The Message Of Book III: Psalms 73-89

By Walter C. Kaiser Jr.

[This is the second article in the four-part series “Using the Context of the Psalms to Interpret Their Message,” delivered as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 2-5, 2016.

Walter C. Kaiser Jr. is President Emeritus, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Hamilton, Massachusetts.]

Book III of the Psalter has only seventeen psalms, and they have a different perspective than Books I and II. The focus of attention is no longer on King David, for only Psalm 86 is attributed to David and only a few psalms in Book III are individualistic in their form and emphases. The psalms of Book III deal more with the corporate group of the people of God and the attack made on them as a nation by foreign or international forces.

Robertson asserts that the most striking feature of Book III is the defeat of Israel by the powerful forces of foreign nations gathered against her. Surprisingly, Book III ends with David’s throne and crown being “cast into the dust” (Ps. 89:38-39, 41). Thus Robertson labels this section of the psalter as one in which “devastation” is the prominent theme.[1]

Book III can be divided by authorship claims into two unequal parts. Psalms 73-83 are attributed to “Asaph,” while Psalms 84, 85, 87, and 88 are said to come from the “sons of Korah,” with Psalm 88 also being assigned to one of the sons of Korah named “Heman the Ezrahite.” Psalm 89 is assigned to Ethan, also called an “Ezrahite” (perhaps meaning “a native-born person”). Interestingly enough, the usage of the names for God tends to support this division by means of authorship, for in the “Asaph” psalms (Pss. 73-83), the name “Elohim” prevails over the name “Yahweh” as the preferred name for God (Elohim is used 47 times while Yahweh is used only 13 times). Contrariwise, in the “sons of Korah” psalms (84-89), the use of “Yahweh” prevails over “Elohim” as the way to address and talk about God (“Yahweh” 31 times, “Elohim” only 16 times). However, to make the matter more interesting, in the “sons of Korah” psalms in Book II (Pss. 42-49), “Elohim” was the dominant and preferred name for God. What can explain this obvious shift in the names used for God? It is difficult to say with confidence what the reason was. Perhaps because Book II focused on communicating with non-Israelites and the unconverted persons of this world, the name “Elohim” would be more appropriate to the communication of this fact.

The further identity of “Asaph” and the “sons of Korah” can be partially determined, for 1 Chronicles 25:1 and 6 note that Asaph, along with Heman and Jeduthan, was one of David’s three chief musicians. The sons of these three chief musicians and later their relatives were appointed as those who had the “ministry of prophesying” and providing the music of the temple on “harps, lyres, and cymbals.” These sons were members of the musical worship team who were supervised by their father, while Asaph, Jeduthan, and Heman were supervised by David himself (v. 6). The Chronicler went on to say that these sons and their relatives were all “trained and skilled in music for the Lord” and that they numbered “288” (v. 7). All of them, teachers and students, young and old alike, regularly cast lots for the assignment of their duties in the temple musical liturgy.

Robertson summarizes the substance of these seventeen psalms in this manner. He lists Psalms 73 and 74 as the two psalms that introduce the distress and pain that characterize Book III. Psalm 73 views the problem from an individual aspect, while Psalm 74 approaches the issue from a corporate or group perspective. Following these two introductory psalms, the next two, Psalms 75 and 76, demonstrate that the Lord is king over all earthly kings, even in the face of the devastation these hostile nations could raise against Israel.

That introduction provides the groundwork for a special collection of seven psalms, Psalms 77-83, that report the devastation that came to the northern capital of Samaria at the hands of Assyria in 722 BC (Ps. 80) and the destruction that the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin faced from Babylon in 586 BC. These seven psalms (77-83) are followed by the first of the psalms by the sons of Korah (84 and 85), which amaze us by introducing a positive tone that is striking by comparison with the previous psalms in Book III. Then Book III concludes with notes of individual and corporate distress caused by the devastation that Israel faced with seemingly little hope for deliverance (Pss. 88-89). Sections of Book III can be examined in more detail as we attempt to analyze the intentional structuring of the psalms as a contextual basis for interpreting them and showing their interconnectedness.

