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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 63

1 A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness. O God, you are my God. I long for you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearns for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 2 Yes, in the sanctuary I have seen you, and witnessed your power and splendor. 3 Because experiencing your loyal love is better than life itself, my lips will praise you. 4 For this reason I will praise you while I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 As with choice meat you satisfy my soul. My mouth joyfully praises you, 6 whenever I remember you on my bed, and think about you during the nighttime hours. 7 For you are my deliverer; under your wings I rejoice. 8 My soul clings to you20;⁠ your right hand upholds me.⁠ 9 Enemies seek to destroy my life, but they will descend into the depths of the earth. 10 Each one will be handed over to the sword; their corpses will be eaten by jackals. 11 But the king will rejoice in God; everyone who takes oaths in his name will boast, for the mouths of those who speak lies will be shut up.

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalm 63:8 and Psalm 119:31

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Psalm 119 echoes the language of Psalm 63, but reshapes the language used to describe love for God to describe love of the Torah. This highlights a later tradition where language used for God is now used for the Torah.

Passages

Psalm 63:8

Hebrew Bible
6 whenever I remember you on my bed, and think about you during the nighttime hours. 7 For you are my deliverer; under your wings I rejoice. 8 My soul clings to you20; your right hand upholds me. 9 Enemies seek to destroy my life, but they will descend into the depths of the earth. 10 Each one will be handed over to the sword; their corpses will be eaten by jackals.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

Psalm 119:31

Hebrew Bible
29 Remove me from the path of deceit. Graciously give me your law. 30 I choose the path of faithfulness; I have set your rules before me.47 31 I cling to your rules.48 O Lord, do not let me be ashamed. 32 I run along the path of your commands, for you enable me to do so. 33 ה (He) Teach me, O Lord, the lifestyle prescribed by your statutes so that I might observe it continually.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... The proliferation of form with respect to the Torah in the Second Temple period reflects the increasing role of Torah in mediating the divine presence to the people. In the Torah, God’s people not only find divine instruction, but also divine presence. This increasing importance affects a shift towards veneration of the Torah that can already be seen in the biblical texts themselves. In Nehemiah 8 we find a most interesting scene. Nehemiah describes a gathering of all the people before Ezra the scribe so that he may read the Torah in their presence (verses 1-2). When Ezra opens the scroll, significantly, all the people stand (verse 5). Ezra then blesses God and the people respond by saying “amen” while lifting their hands before bowing and worshipping God with the faces pressed to the ground (verse 6). Yehezkel Kaufmann describes the scene as follows; The Law is read daily during the festival (Tabernacles); it is as though the light of the Shekinah breaks forth with the reading. Herewith, a significant cultic development: the Torah as the embodiment of the word of God, of His spirit, the symbol of sanctity and the sublime, the source of all that is holy on earth, the book of the Torah as a cultic object. What is important here is not a straightforward identification of Torah with God, no such identification exists, but there is a functional overlap in the orientation/stance of the people towards Torah and towards God. The most dramatic example of this overlap can be found in Psalm 119 where the psalmist repeatedly uses expressions that are ordinarily reserved for God to express a devotion to Torah. Consider the following ... (Psalm 119:19 with Psalm 27:9; Psalm 119:30 with Psalm 16:8; Psalm 119:31 with Psalm 63:8-9 and Deuteronomy 10:20; Psalm 119:48 with Psalm 63:5 and Lamentations 2:19) ..."
Roy Allan Fisher, “Locating Matthew in Israel” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2018), 162–163.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Psalm 63:8 and Psalm 119:31

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