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Praying the Psalms (OT753 DDS) Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

Review for Old Testament 753 at DDS May 2016

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

Contents

1
Letting Experience Touch the Psalter
2
The Liberation of Language
3
Language Approp­riate to a Place
4
Christians in "­Jewish Territ­ory­"
5
Vengeance: Human and Divine

Test Question

The third section of the exam will ask you to write a second essay on a critical issue regarding the theolo­gical interp­ret­ation and use of the Old Testament within the Christian tradition. Here again you will have a choice of topics. You will also have one hour for this section.
Better essays will make specific mention of biblical texts and integrate inform­ation from the required secondary readings for the course, especially Bruegg­emann and Holmgren.
The Goal of this sheet is to show which Biblical texts to use when using Bruegg­emann.

Chapter 1

How do we know about others? (p.1)
1. We pray together regularly "for all sorts and conditions of men": we pray for all those others, we pray for ourselves along with them. Thus, we share a "­common lot" and are attentive to what is happening in our lives.
2. Attentive to what is written (news and litera­ture) Thus, testim­onies of print.
3. Psalms and OT.
What are the sorts and conditions that come to speech in the Psalms and true to all of us? (p.2)
1. Being securely oriented
2. Being Painfully Disori­ented
3. Being surpri­singly reorie­nted.
What are the events that fill us with passion and evoke in us eloquence? (p.4)
The events at the edge of our humanness, the ones that threaten and disrupt our convenient equili­brium. Thus, the Psalms.
What situations drive us to the edge of our humanness? (p.5)
Situations of extremity (filled with "­rumors of angels­"), givenness, threat, limite­dness, value, freedom, condem­nation, death, suffering, guilt, hatred, creation, joy = deep discon­tin­uities.
What does Barth say about the Psalter as important for Christ­ians? (p.6)
The Christian community always has good reason to see itself in this people (Psalt­er)... It turns to the Psalter, not in spite of the fact, but just because of it, that as the community of Jesus Christ it knows that it is establ­ished on the rock..., but on the rock which, although it is sure and impreg­nable in itself, is attacked on all sides, and seems to be of very doubtful security in the eyes of all men and therefore in its own.
What does Brueg argue as the only approp­riate way to pray the Psalms? (p.8)
By people who are living at the edge of their lives, sensitive to the raw hurts, the primitive passions, and the naive elations that are at the bottom of our life.
What does Brueg argue as the need for the language of praise and thanks from the Psalms? (p.12)
Experi­ences that touch us deeply, announce God has not left the world to chaos, wonderful gifts of God's new order.
What do the Psalms assure us of? (p.14)
When we pray and worship, we are not expected to censure or deny the deepness of our own human pilgri­mage. Rather, we are expected to submit to openly and trustingly so that it can be brought to eloquent and passionate speech addressed to the Holy One.

Chapter 2 Scripture

Ps 22
I am poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my chest; my strength is dried up like a potsherd
Complaint - contains hyperbole
Ps 42
My tears have been my food day and night
Complaint - contains hyperbole
Ps 66
Every night I flood my bed with tears, I drench my couch with my weeping.
Complaint - contains hyperbole
Ps 56
My enemies trample upon me all the day long.
Complaint - contains hyperbole
Ps 57
I lie in the midst of lions.
Complaint - contains hyperbole
Ps 47, 93, 96-99
Central Motif:
Responding assertion to complain psalms is celebr­ation that YHWH is king, God is graciously inclined and powerfully enthroned and that because of his rule, the enemies are no threat.
Ps 23
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies
Song of celebr­ation - metaphor of tears (compl­aint) is balanced by metaphor of food/b­anq­uet­/bo­unteous table
Ps 146
who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry
YHWH provider of food to the other creatures of the earth. Metaphor of food.
Ps 47
Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy!
Clapping cheer of new king, new orient­ation, arrival of the promised kingdom; counte­rpart to being trampled as motif of disori­ent­ation.
Ps 148
Praise YHWH! Praise YHWH from the heavens; praise him on the heights! Praise him...
Everything and everyone is mobilized to applaud, welcome, and receive.

