MYTHOPOETIC
LANGUAGE IN THE PSALMS
ELMER B. SMICK
In appreciating the mythopoetic language of the OT one need
not view the authors as so
culturally primitive that they appro-
priated mythical
categories because that was the only way they
knew how to
articulate their understanding of divine reality. To
show this one must
distinguish between myth and mythology.
The
contexts prove the authors were not committed to myth but
were keenly aware of
contemporaneous mythology from which
they drew colorful
figures to enrich their theological expression.
The
greatest extra biblical mythological corpus comes from Ras
Shamra and dates from
the mid-second millennium.1 The many
linguistic and cultural
continuities between Ugaritic and the Bible
make it reasonable
to assume the god-language of the Canaanites
and
the Canaanite religion of
ritic or that Hebrew
religion grew out of Canaanite but to ex-
amine exactly how the
religious terminology was related. W. F.
Albright
at the time of his death saw this relationship as purely
linguistic. It was on that
note that I closed an earlier article on
"The Mythological Elements in the
Book of Job."2
I will now attempt to deal
realistically with this question as it
relates to the Psalms.
In Job we saw something that does not
appear in the Psalms:
direct reference to the pagan myths as in
3:8,
". . . the cursers . . . who are ready to arouse Leviathan,"
and 7:12, "Am I Yam or Tanin that you set a guard over me?"
1 Similar alphabetic cuneiform texts have been found in
from the close of
the late Bronze Age. Although they are not mythological
they show how
widespread the culture of
to the conclusion that the
mythology of
Cross,
"The Canaanite Cuneiform Tablet from Taanach,"
BASOR 190
(April
1968) 41-46. Also see "A Phoenician Inscription in Ugaritic
Script
Discovered
at Sarepta," JANESCU 8 (1976) 49-57.
2 WTJ 40 (1977-78) 213-228.
88
MYTHOPOETIC LANGUAGE 89
What
does appear in the Psalms are idiomatic metaphors (cf.
Job
5:7 where "Resheph's sons soar aloft"--a
reference to "ar-
rows" or
"sparks" or "lightning") and conscious demythologizing
as in Job 9 and 26 where the mythic
terms served to show how
the God of Job is both a unique and
a supreme cosmic being.
With
regard to Job chapters 40 and 41 we suggested that mythic
language was also used
as a convenient vehicle to describe
Yahweh's power over the forces of evil. We noted how Job's
firm
monotheism is clearly
expressed (cf. chapter 31) and the same
is true of the Psalms. The keynote
of this theme is Ps 96:5: "For
all the gods of the nations are
idols, but the LORD made the
heavens." The
psalmists also tend to be polemical about their
monotheism (cf. Ps 121)
but they never hesitate to use mytho-
logical terminology for
graphic vividness (cf. Ps 18:10, 68:4,
etc.). This mythopoetic
language is most evident in the three
great poetic
masterpieces of the Bible, Job, Psalms, and Isaiah.
The developmental hypothesis, a major
theme of Wellhausen-
ism, saw all mythic language as one
more proof of the evolution
of Yahwism.
Polytheism and henotheism were stages in the de-
velopment of
prophets and especially
Second Isaiah with his lofty monotheism.
In
its early stages
like its neighbors'--although
many recent redaction critics claim
that it is virtually
impossible to tell what pre-exilic Israelite
religion really was.3
G. E. Wright's The Old Testament Against Its Environment
questioned this evolution
of the Old Testament concept of God.
By
showing how Canaanite religion had high cosmic gods in the
mid-2nd millennium,
Wright made a good case for a unique
theology in early
he called the Israelite
"mutation" or a radical revolution as op-
posed to a gradual
evolution. It was not entirely explainable by
the empirical data. To quote Prof.
Wright:
Israelite knowledge of God was not
founded in the first in-
stance on the
numinous awareness of nature--it was based
3 H. H. Rowley (The Re-Discovery of the Old Testament [
Westminster
Press, 1946] 74) claimed polytheism was originally part of
Yahwism but that
gradually "the more ignoble ideas" were discredited
and other ideas "were
assimilated, and either divested of meaning, or
related to the higher
religion."
90
on historical
event. . . . The problem of life was seen by
not as an
integration with forces of nature, but as an adjust-
ment
to the will of the God who had chosen them.4
In our interpretation of the OT a
distinction must be made
between what was
considered normative (official) and actual
practices. Religious
syncretism was a continuing process which
the biblical account attests to.