Introduction To Book III: Psalms 73-74

The psalmist exhibited the same pattern used in Book II to introduce the substance of what was to follow as he opened up the themes of distress and devastation that dominate Book III. To be more specific, notice how in Book II, Psalm 42/43 (taken as one psalm) treated the problem it faced at that time from an individual perspective, just as Psalm 73 is now employed in Book III, while Psalm 44 in Book II viewed the issue from a corporate perspective, as does Psalm 74 in Book III.

Psalm 73 wrestles with the striking contrast between the apparently peaceful and prosperous life of the “wicked” and the “boastful” when they are compared with those who are “pure in heart” (73:1, 3). The “wicked” in these situations were those who came from and made up the international community of enemies, as can be seen from Psalm 75:4. The “wicked” were those who were part of the occupying troops of the foreign nations that had conquered Israel and whose “mouths [laid] claim to heaven and whose tongues [took] possession of the earth” (73:9). But they would face their real challenge one day in the future, for their good times of success in life and war would seem like a dream, for in the evaluation of that time, the Lord would despise them as if they were mere fantasies (v. 20). So frightening was the apparent success of the wicked, when compared with the sufferings of the righteous, that the psalmist’s feet had almost slipped over the edge of a precipice (v. 2) as he tried to understand the success of the wicked (v. 16). The psalmist thought that perhaps he had kept his heart pure in vain (v. 13), for it was they, not he, who were living high as wealthy and victorious conquerors. But all of that changed when the psalmist went into the house of God and it finally dawned on him what the ultimate destiny of these self-confident, arrogant boasters would be (v. 17). That was how Asaph introduced the problem of national devastation from an individual perspective.

In Psalm 74 Asaph introduced the issue found in Book III from a corporate or group perspective. This second introductory psalm of Book III presented the international invaders as the ones who had wielded their axes as they smashed the sanctuary of the Lord in Zion and defiled the dwelling place of God’s name (vv. 5-7). But when did all of this happen? It is clear that the psalmist was talking much beyond the day of King David, which would have been the major time frame for most of the events in Books I and II. So we ask again, When would that time have occurred?

Psalm 74, it can be seen from the text, referred to the Babylonian invasion that came in the sixth century BC. Thus we have moved four centuries from the time of David (c. 1000 BC). It might be argued that Psalm 74 was addressing the Babylonian invasion that came ten years before the 586 BC destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, for 2 Kings 24:8-17 reported on the brief, three-month reign of King Josiah’s eighteen-year-old grandson Jehoiachin. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar’s officers had set up a siege against Jerusalem in 596 BC, but when Nebuchadnezzar himself arrived, King Jehoiachin surrendered himself and the city of Jerusalem. As a result, Nebuchadnezzar stripped the temple of all its treasures, but since Jehoiachin surrendered to the Babylonian king willingly, some of the city’s major buildings seem to have been left intact after that 596 BC attack. Accordingly, the narrative of 2 Kings 24 parallels the picture that Psalm 74 presents, in that both focus on the stripping of all valuables from the Lord’s temple. However, ten years later in 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar returned to bring complete decimation on Jerusalem and the temple (Ps. 79:1, 3; 2 Kings 25:9). In the meantime, Psalm 74 depicts the fact that there were still some prominent residents in Zion whom the psalmist prayed for (v. 19).

The destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC is described in Psalm 79. Complete destruction came when King Zedekiah refused to surrender voluntarily to Nebuchadnezzar as King Jehoiachin had previously. The Babylonians exercised no mercy as they arrogantly destroyed Judah and Jerusalem.

Celebrating God’s Kingship Over All Earthly Kings: Psalms 75-76

It is difficult to say completely how Psalms 75-76 function in this context, but Robertson labels them as a response to Israel’s cry for deliverance from the foreign invading armies. There is a call for God to rise up and to defend his own cause as he “will cut off the horns of all the wicked” (75:10) (“horns,” of course, being a symbol of power and authority). It is God who will judge (v. 7).

