Restoration Quarterly 17.3 (1974) 162-184.
Copyright © 1974 by
Restoration Quarterly, cited with permission.
“Yahweh Is King over All the
Earth”
An Exegesis of Psalm 47
LEO G. PERDUE
Few genres of Old Testament
literature have solicited as much
attention as Enthronement Hymns. Literally
hundreds of articles,
monographs, and books have been written dealing
with this genre
during the past fifty years.1 This
investigation will attempt to survey
the major trends of cultic studies which
specifically deal with
"Enthronement
Hymns" and to present an exegesis of a representative
psalm, Psalm 47.
Enthronement Psalms
Psalms 47, 93, 96, 97, 98, and 99
have been classified as
Enthronement
Psalms, a Gattung
which is a subdivision of the hymnic
genre and, therefore, shares the essential formal
characteristics of the
Hymn.2
The basic reason for giving these psalms an independent status
is the unique content which evokes praise of
Yahweh as king and the
cry of enthronement: YHWH malak.3 Enthronement Psalms present
two different concepts of the establishment of
Yahweh's rule as king:
93,
96, and 97 depict Yahweh's rule as resulting from his defeat of his
divine adversaries, chaos and the abyss, in the
creation event; 47, 98,
and 99 center his rule upon his activity as the
Divine Warrior who
defeats the nations and establishes the Twelve
Tribes in
1. For a comprehensive survey, see
Poesie et le Cu/te
de l'Ancien lsrael (Brussel:
Paleis der Academien, 1968).
2. H.-J. Kraus (Psalmen, I [BKAT 15/1, Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener
Verlag, 1960] XLII) presents a succinct form critical
analysis of the hymnic
genre.
3. Hermann Gunkel,
The Psalms (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1967) p. 36.
4. J. D. W. Watts, "Yahweh Malak Psalms," TZ
XXI (1965) 341.
85
86 Restoration
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Attempts to ascertain the specific
'Situation in Life' which gave rise
to these psalms have led to quite a number of
theories. The following
include the more important positions taken by
major scholars.
Post-Exilic Eschatology. Efforts
to reconstruct possible historical
situations reflected in 'Enthronement Hymns' have
generally met with
little acceptance.5 More noteworthy has
been the view of Gunkel that
such psalms belong within the framework of
post-exilic eschatology
which gave expression to a future hope in the
intervention of Yahweh,
an expression given formative impetus by
Deutero-Isaiah,6 though such
a view has not elicited favorable response among
contemporary
scholars.
Cultic Life Situations. Since Mowinckel the Enthronement Hymns
have generally been regarded as originating in the
cult. Efforts to
reconstruct a specific cultic situation are complex
indeed, as can be
noted by the wide divergence of scholarly opinion.
The appearance of Sigmund Mowinckel's Psalmenstudien
revolutionized the understanding of
to some extent by Gressmann
and, unknown to Mowinckel, Volz,7
Mowinckel's second volume, Das Thronbesteigungs
fest Jahwas and der
Ursprung der Eschatologie, appearing in 1920,
initiated the basic foci
around which cultic investigation in general and
studies concerning
Enthronement
Hymns in particular were to revolve for the next half
century. Rejecting Gunkel's
view that Enthronement Hymns were the
product of the post-exilic eschatological
vision, Mowinckel sought to
reconstruct an Israelite New Year's Festival as a
part of which Yahweh
was annually enthroned as the universal king in a
creative cultic
5. For example, see the work of C.
A. Briggs (The Books of Psalms [ICC
15/1;
6. H. Gunkel
and J. Begrich, Einleitung in die Psalmen (
Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1933). Gunkel later came to
accept Mowinckel's
theory of an enthronement festival in a modified form,
though his ideas of the
eschatological nuance still remained.
Lipinski's critique (La Royaute de Yahwe,
43-4)
of a strictly eschatological interpretation is most cogent: "Rien ne permet
d'affirmer, telle est une
premiere remarque, que ces psaumes se referent un
avenir lointain.
