Book III: Its Coherence, Structure and Story

In recent Psalms scholarship, there have been some attempts to explain the structure of the third book of the Psalter (Pss 73-89) and highlight its internal semantic coherence. Despite the insights and data generated by the studies devoted to this part of the book of Psalms, some problems still remain unresolved. The aim of the present paper is to offer a brief overview of the third book of the Psalter as a literary unity and interact with the problems that have arisen in recent scholarship in order to suggest a reasonable solution. To fulfill this task I will offer a two-step presentation: firstly, I will provide a short explanation of the structure of the book, paying attention to the literary markers and devices which guide the reader toward an integrated reading of the text; secondly, I will focus on the micro-group of Pss 77-79 which is located at the core of the psalms of Asaph (Pss 73-83) and represents one of the semantic axes of the third book. In this manner, I hope to highlight the coherence of the book as well as the «drama» of its internal development.