{"id":4481,"date":"2024-01-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/reading-plan\/january-22\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T21:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:46:08","slug":"january-22","status":"publish","type":"reading-plan","link":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/reading-plan\/january-22\/","title":{"rendered":"January 22"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cPsalm 29 shows some correspondence with Canaanite poetry. Robert Alter does not find explanations that Hebrew poets merely copied Canaanite poetry satisfactory: \u2018Canaanite poetry was the literary tradition that constituted the most immediate background for biblical poetry. It would be surprising if the biblical poets did not make use of images, phrasing, and even mythological elements from the antecedent tradition with which they and their audience were acquainted. The relation of this psalm, and a good many others, to the Syro-Palestinian tradition is roughly like that of <\/span>Paradise Lost<\/span><\/i> to the <\/span>Aeneid<\/span><\/i> and the <\/span>Iliad<\/span><\/i>. Virgil and Homer gave Milton a model, and a repertory of devices and <\/span>topoi<\/span><\/i>, with which he could frame a cosmic epic from his own monotheistic perspective, but he was not merely \u2018transposing\u2019 the pagan epic poets into English.\u2019 Robert Alter, <\/span>The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary <\/span><\/i>(New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007), 98. John Currid offers a more refined explanation. He sees the Hebrew poets engaging in polemical theology: \u2018The vocabulary, meter, and structure of Psalm 29 have strong parallels in Ugaritic literature. Specific expressions in the psalm have clear and distinct correspondences with Canaanite phraseology. For example, the first verse of Psalm 29 says, \u201cAscribe to Yahweh, O heavenly beings, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.\u201d In Hebrew the term \u201cheavenly beings\u201d is literally translated as \u201cthe sons of god\u201d (<\/span>bny \u2018elim<\/span><\/i>). In Canaanite mythology there is a group called the <\/span>bn ilm<\/span><\/i>, \u201cthe sons of El,\u201d and this epithet refers to the minor gods of the Canaanite pantheon of which El is the chief deity.\u2019 John D. Currid, <\/span>Against the Gods: The Polemical Theology of the Old Testament<\/span><\/i> (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 136. Currid summarizes, \u2018How are we to understand the many and significant parallels between Psalm 29 and Ugaritic literature? Again, many scholars merely see Psalm 29 as borrowed and sanitized Canaanite hymnody. In reality, it is more likely a polemic against Baal and Canaanite religion.\u2019 Currid, <\/span>Against the Gods<\/span><\/i>, 137. While David likely did employ polemical theology in this psalm, the poem should be seen as far more than \u2018a polemic against Baal and Canaanite religion.\u2019 As with Ps 8, this psalm appears to speak of Yahweh\u2019s ultimate victory. The psalm demonstrates the prayers of the king for himself (e.g., Ps 28:1\u20133) and for all of God\u2019s people (e.g., Ps 28:8\u20139) recorded in the previous psalm have been answered. It is, like the other capstone psalms, a celebration of the eschatological rest granted to God\u2019s people based upon the deliverance of the king (see Ps 28:6\u20138).\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_crdt_document":""},"class_list":["post-4481","reading-plan","type-reading-plan","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan\/4481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reading-plan"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}