Reading the Masoretic Psalter as a Book: Editorial Trends and Redactional Trajectories

The publication of Gerald H. Wilson’s The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter in 1985 marked a distinct shift in approaches to Psalms research. This article reviews this shift from psalm to Psalter exegesis. North American scholarship tends to follow a synchronic approach and to describe the shape of the Psalter. German scholarship tends to use a diachronic perspective and trace the shaping of the Psalter to explain how it attained its final form. There are growing signs of dialogue and convergence between these two main approaches to the editing of the Hebrew Psalter, which overshadow form-critical and liturgical approaches to the editing of the Psalter. Adherents of the shape and the shaping approach tend to propose a specific theme, organizational principle, or redactional intent to explain the Psalter’s final form. The multi-faceted nature of the Psalter and its long and complex history imply that, in spite of a multitude of publications, the last word on editorial trends and redactional trajectories has not been spoken.

Wisdom Psalms

Psalms scholars from the last century have grappled with the question of whether “Wisdom psalms” exist as a distinctive type of psalms, and if so, what criteria should be used to define them. This essay offers an overview of various answers to these questions by drawing on form-critical observations on Wisdom psalms as well as the insights from those who cultivate the “shape and shaping” discussions of the Hebrew Psalter. In addition to these traditional studies, recent works suggest more flexible or modified concepts of genre as ways to identify Wisdom psalms and correlate wisdom with torah and cult. Varying understandings of wisdom in Psalms highlight that Psalms bear didactic elements both within the individual psalms and in the Psalter as a whole.