‘I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre’ (Psalm 49: 4 [5])

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between wisdom psalms and the cult, asking whether Mowinckel’s characterization of the wisdom psalms as late and non-cultic is justified. It explores the possibility of wisdom influence on the psalter in early and later times, looking at questions of context and theology. Rather than seeing wisdom influence as mainly a scribal activity that was a post-exilic editing of the final form of the psalter, it is argued that the influence of wisdom went back to the days of the early Israelite cult. Its influence was strong also in post-exilic times, which confirms a connection between wisdom and cult at this stage (Perdue), however wisdom forms that shaped the literary development of some psalms and wisdom ideas that included an emphasis on creation and order are seen to be an essential part of the earliest self-identification of Israel through her worship.