Au contraire, le parfait des verbes, et notamment celui
de la
formule fondamentale
Yahweh Malak,
semble indiquer qu'il s'agit du
passe ou du
present."
7. H. Gressmann,
Der Ursprung der israelitisch-judischen Eschatologie
(FR LANT 6; Gottingen:
Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht,
1905) 294-301; and P.
Volz, Das Neujahrsfest Jahwes (L.aubhuttenfest) (SGV 67;
Mohr
[Paul Siebeck] , 1912).
Perdue: Yahweh is King 87
drama.8 His sources for such a reconstruction included the
Babylonian
Akitu Festival, the Osirus-Horus
complex in
and various materials scattered throughout the Old
Testament (over 40
psalms; II Sam. 6, I Kgs. 8;
I Chr. 16; Neh. 8:10-12;
Zech, 14; and Hos.
7:5).
According to Mowinckel, the festival included two
strata of
tradition: that involving an agricultural festival
borrowed from
(Feast
of Tabernacles-Feast of Yahweh, Ex. 23:16; 34:22) and that
concerning the royal ideology after the adoption of
kingship by
The
festival consisted of an ark procession led by the king to the temple
where Yahweh was to be enthroned (Pss.
24; 132; II Sam. 6); the
dramatic enactments of the myths of creation and
Yahweh's battle with
the dragon, the victory over the gods, the exodus,
the battle with the
nations; and theophanic
judgment. Finally the enthronement of
Yahweh
is announced by the cry "Yahweh has become king." As a
result, Yahweh's covenant with David is renewed,
guaranteed for the coming year, and the reign of
the new creation is
initiated. Such a festival existed during the time
of the monarchy, but
after the exile disintegrated into the three major
Jewish feasts of New
Year,
Atonement, and Tabernacles.9
Though such an impressive
reconstruction has been accepted by
many scholars, it is subject to several criticisms.
In regard to sources,
Mowinckel has been criticized for inferring too
much influence from
external evidence, especially as concerns the
Babylonian New Year's
Festival,10 for overstressing Rabbinical materials,11
and for piecing
8. Sigmund Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien I I (
P.
Schippers,
ursprunglich, sondern
uberall and immer, ein Drama ... nicht lediglich ein
gespieltes Drama, ein Spiel, sondern ein wirkliches and Wirklichkeit
hervorbringendes Drama, ein Drama, das mit realer Kraft das dramatisierte
Ereignis verwirklicht, eine Wirklichkeit, aus der reale
Krafte hervorstrahlen, oder
mit anderen
Worten ein Sakrament." (Psalmenstudien II, 21).
9. Psalmenstudien II, 3-145. In his
more recent study (The Psalms in
Worship I [
emphasis upon the Ugaritic
materials involving Baal and Anath and has
reconstructed a New Year's Festival
at
10. A. R. Johnson, "The
Psalms," The Old Testament and
Modern Study (ed.
H.
H. Rowley;
11. L. I. Pap, Das israelitische Neujahrsfest
(Kampen, 1933). For a summary of
Pap's
arguments presented in his book, which was unavailable to me, see Lipinski,
"Les
Psaumes de la Royaute de Yahwe dans I'Exege'se
Moderne," Le
Psautier
(Orientalia et Biblica Lovaniensia IV; Louvain:
Publications Universitaires, 1962)
pp.
252-254.
88 Restoration
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together too many diverse elements of the Old
Testament, which never
actually mentions such a festival by name.12
Some scholars have also
questioned the translation of YHWH malak as an enthronement cry.
Mowinckel's
statements concerning external influences were too
cautious for two groups of scholars, the
Myth-Ritual School of S. H.
Hooke13
and the Uppsala School of Scandinavian scholars including
Ivan
Engnell, G. Widengren, and Aage Bentzen.14 These two schools
have advanced the idea of a ritual pattern common to
the religions of
the ancient Near East, involving an annual New
Year's Festival in which
was enacted the enthronement of the god-king who
represented the
community and portrayed the role of the deity in
the cultic drama.
