Loading…

Psalms, Part 1: With an Introduction to Cultic Poetry is unavailable, but you can change that!

Erhard Gerstenberger begins this volume with an examination of the nature of cultic poetry, its role in ancient Near Eastern religion, and more specifically its role in the religion of Israel. He goes on to survey the genres of cultic poetry, including lament, complaint, and thanksgiving, and then focuses on the book of Psalms as an example of cultic poetry, first analyzing the book as a whole...

1. SONG, RITUAL, AND WORSHIP OT PSALMS represent certain types of liturgical literature, the generative matrix of which are various ritual processes (Mowinckel, W I/II). That is, psalmic texts and psalmody served the needs of a religious community. The origins of religious ceremonialism certainly lie hidden far back in prehistory. As Paleolithic funeral customs, artifacts, and pictographs reveal, people from the beginning have communicated with the superhuman beings that they have perceived within
Page 5