This dissertation examines the use of water imagery in the book of Psalms and argues that the psalmists primarily employed this imagery to allude to four accounts of God's works in the Pentateuch--the waters of creation, the water in the Garden of Eden, the flood, and the crossing of the Red Sea--as paradigms for understanding their present and the future. Each chapter examines the use of the water motif in a particular book of the Psalms. In each chapter I attempt to prove, through verbal and thematic links, that the authors of the Psalms were biblical theologians in that the Pentateuch shaped their worldview. Because of their scripture-shaped worldview, they employed water imagery from earlier scriptures to interpret present-day events. The psalmists' use of water imagery also pointed to the future. Through water imagery they alluded to the Garden of Eden to express hope for a new future Eden. For the psalmists the creation of the world was a model of how God would one day remake creation. The flood and the crossing of the Red Sea are also paradigmatic events that guided the psalmists' understanding of God's work of salvation and judgment in the present and the future. The psalmists' hope for a future of divine salvation and judgment took its design from the flood and the Red Sea.

Thesis (M.A.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1990. / Abstract. Cassette tape of performance located in AV office: T-3687. Bibliography: leaves 13-14.

Thesis (M. Div.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, N.Y., 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-100).

Thesis (M. Div.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, N.Y., 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-100).

Thesis (M. Div.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, N.Y., 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-100).

M.A. (Biblical Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This dissertation argues that Psalm 108 introduces the eschatological notions of the king and of the kingdom into its canonical group (Pss 108–110) through its inclusion of a non-historically specific superscription, its quotation and paraphrase of earlier psalmic material (Pss 57 and 60), and its canonical placement in Book V of the Psalter. Chapter 1 presents this study’s thesis along with three undergirding assumptions: (1) the Psalter is a book; (2) individual psalms should be read in sequence; and (3) the Psalter progressively tells a story along redemptive-historical lines. Chapter 2 provides histories of interpretation of Psalm 108 and of research into inner-biblical exegesis and canonical approaches to the Psalter. This chapter shows differences among interpreters’ views of Psalm 108. It also shows how this work’s approach engages inner-biblical exegesis and Psalter exegesis (a canonical approach) to clarify the meaning of Psalm 108. Chapter 3 interprets Psalm 108 in its canonical context. It reveals how Psalm 108 participates in the narrative flow of the Psalter. The chapter concludes that Psalm 108 continues the story of eschatological redemption that began in Psalm 107, which records the eschatological return of Israel to the land. In continuation of this story, Psalm 108 bespeaks the eschatological conquest of the land. In response to the king’s prayer, God will go out with Israel’s armies and conquer the land, and through the king’s prayer, the kingdom comes. Chapter 4 compares Psalm 108 with Psalms 57 and 60 to clarify the message that Psalm 108 conveys by its quotation and paraphrase of these two earlier psalms. Chapter 5 highlights certain themes that Psalm 108 shares with Psalms 109 and 110, noting the development of these themes across the three psalms. Psalm 108 introduces the eschatological notions of the king and the kingdom to this Davidic triptych (Pss 108–110). Before discussing these psalms, this chapter also explores the theoretical tools of willed types and pregnant meaning to explain how the Psalter’s editor(s) could have organized Davidic psalms into a sequence while honoring David’s authorial intent. Finally, Chapter 6 concludes the dissertation.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The problem of the dissertation is to examine and describe the rib-pattern and the concept of judgment in the Book of Psalms because of the emphasis which recent interpreters have placed on the Psalter as the hymn book of the cultic community. The primary concern of the dissertation is to show that in the Psalms, the concept of judgment is uniquely related to the temple and to the priesthood, and to point out the various ways in which Yahweh's judgment as seen in the Psalter affected the lives of the people of Israel. [TRUNCATED] / 2031-01-01

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Thesis advisor: Mary Crane / “Motions of the Soul” explores and analyzes moments in the development of what I call an early modern poetics of religious desire, i.e. desire that has God as its referent. This poetics of religious desire builds upon but also departs from and transforms early modern Petrarchan and Ovidian poetics of secular erotic desire. I examine the poetics of religious desire in sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century metrical psalms, which are verse paraphrases of the lyric prayers that constitute the biblical book of Psalms. While much critical attention has been paid to seventeenth-century religious lyric poetry and its engagement with and response to contemporary secular love lyric traditions, much less attention has been paid to literary metrical psalms, which were the predominant form of religious poetry in the sixteenth century and, some have argued, the parent to the religious lyric poetry that flowered in the seventeenth century. This dissertation analyzes metrical psalms by Sir Thomas Wyatt, Anne Locke, Sir Philip Sidney, and George Herbert, exploring and demonstrating how these poets bring together the poetics of secular love poetry with the biblical poetics of the Psalms and contemporary theological and philosophical discourses on desire in order to develop a poetics of religious desire that illustrates and addresses early modern English culture’s interests and concerns in relation to desiring God. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English.