What's the Point? Chapter 2

What's the Point? There are three pairs of metaphors (not the only ones) that can be useful in bringing experience to the Psalms:
enemies destroy / king orders & governs
being trampled / clapping
tears / table

Chapter 3

What does it mean to be attentive to language? (p.29)
Means cultiv­ating the candid imagin­ation to bring our own experience to the Psalms and permitting it to be discip­lined by the speech of the Psalms. Also, means letting the Psalms address us and having that language reshape our sensit­ivities and fill our minds with new pictures and images that may redirect our lives.
What is "­lib­eration of langua­ge"? (p.29)
May be more free with our language - let language be liberated, not by being permissive or vulgar, but by letting it move beyond descri­ptive functions to evocative, creative functions in our life.
Also, not only about about free speech, but about speech freeing us. We will experience new freedom that is freedom for faith.
What does praying the psalms mean? (p.30)
Means openness to God's pilgrimage toward us.
How does Paul Tournier charac­terize the language of disori­ent­ation and reorie­nta­tion? (p.30)
In terms of 1) Finding one's place, 2) Leaving one's place for another.
How is the pit a descri­ption of speech of the wrong place? (p.32)
Pit - has concrete reality as a place in which to put people to render them null and void. Experience a "­social death" because cut off from community, cannot exercise control over own lives; pit reduces one to powerl­ess­ness; pit as place cut off from God.
What are the three cries related to the pit? (p.36)
The metaphor of the pit reports movement, 1. The cry of anguish about the pit; 2. The cry of vengeance; 3. The voice of thanks­giving. The motif of the pit enables the speaker to present every posture of life to God.
What do the Psalms attest to us with regards to the pit? (p.36)
The Psalms attest that the life of faith does not protect us from the pit. Rather, the power of God brings us out of the pit to new life which is not the same as pre-pit experi­ence. When one is in the pit, cannot believe or imagine any good can come again. Psalmist focuses not on the pit, but on the One who rules there and everyw­here. It is the reality of God which makes clear that the pit is not the place you ought to be.
What is the contra­sting figure for place? (p.37)
Safety of wings - being safe under the protective wings of God. Wings speak of safety, tender­ness, and nurture. Reflects the yearning for safety, well-b­eing, communion with God, new orient­ation. Evange­lical realism - resources for life outside of self, need submission to will of another.
How do the images relate to Christian living?
Our lives always move between the pit and the wing, that is what our baptism is about - to die and to rise with him to newness of life. We have all been within and shall again face the pit, all have wings assured to us. We must enter the Presence of the Holy One to practice our vocation of receiving the new future God is speaking to us.

Chapter 4 Scripture

Ps 122, 137, 147, 128
Praying with Jews
Can pray for peace of Jerusalem, set Jerusalem abouve highest joy, summoned to praise the Lord, Jerusalem always on the tip of the tongue.
Ps 78, 105, 106, 136
History
Of betrayal, disobe­dience, surprise, delive­rance - becomes ours in prayer, history of victims and margin­alized.
Ps 1, 19, 119
Torah
Torah center of spirit­uality, reminds us that the primal mode of faithf­ulness and knowing God is obedience.
Ps 1, 2, 50, 145
Pray with Jews means to live with them
God takes folks seriously and lets us have what we choose. Live in the danger of real judgment.
Ps 103
"YHWH is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loyalt­y"
Jews know that this God who honors our ways is the same God who overrides our ways - hope of real judgment.
Ps 145
"YHWH upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down."
Psalms are awkward in their concre­teness. The "­cul­tural despis­ers­" of biblical faith want genera­lized religious consci­ousness and are offended by God become concrete.
Ps 139
"Do I not hate those who hate you, O YHWH?"
The true believer hates powerfully and finds a community with YHWH who also hates.
Ps 5, 31
Robustness and candor of Psalms are especially evident in articu­lation of hatred and anger.
God as well is one who is capable of hatred for evildoers.
Ps 65
"you visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it."
It is charac­ter­ist­ically Jewish to hope for newness from God. Even "­nat­ure­" is understood as creation, called by God to bring forth newness.
Ps 71
"For you, O Lord, art my hope, my trust, O YHWH, from my youth"
Presents the deep hope of a complaint psalm - articulate deepest hurt, anger, rage, but insistence upon and expect­ations from God who may and must keep promises.
Ps 1, 7, 11, 34, 92
Elect bear witness to an all-in­clusive provid­ence.
The Psalms have a passion for the righteous, for the practi­tioners of God's vision for justice and peace.
Ps 69, 10, 140, 34, 51
Elect bear witness to an all-in­clusive provid­ence.
The Psalms have a passion for the poor, needy, broken of spirit and heart. God's compassion not specific to an ethnic community, but towards those in special need.

