Conclusion: Structure and Theology in Psalms 15–24
This article has sought to contribute to our
understanding of the final form of Pss 15–24 by drawing our attention to
significant features of its structure and thematic arrangement and by analysing
these elements in terms of Brunner-Traut’s theory of ancient “aspective”
perception. The initial observation that Pss 15–24 consists of a chiasm set up
the framework for identifying sets of inter-psalm relationships. The theory of
semantic intensification as a characteristic of Biblical parallelism helped us
identity a series of consistent semantic shifts between the parallel psalms
within this arrangement: In short, the content of each psalm was consistently set
within a more developed theological context. Finally, Brunner-Traut’s thesis that
juxtaposition functions to elucidate a single reality helped us identify the
presence of a single pattern underlying the diversity and thereby unifying it,
namely the eschatological narrative of God’s consummation of creation by
bringing his righteous king, and with him the people of whom he is a type and
for whom he is a redeemer, into the reality across the threshold of his temple.
When read on their own as self-contained units,
this theological context escapes the reader’s attention. When read with an eye
for unifying thematic arrangement, however, we can begin to see how the editors
of this collection perceived its fragmentary elements to cohere within a
greater theological reality that encompassed their own day and age, namely the
divine economy. In short, the bridge between the past and present was
ontological, for it was grounded in God’s unchanging ways. If my reading holds
any water, then it can help us understand the ways in which Israel’s literary
heritage was shaped in order to function as scripture for future generations of
the faithful. In its interplay between the framing psalms of theological
orientation (Pss 15; 19; 24) and those dominated by disorientation and
reorientation (Pss 16–18; 20–23), future readers were provided with a means for
contextualizing their own faithful struggle, regardless of their shifting
historical, cultural, and institutional contexts.
