Any good commentaries on Ps 23's background?

mike

Need Ps 23 background commentaries & not devotional. Any ideas?

Lew Worthington

This is a tough question to answer because of several reasons. First, many commentators note how difficult it is to determine the social background and specific occasion of individual psalms. (In a sense, this is ironically unfortunate since many psalms stand as independent units and we cannot glean much background information from a specific psalm's immediate surrounding context.) Furthermore, many of the literary units that introduce the psalms (e.g., "A Psalm of David") are formulaic and may indicate something other than the actual setting. Second, and as a corollary to the first point, since there's not much background information to be had for each specific psalm, most commentaries treat these matters in an introductory section. These introductory sections often treat background in a very general way and may not be much help for a specific psalm. Third, and as a second corollary to the first point, commentators are often left formulating theories based on general observations rather than specific textual indications found within specific psalms.

Thus, I've often found the general introductory information more important and helpful than background information related to specific psalms. In this regard, one would do well to consult the seminal work of Sigmund Mowinckel or Hermann Gunkel. Modern commentaries that I've found enlightening are those in the Anchor Yale Bible, the International Critical Commentary, or even the Word Biblical Commentary. I'm eager to see what the commentary in the New International Commentary on the Old Testament has to say, but I haven't the dollars in my budget for it at the present time. There are other top-notch scholars I'd love to read on the matter, but this isn't a bad place to start.