The "Songs of Zion" are so called because they exalt Zion, the city in which God dwells among the people (Ps 46, Ps 48 ). Some of the hymns have received a more specific classification, based on content. Various reasons are given for this praise (often introduced by for" or "because"): the divine work of creation and sustenance Ps 8, Ps 104 ), or the divine acts in Israel's favor Ps 135:1-12 Ps 136 ).
Thus, the hymn is a song of praise, in which a community is urged joyfully to sing out the praise of God. Secondly, they follow certain distinct patterns or literary forms. This is shown by the frequent indication of liturgical leaders interacting with the community (e.g., 118:1-4). First, the majority were composed originally precisely for liturgical worship. Two important features of the psalms deserve special notice. The psalms are the product of many individual collections (e.g., Songs of Ascents, Ps 120 -134), which were eventually combined into the present work in which one can detect five "books," because of the doxologies which occur at 41:14 72:18-19 89:53 106:48. Some are pre-exilic (before 587 B.C.), and others are post-exilic (after 539 B.C.), but not as late as the Maccabean period (ca. Seventy-three psalms are attributed to David, but there is no sure way of dating any psalm. The superscriptions derive from pre-Christian Jewish tradition, and they contain technical terms, many of them apparently liturgical, which are no longer known to us. In the New American Bible the numbering of the verses follows the Hebrew numbering many of the traditional English translations are often a verse number behind the Hebrew because they do not count the superscriptions as a verse. Hence the numbering in the Greek Psalter (which was followed by the Latin Vulgate) is usually one digit behind the Hebrew. The corresponding number in the LXX differs because of a different division of certain psalms.
0 kommentar(er)
