Psalms. Vol. 1: Psalms 1-72

Psalms. Vol. 1: Psalms 1-72. By S. Edward Tesh and Walter D. Zorn. The College Press NIV Commentary: Old Testament Series. Joplin: College Press, 1999, 483 pp., n.p. Psalms. By Craig C. Broyles. NIBC 11. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1999, xvi + 539 pp., n.p. paper.

The redactional history behind the commentary by Tesh and Zorn may explain many of its features. Tesh's work on a two-volume commentary on the Psalter was about three-quarters complete when Parkinson's disease prevented him from writing further. (Tesh died in 1999.) Zorn will complete the second volume but the present work (covering Psalms 1-72) is substantially from Tesh's pen. Zorn's editorial activity focused on revising the comments to make them consistent with the NIV rather than the KJV, which Tesh used as his base English text. Yet the commentary still breathes the air of the KJV, for good and ill. Zorn writes that "Tesh's comments have a rich vocabulary and style that mimics the KJV which most agree has never been matched for the Psalms" (p. 12). This is true, but at times the style (to this reviewer's ears) is too florid and a little dated.

The strengths of this commentary do not lie in its engagement with recent scholarship. Tesh's dialogue is primarily with scholars of the 1950s through to the early 1980s. One clear example is the introductory section on the classification of psalms (pp. 52-70). Here Tesh interacts only with Gunkel's system of classification. While defending the usefulness of this discussion, Zorn's editorial note helps explain the limitations of the commentary both at this point and elsewhere: more modern classification systems (e.g. Craigie and Gerstenberger) are not mentioned because "Tesh's arguments and discussions are with the older commentaries and scholars of the Psalms" (p. 54). Not surprisingly, there is very little interaction with the recent debate over the "shape and shaping" of the Psalter. Fortunately, Zorn plans to rectify this situation in an introduction to the second volume (p. 41).

The introduction also includes a discussion of Hebrew poetry, an outline of Psalms 1-72 (of homiletical value rather than a description of the "shape" of the Psalter), and a bibliography. Its primary focus, however, is on the question of the origins of the Psalms (pp. 24-40). Here Tesh provides a summary of the history of Psalms scholarship over the last century and a half, organized under five headings: "Distinctively Individual Productions" ("the traditional view"), "Late Compositions Accompanying Advanced Judaism" (Psalms interpretation under the influence of late 19th-century literary analysis), "Forms of Liturgy in Ritualistic Worship" (the influence of Gunkel and Mowinckel), "Songs for All Seasons" (the Psalter as a collection of hymns and devotions with "timeless" relevance), and "A Collection of Collections" (more recent interest in the redaction of the Psalter).

While Tesh does not give an explicit statement of his own methodology, his approach to individual psalms is a fairly traditional verse-by-verse exposition that is sensitive both to their ancient Israelite, and especially Davidic, setting and to Christian application. (It would have been helpful if he had been more methodologically self-conscious as to how readers move from the former to the latter.) Unfortunately, there is a certain unevenness in the treatment of exegetical issues. Some texts are dealt with in detail while equally or more difficult passages are treated with surprising brevity (e.g. compare the discussion of "Kiss the Son" in Ps 2:12 with the brief treatment of "You are my son" in 2:7). While the exegesis is generally solid, this commentary might be more useful for homiletical or even devotional purposes.

Broyles's commentary, on the other hand, is strongest at the points where Tesh is weak. Faced with the daunting task of producing a single-volume commentary on the whole Psalter, Broyles manages to deal judiciously with most of the major exegetical cruxes. His commentary is a model of conciseness and clarity with an impressively high level of interaction with recent scholarship. It also contains enough moments of creative insight to make it much more than just an abbreviated recitation of previous scholarship.

Broyles's treatment of many of the classic issues in Psalms interpretation is structured by his answer to the basic question, "What is a psalm?" (p. 1). For him, the psalms are not "descriptive poems"-"private reflections of poets on a recent, private experience"-but "prescriptive liturgies," which are intended "to guide the expression of Yahweh's worshipers in prayer and praise" (p. 3). With this emphasis on the Psalms as liturgy, issues of authorship and historical setting are not crucial to interpretation (p. 4). Broyles recognizes that once the psalms began to be incorporated into Israel's Scriptures, new ways of reading them became possible (e.g. psalms as literature, Davidic prayer, prophecy; pp. 6-7), but he chooses to focus on their original use as liturgies (pp. 5-9). Therefore, the primary question put to each psalm is, What place did it have in Israel's worship (p. 9)? Accordingly, Broyles's categorization of psalms is controlled by this interest in their function in Israel's worship. While some psalms are intended for teaching and reading (e.g. wisdom psalms), the majority fall into liturgical categories such as temple entry liturgies, hymns, corporate and individual prayer psalms, thanksgivings, and royal psalms (pp. 9-22).