Ali Ataie – Ramadan & Revelation The Message of the Psalms
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AI: Transcript ©
My name is Ali Athai, associate professor and
dean of undergraduate studies here at Zaytuna College
in beautiful Berkeley, California.
For this second session of this series entitled
Ramadan and Revelation,
I want to explore the second of the
major kutub or scriptures according to the Islamic
tradition, the Zabur of Dawud, alaihis salaam.
Muslim scholars generally identify the Zabur with the
Hebrew Psalms in the Tanakh. Now just as
we did previously with the Torah, I want
to examine the Psalms from 3 distinct perspectives.
The perspective of traditional Judaism,
the perspective of modern historical scholarship, and finally,
from a Muslim perspective.
Again, it is my hope that this more
holistic approach to the scripture will be more
academically enriching for the viewers. The book of
Psalms in Hebrew is called tehillim, literally meaning
praises. This word is actually related to the
Arabic word tehleel, which is to say
from to be overjoyed.
Is also related to the familiar word, hallelujah,
meaning praise the lord. The Yeah at the
end being an abbreviated form of the tetragrammaton,
Yod Hey Vov Hey, which is sometimes pronounced
as Yahweh. This Yeah is also found at
the end of the name Zakaria or Zakaria,
meaning the mention of the Lord. Therefore, the
Quran confirms this name for God as Zakaria
is the name of a Hebrew speaking prophet
explicitly mentioned in the Quran.
There are a 150 Psalms in the Tanakh.
They were written by multiple authors.
David is the principal author, but not the
exclusive author. The word psalm comes from the
Greek psalmas, meaning song.
Like the Quran, the Psalms begin with the
presupposition that God exists.
The themes of the Psalms include the praising
of God, the praising of God's word,
thanking God, repenting to God, complaining to God
in times of trouble, descriptions of good character
and righteousness,
and the greatness of nature I e God's
handiwork.
So the Psalms are non legal texts. Unlike
the Torah, they do not contain any legal
injunctions or mitzvot.
Athanasius,
a 4th century Christian theologian, famously said, while
most of scripture speaks to us, the Psalms
speak for us. In other words, the Psalms
are the best expressions of the hopes and
desires of the human heart. We need only
to recite them.
There are 5 divisions of the Psalms. This
was meant to mirror the 5 books of
Moses. At the end of each division, there's
a doxology or formula of praise of God.
For example, at the end of Psalm 41,
the end of the first division, the psalmist
traditionally believed to be David wrote,
blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and amen.
Traditionally, the Pentateuch was written by Moses around
1400 BCE and the Psalms from a 1000
to 500 BCE.
Historically speaking, however, both the Pentateuchan Psalms were
written during the same time period
between 1,500
BCE.
The final form of the Psalms came about
after the collation of the Pentateuch by the
redactor around 500 BCE, at least according to
most historical scholars.
The authors of the Psalms, according to the
Psalms themselves, are various.
Moses wrote 1 apparently, Solomon wrote a few,
The Korahites,
a priestly family, wrote some and unknown others,
and David, of course, who wrote about 70
of them. Thus, the book of Psalms is
an anthology.
It is a compendium of the poetic works
of several authors. There are 287 quotations from
the Old Testament in the New Testament. A
116 are from the Psalms. In other words,
about 40% of the references to the Old
Testament in the New Testament
are references to the Psalms. Therefore, the Psalms
are extremely important proof texts for the new
testament authors,
especially the writers of the 4 gospels. We'll
talk about the gospels later Inshallah.
The Psalms are Hebrew lyrical poetry, which is
distinct from prose like Genesis or Exodus.
The Psalms have noticeable rhythm and occasional rhyme,
but they are not metered. So the Psalms
are basically Sajjad to use an Arabic term.
They are rhythmic and at times rhymed prose,
but not metered.
The Psalms also display various familiar Semitic
rhetorical devices. As we said, there is rhythm
and occasional rhyme. The former is accomplished by
emphasizing certain words through the use of by
member segments or unmetered couplets.
There is also repetition,
assonance, acrosticism,
and perhaps most importantly,
parallelism.
According to Robert Loth in his seminal text,
the sacred poetry of the Hebrews,
parallelism is the rhyming of ideas and thoughts,
not of words. There are at least 6
types of parallelism in the Psalms. According to
Michelle Kuipers, these are also found in abundance
in the Quran. They're simply part and parcel
of eloquent Semitic rhetoric.
Number 1, synonymic parallelism.
This occurs when the second member or line
expresses the same idea, but with a different
word. For example, hear my prayer, oh, God.
Give ear to the words of my mouth,
Psalm 54 verse 2. Hear and give ear
are synonymous.
My prayer and the words out of my
mouth are synonymous.
Number 2, antithetic parallelism. This is when the
second line is in contrast to the first.
