Wednesday Bible Study: Religio-nationalism

The next three psalms are songs of praise to God, but they also equate his greatness with the strength of the Jewish nation. It ' s important to keep in mind that in the ancient world, Gods pertained to particular nations or ethnic groups. The Hebrew Bible was largely compiled during the Babylonian exile, mostly from earlier material, but as Ezrah/Nehemiah and other works show, some of it was added after the return and construction of the Second Temple. I ' m not sure whether these were written before or after the exile, and therefore which incarnation of Zion they refer to. Psalm 46 seems to refer to an earthquake, but we don ' t know when that might have happened.Mount Zion at the time referred to the Temple Mount, which is not really a mountain, obviously, or to the city as a whole, as it evidently does in Psalm 48. Today, it refers to a hill north of the city. In any event there seems to have been a gradual evolution from thinking of Yahweh as one God among many, the one who championed the Israelites and contended with the protector Gods of other peoples; to a universal God who happened to have a particular interest in the people now known as the Jews, as is clear in Psalm 47.Again, we don ' t know who the Sons of Korah are, but my guess is they ' re a clan of musicians and songwriters (kind of like the Carter Family) who these songs are written for. Alamoth is thought to mean the soprano register, in other words this is to be sung by a woman or women, in which case ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs