Psalm 97: 1 7 Righteous King

Target year level: Year Ten

Scripture text

Introduction

A psalm is a sacred song or hymn. The Book of Psalms in the Old Testament contains a variety of such songs and hymns. Psalm 97:1-7is one of a category of psalms classified as Psalms of Yahweh’s Enthronement. Psalms of Yahweh’s Enthronement have an awe inspiring and majestic quality about them as befits their subject. These psalms describe the grandeur of God’s reign over all creation. This genre of psalms emphasise God’s care and providence exemplified in the ways in which God sustains, controls, and directs every aspect of creation.

The 149/150 psalms in the Book of Psalms may be classified as songs of praise; songs of Zion; psalms of Yahweh’s enthronement; psalms of lament and complaint; royal psalms; thanksgiving psalms; wisdom psalms and a number of smaller psalms genres and mixed types. For more detailed information on the genre of Psalm 97,Psalms of Yahweh’s Enthronement, see Literary Structure of the Psalms.

The numbering of individual psalms differs, mostly by one digit, between the Hebrew (Masoretic) text and the Greek (Septuagint) text of the Old Testament. This can sometimes cause confusion in reading Psalms in different English Bible translations. For further information see Psalms Numbering. For a general introduction to the Book of Psalms, see the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), Introduction to Psalms.

World behind the text

The psalms were composed over a lengthy period of 500 years or more. When the psalms are read as a whole, the reader can imagine a wide range of situations in the individual and collective lives of the People of Israel out of which the composition of individual psalms arose and for which they were composed. Gatherings for worship, for prayer, for the celebration of festivals, for processions, for religious sacrifices, for times of harvest, for occasions of victory and defeat, for triumph and defeat in battle, for the ordinary joys, sorrows, certainties and doubts of ordinary life - these form the world behind the texts of the psalms.

World of the text

The passage Ps 97:1-7 needs to be read in the context of the three-part structure of Psalm 97 as a whole. In the first part Ps 97:1-5 the glory of God is revealed in a theophany in which God is hidden in the mystery of ‘clouds’, ‘darkness’, and preceded by ‘fire’, lightning’ and ‘thunder’. The second part Ps 97:6-9 show the response of nature and human beings to the revealing God’s glory. While ‘the heaven’s proclaim his righteousness’ there is a mixed response from human beings with those who worship idols being contrasted with ‘Zion’ God’s faithful people. The third part Ps 97:10-12 provides wisdom and reassurance for God’s people who live in a world where not everyone recognises God’s kingship and where evil sometimes appears to have the upper hand. Two major themes pervade Psalm 97. In spite of evil in the world, God’s kingship over creation and human activity gives cause for rejoicing. A second theme is that human righteousness (right relationship with God, with creation and with other human beings) is possible under God’s kingly rule.

World in front of the text

Psalm 97 is often associated with the season of Easter in the liturgical year of the Church. For Christians, Ps 97:1-7 can be interpreted in the light of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ – the Paschal Mystery as Christians call it. At Easter, Christians rejoice because their faith tells them that, in spite of evidence to the contrary, Jesus Christ in rising from the dead has overcome, once and for all, the power of evil and the power of death to have the last word on human existence.