The Psalm of the Shofar: Its Use in Liturgy and Its Meaning in the Bible

See Jonathan Sacks in The Koren Rosh HaShana Mahzor [A] (Jerusalem: Koren, 2011), p. 493; also S. Y. Agnon, Days of Awe (N.Y.: Schocken, 1965), pp. 78-79.

In Christian worship, the psalm is used on Ascension Day. The ascent language of verse 5 prompts an association of the psalm with Jesus’ ascent to heaven. Here is a straightforward Christian reading.

ובראש השנה אומרים מזמור, כל העמים תקעו כף

The gemara goes on to note the possible doubling of Psalm 81 when Rosh Hashana falls on a Thursday. See Rabbeinu Hananel (ad loc.)

This is a common rabbinic understanding of these divine names; see, e.g., the conclusion of Rashi’s commentary on Genesis 1:1, together with Rashi’s midrashic source, Genesis Rabba12:15.

See, e.g., Erhard S. Gerstenberger, Psalms Part 1 with an Introduction to Cultic Poetry (FOTL 14; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), p. 197.

See Claus Westermann, Handbook to the Old Testament (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1967), pp. 210-216.

It is not clear whether this responsibility might have entailed composition of the psalms as well as the prerogative to perform them.

See Gunther Wanke, Die Zionstheologie der Korachiten in Ihrem Traditionsgeschichtlichen Zusammenhang (BZAW 202; Berlin: De Gruyter, 1966). For the claim that the Korahite psalms comprise a “sequence of festal psalms,” see Michael D. Goulder, The Psalms of the Sons of Korah (JSOTSup 20; Sheffield: JSOT, 1982). On Psalm 47 read in combination with Psalms 48 and 87, see pp. 151-180. For an argument that Psalms 46-48 can be read as a literary unit (“un petit ensemble”), see Pierre Auffret, “L’ensemble des trois psaumes 46, 47 et 48: étude structurelle,” Science et Esprit 43 (1991) pp. 339-348.

An association of the Elohistic Psalter with the E source of the Torah, which similarly uses the divine name Elohim, is unlikely. Different groups at different times may have preferred the name Elohim over YHWH for various reasons. On the possibility that a “priestly ideal of protecting the Name [YHWH] found a limited expression during the Persian period in the redaction of E[lohistic] P[salter],” see Jonathan Ben-Dov, “The Elohistic Psalter and the Writing of Divine Names at Qumran,” in A. Roitman, L. Schiffman, and S. Tzoref (eds.), The Dead Sea Scrolls and Contemporary Culture: Proceedings of the Israel Museum Conference (STDJ 93; Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 79-104 (quotation on p. 104).

Joel S. Burnett, “Forty-Two Songs for Elohim: An Ancient Near Eastern Organizing Principle in the Shaping of the Elohistic Psalter,” JSOT 31 (2006), pp. 81-101 (quotation on p. 87).

See Gerstenberger, op. cit., p. 19.

See Marc Zvi Brettler, God Is King: Understanding an Israelite Metaphor (JSOTSup 89; Sheffield: JSOT, 1989). On Psalm 47, see pp. 154-155.

For a superb summary (albeit in need of updating), see E. Lipiński, La royauté de Yahwé dans la poése et le culte de l’ancien Israël (Brussels: Paleis der Acadamiën, 1965), pp. 7-90.

Lipiński , op. cit., p. 21; for his full survey, see pp. 20-30.

Sigmund Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel’s Worship (trans. D. R. Ap-Thomas; 2 vols.; New York/Nashville: Abingdon, 1962), I.107-192. Mowinckel turned the Jewish liturgical application of Psalm 47 to his advantage. “There can be no reason to doubt,” he wrote (p. 121), “that this liturgical usage corresponds with the original meaning of the psalm, particularly since the great procession which it implies is known to have been the usual oriental new year’s rite.” See also Lipiński , op. cit., pp. 44-89.

Lipiński, op. cit., p.32.

גם זה המזמור לימות המשיח אחר מלחמת גוג ומגוג בהשקיט כל הארץ

הוסד על עת העתיד המקוה שיכירו כל העמים מלכות ה’ וילכו לבקש פני ה' בציון

Sforno’s glossing of the tumult in verse 6 exemplifies two interpretive possibilities (military victory/final redemption):

“God ascends” when He judges the wicked minions of Gog and Magog. “Midst acclamation” refers to the acclamation of military victory. “The Lord” is exalted in the attribute of mercy, “to the blasts of the horn” that is sounded for the ingathering of the exiles, as it says, “a great ram’s horn shall be sounded; and the strayed … and the expelled … shall come and worship the Lord on the holy mount” (Isaiah 27:13).

Cf. Gerstenberger, op. cit., p. 197, saying that “vv. 2-3 and 7-8…constitute the nucleus” of the psalm. Other structural arrangements have been proposed as well. See Joachim Schaper, “Psalm 47 und sein ‘Sitz im Leben’,” ZAW 106 (1994), pp. 262-275, esp. 264.

For the suggestion that verse 6 should be transposed so that it follows verse 3 directly, see I. L. Seeligmann, Studies in Biblical Literature [Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1992), p. 232. This demand for absolute regularity of construction ignores the possibility (likelihood, in my view) that verses 4-5 were inserted in order to disrupt the sequence.

While forms of m-l-k obviously are the key-words of the psalm, forms of `-l-h (verses 3, 6, 10) are significant as well.

For Ugaritic parallels to the sequence, see Lipiński , op. cit.,pp. 394-397.

For a full discussion, see Keith Bodner, “The ‘Embarrassing Syntax’ of Ps. 47:10: A (Pro)Vocative Option,” JTS n.s. 54 (2003), pp. 570-575.

Seeligmann, op. cit., p. 231.

Verse 4a, moreover, is borrowed directly from Psalm 18:48, altering first-person singular to first-person plural.

I would alter NJPS slightly in verse 10a: “The nobles of the peoples are gathered together as the retinue of Abraham’s God.” See F.-L. Hossfeld and E. Zenger, Die Psalmen I: Psalm 1-50 (Die Neue Echter Bibel; Würzburg: Echter Verlag, 1993), pp. 290-293. Contrast the Septuagint, “Rulers of people gathered with the God of Abraham,” evidently reading עִם for MT עַם. Others presume a haplography and read עִם עַם. Thus, for example, the Good News Bible: “The rulers of the nations assemble with the people of the God of Abraham.”

Meir Weiss, Scriptures in Their Own Light: Collected Essays [Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1987), p. 194.