Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Israel's First King


Various scholars have pointed out that there are five "collections" of Psalms within the single "book" of Psalms currently found inside our Bibles (cf. Ross, Leupold, VanGemeren, Craigie, Wilson, etc.). The first collection describes God's kingdom among Israel, beginning with the coronation of Israel's king, followed by the various struggles of King David with the enemies of God, and the deliverance that God brought for the sake of His kingdom.

With this in mind, let's not forget that David was not the first king of Israel; and neither was Saul. YHWH was the first King of Israel (I Sam 8:7), enthroned within the Tabernacle that was constructed at the foot of Mt. Sinai. The ark in the Most Holy Place was His footstool, with Him seated above the Cherubim (I Sam. 4:4; II Sam. 6:2; II Kng. 19:15; Isa. 37:16; Psa. 80:1; 99:1). That's why the first collection of Psalms (especially Psalm 2) begins with the coronation of Israel's king: YHWH

If the biblical interpreter misses this aspect of biblical narrative, they may very well be misunderstanding the OT narrative in a big way.







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