If Psalm 79 reports how God will vindicate his name and reputation in the chaos brought on Jerusalem by the conquering Babylonians, Psalm 76 relates how God totally humiliated the king of Assyria, King Sennacherib, when the angel of the Lord slew the Assyrian army outside the gates of Jerusalem in 701 BC (Isa. 36-37).

This interpretation seems to be confirmed by the Septuagint translation that adds to the title of Psalm 76 the words “concerning the Assyrian.” Sennacherib had boastfully vaunted himself over Israel by pointing out to King Hezekiah of Judah and to the citizens of Jerusalem listening from the walls of that city that none of the gods of the cities he had taken thus far had been able to match his military expertise and power. So Hezekiah must not think that Yahweh would experience any different kind of result—all gods of all nations were doomed in the face of Sennacherib’s military might and power! That would include Yahweh as well, Sennacherib arrogantly blustered and blasphemed.

But Psalm 76:5-7 graphically depicts a scene that must have horrified Sennacherib after all his bravado speeches. It depicts his vanquished army this way: “The valiant lie plundered, they sleep their last sleep; not one of the warriors can lift his hands. At your rebuke, God of Jacob, both horse and chariot lie still. It is you alone who are to be feared. Who can stand before you when you are angry?” (vv. 5-7).

When Sennacherib learned that his whole army of 185,000 lay dead in the fields of Judah, he beat a hasty retreat back to Assyria only to be ambushed and murdered by his own two sons (2 Kings 19:35-37). No wonder, then, that Psalm 76 ends in verse 12 with these words: “[God] breaks the spirit of rulers; he is feared by the kings of the earth.”

To be sure, these were trying times for the nation of Israel and David’s line, but the psalmist was certain that the kingdom of our Lord and his Messiah would remain supreme and rule over all the nations on earth. Of course, Israel had faced one foreign invader after another, but it would be God alone who would triumph in the end as King of kings and Lord of lords.

These four psalms of introduction and response bring us to the heart of message of Book III, the seven psalms of devastation—Psalms 77-83.

Psalms Of Devastation And Deliverance By The Son: Psalms 77-83

Among Psalms 77-83 two psalms place the destruction and devastation brought on by two foreign invaders at the heart of all that confronts Israel and the Lord God himself. They are Psalm 79 with its description of the attack on Jerusalem and Judah by Babylon in 586 BC and Psalm 80 with its description of the attack by Assyria on the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

First among the seven, Psalm 77 opens with the cry of an individual in danger, ostensibly prompted by his confrontation with international enemies. But when this individual recalls all the miraculous interventions that God has demonstrated, especially at the exodus of Israel from Egypt (vv. 16-20), he is helped by that memory. Verse 14 affirms, “You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.”

The psalmist’s personal troubles are dwarfed when he gives his mind over to remembering and meditating on the tremendous events of the Red Sea and the fire of God on Sinai. The “waters,” presumably those of the Red Sea, were not just in an upheaval; these waters were downright frightened (v. 16) as the lightning is poetically depicted as God’s flaming arrows (v. 17). Therefore the psalmist faced the challenge that came to Israel’s national security by recalling, as Psalms 74-76 had, God’s intervention against those hostile foreign enemies. God’s “way is holy” (77:13). This all raises the question found in the victory song of Moses in Exodus 15:11, “Who is like you . . . among the gods?” or, as Psalm 77:13 phrases it, “What god is as great as our God?” Moreover, Psalm 77 introduces references to the “descendants of Jacob and Joseph” (v. 15). Thus the psalmist is concerned with the way both the northern and the southern tribes of Israel would experience devastation as well as deliverance.

