Reading Psalm 23 In African Context

David T Adamo

doi:10.4102/ve.v39i1.1783

Abstract

The book of Psalms is the best known, most discussed and most cited book of the Old Testament. Psalm 23 especially is the most loved book of the Psalms. That must have been the reason why it was named ‘an American icon’ and the ‘nightingale of the Psalms’. Two major ways of reading this Psalm are: as a shepherd to a sheep and as God to a human. The author of this article reads Psalms 23 Africentrically, that is, as God to a human. This means that Psalms 23 is read for the purpose of protection, provision, healing and success in all aspects of life, which are the main concerns of African people. It means reading Psalm 23 existentially with African life interest.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is concerned with biblical studies, African Traditional Religion and culture and African Biblical Hermeneutics. It seeks to challenge the traditional Eurocentric approaches for its methodological approaches that do not make biblical studies adequately relevant to African Christianity. The book of Psalms is used as a perfect example of how it can be interpreted relevantly in Africa. Further implication is that there will be reduction of the Bible and Christianity looking like a foreign book and religion.

Highlights

DeClaisse-Walford, Jacobson and Tanner (2014:238) ask the question: ‘Has any psalm occasioned the spilling of more ink than Psalm 23?’
There is a temptation for some scholars who are not familiar with the simple biblical faith of Africans to dismiss this Africentric interpretation as fetish and unscholarly, but a closer examination of the African context shows that care must be taken before dismissing the approach
The Africentric ways of classifying Psalm 23 into protective, therapeutic provision and success reflect African indigenous tradition and churches’ use of Psalms, which has spread over most of the churches in Africa, Nigeria. This use of Psalms for protection, healing, provision and success may possibly reflect the way it was used in ancient http://www.ve.org.za

Summary

Introduction

DeClaisse-Walford, Jacobson and Tanner (2014:238) ask the question: ‘Has any psalm occasioned the spilling of more ink than Psalm 23?’. That is the reason why it was labelled ‘an American icon’ by Holladay (1993:359). Someone labels it the ‘nightingale of the Psalms’ (Segal 2013:103). Despite its smallness, it has filled the whole world with ‘melodious joy’ (Segal 2013:103)

Objectives

Conclusion