Figurines of the fertility goddess
were often in the
hands of the Israelites. A recently discovered
7th
century inscription reads, "Yahweh and his Asherah."5 But
this only shows the
extent of the syncretism. Officially according
to the Old Testament, God is
sexless. There was no mythology
--no word for goddess. The writers of
Scripture consistently
call female deities
by their proper names. Even the above-men-
tioned 7th-century inscription
does the same. Israelite religion
then at its worst
had no nature myths but at its best it did not
hesitate to use the
language of the Canaanite myths. For example,
in Ps 74:12-14 the mythopoetic language about the many-headed
Leviathan
is historicized and used metaphorically to describe
Yahweh's great victory in history, at
the
here is
But you, 0 God, are my king from of
old;
you bring salvation upon the earth.
It was you who split open the sea by
your
power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the
waters.
It was you who crushed the heads of
Leviathan
and gave him
as food to the creatures of
the desert.
The same is true of Isa 27:1 where
again the mythic chaos
figure Leviathan is
historicized to represent the final evil power
in the Endtime.
It is important to stress that this terminology in
Mesopotamian
and Canaanite myth is always tied to natural
phenomena, never to
historical events. This probably explains
4
The Old Testament Against Its Environment
(SBT 2 ;
5 Kuntillet Ajrud: A Religions Centre from the Time of
the Judean
Monarchy on the
Border of Sinai by Zeev Meshel
(
MYTHOPOETIC
LANGUAGE 91
why the biblical creation account is
so emphatically anti-mythical
in its language--to stress it as
historical event. Von Rad has
noted how the proper
names for the sun and moon are avoided
because they were so
important in the myths.6 The same resis-
tance to mythic
terminology does not apply to known events in
history nor to the
climax of history--the Endtime. So Isaiah
26:26-27:1
says:
See, the Lord is coming out of his
dwelling
to punish the people of the earth for their
sins,
The earth will disclose the blood shed
upon her
She will conceal her slain no longer.
In that day,
The Lord will punish with his sword,
his fierce, great and powerful sword,
Leviathan the gliding serpent,
Leviathan the coiling serpent
;
He will slay the monster of the sea.
Gen 1 and Isa 27:1 present the OT view
of the beginning and
the end of linear history. They mark
a major ideological differ-
ence between the OT
and the nature cycles of Canaanite myth.
On
the other hand the serpent imagery is a continuity
between
the two which cannot be ignored. The
same imagery is found in
Rev
12:9 where
The great dragon was hurled down--that
ancient serpent
called the devil or
Satan, who leads the whole world astray.
He was hurled to the earth, and his
angels with him.
Certainly
this passage is telling of an historical event which will
take place in space
and time but few would feel it must be ful-
filled by means of a
literal dragon.
In my article "The Mythological
Elements in the Book of
Job"
I tried to show how a feel for the mythopoetic
language
actually enhances one's
understanding of the true nature of God
in the OT. Sheol,
for example, where Mot (Death) is supreme
6
Genesis: A Commentary (OT Library;
Press, 1961) 53. Attempts to
read Tiamat into Gen 1:2 were strained
and proven to be unwarranted by
Alexander Heidel in The Babylonian
Genesis (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1940). If there is any
allusion to mythology in
Gen 1 it derives from the Hebrew polemic against
pagan creation myths
(cf. von Rad).
92
and Baal is powerless, is open
before God so that its denizens
tremble (26:6). In Ugaritic Mot has a never satisfied appetite.
He
says to Baal:
I shall pound you, consume and eat you
Lo, you are to go down
into the throat of
the god Mot,
into the gullet of
the Hero, beloved of El.7
How appropriate it is then for Isaiah to
say of Yahweh "He
will swallow up
death in victory" (Isa 25:8; cf. 1 Cor 15:24).
Mot is also a hunter who uses snares,
nooses and nets. We
are not surprised to find Ps 18:4,5
(cf. Job 18:9-13) employing
the same figure for death. But we
may be surprised to find Job
using the figure for
God in 19:6.8 This is only because Job's God
holds the power of
death in his own hands and is not helpless in
the clutches of Death like Baal. If
Job had believed the myths, his
God
would have been limited and he would have had no basis for
his accusation in 9:24, "If it
is not he, then who is it?" That is:
Who
is responsible for the apparent injustice in the world? This
is a problem to Job only because
his God is sovereign. The
mythology allots to the
gods their separate domains. With Baal
dead Ashtar, the little Rebel god, is permitted by El to attempt
7 Mot as the
Swallower gulps down even the mighty hero Baal; cf. UT
178 (text 67. 2. 2-5). The
text may be translated:
With one lip on the earth and the other
in
the heavens
his tongue
(reaches) to the stars.
When Baal enters his stomach he will go
down
into his mouth like an olive ;
like the produce of
the land and the fruit
of the tree Baal the Victor will be swallowed.
8 N. J. Tromp in Primitive Conceptions of Death and the
Netherworld
in the OJld Testament (BibOr 21;
1969) 172f. has shown how all the deities used hunting nets and snares.
Tammuz
is "the Lord of the snares." The Psalmist uses the motif to
describe his enemies but
in every case it is symbolic of their attempts to
kill him, not merely
cause him to stumble. Psalm 124 presents an impres-
sive array of
figures based on the behavior of the gods. Although the
Psalmist
is talking about his human enemies, they cannot
literally "swallow
him alive" or "sweep him
away with raging waters" or "tear him with
their teeth."
The New Testament understandably transfers this type of
behavior to the Devil (2
Tim 2:26, 1 Pet 5:8).
MYTHOPOETIC
LANGUAGE 93
to sit on Baal's throne, but not
having the stature he does not
succeed and must be
content to be less than a cosmic deity.9
But
even El, the head of the pantheon, is sometimes portrayed
as a weak and frightened character
who cannot control the deities
he sires.10
Similar to this conscious
demythologizing is what we called
anti-myth, which appears
to be present in Ps 121 (cf. Jer 3:23).
The
Psalm is a polemic against both the cosmic mountain motif
as expressed in hill-shrines and
the deities themselves as patrons.
I lift up my eyes to the hills--
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.
(Ps 121:1, 2)
The stress on Yahweh as Creator is
necessary, for the deities
were identified with
the natural forces of heaven and earth.11 In
a world full of patron deities the
Psalmist shows that Yahweh is
the only and true patron deity.
He will not let your foot slip--
he who watches over you will not slumber
Indeed, he who watches over
will neither slumber nor sleep . . .
The LORD will keep you from all harm.
(Ps 121:3, 4, 7)
It
may seem strange to us that the Bible should even imply
9 See H. L. Ginsberg's
translation in ANET 140:
Straightway Ashtar
the Tyrant;
Goes up to the Fastness of Zaphon
(and) sits on Baal Puissant's
throne.
(But)
his feet reach not down to the footstool,
Nor his head reaches up to the top.
So Ashtar the
Tyrant declares:
"I'll not reign in Zaphon's
Fastness!"
Down goes Ashtar
the Tyrant,
Down from the throne of Baal Puissant,
And reigns in El's Earth, all of it.
10 Ibid.,
139. Upon hearing of Baal's demise El is helpless and goes into
mourning pouring dust on
his head and gashing himself with a stone.
11 We noted ("Mythological
Elements," 218) that El (Eloah) to Job
was the Lord of all nature and the cosmos.
In chapter 9 he speaks and
the sun doesn't rise-the eclipse. He
seals up the stars from sight; he
stretched out the heavens
all by himself.
94
that God might sleep
but in terms of the god-language of the OT
world where even
patron gods might fall asleep or die such a
concept was full of
assurance and comfort to the faithful.
Comparative religionists have attempted
to tie the patron deity
language of Ps 91 to the
magical incantations from 7th-century
Arslan Tash.12
But there is a significant difference between the
two. In Ps 91 God protects those who
love him and acknowledge
his name (verse 14) and he sends his
angels to guard them
(verse 11). The Arslan Tash material involves no response, no
relationship with the deity
except perhaps to wear the amulet.
It
is true that the pestilence is personified (in verse 6 it stalks).
In
Ps 91 spiritual forces may be behind the pestilence and plague
as was the Satan in Job.13
That Satan should quote Ps 91:11,12
at Jesus' temptation shows how he
considered the Psalm a special
threat.