What's the Point? Chapter 4

What's the Point? There is a strange restle­ssness and shattering that belongs to Jewish­ness. When we learn to pray these prayers faithf­ully, we shall all be scanda­lized. Thus, at the end, conven­tional notions of Jewishness are also placed in question. But that is only at the end, after we have learned the passion and the patience to pray for, with, and as Jews. (p.61-62)

Chapter 5

What are the two acts of realism of vengeance in the Psalms? (p.64)
1) The yearning for vengeance is present, without embarr­ass­ment, apology, or censor. To genuinely pray, must try to understand what is happening.
2) Yearning for vengeance is here, among us and within us and with power. Must not be so romantic as to imagine we have outgrown the eagerness for retali­ation.
What are the 3 things to keep in mind about Ps as vengeance? (p.65-8)
1) The Ps are rhetorical practices. Provide space for full linguistic freedom where nothing is censored or precluded. It is cathartic, leads feelings, allows us to discover depth and intensity of hurt, legiti­mizes and affirms intense elements of rage, puts it in perspe­ctive.
2) Only verbal assaults of imagin­ation and hyperbole, speaker does not do anything beyond speak. Not equated with acts of vengeance.
3) Charac­ter­ist­ically offered to God, not to enemy. Vengeance is transf­erred form the heart of the speaker to the heart of God. I-Thou relati­onship mainta­ined.
How do we understand vengeance and God? (p. 70-6)
1) Vengeance belongs to God, not human business.
2) Vengeance is other side of God's compas­sion, not an end in itself.
3) God practices vengeance is one way the Bible has of speaking about moral coherence and order in which God is actively engaged.
4) Reality of juxtap­osition and assurance of moral coherence leads to affirm­ation that God has taken sides in history and acts effect­ively on behalf of "­his­" special partners. God's action on behalf of faithful, poor, and needy; not indisc­rim­inate anger.
How does Christian faith assess these statements about the vengeance of God? (p.78-81)
1) We must not pretend that the NT gives a "­hig­her­" view of God in contrast to OT.
2) Israel unders­tands grief of God moves beyond vengeance.
3) NT still makes important use of motif of God's vengeance.
4) Possib­ility of a vengea­nce­-free ethic is rooted in the reality of God. We are driven to the crucif­ixion where God dealt with reality of evil. God has responded with "­his­" own powerful inclin­ation for justice. No less vengeance in NT, but wrought it in "­his­" own person. Grace has overcome.

What's the Point? Chapter 5

What's the Point? The Ps "tell it like it is" with us. For those troubled with the Psalms, there is a way beyond them. It is the way of crucif­ixion, accepting the rage and grief and terror of evil in ourselves in order to be liberated for compassion toward others. Way through, not around them. Grace has overcome. Harsh Ps must be fully embraced as our own. Fully own and express rage then yield to mercy of God.
 

Cover

Chapter 1 Script­ure

Ps 22
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me"
Complaint Psalm - desperate, edge of life, share experience of disloc­ation
Ps 88
"Your anger has swept over me; your dread assaults destroy me. The surround me like a flood... You have caused me friend and neighbor to shun me; my companions are in darkne­ss."­
Complaint Psalm - angriest, most hopeless, ends in unrese­rved, unrelieved gloom
Ps 103
"­Bless YHWH, O my soul, and all that is within me his holy name. Bless YHWH, O my soul, and do not forget any of his benefi­ts"
Hymn/Song of Thanks­giving - asserts abiding rule of God
Ps 30
"I will exalt you, O YHWH, for you have pulled me up, and you did not allow my enemies to rejoice over me. O YHWH, my God, I cried out to you for help, and you have healed me."
Hymn/Song of Thanks­giving - announces surprising intrustion of God who just now makes things good.
Ps 96
"­Pro­claim to the foreig­ners: "YHWH is king!""
Hymn/Song of Thanks­giving - announces God is King
Ps 97
"YHWH is king! Let the earth rejoic­e!"
Hymn/Song of Thanks­giving - announces God is King
Ps 99
"YHWH is king! Let the peoples trembl­e!"
Hymn/Song of Thanks­giving - announces God is King

What's the Point? Chapter 1

What's the Point? The Psalms move with our experi­ence. They take us beyond our own guarded experience into the more poignant pilgri­mages of sisters and brothers. (15)

