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The Exodus Tradition and Israelite Psalmody

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

Susan Gillingham
Susan Gillingham
Affiliation:
Worcester College, Oxford
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Extract

It is impossible to read the first fifteen chapters of Exodus alongside the royal psalms and Zion hymns in the Psalter without noticing that very different perceptions of Israel's beginnings co-existed in the pre-exilic period. The Moses-Egypt tradition is about a wandering people, deprived of land and status, living under the promise of the protection offered by a nomadic clan-god; whilst the David-Zion tradition, fundamental to so many psalmists, concerns an established nation, a royal state cult which ratifies claims to land and status through its deity ‘housed’ in a Temple. And yet the Exodus tradition is used in a handful of psalms: the question thus arises — what purpose does it serve? Furthermore, why should the psalmists use such an anomalous tradition in this way?

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , February 1999 , pp. 19 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1999

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References

1 Earlier commentaries offer no discussion of the Exodus tradition: C.A., and Briggs, E.G., The Book of Psalms 1–50 (ICC; Edinburgh: 1906)Google Scholar and Oesterley, W.O.E., The Psalms (London: 1939) have no entry at allGoogle Scholar. Later commentaries offer a brief discussion: cf. Weiser, A., Die Psalmen (DATD 14/15; Göttingen: 1959)Google Scholar ET The Psalms (OTL; London: 1962), pp. 23–5; Kraus, H.-J., Psalmen 1–79 (BKATXV/I; Neukirchen: 1961)Google Scholar ET Psalms 1–79 (Minneapolis: 1988), pp. 74–75Google Scholar; Anderson, A.A., The Book of Psalms 1–72, (NCB; Grand Rapids/London: 1972), pp. 51–53.Google Scholar

2 Among the exceptions, see Gunn, G.S., God in the Psalms (Edinburgh: 1956), pp. 62–70Google Scholar. See also Mowinckel, S., Ojfersang og Sangoffer I (Copenhagen: 1951)Google Scholar, ET The Psalms in Israel's Worship I (Oxford: 1962), pp. 167–169Google Scholar; Sabourin, L., The Psalms. Their Origin and Meaning (New York: 1974), pp. 138–139Google Scholar; Kraus, H.-J., Theologie der Psalmen (BKATXV/III; Neukirchen: 1979Google Scholar), ET Theology of the Psalms (Minneapolis: 1986), p.51Google Scholar: ‘Whenever the Psalms speak of Israel's beginning… we find the theme of the Exodus…’; Seybold, K., Die Psalmen, Eine Einfhhrung (Stuttgart: 1986)Google Scholar ET Introducing the Psalms (Edinburgh:1990), pp. 134–136Google Scholar; and Day, J., Psalms (Old Testament Guides; Sheffield: 1990), pp. 58–60 and p. 125.Google Scholar

3 Cf. Harvey, J., ‘La typologie de l'Exode dans les Psaumes’, Sc Ecc 15 (1963), pp. 383–405Google Scholar; Jasper, F.N., ‘Early Israelite Traditions and the Psalter’, VT XVII (1967), pp. 50–59Google Scholar; Carroll, R.P., ‘Psalm LXXVIII: Vestiges of a Tribal Polemic’, VT XXI (1971), pp. 133–150Google Scholar; Goulder, M., ‘The Fourth Book of the Psalter’ JTS26 (1975), pp. 269–289CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Day, J., ‘Pre-Deuteronomic Allusions to the Covenant in Hosea and Psalm LXXVIII’ VT XXXVI (1986), pp. 1–12.Google Scholar

4 Cf. Albertz, R., Religionsgeschichte Ismels in alttestamentlicher Zeit (DATD 8 // 1 Göttingen 1992)Google Scholar ET A History of Ismelite Religion in the Old Testament Peréod I (London, 1994), pp.40ff.

5 Although the English references in this case correspond with the Hebrew, where there is a difference, and where the Hebrew is under discussion, the Hebrew reference will be given after the Engish versification.

6 See Ps. 77:20 (Hebrew 21), where Moses (in this case, alongside Aaron) is central to the tradition:

7 Reading Exod. 13:18 as ‘Sea of Reeds’, as also in Exod. 2:3, 5 where clearly means ‘reeds’. This places the escape from Egypt somewhere in the region of the Bitter Lakes on the Nile Delta.

