Monday, 26 July 2010

Summary of the first 30 psalms

Part of my challenge is to create the summary of each psalm from the new information provided with the frames - loosely defined as 'the recurring roots within the psalm - especially the new ones'. It is an experiment - we are 1/6 through.

1 - the righteous one and the many wicked - the way of the teaching of יְהוָה is recommended for happiness
2 - the nations are to be subject to the king identified singularly by the first person pronoun
3 - the many are trouble to the individual - salvation needed
4 - a plea to be heard, an implied rebuke, still there is confidence for sleep and quiet communion
5 - a voice in the morning, an emphasis on the action of יְהוָה addressed as 'you'
6 - vexation, shame, penitence, a continuing plea to hear
7 - if you have made it past 6, you are safer - 7 has hell destroyed, foes, persecutors, evil, toil work
8 - whew - the reign of the children of dust under the excellent name of the governor
9 - acrostic part 1 - a declaration of the fragility of the human
10 - acrostic part 2 (incomplete) - the singular wicked, the poor, judgment
11 - life, the wicked, the upright and testing, hell again
12 - divided heart, lips, tongues in these children of dust, safety required
13 - poetry on how long - intense desire of the poet
14 - there is none doing good - Does this remind you of Romans? We might have been deceived that there was a parochial interest in the elect - but what we have so far is far from a hymn book - it is much more personal encounter, confession, and recognition that trouble is all too present.
15 - The repeated question, who, gives a new frame.
16 - Pleasure and the insistent you. You complete my 'stay' גורל - note that sound. In these roots that sound alike, I have been hearing גבר (warrior) and גור (stay, live, sojourn).
17 - Prayer for the completion of steps in the path of יְהוָה
18 - The new frame is servant - and the recurrence of many words from the inscription to close the psalm.
19 - a fulcrum linking Psalm 1 to Psalm 119 - the frame is a silent word and the picture is Torah.
20 - prayer #2 a plea for answer - a good move in the story, I think
21 - immediate answer to 20 - the placement of the crown - the finding of joy
22 - In abandonment, we get the first appeal to the trust of the ancestors and the hope of deliverance that does not leave them ashamed - that is just one of the new frames - another pair is praise in the congregation- praise will be more and more evident.
23 - almost without frames - respite from the intensity of the prior psalm
24 - the lifting up and entry of the king of glory
25 - Acrostic 2, almost a summary in itself, many frames, less than 20% new. Those new include covenant - a concept not yet referenced in the psalter. So some frames are unprepared.
26 - the new frame walk combined with completeness (integrity) is also framed with a sounds-alike pair of words in verses 2 and 11 that indicate to me a confidence that is not as overly bold as one might read into the poem. I wondered about an English play to simulate the Hebrew - vindicate in verse 1 and syndicate in verse 7.
27 - Wait with confidence - the plea that in seeking the game will not be too difficult
28 - in the grace (new frame) of God the supplication (new) is heard
29 - The voice of יְהוָה is the theme of this psalm responding to the frame of voice in psalm 28 and perhaps recalling the voice of the highest in Psalm 18. Glory recalls the frame of Psalm 24.
30 - Joy and thanksgiving in the acceptance of יְהוָה (these are new frames in this psalm)

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