Chapter 2

What does praying the psalms depend on? (p.17)
1. What we find when we come to the Psalms that is already there
2. What we bring to the Psalms out of our own lives.
What is useful language? (p. 18)
In our culture we have a positi­vistic unders­tanding of language - one-di­men­sional in that it only reports and describes. It is useful, but not the language of the Psalms. Approp­riate to science, engine­ering, and social sciences; but, when used in the arena of human intera­ction it tends to be conser­vative, restri­ctive, limiting.
What is the language of the Psalms? (p.18)
Language we can faithgully pray, evokes into being what does not exist until it has been spoken, resists discip­line, shuns precision, delights in ambiguity, creative, exercise in freedom. Speech of libera­tion, is dangerous and revolu­tio­nary. [Total­itarian regimes fearful of the poet.]
What is the function of complaint speech? (p. 20-21)
To create a situation that did not exist before the speech, to create an external event that matches the internal sensit­ivi­ties. Help people to die completely to the old situation, old possib­ility, old false hopes, old lines of defense and pretense. With the speech, the disloc­ation becomes visible event that exists between prayer and God, God is compelled to notice.
How can we understand complaint psalms as Christ­ians?
In a quite concrete way as an act of putting off the old humanity that the new may come (Eph 4:22-24).
How do we understand the three ways of speaking in Psalms of celebr­ation?
1. Assertion YHWH is king, God is graciously inclined and powerfully enthroned, enemies are not a threat.
2. Metaphor of tears is balanced by the metaphor of food, banquet, and bounteous table.
3. In contrast to the metaphor of being trampled, songs of celebr­ation have clapping to cheer the new king, new orient­ation of the arrival of the promised kingdom.
What is the work of prayer?
Explore and exploit metaphors in terms of our own experi­ence. Psalms are our partners in prayer.

Chapter 3 Script­ure

Ps 28
Be like those who go to the pit
Pit refers to the experience of being rendered powerless, means to be silent, forgotten, dead.
Ps 30
What profit is there in my death, if I descend into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithf­ulness?
Pit is a place cut off from God so that God may neither help nor be praised.
Ps 55
Let death come upon them; let them descend alive into Sheol; for evil is in their homes and in their hearts.
Sheol - place of undiff­ere­nti­ated, powerless, gray existence where one is removed from joy, and discourse with God.
Ps 86
You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
Psalms of thanks­giving - pit and Sheol used not only to describe hopeless situation and offer counte­r-wish for one's enemies; suggests also that there is real movement in its use.
Ps 17
Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.
Favorite image of Israel for a safe place with God is to speak of being safe under the protective wings of God. The concrete reference becomes a metaphor, figure that yearns for safety, well-b­eing, communion with God, a new orient­ation.
Ps 61
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent for ever! O to be safe under the shelter of your wings!
Two images - protective wing and refuge - occur together. Contrasts current state of need. Openness to new purpose, submission to the will of another.
Ps 36
The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings
Effect of vetoing the claim of the pit, denying the pit the capacity to terrorize comple­tely.
Ps 91
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to YHWH, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.
Two positive images come together in psalm of trust. To use while still in the pit is an act of profound hope which permits new life.

What's the Point? Chapter 3

What's the Point? Psalms are subversive litera­ture, gives us new eyes to see and new tongues to speak. To risk such prayer is to repent of the old orient­ation to which we no longer belong. It is to refuse the pit which must first be fully experi­enced for the sake of the wings which may be boldly antici­pated. (p.41)