Such
a festival included the dramatic representation of the death and
resurrection of the god, the
enactment of the myth of creation, the
ritual combat in which the god defeated his enemies,
the hieros gamos,
and the triumphal procession of the god-king to the
palace where he
was enthroned.15 Such cultic enactments
symbolized ancient man's
quest for order over chaos, riches over poverty,
satiety over need, in
short, life over death.
It is quite improbable that Yahweh
was ever regarded as a dying and
rising fertility god, even in the syncretistic cult of
monarchy, or that a hieros gamos was enacted.16 The idea
of divine
12. Such criticism fails to
discredit Mowinckel's thesis, since he indicates that
the enthronement ceremony was only one component of
the larger Feast of
Tabernacles.
13. The views of this 'school' are
presented in several volumes edited by
Hooke: Myth and
Ritual, Essays on the Myth and Ritual of the Hebrews in
Relation to the Cultic
Pattern of the Ancient East (
Press,
1933); The Labyrinth, Further Studies in the Relation
between Myth and
Ritual in the Ancient
World (London:
SPCK, 1935); and Myth, Ritual, and
Kingship (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1958).
14.
and im Judentum (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1952); and A. Bentzen,
"King
ldeology-'Urmensch'-'Troonsbestijgingsfeest',"
StTh 111
(1950) 143-57.
15. For a complete analysis of the
"L'Interpretation des Psaumes selon I'ecole 'Myth and
Ritual'," RSR XXXIII
(1959)
321-342. Bernhardt's criticisms of the two schools are most cogent (Das
Problem der altorientalischen Konigs-Ideologie im Alten Testament [SVT 8;
16. H. H. Rowley, Worship in Ancient
1967),
p. 189.
Perdue: Yahweh is King 89
kingship, while having existed in
Ugarit17
and improbable in Mesopotamia18 and Israel.19 The basic
problem involved in this approach is in the
methodology which tries to
oversystematize the complexities of the
ancient Near East cults. A basic
assumption of this approach has been that
similarities of rites and ideas
could be explained only by positing one central
cultic pattern and myth
in a fixed geographical and historical locus, from
where it spread to
other cultures. This methodology goes back to Frazer,
who took over
the common philosophical ideas of evolutionary
development current
in the last part of the nineteenth century and
applied them to the
development of cult and myth in the ancient world.
Such a scheme is
not operative among present historians of religion,
for it could not
explain, for example, comparable rituals and
myths found-among such
diverse and separated cultures as those of the
Incas, Chinese, Japanese,
and many others.20 A better methodology
would be to utilize the Old
Testament
materials which are appropriate and then seek to illuminate
with external materials.21
One other cultic reconstruction
which should be noted is that of
Artur Weiser, who places
the Enthronement Hymns within the cultic
situation of a Covenant Festival, an annual autumn
celebration of the
renewal of the covenant and the reaffirmation of
the people to observe
the law (II Kgs. 23:1-3;
cf. Deut. 31:10-13; Josh. 24:25). The festival
was highlighted by a cultic drama depicting the
elements of the
Heilsgeschichte and a theophany of Yahweh who came as king and
judge.22
Conclusion. The situation in life
which gave rise to these psalms
celebrating Yahweh's kingship is difficult to
assess. Perhaps we may
begin by noticing the traditions reflected in the
Enthronement Psalms
17. Werner Schmidt, Konigtum Gottes in
Alfred
Topelmann, 1966).
18. H. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods (
Press, 1948).
19. Martin Noth,
"God, King, and Nation in the Old Testament," The Laws in
the Pentateuch (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957) pp.
156-175.
20. Bernhardt, Das Problem der altorientalischen
Konigs-Ideologie, p. 62.
21. Such a methodological point is emphasized
by C. R. North, "The O. T.
Estimate of the Monarchy," AJSL XLVIII (1931-32) 1ff.
22. Artur Weiser, The Psalms
(Philadelphia: The Westminister Press, 1962) pp.
24-35.
For a critique of Weiser's
theory, see Kraus, Worship in Israel
(
Basil
Blackwell, 1966), p. 209.