Psalm 82 has been used as a prime
example of something less
than pure monotheism
in the OT. Such a view is theologically
damaging because of the
way Jesus used Psalm 82 in John 10 as
an example of the truthfulness of
Scripture. Jesus used it against
the Pharisees who had accused him of
blasphemy because it was
considered very difficult
in rabbinic circles. Jesus, by logic which
moved from the lesser
to the greater, proves he is not blasphem-
ing, even from
their limited point of view--that is, if those
whom God is rebuking
are called "gods" why should he not be
called "'the Son
of God," he who has devoted his life to serving
and obeying his Father who sent him
into the world.
Ps 82:1 is a classic example of the way
the OT can use the
word 'elohim as a
singular for God and then as a plural for "the
gods." The NIV
has wisely used quotation marks with the word
"gods" to show humans (judges) not deities are in view.
But as
you examine the Psalm this is not so
easy to determine. Curi-
ously the Psalm seems
to move in both directions.
The ‘adat 'el is an idiom used in Ugaritic
('dt ilm) for "the
divine assembly"14
("the great assembly," 82:1, NIV) . The idea
that heavenly beings
assemble before Yahweh is not foreign to
12 See BASOR 197 (Feb 1970) and 209 (Feb 1973).
13 In Ps 104:3, 4 Yahweh who
uses the clouds as his chariot has his
angels in control of
the winds and flames of fire.
14 For 'dt ilm see UT
453 (glossary no. 1816).
MYTHOPOETIC
LANGUAGE 95
the OT, as we know from Job 1, 2 and
Ps 89:5. Furthermore
Psalm
82 says in verse 7:
Therefore you shall die like men
you shall fall like one of the princes.
If
then they are going to die like mortals, they are not mortals.15
This language has led a number (most
recently Cyrus Gordon)
to see the Psalm as a polemic
against the pagan gods--even as
a prediction of the demise of
polytheism because it was corrupt
especially in terms of
social justice.16
The OT reveals no theological inhibition
about imputing per-
sonality to false gods.
Isa 41:21-24 labels the idols as no-gods
but finds no difficulty in referring
to them personally. The term
"the God of gods" (Dent 10:17, Ps 136:2) is just a
Hebrew
superlative. Ps 95:3 and
96:4, 5 describe Yahweh as a great king
above all gods. The
latter implies these gods were beings in some
sense. And Jesus in
John 10 implies that the "gods" of the
psalmist had some kind
of created reality. Ps 82:6 is crucial for
the interpretation of the Psalm.
According to the NT it is not
the psalmist who says: "I had
thought, You are gods . . ."17 but
God
who says: "I said, You are 'gods' . . . but you
shall die
like men."
From internal evidence a good case can
be made for viewing
the "gods" as human. Verses 1 and 8 form an inclusio.
The
'elohim of verse 1 rule
the nations of verse 8. Because all these
"gods" fail to exercise justice and show mercy, the very
founda-
tions of society
crumble so God must destroy them and take over
his rightful possession. God's
triumph is on earth not in heaven.
All
rulers in Ancient Near Eastern literature claim that they pro-
vide for the poor
and deliver the weak whether they do so or not.
The
use of 'elohim
for such rulers in the Old Testament is gen-
15 The verse contains a merism similar to what is found
in Phoenician
funerary texts where
"ordinary men and royalty" means all mortals. See
the 'Esmun’azar
Inscription KAI 1.3, line 4.
16 C. H. Gordon, "History
of Religion in Psalm 82," in Biblical
and
Near Eastern
Studies
(ed. G. A. Tuttle;
129-131.
Gordon looks on verse 6 as a continuation of God's words. Here
God
is demoting the deities to mere mortals, marking the demise of
polytheism. This view
ignores John 10.
17 See fit. Dahood
(Psalms II [AB 17;
268) for this translation.
96
erally acknowledged.
The three cases in Exod 21:6 and 22:8,28
could be rendered
"God." The NIV renders 21:6 and 22:8 as
"judges" and only 22:28 as "God." Ps 58:2
(Heb) is a problem.
The
NIV renders '-l-m as
"rulers" reading 'elim rejecting the
Massoretic pointing 'elem
"congregation" (KJV).18 In Ps 58:12
NIV
follows KJV rendering yes 'elohim sopetim "there is
a God
who judges."19 But
it could be rendered "there are ‘gods’ who
provide justice in the
earth." Although the evidence is slim, there
seems to be enough to
conclude that 'elohim
is a word used of
that hierarchy of
intelligent beings, human and super-human,
over whom Yahweh is
Creator and Lord.