8 For example, in Exod. 15:17–18, the phrase‘thy sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established’ illustrates the integration of Exodus and Zion traditions. For a discussion of this issue, see pp. 20–21 following.

9 Evidence for the northern orientation of the Exodus tradition would include: the frequent association of the northern tribe, Joseph, with this tradition, as in Josh. 17:17ff. and Ju. 1:22, 35; the further associations of the clans Ephraim and Manasseh, sons of Joseph and of an Egyptian mother (Gen. 41:50–52; 46:20; 48:5ff.); the link of Gilgal with Exodus (and with this, the Passover), as in Josh. 3–4; the bull images at Bethel and Dan (1 Kgs. 12:28: see Exod. 32:lff.). See Schmidt, W.H., Alttestamentlicher Glaube in seiner Geschichte (NSB; Neukirchen: 1968)Google Scholar ET The Faith of the Old Testament (Oxford: 1983), pp. 28ff.; also R.P. Carroll, art.cit., pp. 139ff.

10 See Amos 2:10–11; 3:1–2; 9:7.

11 See Kapelrud, A.S., ‘God as Destroyer in the Preaching of Amos and in the Ancient Near East’ JBL 71 (1952), pp. 33–38Google Scholar; Hasel, G.F., Understanding the Book of Amos (Michigan: 1991), pp. 71ff.Google Scholar; Hoffman, Y., ‘A North Israelite Typological Myth and a Judean Historical Tradition: The Exodus in Hosea and Amos’ VT XXXIX (1989), pp. 169–182Google Scholar; and Gillingham, S.E., ‘‘Who Makes the Morning Darkness’: God and Creation in the Book of Amos’ SJT 45 (1992), pp. 168–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 See Hosea 2:15; 11:1; 12:9; 12:13; 13:4–5. On 2:15, 11:1 and 12:9 as authentic, see for example Davies, G.I., Hosea (NCBC; London: 1992), pp. 81, 254, 269. 12:13 and 13:4–5 are more controversialGoogle Scholar; but that the Exodus tradition was a significnt part of Hosea's message to the northern kingdom is nevertheless clear.

13 See Deut. 6:20–24; 26:5–11.

14 On the northern provenance of Deuteronomy, see Nicholson, E.W., Deuteronomy and Tradition (Oxford: 1967), pp. 58–82Google Scholar; also Clements, R.E., Deuteronomy (Old Testament Guides; Sheffield: 1989), pp. 69–83Google Scholar, who holds an open mind as to the place of the speeches as well as the legal material in this earliest northern corpus.

15 The question arises about how the Exodus tradition took root in the south at all. One possibility is the connection with the Ark, bringing together the older presettlement traditions from Shiloh and the traditions of Jerusalem. See Noth, M., ‘Jerusalem und die israelitische Tradition’, Oudtestamentische Studien Deel VIII (1950), pp. 28–46Google Scholar, ET ‘Jerusalem and the Israelite Tradition’ The Laws of the Pentateuch (Oxford: 1968), pp. 132–44; Heaton, E.W., The Hebrew Kingdoms (Oxford: 1968), pp. 53–55Google Scholar; and Carroll, art. cit., p. 141.

16 art.cit., pp, 181–2. See also Albertz, op. cit., pp. 138ff.

17 On the use of Exodus in Isaiah, see Zenger, E., ‘Le Dieu de l'exode dans le message des prophétes L'example du livre d'Isaie’ Concilium 209 (1987) pp. 33–46Google Scholar; O'Kane, M., ‘Isaiah: A Prophet in the Footsteps of Moses‘, JSOT 69 (1996), pp. 29–51Google Scholar. On these being later (post 722) additions to Isaiah, see Wildberger, H.. Jesaja, Kapitel 1–12 (Neukirchen: 1980)Google Scholar, ET Isaiah 1–12. A Commentary (Minneapolis: 1991), pp. 441–45 (Isaiah 10:24, 26) and pp. 489–90 (Isaiah 11:16); Kaiser, O., Der Pwphet Jesaja Kapitel 1–12 (Göttingen 1963,)Google Scholar ET Isaiah 1–12. A Commentary (OTL; London:1972), pp. 148–9 (Isaiah 10:24, 26) and pp. 165–66 (Isaiah 11:16); also Clements, R.E., Isaiah l–39 (NCBC; London: 1980), pp. 116–117 (Isaiah 10:24, 26), and p. 127 (Isaiah 11:16)Google Scholar. On these being later additions to Micah. cf. Mays, J.L., Micah, OTL London, 1976, pp. 27ff.Google Scholar; also Hillers, D.R., A Commentary on the Book of Micah (Hermeneia; Philadelphia, 1984), p. 79 (on Mic. 6:3–4) and pp. 89–90 (on Mic. 7:15, suggesting that this may have come from a northern contemporary of Micah and added later to the book).Google Scholar