90 Restoration
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and then try to make our own suggestions as
concerns a possible
setting. As pointed out by Gray,23 two traditions are present:
Enthronement
Psalms which associate Yahweh's kingship with creation
(e.g., 93) and those which stress Heilsgeschichte
(e.g., 47).
Sometimes
the two traditions are bound together (e.g. 98).
Leaving for the
moment the question of the date of the origin of
Yahweh's designation
as king, we may postulate that each tradition
points to its own unique
life situation. The recital of the Heilsgeschichte
would have been most
appropriate within a covenant renewal festival which
existed during the
pre-monarchial period (cf. Josh. 24;
Ex. 24:3-8).24 This festival
possibly occurred within the structure of the
larger Feast of
Tabernacles,
a festival borrowed from
celebrated at the beginning of the New Year during
the autumn
according to the old Israelite calendar (Ex.
23:16; 34:22). With the rise
of the monarchy a significant change was signalled in the cultus in that
elements of the old federation cultus were conflated with Canaanite
elements of the cultus
practiced in
precursors. We are suggesting that within this
context the salvation
history of the covenant renewal festival, the
Davidic covenant, the
Jebusite traditions of the worship of the central
deity as king, and the
recital of the creation story became integrated
within a New Year's
Festival.25
It must be admitted that such a reconstruction is
hypothetical, but it does seem to
provide some structure to a complex
problem. Therefore, it is within this context of
a New Year's Festival
that the worship of Yahweh as King occurred,
producing the
Enthronement
Hymns.
23. Gray, "The O.T. Estimate of
the Monarchy," 1-29.
24. Walter Harrelson, From Fertility Cult to Worship (
Doubleday,
1970), p. 60.
25. Harrelson (Fertility Cult, p. 59) remarks: "The ancient covenant festival
at
the turn of the year, then, was modified in such a
way as to become a festival of
the New Year. Such modification occurred, in all
probability, soon after the
building of the temple in
David
probably opened the way for this change. The priesthood of Zadok,
perhaps a continuation of the Jebusite religious traditions at
David's
own measures taken to add strength and prestige to
to bring Israelite worship more directly into
relation with ancient Near Eastern
cultic practices."
Perdue: Yahweh is King 91
Exegesis of Psalm 47
In our exegesis of Psalm 47 we shall
attempt to concentrate on the
theological traditions formative in the creation of
the psalm. At the
same time, an effort will be made to demonstrate how
the psalm could
be utilized by the cultus
in an enthronement ceremony. The translation
of the psalm is as follows:
Strophe
I All ye peoples, clap your hands,
Shout to Elohim with a joyful cry.
For Yahweh Most High (‘elyon) is
fearful,
A
great King over all the earth.
He has subdued peoples under us,
and
nations under our feet.
He has chosen for us our
inheritance,
The Pride of Jacob whom
he loves. Selah
Elohim has
gone up (‘alah)
with a shout,
Yahweh to the sound of the ram's horn.
Strophe
II Sing praises to Elohim, sing praises,
Sing praises to our
King, sing praises.
For he is a great King over all the
earth,
Sing to Elohim an artistic psalm.
Elohim has
become King over all nations,
Elohim
has taken his seat upon his holy throne.
The princes of the peoples are
gathered together,
With
the people of the God of Abraham.
Because to Elohim
belong the shields of the earth,
He is greatly exalted (na’alah).26
Strophe
I
In the hymnic
introitus, two parallel stichoi
contain the standard call
of the peoples to join in worship to Yahweh (hari’u, tiq’u). The
two
26. Muilenburg
("Psalm 47," JBL LXIII
[19441, 244) makes some interesting
observations concerning the literary
analysis of this psalm: "The strophes are of
equal length, five full lines, or ten stichoi. Observe the similar phrases at the close
of the first and last full lines of the first
strophe. Observe that 'Pride of Jacob' and
'God
of Abraham' occupy the same relative position in the
strophes. Again, the
place of the Ki line, following
the opening of each strophe, is exactly the same.