The final verse in Psalm 77, however, surprisingly introduces an expression of pastoral kindness in the midst of all this international chaos and turmoil: “You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” This same pastoral theme reappears in the next three psalms, perhaps as a way of quieting the anxieties that filled Israel and Judah in the face of the national trauma of war: “He brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness” (78:52). “And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them” (v. 72). “Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will proclaim your praise” (79:13). “Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who led Joseph like a flock” (80:1). By using this same phrasing over the course of several psalms, the psalmist shows his organizational structure.

The second of these seven psalms (77-83), Psalm 78, reviews the vacillating history of Israel from the time of slavery in Egypt until the reign of David. But in the midst of its recounting all that took place, the great miracles of God are also included as a sign of the grace of God and the maintenance of his promise-plan. Psalm 78 reviews the faithfulness of God to Israel despite the repeated failure of Israel and Judah. The focus of this chapter is the centrality of God’s covenant with David. Even though some four or five hundred years have passed since David’s lifetime, Israel’s interaction with the Lord remains based on the covenant he made with David. This is amazing in the light of the devastations that David’s dynasty and his kingdom had undergone since his day. Nevertheless, there is no indication that God would go back on his promise to David; it would remain intact and fully operative.

Robertson noticed that Psalm 78:1-8 provides an extensive introduction,[2] but then the psalmist unexpectedly calls attention to verses 9-11 with what appears to be an almost interruptive word: “The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle; they did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law. They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.”

The prophet Hosea, from this same period of time, wrote, “Whenever I would heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed” (7:1); “Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless—now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria” (v. 11); “They [Ephraimites] do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words. For this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt” (v. 16).

The psalmist gave an extensive review of how God had delivered Israel from Egypt, led them during the wilderness wanderings, helped them in the conquest of Canaan, and upheld them during the relentless raids that came on them from the Philistines. As a conclusion to this long list of times when God had helped the nation, he suddenly once again introduced a word about the tribe of Ephraim, one of the sons of Joseph: “He rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim; but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved” (Ps. 78:67-68).

David was chosen to be “the shepherd of [God’s] people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance” (v. 71). So Psalm 78 claims that despite all the setbacks that had come from the invasions of the nations surrounding the people of God, God was still standing by his promise and covenant to David and to his dwelling place in Zion.

Psalm 79 returns to the theme of the conquering invasions that the people of God faced in the land of promise. If Psalm 74 described some of the heartache and disaster caused by international invaders of the land of Israel, Psalm 79 described a carnage that went far beyond what Psalm 74 described. In Psalm 79 the nations have invaded the inheritance given to Israel by God and have proceeded to defile God’s holy temple and reduce Jerusalem to rubble (v. 1). These invaders left corpses out on the fields as food for the birds and animals of the wild (v. 2). In fact, they shed so much blood, continued the psalmist, that one would think it was just water being poured out all around Jerusalem (v. 3). Surely this is a depiction of the tragic fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

David had faced foes described in Book I and II, but nothing like this list of savage and brutal international invasions of the land of Israel that are found in Psalms 74-79. The list is ominous:

• Babylon’s invasion of Judah in 596 BC—Psalm 74
• Assyria’s invasion of Judah in 701 BC—Psalm 76
• Philistine invasions of Israel about 1060 BC—Psalm 78:60-64
• Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem in 586 BC—Psalm 79
• Assyria’s invasion of Samaria in 722 BC—Psalm 80

At the center of these seven psalms (77-83) reporting international calamity that came upon Israel and Judah is Psalm 80, which takes up the destruction visited upon the northern ten tribes of Joseph or Ephraim in the fall of Samaria, capital of the northern tribes. This psalm has long been assigned the central point of the entire book of Psalms by the Jewish scribes (sopherim, “counters”) who counted all the Hebrew letters in each book. Hebrew manuscripts have a raised letter ayin in Psalm 80:14 (Eng. v. 13) to mark the “middle letter of the Psalter” in the Hebrew word מיער “from the forest.” This psalm will be taken up by itself later on.