18 See pp. 11–23 following.

19 Other references include 2 Kgs. 17:7, 36; 2 Kgs. 21:15; and 2 Kgs. 23:21–23, although none of these is a ‘speech passage’. The theological agenda in each is the failure of Israel and Judah before God: see von Rad, G., Theologie des Alten Testaments I (München, 1957)Google Scholar, ET Old Testament Theology I (London: 1962, 1975), pp. 306ff.; Nelson, R.D., The Double Redaction of the Deuteronomistic History (JSOT Sup 18; Sheffield:1981), pp. 119–123Google Scholar; also Albertz, op. cit., pp. 198ff.

20 Cf. Albertz, ibid,, pp. 224ff.; also von Rad, ibid., p. 338:‘It is only in the Deuteronomistic historical work that the two traditions of election — the Israel-covenant and the David covenant traditions — are finally fused.’ See also Carroll, art. cit., pp. 142–3.

21 See Nicholson, E. W., Preaching to the Exiles (Oxford: 1970), pp. 1–19 and 135–7Google Scholar; also Carroll, R.P.Jeremiah (Old Testament Guides; Sheffield: 1989), pp. 97–108, on the ‘theopolitics‘ of the book.Google Scholar

22 On second Isaiah and the Exodus tradition, see for example Anderson, B.W., ‘Exodus Typology in Second Isaiah’ Israel' Prophetic Heritage, eds. Anderson, B.W. and Harrelson, W. (London: 1962), pp. 178–195Google Scholar; Zimmerli, W., ‘Le Novel‘Exode‘ dans le message des deux grands prophètes de l'exil Hommage à Wilhelm Vischer (Montpellier: 1960), pp. 216–227Google Scholar; Blenkinsopp, J., ‘Absicht und Sinn der Exodustradition in Deuterojesaja’ Concilium 2 (1960), pp. 216–227Google Scholar; Fishbane, M., ‘The‘Exodus‘ Motif/ The Paradigm of Historical Renewal’ Text and Texture: Close Readings of Selected Biblical Texts (New York: 1979), pp. 121–151Google Scholar; also Barstad, H.M., A Way in the Wilderness: The ‘Second Exodus‘in the Message of Second Isaiah (Manchester: 1987), Ch. VIII (on the implications of the historical traditions for the community in Judah).Google Scholar

23 Two other exilic references deserve attention. In Ezek. 20:3–10, the Exodus is part of the catalogue of examples of the people's rebellion against God. But it is not used here alongside the David/Zion tradition, and so is less relevant. The other example (which is also post-exilic) is the priestly writer's account of the escape from Egypt in Exodus 1–15, but it too offers no insights regarding the use of the tradition alongside David/ Zion, and so is beyond the brief of this discussion.

24 Another reference from this period might be Is. 63:11 (‘the days of old, of Moses his servant’), which in its context again illustrates the same concerns as Haggai, but the reference to Exodus hardly fits the criteria referred to earlier.

25 One other post-exilic work which is relevant is the Chronicler, albeit more by way of omitting the Exodus tradition than by using it. When the Chronicler's material corresponds with that of the Deuteronomist, references to the Exodus are leftout:cf.2Sam.7:6/I Chron. 17:5; 1 Kgs. 6:1 / 2 Chron. 3:1–2; 1 Kgs. 8:21 / 2 Chron. 6:ll. The most significant omission is I Chron. 16:8–16, which uses Ps. 105 but cutsshort at the pointwhere the Exodus tradition is used, continuing instead with an enthronement hymn, Ps. 96. This may be because of the Chronicler's belief that the people's stay in the land is continuous and uninterrupted, and hence the Exodus does not fit into this schema. Cf. Japhet, S., Theldeology of the Book of Chronicles and its Place in Biblical Thought (Frankfurt 1989), pp. 379–386.Google Scholar

26 To this list Pss. 74 and 89 might have been added; both are laments, probably at the time of the exile. The criterion for their selection could have been their references to the crossing of the Reed Sea (cf. 74:12–15; 89:8–11) — a motif which is used for example in Is. 51:10. However, the mythological allusions, the dominant theme of the Kingship of God which confirms his power as Creator (cf. 74:12; 89:5–8), make it difficult to ascertain if this in fact more the tradition concerning God's fight with chaos; certainly the motif of a fight with a dragon of the deep occurs in both psalms (74:13–14; 89:10), found in the same combination of the Exodus tradition with a creation tradition in Is. 51:9. If these psalms use the Exodus tradition at all, alluding to this by a primary use of a creation tradition, they do so implicitly, and for this reason they have been omitted from the following discussion.

27 Cf. Carroll, art. cit., p. 148:‘The exodus had ceased to be a mere event when a few clans had escaped from the ghetto in Egypt and had become a paradigm of Yahweh's way with man in the world.’

28 See Weber, Max, ‘The Social Psychology of the World Religions’ in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (London: 1970,) pp. 294ff.Google Scholar, quoted in Carroll, art. cit., p. 147. See also Smith, M., Palestinian Parties and Politics that Shaped the Old Testament (New York: 1971)Google Scholar; Gottwald, N. (ed.), The Bible and Liberation: Political and Social Hermeneutics (Maryknoll, NY: 1983)Google Scholar; Carroll, R.P., ‘Textual Strategies and Ideology in the Second Temple Period’ Second Temple Studies: 1. Persian Period (ed. Davies, P.R.; JSOT Sup 117; Sheffield: 1991)Google Scholar; Jobling, D. and Pippin, T. (eds.) Ideological Criticism of Biblical Texts (Semeia 59; Atlanta: 1992)Google Scholar; Clines, D.J.A., Interested Parties. The Ideology of Writers and Readers of the Hebrew Bible (JSOT Sup 205; Sheffield: 1995), pp. 1–25.Google Scholar

29 Cf. Kidner, , Psalms 73–150 (Leicester: 1975), p. 280Google Scholar. Zoan (v.12) was once Avaris, the Hyksos capital on the Nile Delta (cf. Is. 19:11, 13; Ezek. 30:14). Kidner's title illustrates well the movement of the psalm — from out of Egypt (v. 12), through the Sea (vv. 13, 43) to its culmination in the choice of David and Zion (vv. 68–72).

30 See Day, , Psalms, pp. 58–59Google Scholar. Whilst Ps. 78, up to w. 67ff., may well be before 722 BCE, as Day suggests, Carroll's observation, that the editor is thus taking up an earlier northern psalm and readapting it for use in the Temple in Jenusalem, is also convincing.

31 Ps. 78 would also provide ideal material for the anti-Samaritan polemic in postexilic times. But the appeal to the legitimacy of the Davidic dynasty (vv. 70–72) implies its time of composition was during the later monarchy, after the fall of the north.

31 Cf. Carroll, art. cit., p. 134, note 7; also pp. 147–8.

32 Cf. ibid., pp. 148–9, comparing this with the charter myth in the Enuma Elié, whereby Marduk, the local deity of Babylon, is made the Most High God of the Babylonian pantheon; also Hesiod's Theogmy, whereby Zeus is given supremacy over the local tribal deities.

34 On Jacob as a northern reference, see for example Am. 3:13 ‘house of Jacob'; 6:8 ‘pride ofjacob’; and 7:2, 4 ‘How can Jacob stand?'.

35 Note the use of החנ (‘lead forth’) as in the Exodus accounts (e.g. Exod. 13:17); also the use of אצ (‘flock’) as in Pss. 80:1 and 78:52.

36 Cf. Carroll, art. cit. p. 134: the reference to the ‘right hand of the Most High‘ [El Elyon] in v. 10 could be due to the southern adaptation of the psalm, given that this tide was known in the Jerusalem cultus (cf. Pss. 46:4 and 47:2).

