Psalms Through the Centuries, Volume 3. Susan Gillingham
the artwork; David Mitchell (Brussels) has produced musical scores intuiting ancient psalmody; Alexander Massey (Oxford) has made invaluable contributions on Jewish psalmody; and Edward Clarke (Oxford) has offered several of his poems. Howard Goodall’s memorable performance and explanation of his own psalm compositions through the auspices of TORCH made me work on the relevant psalms in a new way, and Andy Mackay (Roxy music), also associated with TORCH, prompted me to study the reception history of other psalms in a different context, namely for his performance ‘3 Psalms’ at Southbank.
My membership of two societies has also been invaluable in this long-term project. The Society for Old Testament Study, for which I served as President from 2018 to 2019, has been an important resource in bringing together colleagues with distinctive sorts of expertise; they include James Aitken (Cambridge), Margaret Barker (Borrowash), Richard Briggs (Durham), David Clines (Sheffield), Katharine Dell (Cambridge), Graham Davies (Cambridge), David Firth (Bristol), Bill Goodman (Sheffield), Charlotte Hempel (Birmingham), Alastair Hunter (Glasgow), Philip Johnston (Cambridge), Paul Joyce (London), Shioban Dowling-Long (Cork), Heather McKay (Edge Hill), Jonathan Magonet (London), Sean Maher (Carlow), James Patrick (Oxford), Cat Quine (Nottingham), David Reimer (Edinburgh), David Shepherd (Dublin), Rebecca Watson (Market Harborough), Jenni Williams (Oxford), Hugh Williamson (Oxford) and Paul Winchester (Oxford). The Psalms Section of the Society for Biblical Literature has also been an ongoing resource: I am grateful for the support of Karl Jacobson (Minneapolis), Rolf Jacobson (Minnesota), Chris Jones (Jefferson City), Joel LeMon (Atlanta), and Brent Strawn (Durham, NC), and most especially Melody Knowles (Alexandria).
The legacies of †Erich Zenger, †Klaus Seybold, †Peter Flint, and †Frank-Lothar Hossfeld have been considerable, as my footnotes amply testify. Between the publication of Volume Two and Volume Three I have participated in various psalms projects globally, some in memoriam of these extraordinary colleagues, and hearing and giving papers and producing articles have offered me further insights in writing up the commentary. Colleagues who have been especially important include Johannes Bremer (Bochum), Alma Brodersen (Bern), Susan Docherty (Birmingham), Christian Frevel (Bochum), Erhard Gerstenberger (Marburg), Friedhelm Hartenstein (München), Bernd Janowski (Tübingen), Corinna Körting (Hamburg), Beate Kowalski (Dortmund), Dominik Markl (Rome), Nancy Rahn (Bern), Jonathan Schnocks (Münster), Till Steiner (Jerusalem), Åke Viberg (Stockholm), Beat Weber (Liestal), David Willgren (Örebro), and Alexandra Grund-Wittenberg (Marburg). My greatest debt, however, is to Hermann Spieckermann (Göttingen) for his insights, friendship, good humour, and continuous support. Collaborative work with American colleagues especially through the Society of Biblical Literature has also been important over these years, especially with Debra Band (Washington DC), Bill Bellinger (Baylor), Joseph Blenkinsopp (Notre Dame), William Brown (Columbia), Walter Brueggemann (Decatur), Dennis Tucker (Baylor), Clinton McCann (Saint Louis), Jamie McClung (Georgia), and Nancy deClaissé-Walford (Atlanta). I have been associated with Pro-Psalms, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria SA for nearly fifteen years, when I first became a research associate, and I acknowledge the continuing support of Dirk Human, Alphonso Groenewald, and Philip Botha. Finally, in giving named papers for Stefan Attard (Malta), and Giovanni Barbiero (Rome) I have gained invaluable insights from their advice and friendship.
