{"id":80027,"date":"2020-09-16T23:08:25","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T20:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=80027"},"modified":"2020-09-16T23:08:25","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T20:08:25","slug":"your-blessing-upon-your-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/your-blessing-upon-your-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Blessing Upon Your People"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"80027","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"570","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Wait - just who\u2019s blessing whom?\r\n\r\n","content":"

This is the first chapter of the Book of Psalms to bear a \u201chistorical\u201d superscription: it links it to the circumstances of King David\u2019s fleeing from Jerusalem in fear of his rebellious son Absalom as narrated in 2 Samuel 13 ff. (The actual \u201cescape\u201d is detailed in Chapter 15.) While the traditional view sees its author as David himself (see Radak), it is also conceivable that it was attributed to David by a later psalmist, who saw himself in a like circumstance. (<\/span>Cf. our citation from Ibn Ezra in the Introduction<\/span><\/a>.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A close reading makes its assignment to the rebellion of Absalom tenuous, since at that time, David was neither \u201dset upon by myriads of nations\u201d (v.7), nor was his faith in God challenged by his adversaries (v.3).<\/span><\/p>\n

Ibn Ezra (3:1) added yet another dimension to our examination of the Book of Psalms by addressing the question of the sequence of its contents along with its division into five books.<\/span><\/p>\n

Se`adyah Gaon wanted to connect all the psalms together and wrote that after \u201cWhy do nations assemble\u201d (2:1) [David described] how they would suffer the fate of Absalom, but no exegete is capable of making such connections. This psalm is written in the first of the five books; therefore, it is not surprising that we find in the fifth book: \u201cA prayer when [David] was in the cave\u201d (142:1) even though that happened before the affair of Absalom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nehama Leibowitz posed a provocative question pertaining in her discussion of the commentaries on v. 9: \u201cSalvation is the Lord\u2019s; Your blessing upon Your people. Selah.\u201d Radak, who viewed the psalm in the light of its superscription, interpreted it as follows: Salvation belongs to the Lord, and without it man would not be saved; therefore He should bless the people lest they perish at war. Rashi\u2019s interpretation is that it is incumbent upon Him to save His people, who, in turn, are obliged to bless Him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nehama\u2019s challenge: \u201cWhich of these two commentaries is more true to the spirit of the psalm as a whole?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":65176,"id":65176,"title":"is9-gods hands","filename":"is9-gods-hands.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/gods-strong-hand-and-outstretched-arm\/is9-gods-hands\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is9-gods-hands","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":65175,"date":"2019-11-04 20:05:31","modified":"2023-07-09 06:20:33","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1280,"height":782,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-300x183.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":183,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-768x469.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":469,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-1024x626.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":626,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":782,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":782,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-1200x733.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":733,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-687x420.png","home_baner-width":687,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Your Blessing Upon Your People","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Wait - just who\u2019s blessing whom?","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":65176,"id":65176,"title":"is9-gods hands","filename":"is9-gods-hands.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/gods-strong-hand-and-outstretched-arm\/is9-gods-hands\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is9-gods-hands","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":65175,"date":"2019-11-04 20:05:31","modified":"2023-07-09 06:20:33","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1280,"height":782,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-300x183.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":183,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-768x469.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":469,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-1024x626.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":626,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":782,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":782,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-1200x733.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":733,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is9-gods-hands-687x420.png","home_baner-width":687,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80028,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80027\/revisions\/80028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}