36 Cf. Day, op. cit., pp. 115–9. Many psalms with the ‘Asaph‘ superscription have a northern orientation, with their themes of judgement (both on Israel and on other nations), their prophetic oracles, and their references to Yahweh as Shepherd of Israel. All four psalms are Asaph psalms, and all four fit these criteria: cf. Pss. 77:15; 78:9, 67; 80:1;; 81:5. On Pss. 80 and 81 in this respect, cf. G. Davies on Hosea, op. cit. pp. 32–34, who suggests that Hosea as well as the psalmists may have drawn his Exodus theology from the traditions used in major northern sanctuaries.

38 The reference to Benjamin need not mean a southern orientation, for the tribe had northern associations as well: see 1 Kgs. 11:13, 32, 36, and the Saul-Benjamin-Gilgal connection in 1 Sam. 13.

39 The refrain ‘Restore us O God of Hosts…let thy face shine’ suggests the use of Holy War traditions and the role of the Ark: for example, with reference to Gilgal (Josh. 10:6ff.) Bethel (Ju.20:27), Shiloh (1 Sam. 3–4) and Kireath-Jearim (1 Sam. 5–6). On Yahweh as Holy Warrior, enthroned upon the cherubim, see de Vaux, R., Les Institutions de l'Ancien Testament (Paris: 1958 and 1960)Google Scholar, ET Ancient Israel, Its Life and Institutions (London: 1961, 1973), pp. 297–99.

40 Whether the reference to ‘our feast day‘ pertains to the New Year Festival (so, Mowinckel, op. cit., pp. 120–24) or to the Covenant Renewal Festival (so, Weiser, op. cit., p. 553) is uncertain; the blowing of trumpets heralds the new year (see Lev. 23:43) so the occasion is almost certainly an important public festival.

41 Cf. Cross, F. M., ‘The Song of the Sea and Canaanite Myth’ in Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, ed. Cross, F.M., Harvard, 1973, pp. 112–144, especially pp. 121ff.Google Scholar; also Childs, B.S., Exodus, OTL, London, 1974, 1977, pp. 240ff.Google Scholar

42 Cf. Cross, art. cit., p. 123, and also pp. 138–9; also Childs, op. at., pp. 244–5. On the ‘Judge River/Prince Sea‘ mythological associations, see Cross, ibid., pp. 113–5, referring to CTA 2.4.25ff.

43 The tradition of the escape from Egypt is essentially nomadic, and attached itself more easily to the transhumance rites of the slaying of the lamb at the Passover festival than to the agricultural festival of Unleavened Bread, which presumed a settled people harvesting their land. When the cultic connection between the Passover and the ‘escape‘ tradition occurred is unclear, except that it must have been by the time of J. After this, and some time before the formulation of the cultic laws in Deut. 16: Iff., which brings together the two festivals, Passover and Unleavened Bread became one eight-day festival, with the latter being the more public pilgrimage feast, and the former the more familial home festival.

44 Cf. Pedersen, J., Israel. Its Life and Culture, iii–iv (London - Copenhagen: 1940), pp. 728ff.Google Scholar, seeing the entire unit as a dramatised Passover liturgy; for a more moderate view, see von Rad, G., Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament (München: 1958)Google Scholar, ET The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (London:1966, 1984), pp. 33ff., 37ff. and S. Mowinckel, op. cit. I, pp. 168–9.

45 Cf. Cross, art. cit., pp. 142–3, quoting Clifford, R.J., The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament (HSM; Harvard: 1972).Google Scholar

46 Cf. Mowinckel, art. cit., p. 155; Noth, M., Das zweite Buch Mose (DATD 5; Göttingen, 1959)Google Scholar, ET Exodus (OTL, London: 1962), pp. 121ff. also Childs, op. cit., pp. 246, 252.

47 Cf. Cross, art. cit., p. 123, Note 37, who notes the possiblity that this is a (spring) New Year Festival: ‘The associations of the Gilgal rites with the spring, with the covenant, with the sea crossing and the ‘ritual conquest’ seem very clear indeed.’ The prominence of Gilgal as a northern sanctuary in Josh. 4:19–20; 5:9–10; 1 Sam 7:16; 10;8; 11:14, 15; 13:4–15; 15:12–33 and 2 Sam. 19:15, 40 offer further interesting pointers in this direction. See also Goulder, M., The Psalm of the Sons of Korah (JSOT Sup 20; Sheffield: 1982), pp. 116–120Google Scholar, on the role of Gilgal as one of the several sanctuaries which preserved the ‘Exodus and Entry tradtions‘(p. 116).