Chapter 4

Why are the Psalms awkward for Christ­ians? (p.43)
The Psalms are relent­lessly Jewish in their mode of expression and in their faith claims. And with our best intent for generosity and good faith, the different nuances of Jewish and Christian faith are not to be overlooked or easily accomm­odated.
Why are the Psalms a "­col­lec­tio­n"? (p.43-4)
Jerusalem temple in monarchal period generator of Psalms, Second Temple period guilds of "­temple singer­s," (1-2 Chron) produced more Psalms. Outside Jerusalem, other prominent sanctu­aries produced Psalms (Gilgal, Bethel, Shiloh). End product, altogether Jewish, is ecumenical achiev­ement that drew together variety of local tradit­ions.
What are the charac­ter­istic modes of Christian avoidance? (p.44-6)
1) Highly selective and make use of those Psalms that are most congenial to us and contain least object­ionable "­Jew­ish­nes­s." (Avoid Ps 109 or 137)
2) Claim that Christ­ianity, especially NT, evolved from and is superior to OT Jewishness (Super­ses­sio­nism, can disregard "­obj­ect­ionable parts"). Another practice is to treat Ps as claims to Jesus (See Augustine)
What is the altern­ative to avoidance? (p.45)
"­Spi­tiu­ali­zin­g" tends to tone the Ps down and avoid the abrasive and offensive elements. The altern­ative is to avoid "­spi­rit­ual­izi­ng" and engage the Ps as poetry about our common, particular humanness.
A second way is to link Jewish ways of praying and christ­olo­gical interp­ret­ation. The centrality of Jesus can never be far separated from the Jewish character of the material.
What does it mean to "Pray for Jews"? (p.47)
It means to bring to utterance the deepest longings, echoes, and yearnings of the Jews, for Jews are a paradigm of the deepest longings and yearnings of all of humanity. Means to recognize how pervasive the zeal for Zion in the Ps. Forms: pray for peace of Jerusalem, set Jerusalem above our highest joy, summoned to praise the Lord, Jerusalem on the tip of our tongue. Means the practice of a solidarity in concrete hope that is old, deep in our faith.
What does it mean to "Pray with Jews"? (p.49)
Our prayer life is tempted to indivi­dualism or at least paroch­ialism, but we are urged by God's spirit to pray alongside and be genuinely ecumen­ical. Pray with Jews is to be aware of solidarity with chosen of God whom the world rejects.
What are the 3 points Brueg makes about Praying with Jews? (p.50)
1) It tilts us toward a very specific history as our history in prayer (a minority history), may lead us to another, converted identity.
2) Torah at center of spirit­uality deliver us from excessive romant­icism or mysticism or subjec­tivity, reminds us that primal mode of faithf­ulness and knowing God is obedience.
3) Means to live with them in the hope and danger of real judgment. God gives us permission to choose our futures and at the same time, God chooses a future, gracious, beyond our choosing.
What is the uneasiness of claiming we might be permitted to pray as Jews? (p.52)
It is impossible to identify Jewish­ness, too bold to say what it is to be "as Jews" 2) Becoming a Jew takes many gens & centuries.
What are the five dimensions of Jewishness that mark the Ps? (p.53-59)
1) The Psalms are awkward in their concre­teness. 2) There is no or little slippage between what is though­t/felt and what is said. 3) The robustness and candor of the Psalms are especially evident in the articu­lation of hatred and anger. 4) Israel is not able only to rage with abandon. Israel has equal passion for hope. 5) The practice of concre­teness and candor, of anger and hope, is carried out with exceeding passion in the Ps.
What do the Ps invite us to do for Christian spirit­uality? (p.59)
Invitation to transform our piety and liturgy in ways that will make both piety and liturgy somewhat risky and certainly abrasive.
What are elements of the Ps that belong to Jewish­ness? (p.61)
Passion for righteous, passion for poor and needy.

Chapter 5 Script­ure

Ps 139
"O YHWH you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I arise; you discern my thoughts from afar."
Mystery of human personhood is celebr­ated. Vengeance belongs to any serious unders­tanding of human person­ality.
Ps 139
"Do I not hate those who hate you, O YHWH? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?"
Expresses the capacity for hatred. Capacity for hatred belongs to the mystery of the person­hood.
Ps 109
Engages in "­ove­rki­ll" in wishes and prayers against the "­wic­ked­"
After long recital of rage, intensity is spent, speaker must return to the reality of heart and fear and helple­ssness. Rage is a prelude to the real agenda of attitudes about one's self.
Ps 109
Begins with an address to God, v.21 turns "But you" from venom to self-r­efl­ection.
Speech of vengeance charac­ter­ist­ically offered to God, not directly to humans. Appeal for God to act. Vengeance is transf­erred from heart of speaker to God. Ends with doxology of final confidence in God.
Ps 136
"to him who smote the first-born of Egypt, for his steadfast love endures forever... to him who smote great kings, for his steadfast love endures foreve­r."
Killing does not sound like "­ste­adfast love," not perceived as such by any Egyptian. But that is steadfast love if one is an Israelite. Such an action is necessary to liberate, though from another perspe­ctive, it is ruthless vengeance. [Vengeance of the dark side]
Ps 58
"The righteous one will rejoice when he sees vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked one. A human will say, "­Surely there is a reward for the righteous one; surely there is a God who rules in the land."
Benefactor of God's compas­sio­n/v­eng­eance is not Israel in any mechanical way. Rather, God's action is taken on behalf of the faithful who keep the Torah (right­eous, obedient).
Ps 94
O Lord, thou God of vengeance, ... O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? ... They slay the widow and the sojourner, and murder the father­less.
Benefactor of God's compas­sio­n/v­eng­eance is not Israel in any mechanical way. Rather, God's action is taken on behalf of the poor and needy who are objects of "­his­" special concern.