God as Rock in the Psalter

This book brings the study of metaphorical language back to the heart of Psalm scholarship: The author carries out his research by analyzing a few selected Psalms (Pss 18; 19; 28; 31; 42; 62; 71; 73; 78; 89; 92; 94; 95; 144). It results that the address «God, my Rock» is a creative form of language and is a norm or standard when speaking of Yahweh.

The role and place of metaphor in biblical language keeps attracting scholarly interest. Of all the books of the Bible, the Psalms provide the richest cache of metaphors for God. The Psalter is a cornucopia of metaphor. The biblical authors bring us back to the concrete world of everyday things, and tell us that we can talk about God perfectly well without having to indulge in conceptual or abstract ways of thinking and speaking. The present study entitled God as Rock in the Psalter brings the study of metaphorical language back to the heart of Psalm scholarship. The author carries out his research by analyzing a few selected Psalms (Pss 18; 19; 28; 31; 42; 62; 71; 73; 78; 89; 92; 94; 95; 144). In fact, a full 70 percent of the occurrences of «Rock» in the Psalter are allusions to God. The occurrences of «God as Rock» at the beginning, middle and end of the psalms; and at the beginning and end of the books of Samuel; end of the book of Deuteronomy; beginning of the Psalter (Pss 18; 19); middle of the Psalter (Ps 78) and at the end of the Psalter (Ps 144), is a clear testimony that the address «God, my Rock» is a creative form of language and is a norm or standard when speaking of Yahweh.