48 See pp.12–13.

49 On the various reasons behind the preservation of this hymn outside the Psalter, see Watts, J.W., Psalm and Story. Inset Hymns in Hebrew Narrative, JSOT Sup 139, Sheffield, 1992, pp. 41ff.Google Scholar; also Gillingham, S.E., The Poems and Psalms ofthe Hebrew Bible, Oxford, 1994, pp. 143–145.Google Scholar

50 Cf. Kraus, , Psalms 60–150, p. 375.Google Scholar

51 Jewish tradition places this psalm on the eighth day of the Passover Festival: cf. Sopherim XVI, 11, 12. The term ‘Egyptian Hallel’ for this whole collection takes its reference point from Ps. 114:1:‘When Israel went forth from Egypt…’See Kraiis, ibid., p. 372.

52 If there was a spring New Year festival in the northern kingdom (starting in the month of Abib, with the Feast of Unleavened Bread: see the early cultic calendars in Exod. 23:15 and 34:18) this would also account for the other new year motifs of the kingship of God and the creation imagery. On the possibility of such an early festival, see for example Cross, art. cit., p. 123, Note 37; also Clines, D.J.A., ‘The Evidence for an Autumnal New Year in pre-exilic Israel Reconsidered’ JBL 93 (1974), pp. 22–40.Google Scholar

53 On the factions within the restoration community, see Hayes, J.H. anad Miller, J.M. (eds.) Israelite and Judean History (London: 1977, 1990), pp. 489–538Google Scholar; Ackroyd, P.R., Israel under Babylon and Persia (Oxford: 1970, 1986), pp. 162–190Google Scholar; also Albertz, R. A., Religionsgeschichte Israels in alttestamentlicher Zeit (DATD8/2; Görtingen:1992)Google Scholar, ET A History of Israelite Religion in the Old Testament Period, Vol. II (London: 1994), pp. 437–507.

54 The relationship of lament and hymn in the Exodus ‘pairs‘ was also a feature of Pss. 77/78 and 80/81. The twin foci of the Exodus tradition, remembered as promise and as warning, were also used by the prophets, and similarly appear to have been in the mind of the editors of these psalms.

55 Cf. Holm-Nielsen, S., ‘The Exodus Tradition in Ps. 105’ ASTI 11 1 (1978), pp. 22–30.Google Scholar

56 More interesting is the lack of reference to Sinai throughout this psalm: the emphasis is rather on the pre-Exodus traditions. This in turn draws attention to the fact that Sinai is hardly ever used in the Psalter. Only two psalms are really relevant. Ps. 68 is a very early psalm, with some correspondences with Exod. 15, from a northern provenance (v.27 suggests the sanctuary at Tabor), perhaps adapted into Temple litugy after the transference of the Ark from Shiloh to Jerusalem (cf. w. 1–3 on the Ark traditions, and vv. 15–18 on the true ‘mountain of God’), Ps. 50 is a later psalm, suggesting the beleagured hopes of the restoration community, with oracles imitating earlier prophets, and a more spiritualised theology of sacrifice (vv. 7–11, 14, 23). Here the God of Sinai speaks as the God of Zion (v.2): the Sinai tradition as such (v.3, and the didactic part in vv. 16–21) is less explicit.

Together these two ‘Sinai psalms’, in which the Exodus tradition is notably absent, would suggest that these two traditions existed independently for a long period in Israel's liturgical history. On this issue, cf. von Rad, G., Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament (München: 1958)Google Scholar, ET The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (London: 1966, 1984), pp. 1–78; also Noth, M., Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament (München: 1957, 1960)Google Scholar, ET The Laws in the Pentateuch and Other Studies, (London: 1966, 1984), pp. 36–59.

57 The implicit use of the Exodus tradition in this psalm is further confirmed by its likely use at Passover. Writing on this psalm in Psalms 73–150, A.A. Anderson comments (p. 888): ‘This Psalm can be described as a liturgical Hymn intended for one of the great pilgrimage festivals, perhaps for the Feast of Passover rather than that of Tabernacles, because there is no explicit mention of the event at Sinai.’

58 That this is a post-exilic term for God is evidenced by its use in Ezra 5:11, 12; 6:9, 10; 7:12, 23; Daniel 2:18, 19, passim.