Week 32 Study Page - Psalms 73-89 & 1st Chronicles 1-14
Week # 32 Study Page
Psalms 73-89
1st Chronicles 1-14
Suggested Daily Reading Breakdown:
Sunday: Psalm 73-77
Monday: Psalm 78-81
Tuesday: Psalm 82-85
Wednesday: Psalm 86-89
Thursday: 1st Chronicles 1-5
Friday: 1st Chronicles 6-9
Saturday: 1st Chronicles 10-14
Degree of Difficulty: 9 out of 10. This week's chapter count and word-count are high, this is because a large section of the words that we are assigned in 1st Chronicles are not very "readable", and i think you should consider skimming them. The opening chapters of 1st Chronicles represent the most extensive set of genealogies in the Bible. You can hack through them if you wish, or, follow my advice and skim very quickly over this section. We'll discuss what these lists generally cover below so that you won't miss anything important, and won't get a headache (the Bible Project video below - If you're reading this on a computer/phone - is also very helpful to this end). As we return to Psalms, I'll remind you that each individual psalm is like its own miniature book of the Bible. There is no carry-over from one Psalm to the other, so you should reset and consider each individual psalm on its own terms - adjacent psalms are often from different authors and from wildly different historical circumstances. Chronicles accounts the same period of History as 2nd Samuel, and 1st & 2nd Kings, but far from simply being a repeat of that information, it tells this story in a much different way. As we read through Chronicles, and are offered opportunities to compare it to the account of Samuel and Kings, we'll be able to identify what is most important to the Chronicler.
About the Book(s)
PSALMS
About: "Psalm" is a translation of the Hebrew word mizmor, which is is a technical term for a song sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments. The book of psalms or the "Psalter" came into being over a period of centuries. It is a collection of songs / prayers which are sung / spoken to God. The Psalter is divided into five books, each ending in a doxology. This week's reading will cover all of book III. Psalms is the only book of the Bible that we're not reading straight through.
1st Chronicles
Date of Authorship: The last historical event recorded in Chronicles is the decree of Cyrus releasing the Jews from their exile in Babylon. This event can be positively dated to 538 AD which means that Chronicles was written after that date. If Ezra was the author of Chronicles, then these books were written in the middle of the 5th century BC (460-440). Those who do not believe Ezra to be the author usually suggest a date slightly more recent than that, and a few believe that it may have been written as recently as the 4th century BC.
Author: While the text of Chronicles claims no author, the Jewish Talmud claims that its author is Ezra, the priest. There is a certain logic to this since Chronicles ends just as the book of Ezra begins and much vocabulary and style are similar. However these proofs are circumstantial and inconclusive. When these notes refer to the author of Chronicles, he will be referred to as "the Chronicler."
Purpose: The books of Chronicles intend to retell the story of God's people for an audience late in their history, several decades after the exile, with special emphasis on the Davidic covenant, the proper place of worship, and the certainty of God's punishment. you'll notice that Chronicles focuses much more on the kingdom of Judah at the expense of the account of the northern kingdom of Israel. The Chronicler views Judah as the vehicle of God's outworking of His promises, and will focus on this kingdom in his history. Chronicles is much more than just a retelling of the books of Samuel and Kings. In the Hebrew canon (Jewish Bible) 1st and 2nd Chronicles are the last book, after even Ezra and Nehemiah which record events later than those recorded in Chronicles. Chronicles occupies this special position because it retells the whole Old Testament story in a way which emphasizes the most important themes for postexilic Israel: 1) the Davidic covenant and lineage which was awaiting its ultimate fulfillment, and 2) the function and continuity of the priesthood.