Finally,
the most significant of all, are the key words and their position: 'Elyon,'
'is gone up,' and 'he is exalted.' "
92 Restoration
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cultic acts which the people are to perform are the
clapping of hands
(tiq’u-kap) and
the cry of adulation (hari ‘u beqol
rinnah), both of
which are performed during the coronation of an
Israelite king, thus
demonstrating Mowinckel's
contention that the imagery of the royal
ritual of
clapping of hands indicated the joyous
acclamation of the people
concerning the new king who had just been
proclaimed king in the
temple (II Kgs. 11:12).28
In synonymous parallelism with the clapping
of hands is the cultic shout, again indicative of
joyous acclamation.
Hari ‘u is the imperative issued to the people who are to acclaim
God as
King
(Pss. 95:1; 98:4; Num. 23:21), more coronation
language.29 The
imperative to 'shout forth a joyful cry' (rinnah) has been
suggested by
Wagner
to be an indication of a "creedal statement, a confession of
faith in a God who acts in the events of
history" (Pss. 98:4; 105:43;
107:22).30
The universal setting for the worship is recognized in
the
demand that 'all peoples' are to demonstrate their
subjection to King
Yahweh
by these acts of acclamation.31
The main section of the first
strophe, introduced by the hymnic ki,
states the attributes and deeds of Yahweh which are
worthy of praise.
Yahweh,
given the epithet 'Most High,' is to be worshipped because he
is 'fearful' (nora'), a hymnic participle describing the
awe and majesty of
Yahweh
which inspires the cultic adulation.32 What
appears most
striking is the attributing of the divine epithet
‘elyon to
Yahweh (Pss.
27. Psalmenstudien, I I , 6.
28. Cf. Nah. 3:19; Isa. 55:12; and Ps. 98:8. The last pictures the floods
clapping their hands (yimha'u-kap), thus
indicating that the forces of chaos are
subject to Yahweh the King.
29. Lipinski (La Royaute de Yahwe,
352) states: "De ces indices it parait
resulter que
la teru’a en I'honneur de Yahwe . . . consistait en une acclamation,
dont le sens
devait etre proche de
israelites: Yehi
hammelek, 'Vive le roil' "
30. N. E. Wagner, "hn.Ari in the Psalter," VT X (1960) 435-441.
31. Schmidt's comment (Konigtum Gottes, 77)
is important: "Der sog.
'Universalis' ist
keine erst spat in
zeichnet bereits
die Kanagische Religion aus."
32. Kraus (Psalmen, XLII) indicates that
such participles express Yahweh's
characteristics, power, and actions in
Hymns (cf. Pss. 66:9; 114:8; 135:21).
Weiser points out that "fear for their worship is
in accordance with the essential
nature of the OT God; Yahweh shall be received with
shouts of joy because he is a
terrible God. Fear causes humility. Fear is
prominent in almost every aspect of
OT faith "(The Psalms, p. 376).
Perdue: Yahweh is King 93
7:18;
83:19; 97:9) followed by the synonymous parallel melek. In
these two stichoi the
Canaanite influence is most prominent, since the
cult uses the Theologumena of the high god of
the pantheon, El, who
was described as both king and 'Most High' in
pointing to his place of
eminence among the council of the gods. In
pre-Davidic
there appears to have existed a cult of El Elyon (Gen. 14:19, 20),33
thus allowing for the later assimilation into the
Davidic and Solomonic
cultus.34 In the faith of the
replaced El as the heavenly ruler.35
The reference to Yahweh as King
again points to the theological vocabulary of Canaan.36
Though the
problem of the date of such an ascription to
Yahweh is a difficult one,
it probably should be after the establishing of
the monarchy and the
official
have been most prominent.37 As is common
in Ugaritic sources,
Yahweh's
kingship is 'over all the earth.'38
The kingship of Yahweh is based upon
the salvific acts he has
performed on
33. G. Levi Della
Vida, "El 'Elyon in Gen. 14:18-20," JBL LXIII (1944) 9.
34. H. Schmid,
"Jahwe and die Kulttraditionen
von Jerusalem," ZAW (1955)
168-197.
35. The fact that El Elyon is worshipped as creator of heaven and earth in
Gen.
