The Vitality of Worship: A Commentary on the Book of Psalms (review)

Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 329 Reviews lical passage, a happenstance that may point to ambiguity in the text (or the inherent subjectivity of the reading process). That is, faced with ambiguity in the text, most interpreters not of the post-modem variety tend to resolve the ambiguities into coherent patterns. One suspects that this practice is guided by practical considerations. Texts as aesthetic objects or subversive agents provocateurs may be seen as systematically ambiguous. But if, to use Wittgenstein's phrase, the text is to do some work-guide a community's life or reveal some aspect of God-it must be appropriately determinate. This review has concentrated on the theoretical underpinnings of Professor Ben Zvi's interpretive program, which I fmd questionable but which certainly deserve serious discussion. Many other aspects of the book merit unreserved praise. Ben Zvi's erudition and precision of description, as earlier mentioned, are of a very high order. Perhaps because I share much of the intellectual history which informs Ben Zvi's interpretation, I often found myself delighted by his depiction of a particular literary feature or his evaluation of the significance of a structural element. Ben Zvi offers us immensely stimulating, deeply modem interpretations of the book of Obadiah, and a dubitable hypothesis about the nature of the first readers of the book. Robert B. Robinson Lutheran Theological Seminary Philadelphia. PA 19119 rrobinson@ltsp.edu THE VITALITY OF WORSHIP: A COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. By Robert Davidson. pp. ix + 484. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998. Paper, $32.00. This commentary by Robert Davidson, professor emeritus of Old Testament at the University of Glasgow, is a theologically-sensitive reading of the Psalms that grows self-consciously out of concern for the use of the Psalter in the community of faith. The title, The Vitality of Worship is intended to disclose the dual emphasis of the work on "the place the Psalms had in the worship of ancient Israel, and in the place they can and ought to have in our understanding of worship today" (p. ix). A caveat may be needed here, however: the reader should not look to the commentary for an extended thesis on how the Psalms should impact contemporary worship. Rather, Davidson merely notes clearly and consistently how certain psalms provide the liturgy and lyrics of that worship. The author's Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 330 Reviews orientation is primarily Christian, but he is aware of the import of the Psalter for the synagogue (see pp. 1, 19, 307,404 for example) and his comments may be useful for that context as well. Davidson begins with a brief, seven-page introduction. He discusses first the history of interpreting the Psalms, focusing primarily on the results of form criticism. Then, in a section entitled, "The Poetry of Worship:' he argues that since the Psalms were loosed from their contexts in ancient Israelite worship (as seen in some psalm titles that situate psalms in an event in David's life) and continue to be re-read in various worship settings today, they cannot be understood fully by studying their original historical or social settings. Rather, the exegete must pay attention to the language of a psalm and the history of its use to appreciate its theological richness. Davidson then completes the introduction with some cursory comments on the structure of the book as a whole. This prolegomena section is lucid and perhaps adequate for some readers. However, others will identify two omissions: (1) first, since Davidson acknowledges limitations in the formcritical approach the reader would be well-served by information on how psalms scholarship has supplemented this method in the past twenty-five years with major studies of the stylistic features of Hebrew poetry (as in the work of James Kugel and Robert Alter) and the shape of the Psalms as a book; (2) second, Davidson could have assisted readers by describing the poetic devices encountered in the Psalter. When in the discussion of Psalm 1 Davidson notes, "Some of the characteristic features of Hebrew poetry are well illustrated in this psalm" (p. 10), it would help to have stated earlier what those features are. This is particularly the case...