Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 25:3 (Fall 2021)
Article: One Mediator Between God And People: “David” As The Speaker Of Psalms 105–106
Author: Adam D. Hensley

SBJT 25:3 (Fall 2021) p. 121

One Mediator Between God And People: “David” As The Speaker Of Psalms 105–106

Adam D. Hensley

Adam D. Hensley is Lecturer in Old Testament at Australian Lutheran College (University of Divinity) in Adelaide, South Australia. He earned his PhD in Biblical Studies from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Hensley has published a number of journal articles relating to the Psalms and biblical theology, and he is the author of Covenant Relationships and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018). He is currently engaged in writing a commentary on Psalms 101–150 for the Concordia Commentary Series.

On a number of levels Psalms 105–106 do not trouble interpreters as like many psalms. Their purpose and thrust is quite clear as they offer their complementary accounts of Israelite history. Psalm 105 attests God’s enduring promises in the Abrahamic covenant and Psalm 106 completes the picture by confessing his people’s faithless response and petitioning him to save and gather them (106:6, 47). Moreover, their content broadly follows the larger Pentateuchal narrative, albeit without strict adherence to its chronology at some points, and so raises few, if any, issues of historical referentiality.1 Nevertheless, these psalms also confront the reader with challenges regarding their canonical appropriation and intertextual relationships within the broader OT canon. Long noted as a deliberate pair of anonymous “historical psalms,” Psalms 105–106 stand conspicuously at the conclusion of Book

SBJT 25:3 (Fall 2021) p. 122

4 in the Psalter marked by its closing eulogy (106:48).2 At the same time formulaic and lexical ties bind them to Psalm 107, prompting claims that the Book 4/5 division is superficial.3 Meanwhile, the appearance of Psalms 105–106 in 1 Chronicles 16 raises further questions about their history vis- à-vis the MT Psalter.

This article examines how Psalms 105-106’s placement in the Psalter and biblical-historical contex...