The Coherence of Psalm 24

Abstract

Psalm 24 is often seen to be a ‘baffling’ psalm due to the juxtaposition of what seems to be thematically and structurally disparate material (creation, vv. 1–2; torah and sanctuary, vv. 3–6; divine warrior and sanctuary, vv. 7–10). Most unusual, however, is the juxtaposition of the final two stanzas, for they seem to cancel each other out. In vv. 3–6, human beings desire access to God within the sanctuary, whereas in vv. 7–10 God himself is about to access the same location. Various poetic clues indicate that these two entrance scenes have been intentionally brought into parallelism with each other, yet no satisfactory answer has been presented as to the meaning of this manoeuvre. In this article, a poetic analysis is proposed that goes beyond those proffered thus far by looking at the way in which the ‘poetic function’ creates a degree of ‘narrative’ self-referentiality within the psalm, in particular through its representation of time and space. The conclusion is that the psalm is a recalibration of liturgical material in terms of a grasp of the structure of the divine economy.