14:19, 20 may indicate Yahweh is recognized implicitly as creator in Psalm
47.
36. John Gray, "Hebrew Concept
of the Kingship of God," VT VI
(1956) 277.
He
observes: "The psalms demonstrate that in the monarchic period the
literature
and liturgy of
religious thought." It should also be noted
that Yahweh would probably not be
worshipped as king until his 'house' was built by
Solomon, as is the case with Baal
(ANET,
129-142).
37. The question of the date of the
reference to Yahweh as king has been
debated for a long time. Martin Buber (Konigtum Gottes [Heidelberg, 1956] )
has
argued such an understanding and expression came from
when Yahweh was a Stammesfuhrer. Albrecht Alt has
placed the expression in the
period between the conquest and state building ("Gedanken fiber das Konigtum
Jahwes," Kleine Schriften, I [Munchen, 19531 pp. 345-357. Eissfeldt has
opted
for a period after Second Isaiah as the best time
for such references to Yahweh as
world king and creator ("Jahwe
als Konig," ZAW XLVI [1928] 81-95). We feel
the origin is to be found during the time of the
monarchy (Isa. 6:1ff), probably
during the period of Solomon.
38. Against Rosenbloom,
who feels Yahweh's universal rule was developed by
Second
Isaiah as a result of the influence of the world empires of
King," JBL,
LXXXV (1966) 297ff.).
94 Restoration
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affirm in continuous parallelism Yahweh's defeat of
the nations: "He
subdued peoples under us and nations under our
feet." It is at this
point that
Warrior'39
are combined with the royal ideology of the Canaanite
cultus. By theological
reflection, Yahweh's defeat of the other nations,
implying the defeat of their gods as well,
demonstrates the legitimacy
of his claim to the titles of 'Most High' and
'King.' Verse 5 points to the
promise of the land, another important motif of
history. Bahar is the
technical term for divine selection (Pss. 33:12;
78:68;
78:70; 132:13; 135:4) and has as its object nahalah, a term
referring to
15:4;
I Kgs. 8:36). The second stichos
of verse 5 continues the idea of
its preceding stichos:
'the pride of Jacob whom he loves' (Amos 8:7;
Nah.
2:2). Yahweh's motivation for his action is his divine love
('aheb cf. Deut. 7:8; I Kgs.
10:9). Such a cultic recital of the
Heilsgeschichte points to
his sovereignty over all the world and thus is
entitled to adoration as
the World King.40
As is common to hymns, the
conclusion in verse 6 restates the basic
elements of the introduction.41 In the
midst of cultic worship God is
enthroned as universal king. The blowing of
trumpets (shopar)
is a
common cultic act (Lev. 23:23-25; 25:9; Ps. 81:4) and
is especially
frequent in the context of the coronation of an
Israelite king (II Sam.
15:10;
I Kgs. 1:34ff; II Kgs.
9:13), as well as in the enthronement of
Yahweh
(Ps. 98:6). The terminus technicus for an ark procession, 'alah,
points to a procession ascending
enthroned.42 That such a procession
occurred is apparent from II
Samuel 6, 7, I Kings 8, and Psalms 24 and 134. Though the ark is not
specifically mentioned in Psalm 47,
the reference to God's throne in the
39. The imagery of placing the foot
upon a defeated enemy's neck is common
in the ancient Near East (cf. Joh.
10:24 and "The Hymn of Victory of Thut Mose
III,"
ANET, 373-374). For an excellent study of Yahweh as Divine Warrior, see
Frank
Cross, "The Divine Warrior in
Alexander
Altman;
40. The depiction of a deity leading
his people to military victories is a
common one in the ancient Near East (B. Albrektson, History
and the Gods.