Retirement meant a slight shift from academic community to church, not least because of my ordination to the Permanent Diaconate in 2018. Reception history is very much about performance as well as a written script, and the congregation at St. Barnabas’ Church have received, especially through Zoom during Lockdown, more papers on the Psalms than they probably would have chosen, but their support through conversations in the church and pub has been immeasurable. I am enormously grateful to Fr. Christopher Woods, who has trained me as a Deacon whilst understanding that I needed much time and space for academic work. In these latter stages he has been an exceptionally supportive colleague and friend. At the Diocesan level, +Steven, Bishop of Oxford, also the holder of a doctorate in the psalms, has been a seminal influence in challenging me to view the reception history of psalmody in a contemporary setting, especially during Lockdown. The community of Benedictines at Mucknell Abbey has been an important reminder of psalmody and the Opus Dei. I have also given several papers on the psalms before and during the Covid-19 pandemic at Exeter Cathedral, where I am Canon Theologian, and equally significant have been conversations with +Robert, Bishop of Exeter, Jonathan and Pamela Greener, Christopher Palmer, Morwenna Ludlow, and Clare Bryden.
Family members have grown old since the inception of this project. Volume One was dedicated to my long-suffering husband, Dick Smethurst, and I am as grateful now as then for his unfailing practical love and patient support. Volume Two was dedicated to my daughters, Abbie and Esther, who in their earlier years earned money to travel by working on the ever-expanding data base, and up to the present day their loving encouragement has kept me going. It seems appropriate to maintain family interests, and so in a work about reception through the centuries I am dedicating Volume Three to the next generation—to my three lovely grandchildren, Sophia and Noah Boutayeb, and Ayaan Gillingham-Ahmed.
1 1 John Sawyer sadly died in January 2022, so never saw the final publication of Volume Three, despite his ongoing investment in it. I owe him a good deal.
Abbreviations
1 All English citations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version and the enumeration of psalms and psalm verses follows that version unless otherwise stated. An Appendix is given on pp. 454–458 which indicates the different numbering of the psalms and psalm verses in the Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions respectively, and where these versions are cited directly in the text this enumeration is also given.
2 A Glossary of Terms is found on pp. 459–472. Each word or phrase explained in the Glossary is indicated with an asterisk (*) the first time it occurs in the commentary for each individual psalm.
3 All websites were checked during January 2022 and were fully accessible up to that time.
Abbreviations
| ABC | Anchor Bible Commentary |
| ACCS | Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture |
| ACTP | Ambrose: Commentary on Twelve Psalms |
| ACW | Ancient Christian Writers |
| AIL | Ancient Israel and its Literature |
| ALW | Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft |
| AnSac | Analecta sacra et classica spicilegio solesmensi. |
| AOAT | Alter Orient und Altes Testament |
| ATANT | Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments |
| BASOR | Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |
| BBB | Bonner biblische Beiträge |
| BETL | Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaninensium |
| BHT | Beiträge zur historischen Theologie |
| Bib | Biblica |
| BTT | Bible de tous les temps |
| BThSt | Biblisch-theologische Studien |
| BZ | Biblische Zeitschrift |
| BZAW | Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft |
| CBQ | Catholic Biblical Quarterly |
| CCL | Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols. 1953–) |
| CTJ | Calvin Theological Journal |
| CurTM | Currents in Theology and Mission |
| EETS | Early English Texts Society |
| EJL | Early Judaism and its Literature |
| Est Bib | Estudios bíblicos |
| EV | English Version |
| Exp | Expositor |
| ExpTim | Expository Times |
| FAT | Forschungen zum Alten Testament |
| FC | Fathers of the Church: A New Translation (Catholic University of America Press, Washington, DC: 45 volumes) |
| FRLANT | Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments |
| HBTh | Horizons in Biblical Theology |
| HeyJ | Heythrop Journal |
| HKAT | Handkommentar zum Alten Testament |
| HSS | Harvard Semitic Monographs |
| HTR | Harvard |