As You Read Notes
Psalms 74:13-14: The Leviathan
13 It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
The Leviathan is mentioned 6 times in the Bible (Job 3:8, Job 41:1 & 12, here, Psalm 104:26, and Isaiah 27:1) for more about this creature, see this excerpt from the IVP Bible Background Commentary
Gustave Doré – The Destruction of Leviathan, 1866
Leviathan has often been identified as a crocodile, which were found mostly in Egypt (where it symbolized kingly power and greatness), but also sparsely in Palestine. However, the multiple heads mentioned here and the fiery breath mentioned in Job 41 make the crocodile identification difficult. Alternatively, Leviathan has been depicted as a sea monster (see Isaiah 27). Support for this is found in Ugaritic texts, which contain detailed descriptions of a chaos beast, representing the seas or watery anarchy, in the form of a many-headed twisting sea serpent who is defeated by Baal (in the Ugaritic myth). There is a close affinity between the description of Leviathan in Isaiah as a coiling serpent and the Ugaritic Baal epic, which speaks of how the storm god "smote Litan (Leviathan) the twisting serpent," (you can read excerpts of that text here) which is described as having seven heads. in both cases, there is a sense of the god of order and fertility vanquishing a chaos monster... In Isaiah 27:1 the struggle between order and chaos (God vs. Leviathan) occurs at the end of time. It may be that the fall of Satan, portrayed as a seven-headed dragon in Revelation 12:3-9, also echoes the Ugaritic image of Litan (Leviathan) as the "tyrant with seven heads." Biblically, Leviathan would therefore most easily fit into the category of "supernatural" creature (like cherubim) as opposed to natural or purely mythological.
Psalm 89:9: God's Rule Over the Sea
9 You rule over the surging sea;
when its waves mount up, you still them.
In the Bible, as well as in the ancient near east, the sea represents chaos and disorder, as do the sea monsters that live there (see above). The obvious physical struggle between the sea and the land as well as the fierce, seemingly unstoppable energy displayed by the savage sea waves and storms gave rise to the sea representing the element of chaos and disorder in ancient myths. Consider the creation narrative where we learn this:
darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2)
The pre-creation world is depicted as being a place of chaos to which God brought order. This victory of God's creative force and plan over chaos is one celebrated in Scripture like right here in Psalm 89. This theme is returned to in the gospels when Jesus calms the storm in Mark 4 and Matthew 8, and when he later walks on water, and present in Revelation 13 where a beast emerges from the sea - the beast who is later defeated in Revelation 19. This imagery is pervasive in scripture and understanding it will greatly aid your reading of these passages.
"Rule over the sea then concerns Yahweh's sovereign control over the chaotic forces that were thought to constantly threaten the cosmos. That rule is expressed by the calming of the sea. (IVP BBC-OT, 545)
1st Chronicles 1-9: Geneologies
M.D. Johnson outlines why genealogies like these are included in the Bible.
To demonstrate existing relationships between Israel and neighboring tribes by tracing lines back to common ancestors
To bring together isolated elements concerning Israelite origins by the creation of a coherent and inclusive
To bridge gaps in the narrative records (these are the ancient literary equivalents to the "fast-forward" function on modern videocassette recorders) examples are Genesis 5 & 11 and Ruth 4, but also here in 1st Chronicles where the chronicler takes us from Adam right to the death of Saul so that he can focus on the Davidic kingship
to legitimate individuals - like Moses and Aaron in Exodus 6
to establish and preserve the homogeneity of the Jewish community (very important to postexilic Israel)
To demonstrate the continuity of the people of God through great calamity
(above from) Purpose of the Biblical Genealogies, by M.D. Johnson, 81
Biblical genealogies are not always exhaustive or all-inclusive because each one has a limited purpose (one or a couple of the above reasons for existing). These ancient authors did not hold themselves to a modern-historical standard of accounting for every generation or indicating where they could not. Understanding the genre of ancient genealogies will prevent us from making common and regrettable mistakes when reading them, like trying to use them to count backward chronologically or going insane trying to harmonize one certain Biblical genealogy with a different one from another book.
The genealogies that we're reading in 1st Chronicles are intended to fulfill three of the above purposes:
to establish and preserve the homogeneity of the Jewish community
to demonstrate the continuity of the people of God through great calamity
the bridge gaps in the narrative of 1st Chronicles - specifically the history from Adam to David
Particularly important to this list, is the "Royal line after the Exile" section in 1st Chronicles 3:17-24. The Babylonian exile marked the end of the Davidic kingship. Of all the people listed in this passage, we know of only Zerubbabel (3:19) serving as a leader of Israel and then only as a governor under Syrian control for a small number of exiles. Despite the fact that no Davidic heir was sitting on the throne, the Chronicler is showing his readers that the family line continues and, with it, hope that God's promise to David of an everlasting throne still has the possibility of being fulfilled! The continuance of the Davidic family recorded here by the Chronicler would read as a profound statement of patriotism and national hope to the postexilic Israelite community to which it was written - essentially "we can still pull this off."