"At the Time when Yhwh Delivered Him out of the Palm of all His Enemies and out of the Hand of Saul" (Psalm 18, 1): From David in the Book of Samuel to David in the Book of Psalms and Back Again. Issue 2 (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Weber, Beat
• Is Part Of: Scandinavian journal of the Old Testament. Volume 32:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 291
• Page End: 304
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: intertextuality -- canon -- psalm superscriptions -- Book of Psalms -- 2 Samuel 22 -- Psalm 18; 221
• DOI: 10.1080/09018328.2018.1470851
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0901-8328

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article draws upon a reader-response and canonical-hermeneutical perspective in order to analyze the manner in which 2 Sam 22 and Ps 18 are embedded in their respective literary contexts. Psalm 18's superscription functions both to guide the interpretation of the following psalm as well as evoke its " Doppelgänger " in 2 Sam 22 (and "behind" it the Song of Moses in Deut 32, 1-43). It not only contains a prayer articulated in a situation of distress, as a song of thanksgiving it also retrospectively witnesses to divine acts of salvation that have an abiding validity. This analysis demonstrates that the intertextual reading of biblical texts as a significant moment of the "canon" is not a secondary imposition upon these texts from the outside.