Psalms for Everyone, Part 2: Psalms 73–150

by John Goldingay

Publishers:

Westminster John Knox; SPCK

, 2014

Overview

In this volume, John Goldingay explores Psalms 73–150. The Psalms, Goldingay says, show us four ways to speak to God: in words of praise, thanksgiving, trust, and supplication. Goldingay provides brief commentary on each psalm and shows how each one can be relevant to contemporary life.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Although the psalm keeps talking about God’s promises, you won’t find the word ‘promise’ in the psalm. Hebrew doesn’t have a word for promises that God makes—it has a word for human promises, but that word implies a vow, and the psalm doesn’t use it to refer to God’s promises. God’s promise is just his ‘word.’ God says it, and that means God will do it.” (Page 147)

“One piece of good news in Psalm 78 is that God thinks about our frailty and makes allowance for it; God is mindful that we are flesh, ‘a passing wind that does not return.’ When Paul talks about our being flesh, he has in mind that we are morally weak. While this psalm makes clear the Old Testament’s recognition that we are morally weak, when it talks about our being flesh, it has in mind the more ordinary physical frailty that is expressed in our mortality. We are like the wind, not in the sense of a genuinely powerful wind but in the sense of a wind that makes a lot of noise but then is gone.” (Page 28)

“The psalm suggests an interesting take on this assumption: it implies that God can indeed find out anything, though not that God knows everything ‘automatically,’ just by virtue of being God. The psalm pictures God finding out about us by examining us, by looking at us, by looking at that process whereby we come into being.” (Page 200)

“The paradoxical implication is ‘Relax. God loves you. And anyway, it’s God’s building activity that counts.’” (Page 174)

“Yes, the world is secure; it will not be vulnerable to other supernatural powers because Yahweh has determined to force their submission. Of course Yahweh is not so inclined to force the submission of human powers. It seems that we have a different kind of free will. So we dare not assume we could not destroy the planet.” (Pages 73–74)

Product Details

• Title: Psalms for Everyone, Part 2: Psalms 73–150
• Author: John Goldingay
• Series: Old Testament for Everyone
• Publishers: Westminster John Knox, SPCK
• Print Publication Date: 2014
• Logos Release Date: 2016
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible. O.T. Psalms 73-150 › Commentaries
• ISBNs: 9780664233846, 0664233848
• Resource ID: LLS:EVRY19PS2
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-10-05T17:07:48Z

About John Goldingay

John Goldingay has been at Fuller Theological Seminary since 1997 and currently serves as the David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament in the School of Theology. Before coming to Fuller, Goldingay was principal and a professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at St. John’s Theological College in Nottingham, England. He is the author of several books, including Old Testament Theology vol. 1, After Eating the Apricot, and Models for Scripture, as well as commentaries on Daniel, Isaiah, and Psalms. He holds membership in the Society of Biblical Literature and serves on the editorial board for the Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies.