Ramadan & Revelation: The Message of the Psalms

my name is Ali associate professor and Dean of undergraduate studies here at zetuna College in beautiful Berkeley California for this second session of this series entitled Ramadan and Revelation I want to explore the second of the major K or scriptures according to the Islamic tradition the zabur of D Muslim Scholars generally identifi the zabur with the Hebrew Psalms in the tanak now just as we did previously with the Torah I want to examine the Psalms from three distinct perspectives the perspective of traditional Judaism the perspective of modern historical scholarship and finally from a Muslim perspective again it is my hope that this more holistic approach to the scripture will be more academically enriching for the viewers The Book of Psalms in Hebrew is called tahim literally meaning Praises this word is actually related to the Arabic word which is to say from to be over joyed toim is also related to The Familiar word hallelujah meaning praise the Lord theah at the end being an abbreviated form of the tetramin y v which is sometimes pronounced as Yahweh this yah is also found at the end of the name Zakaria or Zakaria meaning the mention of the Lord therefore the Quran confirms this name for God as zcharia is the name of a Hebrews speaking Prophet explicitly mentioned in the Quran there are 150 Psalms in the Tanakh they were written by multiple authors David is the principal author but not the exclusive author the word Psalm comes from the Greek PSAs meaning song like the Quran the Psalms begin with the presupposition that God exists the themes of the Psalms include the praising of God the praising of God's word thanking God repenting to God complaining to God in times of trouble descriptions of good character and righteousness and the greatness of nature I.E God's handiwork so the Psalms are non-legal texts unlike the Torah they do not contain any legal injunctions or mitzvot athanasius a 4th century Christian Theologian famously said while most of scripture speaks to us the Psalms speak for us in other words the Psalms are the best expressions of the hopes and desires of the human heart we need only to recite them there are five divisions of the Psalms This was meant to mirror the five books of Moses at the end of each division there's a doxology or formula of Praise of God for example at the end of Psalm 41 the end of the first division the psalmist traditionally believed to be David wrote blessed be the Lord the god of Israel from Everlasting to Everlasting amen and amen traditionally the penet was written by Moses around 1400 BCE and the Psalms from a, to 500 BCE historically speaking however both the penet and Psalms were written during the same time period between 1,500 BCE the final form of the Psalms came about after the collation of the penet by the redactor around 500 BCE at least according to most historical Scholars the authors of the Psalms according to the Psalms themselves are various Moses wrote One apparently Solomon wrote A Few the korahites a Priestly family wrote some and unknown others and David of course who wrote about 70 of them thus the book of Psalms is an anthology it is a compendium of the poetic works of several authors there are 287 quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament 116 are from the Psalms in other words about 40% of the references to the Old Testament in the New Testament are references to the Psalms therefore the Psalms are extremely important proof texts for the New Testament authors especially the writers of the four gospels we'll talk about the gospels later inshallah the Psalms are Hebrew lyrical poetry which is distinct from Pros like genesis or Exodus the Psalms have noticeable Rhythm and occasional rhyme but they are not metered so the Psalms are basically sa to use an Arabic term uh they are rhythmic and at times rhymed Pros but not metered the Psalms also display various familiar citic rhetorical devices as we said there is rhythm and occasional rhyme the former is accomplished by emphasizing certain words through the use of B member segments or unmetered couplets there's also repetition acinin acrostic ISM and perhaps most importantly parallelism according to Robert loath in his seminal text the sacred poetry of the Hebrews parallelism is the rhyming of ideas and thoughts not of words there are at least six types of parallelism of the Psalms according to Michelle Kyper these are also found in abundance in the Quran they're simply part and parcel of eloquent Semitic rhetoric number one synonymic parallelism this occurs when the second member or line expresses the same idea but with a different word for example here my prayer oh God give ear to the words of my mouth Psalm 54:2 hear and give ear are synonymous my prayer and the words out of my mouth are synonymous number two antithetic parallelism this is when the second line is in contrast to the first for example for his anger is but for a moment his favor is for a lifetime Psalm 30:5 anger is contrasted with favor moment with lifetime number three synthetic parallelism when the second line adds new information for example how very good and pleasant it is when Kindred live together in unity Psalm 133 ver1 number four emblematic parallelism these are comparisons using like or as or similitudes for example as a father has compassion for his children so the Lord has compassion for those who fear Him Psalm 103:13 number five ktic parallelism this occurs when the second part of a textual unit mirrors the first part a simple example outside of scripture is the expression one should eat to live not live to eat and salic Kay asms often times both parts surround a central pivot which is meant to be emphasized Psalm 110 is a good example at the very heart of the chastic structure of Psalm 110 is the promise of God and finally climactic parallelism this is when the text builds to a climax using the rhetorical device of repetition when it comes to subject matter there are nine major categories of the Psalms number one the lyrical wisdom Psalm this is designed to teach it is dactic in nature and yet it is emotional and expressive there are two types of lyrical wisdom Psalms The Experience wisdom Psalm and the character wisdom Psalm an experience wisdom Psalm describes an experience of life in a very emotional and Vivid way a character wisdom Psalm simply answers the question what is good character number two the nature Psalm this Psalm focuses on the greatness of God is creator of all things and the Majestic results of his handiwork next the word Psalm these are Psalms that praise God for his special Revelation they praise God for giving us his word number four the penitential Psalm this is when someone is repenting I.E making toua or Toba God's mercy and forgiveness is mentioned as well as his or steadfast love number five the worship Psalm usually called a song of ascent this Psalm describes the worship experience at the temple in Jerusalem psalm 84 a worship Psalm begins how lovely are your Tabernacles mishe oh lord of hosts it continues blessed are they that dwell in your house they will still be praising you blessed is a man whose strength is in you in whose heart are the ways of them passing through the valley of baka they make it a spring the early rain covers it with blessings they go from strength to strength every one of them to Zion appears before God the valley of baka is also called The Weeping Valley also in Arabic Bak y means to weep this is where Ishmael was weeping Isam this was where the spring of zamzam appeared the psalm seems to be describing a group of pilgrims who on their way to Zion or Jerusalem passed through the valley of Becca one of the outlined Tabernacles or mishe of the Lord in the Quran of course Mecca is also called Becca number six the suffering Psalm this is when someone is crying out for help in times of suffering oppression uh sickness torture imprisonment ETC number seven the Assurance Psalm these are Psalms that lift up God's name and providential Care the psalmist is very confident and assured the classic Assurance Psalm is Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd I have what I need number eight the Thanksgiving Psalm the Thanksgiving Psalm usually begins with the praise of God then describes God's character in works and then ends with some sort of teaching for example Psalm 111 ends with the iconic statement rid HMA the fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom finally the Royal Psalm these deal with man's Earthly relationship with Earthly Kings and rulers and may look to a future ruler to come these can be prophetic in nature looking forward to the Messiah for instance Royal Psalms were used for weddings and coronation ceremonies in ancient Israel okay as I said muslim Scholars generally identify the zabor with the Hebrew Psalms and the Tanakh Allah subhana wa T says and we gave David the Psalms at one point the Quran seems to paraphrase Psalm 3729 which is attributed to David when Allah subhana wa T says indeed we wrote in the Psalms after the reminder that our righteous servants will inherit the earth Surah verse 105 Psalm 37:29 reads the righteous shall inherit the earth Earth and live in it forever Allah subhana wa T also says we subjected the mountains as well as the birds to sing our Praises along with David in Psalm 148 we read praise the Lord from the earth you great sea creatures you mountains and all Hills fruit trees and all Cedars beasts and all livestock creepy things and flying birds when it comes to the overall authenticity of the the biblical Psalms however Muslims must be very cautious although there is certainly much in the Psalms that we can agree with in meaning nothing of the exact wording can be known with certainty the oldest copy of the Psalms that is extent is dated to about a thousand years after David peace be upon him in the next session we will examine the third major scripture inshallah the gospel see you then inshah and don't forget to join Zuna 12,000 strong initiative see our website for more information

Channel: Zaytuna College

Views: 5,002

Keywords:

Id: MkLln_uK0o4

Length: 11min 3sec (663 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 27 2024