Psalm 81 celebrates once again the unprecedented deliverance of Israel from Egypt. After the psalmist rehearsed the devastations of the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Philistines in Psalms 74, 77, 78, 79, and 80, he reminded the people once again how they could have been saved from all these invading armies if they had listened to the teaching that came from the Lord and followed his ways (81:11, 13). But Israel responded out of the stubbornness of their hearts and followed their own devices instead. Had they done otherwise, their enemies would have been rapidly subdued by the Lord (v. 14), and these invaders would have cringed before the Lord (v. 15). Israel would have found “honey from the rock” in the desert instead of water (v. 16). If past rescue of the people of Israel by the Lord had been magnificent, the results would have been even more spectacular had the people turned back to the Lord in the face of these more recent threats on the land.

In Psalm 82, it is Elohim who judges the judges of the nations. These judges, in their capacity of rendering judgments over their people, are here designated as “gods” (v. 1). But the nations of the world must remember that God, who is the Most High One over the kingdoms and thrones of all mortals, will arise to judge the whole world (v. 8). Therefore, even though these human judges may themselves be designated as “gods,” their judgeships in no way surpass that of the one who possesses all the nations (v. 8).

To read this psalm is to be reminded that our Lord Jesus used it in a controversy with the Jewish authorities over his identity. These leaders were about to exercise their authority as judges by ordering that Jesus be killed because he claimed to be the Son of God. Interestingly enough, Jesus did not appeal to a Messianic text to support his claim of being divine; instead he cited this passage from Psalm 82 and argued from the lesser to the greater. His argument was this: Why do you deny me the claim to the title “God” or “Son of God” when you designate your own human “judges” as “gods” and “sons of the Most High” in this psalm (v. 6) and when you fulfill a Godlike function by rendering judgment (vv. 1, 6)? Jesus stated that the source of his argument was “Scripture.” Jesus did not use the plural form “Scriptures,” but the singular form; thus he underscored the unity of this source, which he also called “your law” (John 10:34-38). How could these human judges object when Jesus presented himself as the “Son of God” and performed miracles that were by all assessments much more awesome than any earthly decision rendered by a human judge?

What makes this use of Psalm 82 all the more powerful is the argument pressed by Robertson that individual psalms, for instance Psalm 82, should be understood in context of the whole book of Psalms. By the same token, Psalm 82 should be understood even more particularly in light of the seven psalms (77-83) that focus on Psalm 80, where the suffering Messiah ben Joseph is likewise called a “Son,” also referring to his position as a “Son of God.” Accordingly, Jesus was appealing not simply to the fact that judges were called “gods,” as in Psalm 82, but he also appealed to his unique Sonship as Messiah ben Joseph in Psalm 80! Was our Lord also arguing that he was, according to Psalm 80:15, 17, Messiah who would suffer as God’s “Son” and as Messiah ben Joseph? (More will be said on Psalm 80 in an article that is to follow.)

Conclusion

This special collection of seven psalms was meant to call attention to the destruction of both the northern and southern kingdoms in Israel while emphasizing at the same time two Messianic figures who would come forth to deliver both the north and the south. A son of David, but also a son of Joseph, would be Israel’s deliverer (Pss. 78:65-66, 70-72; 89:35-37; 80:1-2, 15, 17).

The seventeen psalms in Book III focus on the defeat of the people of God at the hands of international invaders. But most astounding of all in this record of stunning defeats is that this section ends with the throne and crown of David lying in the dust of defeat (89:38-39, 44). How could this be the real outcome of God’s everlasting commitment of his covenant with Abraham and David?

Any hope for the continuance of the Davidic covenant, which Psalm 89:17b–37 asserts is still strongly maintained in the ongoing and overall plan and will of God, must come in Books IV and V. It was not finally solved in Book III.

Notes

1. O. Palmer Robertson, The Flow of the Psalms: Discovering Their Structure and Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P. & R., 2015).
2. Robertson, The Flow of the Psalms, 129.