God as Rock in the Psalter

The role and place of metaphor in biblical language keeps attracting scholarly interest. Of all the books of the Bible, the Psalms provide the richest cache of metaphors for God. The Psalter is a cornucopia of metaphor. The biblical authors bring us back to the concrete world of everyday things, and tell us that we can talk about God perfectly well without having to indulge in conceptual or abstract ways of thinking and speaking. The present study entitled God as Rock in the Psalter brings the study of metaphorical language back to the heart of Psalm scholarship. The author carries out his research by analyzing a few selected Psalms (Pss 18; 19; 28; 31; 42; 62; 71; 73; 78; 89; 92; 94; 95; 144). In fact, a full 70 percent of the occurrences of «Rock» in the Psalter are allusions to God. The occurrences of «God as Rock» at the beginning, middle and end of the psalms; and at the beginning and end of the books of Samuel; end of the book of Deuteronomy; beginning of the Psalter (Pss 18; 19); middle of the Psalter (Ps 78) and at the end of the Psalter (Ps 144), is a clear testimony that the address «God, my Rock» is a creative form of language and is a norm or standard when speaking of Yahweh.

Auteur

Salvador OFM Cap Fernandes is a Capuchin priest from Karwar, India. Having completed his bachelor studies from Karnatak University, Dharwad, India, he attended also the post-graduate programme in Sacred Scripture at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome. The author began his research in Sacred Scripture at the University of Münster, Germany, and obtained his PhD in Biblical Theology from the University of Bonn. Presently he is on the staff of Darshan Institute of Theology, Bangalore, India, and lectures also in various centers for theology and spirituality.

Contenu

Contents: The theme of the Rock - Metaphor of the Rock in the Hebrew Bible - Rock in the Israelite Psalmic Traditions - Rock Text analysis in the Psalter - The beginning of God as Rock (Ps 18) - My Rock and Redeemer (Ps 19) - My Rock, be not deaf to me (Ps 28) - Rock of Refuge (Ps 31; 71) - God my Rock (Ps 42) - He only is my Rock and my Salvation (Ps 62) - Rock of my heart and my portion (Ps 73) - They remembered that God was their Rock (Ps 78) - My Father, my God, and the Rock of my Salvation (Ps 89) - Rock, there is no unrighteousness in him (Ps 92) - Rock of my Refuge (Ps 94) - Make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation (Ps 95) - Blessed be the Lord my Rock (Ps 144) - Journeying with «God as Rock» metaphor in the Psalter.