, particularly those located within the sub-Saharan continent, have ever come to experience it is the crisis brought by the pandemic of HIV and AIDS. The pandemic is better approached by scholars who hold the view that it is multisectoral. According to the latter view, the pandemic impacts the social, the economic, the religious or spiritual, and the psychological lives of both the affected and the infected. It is a justice issue. It can thus not be relegated to the individual because it is communal. Is it any wonder that in 2002 the members of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians set out to theologise and conduct God-talk that would be both gender- and HIV and AIDSconscious? In this article, we engage the works of Circle theologians and biblical scholars to see what kind of reading could emerge if we re-read the lament psalm, such as Psalm 6, gender and HIV and AIDS consciously. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: In this article, the disciplines of biblical studies, gender studies, and HIV and AIDS studies, among others, converge as the authors draw from Circle theologies and biblical hermeneutics to re-read Psalm 6 through an HIV and AIDS lens. In the process, issues such as patriarchy, poverty and social justice are also dealt with. Keywords: Circle biblical hermeneutica; Psalm 6; HIV and AIDS; Gender-sensitive

AbstractIf there is any piece of literature that seems to be time-less, allowing each reader from different cultural contexts and time periods to break through it, it is the Psalter. Also, the struggle by the scholars to lay handle on the origins of the individual lament/complaint psalms may prove affirming to those, who on account of their marginal status, could be “barred” from reading the psalms informed by their own marginal status. Psalm 12 seems to defy clear categorization both as an individual or a communal lament. Like others, it is a psalm that critiques the abusive use of the human organs that enable speech that is, the tongue and the lips. Particularly when the preceding organs are used by the powerful (read: the rich) to despoil the poor and needy, YHWH, the God, of and for the oppressed gets roused and acts in their favour! If re-read African-consciously, what kind of reading may Psalm 12 yield?

AbstractIn this article an intertextual comparison is made between Pss 88 and 139 on the theme and use of the concept of “darkness.” In the meta-narrative of the shape and shaping of the Psalter, these two psalms are counterpointed to each other. Psalm 88 is traditionally viewed as an individual lament of a person who is sick, dying or facing death. Darkness is a prominent theme in this psalm, with a situation of hopelessness in the exilic period. In contrast, darkness is portrayed differently in Psalm 139, where a different message for the post-exilic period is presented in the meta-narrative. Psalm 139, from the perspective of YHWH as creator, can be interpreted as a ritual or individual meditative confession after some sort of possible trial period. To gain a better understanding on the use of darkness in these two psalms, the theme is analysed from the perspective of anthropological space.

AbstractOn the face of it, there are no bright spots in Psalm 88 – no hope at all for the bitterly lamenting psalmist, or seemingly for his readers today either. This intensely individual complaint expresses ‘the dark night of the soul … a state of intense spiritual anguish in which the struggling, despairing believer feels he is abandoned by God’ (Boice 1996:715–716). So why has this disorienting ‘psalm of disorientation’ (Brueggemann & Bellinger 2014:7) been included in the Psalter, the penultimate prayer of Book III, and what are we to make of it? One cannot of course provide definitive answers, but several suggestions may be offered based on the opinions of a number of capable Psalms scholars, coupled with some personal observations. After citing the text in Hebrew, along with my own English translation, the poetic structure of the psalm is overviewed and then selected features of its artistry and rhetoric are discussed. This study concludes with an assortment of reflections that speak to the theological importance of this dark psalm and its relevance for all those in particular who wake up in the morning, consider their current situation in life, and wonder: ‘Can it get any worse?’ Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This study illustrates how a close literary–structural analysis can serve to reveal insights of exegetical and theological significance while at the same time critiquing certain received scholarly positions. In particular, it challenges the prevailing opinion of commentators that Psalm 88 is entirely pessimistic in its outlook on God and life.

AbstractThis study illustrates a comprehensive method of analyzing the discourse structure and style of a Hebrew lyric text with special reference to its interacting thematic organization and rhetorical dynamics. An illustrated survey of 10 of the principal stylistic features leads to a discussion of similar rhetorical techniques manifested by modern lyric (written) poetry in Chichewa. The study also seeks to makes a contribution to the theory and practice of meaning-oriented Bible translation.

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.