Faculty of Humanities
School of Languages
Department of Ancient Languages
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
Research on the biblical book of Psalms has concentrated for a long time on the 150 different psalms as poetic prayers, hymns and laments. During the last two decades, however, researchers have begun to focus on the Psalter as a literary composition in itself. It seems that the individual psalms were arranged in a meaningful way so as to simulate the history of Israel from the time of the monarchy under David through to the periods of exile and restoration. The focus of the book gradually shifts away from David and his dynasty towards the kingship of YHWH, the God of Israel, and the establishment of his divine rule on earth. Individual psalms would be selected, edited, adapted or even created for a specific position in a cluster of psalms so as to endow the larger composition with a collective message. Among the various ways in which the individual psalms were edited for incorporation into the collection was the practice of supplying them with headings. One of the research projects in the Department of Ancient Languages focused on the contribution that the headings of Psalm 3 and Psalm 34 make to their interpretation. Both headings contain references to particular circumstances during the life of David when he could have written the respective ‘prayers’: Psalm 3 during the time of his flight from his son Absalom, and Psalm 34 during the time when he had to flee from Saul before he became king himself. Through its heading (the first in the book of Psalms), Psalm 3 becomes the first exemplaric prayer of David, which he formulated under difficult circumstances. This heading draws the attention of the observant reader to various intertextual connections the psalm has with 2 Samuel 15-19, the history of Absalom’s revolt and eventual death. This heading suggests that individual supplicants can, irrespective of their social status, approach God in times of distress like David did. Another, similar, heading is found at the beginning of Psalm 34. Research into this text has pointed out that both the ‘history’ of David in 1 Samuel 24-26 and the text of Psalm 34 have been edited to establish several verbatim connections between them. Through the addition of this heading, Psalm 34 presents David as an example to believers and an object of identification in times of distress, but since this is a teaching psalm rather than a prayer, his authority is also used to endorse the exhortations in the psalm to believers to stay true to a certain code of conduct. Conversely, the addition of the heading enhances the image of David, so that he also takes on the roles of wisdom teacher, theologian, suffering servant and inspired author
Contact person: Prof PJ Botha.
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