Artur Weiser - The Psalms: A Commentary

A while ago, I found two volumes of The Old Testament Library on www.archive.org. I was more interested in this work on the Psalms, but did Exodus first since it was shorter, and I wanted to see if I could handle all the tagging of a commentary.

Artur Weiser was a long time professor at Tuebingen, and is certainly conversant in, and uses German Form Criticism - the Form Criticism that often strikes many of us as overblown and missing (or avoiding!) the point of the current text of the Bible. But I find little of this here. While he certainly does try to fit the Psalms into how they could work in an Israelite Cult, he is also quite interested in what they have to say to us in the Church. As someone who is aware that this text has an existence before and apart from the Church, yet wants to claim it as part of the Church's heritage, I find this helpful. I am not entirely convinced that they were used so much in ancient covenant renewal services, but it does appear plausible.

On a personal note, I do want to thank Dr. Weiser for his in print mentoring of me as I returned to the psalms for my own prayer these last few months as I was caring for my own dad who was struggling against Parkinson's - a struggle that ended in his death almost a month ago. Some of this was editing was while we were both at home. Some was done while he was in the ER. Some was while he was in recovery in hospital. And some has been done while grieving his loss as I am starting to figure out who I am now and what I can do. And Dr. Weiser was able to bring me to the Psalms - the ancient hymns of many people who sometimes were in equal confusion, frustration - and faith.

In Memory of Richard H. McGuire, 1939-2015...

Ken McGuire

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