Psalm 82 then is a theodicy vindicating
the righteousness of
God
and these "gods" are "heavenly beings" who like Satan in
Job
are commissioned by God to rule the earth. They are
also
like the mal'akim (angels)
whom God orders to protect the
righteous in Ps 91:11.
But Psalm 91 does not deal with social
justice as does Psalm
82. So the 'elohim
in Psalm 82 are those
commissioned to watch over
the nations, not over an individual
as in Psalm 91. But instead of performing
this duty they turn
into "the
powers of darkness" (82:5, "They walk about in dark-
ness").
The king of
Ezekiel
28 ought to be approached from this perspective. The
king of
You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit unthroned
on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.
I will ascend above the tops of the
clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.'
But you are brought down to the grave,
to the depths of the pit.
18 The KJV "0
congregation" for 'elem cannot be supported by usage.
19 Normally the grammar
accompanying 'elohim
should be singular
when it means
"God," as in 82:1. But there are a few cases in the OT
where this is not so.
The so-called plural of majesty sometimes takes the
plural adjective (cf.
2 Sam 17:26 and Josh 24:19). The Joshua verse is
interesting because the
singular pronoun is used despite the plural adjec-
tive.
MYTI-IOPOETIC
LANGUAGE 97
And
of the king of Tyre Ezekiel says:
You were the model of perfection
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in
You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God
You were filled with violence,
and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the
mount of God,
and I expelled you, 0 guardian cherub.
Was
the king of
Psalm 82. Such
"gods" rule on earth by proxy through kings
whose wills they
dominate. This view does not contradict John
10
as long as a distinction is made between the Creator and the
created. Whether spirit
beings or men, they are created and, as
Jesus
said, "the word of God came to them." Such
evil spirit be-
ings were identified
in Hebrew thinking with pagan gods. The
sedim. of Ps 106:37 and Deut 32:17 are demons to whom erring
controlled by them that
they emulate the activity of their deities.
In
Ugaritic mythology Anat who
wishes to confiscate the bow
of Aqhat
hires an assassin to kill Aqhat who won't sell it.21
So
Jezebel
orders the hiring of men to bring about the assassination
of Naboth
who won't sell his field (I Kgs 21 ). This is typical
of the social injustice rebuked. in Ps 82.22
20 In I Cor
10:20 Paul looked on the heathen gods as demons.
21 UT 248 (2 Aqht
6.15ff.).
J.
A. Emerton ("Some New Testament Notes," JTS 11 [1960] 329-
336)
interpreted John 10:34ff along these lines. Although I have attempted
to posit both superhuman and human
aspects to these 'elohim,
Emerton
says: "Jesus,
however, does not find an Old Testament text to prove di-
rectly that men can be
called god. He goes back to fundamental principles
and argues, more generally, that the
word ‘god’ can, in certain circum-
stances, be applied to
beings other than God himself, to whom he has
committed authority. The
angels can be called gods because of the divine
word of commission
to rule the nations. This word may be 'Ye are gods'
in verse 6 of the psalm. In any
case, the existence of such a word of
commission seems to be
implied by the Jewish belief that the authority
of the angels was derived from
divine decree (Deut. iv.19, xxxii.8f
Ecclus. xvii.17 ; Jubilees xv.31 ; I Enoch xx.5). Jesus, however,
whose
98
We
have seen that the mythopoetic language of the Old Testa-
ment conforms
remarkably well with the god-language from
pagan sources, but we
have also seen that this does not mean
the Old Testament writers were
committed to any low view of
Yahweh--whether
as storm-god, war-god or whatever. H. W.
Wolff
makes this plain in his chapter on "The Hermeneutics of
the Old Testament":
Following the signposts of the OT
itself, we must seek to
understand it on the basis
of the peculiar nature of Yahweh,
the God of
mythology in the sense
that one could speak of him in the
manner of the myths of
the neighboring lands, which chatter
so much of the
"private life" of their gods and of their life
together in the
pantheon. Yahweh is the one beside whom no
other is god, and
before whom all others are shown to be no
gods.23
Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary
commission is more exalted
than theirs, and who is the Word himself,
has a far better claim to the
title" (p. 332).
23 Essays on Old Testament Hermeneutics (ed. C. Westerman;
John
Knox Press,
:
Chestnut
Hill
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