The Shape of Book 2 (Pss. 42–72)

BOOK 2 OF the Psalter begins much as Book 1 ends, with lamenting and pleas for deliverance. Book 1 concluded with a sense of human weakness facing extinction, and yet a contrasting hope for restoration by God, who would yet set the psalmist in his presence forever. Book 2 begins in the combined Psalms 42–43 with a longing for restoration by God, in which the psalmist’s disquieted soul is balanced by confident trust in God, the Savior (42:5, 11; 43:5).

Psalm 44 introduces a query addressed to God and founded on the perception that God had been faithful in delivering the ancestors in ways the current generation has not experienced. Denying any sin or guilt to explain God’s abandonment, this psalm calls on God to rise and act according to his past record and covenant responsibilities. The query continues in the background behind the celebration of the royal wedding described in Psalm 45. The obvious emphasis of this royal psalm is that the king is honored and elevated, protected by Yahweh, and guaranteed a lasting reputation and reign.

Psalms 46–48 continue in this vein, proclaiming God as refuge and security for the city of God that will not fall (46). The nations of the world will be subdued and will acknowledge the sovereignty of God’s kingship (47). Psalm 48 celebrates the security of Zion and God’s temple. The next psalm concludes this grouping with an exhortation not to fret about evil days and wicked people because poverty and suffering are no indication of God’s lack of love and care. He will in fact redeem the life of the faithful from the grave (49:15).

Against this background of expectation of divine action to redeem his people from their trouble, Psalms 50–53 add a new dimension by introducing a call for the people to confess their sin. This is initiated in Psalm 50 by discussing the nature of true sacrifice and its link to any expectation of salvation (50:7–15, 23). Psalm 51 is a model confession of sin, intended to “teach transgressors [God’s] ways” so that sinners will turn back to him (51:13). True sacrifice requires such confession, revealing a “broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart” (51:17) as the foundation of divine acceptance. This new attitude of confession leads in Psalm 52 to a contrast of the fates of the arrogant evil and those who “trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever” (52:8). The former are snatched up and uprooted while the faithful are deeply rooted in the life-giving soil of God’s house. Psalm 53 concludes this section by describing the destruction of the foolish evildoers who deny God’s effective existence, but it closes with a plea for “salvation for Israel . . . out of Zion” and restoration.

Following on the plea at the end of Psalm 53, the next six psalms (54–59) hammer the theme of restoration relentlessly. Toward the end of this group the tone takes on a more universal edge as the psalmist vows to praise God’s deliverance “among the peoples” (57:9). Further, he is called to defeat the “gods/rulers” of the world (58) so that all humanity will know that “there is a God who judges the earth” (58:11). This group ends with a call for God to rouse himself and punish the nations so the “ends of the earth” will know that God rules over Jacob (59:5, 13).

In an almost shocking response to this clamor for divine deliverance and judgment of the nations, Psalm 60 offers instead a shattering experience of divine rejection. Deliverance is not forthcoming; instead, divine anger has shaken the land and God’s people experience “desperate times” (60:3). This psalm goes on to declare that any reliance on human power is doomed to failure since the world belongs to God and he is the only reliable source of victory (60:11–12).

This rejection marks a turning point in Book 2. The remaining twelve psalms manifest a parallel growth between a developing reliance on God alone and an increasingly inclusive attitude toward the “peoples of the earth.” An opening plea for deliverance is voiced from “the ends of the earth” (61:2), a possible allusion to the Diaspora community. This plea gives way almost immediately to expressions of confidence in God, who alone provides “rest” and “salvation” (62:1–2, 5–6) and whose “love is better than life” (63:3).

Psalm 64 sounds another plea for deliverance and protection but introduces a new reference to humankind who will learn to fear God (64:9). The positive nature of this inclusion of humankind gradually develops over the next few psalms as plea (64) turns to praise (65–68). God’s goodness will inspire awe in “those living far away . . . where morning dawns and evening fades” (65:8). “All the earth” will bow down to God and praise his “awesome . . . works” (66:3–4). God’s gracious blessing is desired so that his “ways may be known on earth, [his] salvation among all nations” (67:2). As a result, “all the peoples” will praise God, and “all the ends of the earth will fear him” (67:3–4, 7). This section concludes with Psalm 68 as it celebrates the triumphant rule of Yahweh over the earth so that his enemies are defeated, his temple is established, and all the kingdoms of the earth submit to him.

Praise begets a renewed and confident plea for deliverance (Pss. 69–71), in which the restored fortunes of the exilic communities are in view (69:35–36) and Yahweh is seen as the only hope of restoration (71:5). Although God has made his people “see troubles, many and bitter” because of their sin, he “will restore [their] life again” (71:20). In conclusion, Psalm 72 offers prayer for the empowerment of the king for an eternal reign of justice and equity. On the one hand, this hope reflects the ideology of the Jerusalem Davidic dynasty and represents the hope that the promise of universal rule offered in 2:8 will be passed on and realized in subsequent generations of Davidic kings. This certainly illustrates the hopes of many in the Diaspora after the demise of the monarchy at the hands of the Babylonians. As we will see at the end of Book 3 (Pss. 73–89), these hopes were harshly crushed and led to great confusion and frustration on the part of those who had invested so much in the descendants of David.

However, the seeds of a different interpretation are already laid in the psalms leading up to the end of Book 2. Following as it does on the increasingly inclusive and universal tone of Psalms 65–68, Psalm 72’s plea for the king and the king’s son easily flows over into eschatological hope and expectation that exceeds the promise of the historical kingship. This king “will rule from sea to sea” (72:8); “his name [will] endure forever,” and “all nations will be blessed through him” (72:17)—a culmination of the universal implications of God’s original promise to Abraham (Gen. 12:3). This eschatological reading of the royal psalms is perhaps part of the most subtle shaping of the Psalter in its final stages. This is a point to which I will return in the section on “The Shape of the Psalter” in volume 2 of this commentary.