DISSERTAZIONI
DI DOTTORATO
2003-2004
OBIORAH
Mary Jerome, I.H.M.“How
Lovely is Your Dwelling Place”: The Desire for God’s House
in Psalm 84Mod.: Prof. Robert ALTHANN
A
good number of texts in the Psalter contain the psalmists’
expressions of their desire for God’s house. These are often
articulated as an ardent wish to dwell in God’s house. In
some of these texts, the petitioners’ desire is explicitly
formulated (cf. Pss 23,6; 27,4; 42-43; 61,5; 63,2-3; 84,3,11; 122,1)
while in some others they resort to certain circumlocutions in conveying
the same idea (cf. Pss 26,8; 52,10; 65,5; 84,4-5; 92,13-15). Moreover,
the psalmists’ desire to be in God’s house is presented
as a desire for a lifelong dwelling in the temple. These varied
phrases are found solely in the Psalter because of the distinctive
traits of this part of the Bible that expresses humans’ relational
attitude to God more than any other book of Scripture. Psalm 84
appears to represent all the other Psalms in the Psalter that mention
the psalmists’ explicit or implicit longing to dwell in God’s
house, hence it is chosen for thorough study in our investigation
of the significance of this theme in the Psalms.
This work is undertaken in five interrelated
phases that correspond to its five constituent chapters. The method
is based principally on the synchronic approach and carefully chosen
according to the exigencies of the Hebrew text of Ps 84 and the
theme of our investigation. In the Preliminary Chapter, the background
of our study is briefly stated. We part from a presupposition that
the matrix of the desire for God’s house is the petitioner’s
unwavering belief in God’s presence in the temple. The preponderance
of the varied terms employed for the temple in Ps 84 is the main
incentive behind this concept. Chapter Two prepares for the detailed
analysis of the varied strophes of our text. In this chapter, the
corroborations for our translation of the Hebrew text of Ps 84 are
given and the poetic techniques employed in the text are used for
its strophic segmentation. Chapters Three and Four that correspond
to the two major divisions of Ps 84 contain the detailed analysis
of each component strophe of our text. In Chapter Five, we have
a recapitulation of the salient points from our study of Ps 84 and
the application of these to other related Psalms that exhibit similar
features of the psalmists’ ardent desire for the sacred precinct.
The psalmists’ earnest wish
to be in the temple transcends a desire to participate in the cultic
celebrations. The theme of the desire for God’s house in the
Psalter is an embodiment of the psalmists’ multifaceted perceptions
of the temple. It is also a medium of profession of faith and a
subtle hymn of praise to Yahweh. Besides being the first comprehensive
study of Ps 84, this thesis is a contribution to the quest for the
significance of the desire for God’s house in the Psalter
.