[
41. Kraus, Psalmen, XLI I.
42. Mowinckel,
The Psalms in
Perdue: Yahweh is King 95
second strophe would seem to suggest the ark. While
the traditions of
the ark are quite varied, it was regarded during
the monarchy as the
throne of Yahweh; it indicated his presence and was
placed in
Solomon's
Holy of Holies (I Kgs. 8:12, 13; Ps. 99:lff.).43
The first strophe has combined the
elements of the coronation
imagery of the Hebrew kings,44 the
Canaanite adulation of the 'Most
High,'
the unique traditions of the Heilsgeschichte in cultic confession,
and the ark procession in order to express the
cultic praise of Yahweh
as universal king. The material best fits the
cultic setting of a New
Year's
Festival in which Yahweh's kingship is celebrated. The direct
reference to the creation tradition is absent,
though the reference to
Yahweh
as ’elyon
may demonstrate its subtle presence.
Strophe
II
The second strophe, by means of
external parallelism, restates the
theme of the first. This strophe is initiated by four
hymnic imperatives
(zammeru) which solicit
praise from the cultic community. In the first
two stichoi, 'elohim
and are in parallelism. The hymnic ki again
introduces the main section, which indicates the
reason Yahweh is to be
praised: "Because he is king, over all the
earth." The community is
directed to "Sing to God a maskil," an
obscure word, but perhaps the
best translation is 'artistic psalm' (II Chr. 30:22).45
Verses 8, 9 continue the bases for
the hymnic praise of Yahweh. God
has assumed his position as king over all the
nations. The imagery
suggested is that of a cultic ceremony
participated in by all the nations
of the earth, most probably those of the Solomonic empire. Malak
‘elohim
(cf. the similar, expression in other Enthronement
Hymns—YHWH malak) is
one of the most debated expressions in the
Old Testament in regard to translation and
function.
Mowinckel,
comparing it with the Akkadian
Marduk-ma Sarru, has
argued the
expression YHWH malak should be translated as a
cry of
enthronement: "Yahweh has
become King."46 Kohler, basing his
43. Cf. G. Henton
Davies, "The
(ed. F. F. Bruce;
44. Gerhard von Rad,
"The Royal Ritual in
Hexateuch (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966) pp. 222-231.
45. Weiser
(The Psalms, p. 281) points to the
enigmatic nature of this
designation.
46. Psalmenstudien, I I, 40.
96 Restoration
Quarterly
arguments upon I Kings 1:11, 18, feels the
implication of the
expression is that of a polemic against other
deities. This, he argues, is
indicated by the word order, subject-predicate,
which places stress upon
the subject. He translates: "It is Yahweh who
is (has become) King, and
no other."47 Ridderbos,
on the contrary, has suggested the expression
YHWH malak
describes
a state of being, that is, Yahweh's royalty. The
reverse order, according to Ridderbos,
is necessary if Mowinckel's
translation is possible.48 Finally,
Michel has translated YHWH malak:
"Yahweh
is he who exercises kingship," thus regarding the verb as
describing an action of the subject.49
As concerns Psalm 47:9 we
should stress that the word order malak 'elohim is the most typical
order for a short Hebrew sentence, thus eliminating
any arguments
concerning placing stress upon the subject. In our opinion
the
expression is best translated as "Elohim is king" or "Elohim
has
become king." The latter is preferred if Psalm 47
is to be regarded as, an
actual enthronement liturgy that reoccurs each year in
the cult (cf. I
Kgs. 1:11, 13; II Sam. 15:10).50
The question then arises as to
whether malak ‘elohim is a
formula of
investiture, a cry of acclamation, a formula of
homage, a cry of
proclamation, or an enthronement
cry.51 A formula of investiture
comparable to those in Mesopotamia and
God
is not addressed in the second person. There is also the problem of
determining who would transfer the royal power to
Yahweh!52 The
argument that the expression is a cry of
acclamation can be rejected,
since the usual formula is yehi hammelek (I
Sam. 10:24; II Sam.
16:16).
That the expression could be a formula of homage is a
possibility when one compares it with the expression
of homage by the
gods who accept Marduk as
king in the Enuma Elish.53 It is also
47. L. Kohler, "Jahwah Malak," VT III (1953) 188-189.
48. Ridderbos
("Jahwah Malak," VT IV [1954] 87-89) observes: "Will
man in
Hebraischen den Gedanken:
J. ist Konig
geworden, deutlich ausdrucken, so kann
dies
49. D. Michel, "Studien zu den sogenannten Thronbesteigungspsalmen,"
VT
VI (1956) 65.
50. Kraus, Psalmen I, 202, 203. Kraus
believes that 47:9 has the only word
order capable of the translation defended by Mowinckel.
51. For a complete discussion, see
Lipinski, La Royaute
de Yahwe, pp.
336-391.
52. Lipinski, La Royaute de Yahwe,
p. 347.
53. ANET, 66-72.
Perdue: Yahweh is King 97
possible to regard the expression as a
proclamation of God's kingship
(cf.
Isa. 52:7; II Sam. 15:10; and II Kgs.
9:13). However, in our
opinion, the expression of Psalm 47:9 is best
seen as a cry of
enthronement, since an ark
procession to the temple seems to be
implied. While Yahweh is confessed as eternal
king in the
cult, Psalm 47 points to the way he has proved his
kingship, i.e., by his
defeat of the nations in the conquest.
The second stichos
in verse 9 points to Yahweh's enthronement:
"God
has taken his seat upon his holy throne." Kisse' best refers to the
ark of God, as indicated by Jeremiah 3:16 and Psalm
99:1. God's
ascension to the throne initiates his reign as
king and judge (cf. I Kgs.
16:11).
Verse 10 points to an assembly of
the nations to worship God as
universal king and perhaps also implies a judgment
scene. Nedibe
‘ammim
is an expression used to refer to the princes of the various
nations who have been subjected by Yahweh in the
conquest and in the
wars of David (cf. Num. 21:18; Pss.
78:12; 107:40). An important
textual problem exists in the second stichos. The MT reads: 'am
‘elohim
'abraham ("People of the
God of Abraham"), which parallels the first
stichos, thereby indicating
that all the nations are now regarded as the
people of the covenant (Gen. 12:1ff.). However, the
LXX and Syriac
read `im for `am, thus
changing the translation to "with the God of
Abraham."
BH3 conflates the two readings, arguing one should read ‘im
‘am: "The princes of
the peoples are gathered together with the people
of the God of Abraham." Perhaps this
suggestion is preferable, pointing
to a cultic assembly of all nations together with
their acceptance of Yahweh's rule. "The shields
of the earth (maginne
'eres) belong to God" is a declaration again
affirming God's universal
reign.54
The psalm closes with the theme of
the entire liturgy: "He is greatly
exalted." The word play involving the root 'lh has
already been
indicated.
54. Cf. Pss.
89:19; 84:10. A striking parallel to "God has taken his seat upon
his holy throne" is found in the Baal Cycle:
"Baal mounts his throne of kingship"
(Mendelsohn, Religions
of the Ancient Near East [London: Luzac and Co.,
1949)
p.
257).
98 Restoration
Quarterly
Conclusion
As has been emphasized in the
exegesis, Psalm 47 expresses in
hymnic praise Yahweh's
assumption of world rulership. Such
sovereignty is theologically based upon his defeat
of the nations. This
psalm is to be regarded as arising from the cultic
context of a New
Year's
Festival which has as an essential component Yahweh's
enthronement as king. Such an
enactment of Yahweh's enthronement
each year placed emphasis upon one of
conquest of the land by the Divine Warrior. Such
a victory was recited
in the cult and was climaxed by the processional
enthronement of
victorious Yahweh as king. The inclusion of certain
Canaanite elements
and components of the ritual of the coronation of
the Israelite king
dates the Psalm in the period of the monarchy.
The theological significance of such
an affirmation of Yahweh should
not be overlooked. The conception of Yahweh as
world king, an idea
influenced by
power from that of a wandering desert deity of a
tribal federation to
that of universal king holding the power of dominion
over the earth.
This
faith developed such a dynamic quality that its expression gave rise
to prophetic interpretations of the rise and fall
of world empires as the
result of Yahweh's direction of history. Such a faith
in Yahweh's
actions provided the basis upon which a
decimated remnant could
reorientate its existence even in
the wake of national destruction.
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