For example,
for his anger is but for a moment.
His favor is for a lifetime, Psalm 30
verse 5. Anger is contrasted with
favor, moment with lifetime.
Number 3, synthetic parallelism.
When the second line adds new information.
For example, how very good and pleasant it
is
when kindred live together in unity, Psalm 133
verse 1.
Number 4, emblematic parallelism.
These are comparisons using like or as or
similitudes.
For example, as a father has compassion for
his children,
so the lord has compassion for those who
fear him, Psalm 103 verse 13.
Number 5, chaiistic
parallelism.
This occurs when the second part of a
textual unit mirrors the first part. A simple
example outside of scripture is the expression,
one should eat to live, not live to
eat. In psalmic chiasms, oftentimes,
both parts surround a central pivot, which is
meant to be emphasized.
Psalm 110 is a good example. At the
very heart of the chiastic structure of Psalm
110
is the promise of God.
And finally, climactic parallelism.
This is when the text builds to a
climax using the rhetorical device of repetition.
When it comes to subject matter, there are
9 major categories of the Psalms.
Number 1, the lyrical wisdom Psalm. This is
designed to teach. It is didactic in nature
and yet it is emotional and expressive.
There are 2 types of lyrical wisdom Psalms,
the experience wisdom Psalm and the character wisdom
Psalm. An experience wisdom Psalm describes an experience
of life in a very emotional and vivid
way.
A character wisdom Psalm simply answers the question,
what is good character? Number 2, the nature
Psalm. This Psalm focuses on the greatness of
God as creator of all things and the
majestic results of his handiwork.
Next, the word Psalm. These are Psalms that
praise God for his special revelation. They praise
God for giving us his word. Number 4,
the penitential Psalm. This is when someone is
repenting, I e making teshuva or toba, God's
mercy and forgiveness is mentioned as well as
his chesed or steadfast love.
Number 5, the worship psalm usually called a
song of ascent. This psalm describes
the worship experience at the temple in Jerusalem.
Psalm 84, a worship Psalm begins,
how lovely are your tabernacles,
Mishkanot,
oh Lord of hosts. It continues, blessed are
they that dwell in your house.
They will still be praising you. Blessed is
a man whose strength is in you, in
whose heart are the ways of them. Passing
through the valley of Baqah, they make it
a spring. The early rain covers it with
blessings. They go from strength to strength. Every
one of them to Zion appears before God.
The Valley of Baqa is also called the
weeping valley.
Also in Arabic, Baqa yebki means to weep.
This is where Ishmael was weeping, Isma'il alayhis
salam. This was where the spring of Zamzam
appeared.
The Psalm seems to be describing a group
of pilgrims who on their way to Zion
or Jerusalem
passed through the Valley of Becca,
one of the outlined tabernacles or Mishkanot
of the Lord. In the Quran, of course,
Mecca is also called Becca. Number 6, the
suffering Psalm.
This is when someone is crying out for
help in times of suffering, oppression,
sickness, torture, imprisonment, etcetera.
Number 7, the assurance Psalm. These are Psalms
that lift up God's name and providential care.
The psalmist is very confident and assured. The
classic assurance Psalm is Psalm 23. The Lord
is my shepherd. I have what I need.
Number 8, the thanksgiving Psalm. The thanksgiving Psalm
usually begins with the praise of God then
describes God's character and works and then ends
with some sort of teaching. For example, Psalm
111 ends with the iconic statement,
The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom.
Finally, the royal psalm. These deal with man's
earthly relationship with earthly kings and rulers
and may look to a future ruler to
come. These can be prophetic in nature, looking
forward to the messiah, for instance.
Royal Psalms were used for weddings and coronation
ceremonies
in ancient Israel.
Okay. As I said, Muslim scholars generally identify
the zabur with the Hebrew Psalms and the
Tanakh. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
says, and we gave David the Psalms. At
one point, the Quran seems to paraphrase Psalm
3729,
which is attributed to David when Allah
says,
Indeed, we wrote in the Psalms after the
reminder that our righteous servants will inherit the
earth. Suratul Anbiya verse 105.
Psalm 3729
reads, the righteous shall inherit the earth and
live in it forever. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
also says,
we subjected the mountains as well as the
birds to sing our praises along with David.
In Psalm 148,
we read,
praise the lord from the earth, you great
sea creatures, you mountains and all hills, fruit
trees and all cedars,
beasts and all livestock, creepy things and flying
birds.
When it comes to the overall authenticity of
the biblical Psalms, however,
Muslims must be very cautious, although there is
certainly much in the Psalms that we can
agree with in meaning, nothing of the exact
wording can be known with certainty.
The oldest copy of the Psalms that is
extent is dated to about a 1000 years
after David, peace be upon him. In the
next session, we will examine the 3rd major
scripture in the gospel. See you then.
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