A Central Tendency in the Psalms: Introduction

One ongoing debate regarding Hebrew poetry focuses on the question of meter. Longman writes:

It wouldn’t even have been necessary to mention meter in this book, except that many scholars and commentaries use meter as a criterion for adding or subtracting words or phrases from the individual psalms.  I believe it is best, accordingly, to ignore any interpretation based on meter.[1]

 On the positive side, Harrison notes that although “a certain degree of subjectivity [is] attached to . . . metrical determination, it is possible to recognize certain basic patterns in Old Testament poetry as a result of employing it.”[2] Also, “Again it should be emphasized that there has never been any rigid metrical system in existence to which ancient Hebrew poetry was required to conform.”[3] In general Harrison admits to an undefined concept of meter in Hebrew poetry.  Craigie concludes similarly,

“The very concept of the word meter, drawn as it is from classical and European languages, may be inapproporiate to Hebrew poetry if it is taken to imply any rigid regularity or system, but as a word designating approximate line length and the approximate balance of lines, it may serve as a useful tool.”[4]

 Does Hebrew Poetry use meter or not? If not no changes in Hebrew hymnic literature exegetical methodology need be considered; if so, methodology needs to be changed in some manner to account for a phenomenon that may affect the interpretation of the text.

 The point in the present discussion is not to prove or disprove the use of meter in Hebrew but to identify a phenomenon in the Psalms that comes to the forefront when a metric system is utilized—the phenomenon of a central tendency.[5] That is, about 20% of the Psalms contain a key, being perhaps the content or theological key element or elements in what I will call the “metric center.”[6] Perhaps this is coincidence, albeit of a rather marvelous sort, or perhaps some other explanation can be given for the phenomenon, or perhaps still there is something valid to the theory that Hebrew poetry uses a form of measurement some choose to call meter. For the purposes of this investigation, the “metric system” of Watson is used,[7] and the Masoretic text and vocalizations is the standard upon which the metrical analyses proceed.[8] Also, the following scansions speak of “beats” to denote measurement, for want of a better term. The discussion pattern for each Psalm includes: (1) scansion, (2) identification of the metric center, and (3) the effect of the center on the development of the Psalm.

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[1] Tremper Longman, III, How To Read the Psalms (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 108.  In the present writing, however, meter is used not to eliminate words or phrases but to focus attention on the “central tendency.”

[2] Roland Kenneth Harrision, Introduction to the Old Testament  (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969), 971.

[3] Ibid., 972.

[4] Peter C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 in the Word Biblical Commentary, #19 (Waco, Texas:  Word Books, Publisher, 1983), 38. See also the discussion in Robert Lowth, Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, (London: Tegg & Co. Dublin, 1839), 28-36.

[5] Luis Alonso Schokel, A Manual of Hebrew Poetics (Roma: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1988), 197. Perhaps the “semantic centre,” this “deep structure,” can relate to this phenomenon.  He concludes that “It is my opinion that the analysis of the composition of Hebrew poems is one of the most important, most difficult and least practised of tasks.”  Also, since Chiasmus oftentimes indicates the midpoint of the poem, finding a “center” may be supportive of the overall concept of a “metric center.”  See Wilfred G. E. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), 205.  In addition, Merismus has the effect of focusing attention on the “left out” center, thus representing a type of central tendency.  See Schokel, Manual, 83. Finally, the pivot pattern that “would appear to be the demarcation of poetic units” may also point to a “centralizing” tendency.  See Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry, 218-19.

[6] There are 21 of these psalms with a Davidic superscription.  One wonders if the “central tendency” could be uniquely Davidic.

[7] Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry, 100-103.

[8] H. Bardtke, Liber Psalmorum in K. Elliger and W. Rudolph, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Stuttgart: Wurttembergische Bibelanstalt Stuttgart, 1969).  See Craigie, Psalms, 37-38 for the positive and negative aspects of using the Masoretic vocalizations.  My scansion pattern is similar to that of Craigie.