Once again I am on a writing postfacto spree... for the end of the year that was. Anyway: we had a service "today". This involved the presentation / abandonment of Eli to the Temple at Shiloh. The Psalm was MT/Jerome #84. The Gospel was Luke when Jesus was twelve - which may be deliberate: Pharisaic bar-mitzvah happens at thirteen.
(Psalm 88 might have been better as a composition by Samuel's grandson, but - read on.)
It all reminded me of the nonDavidic Psalter. One way to tell might be the reference to the Lord as God of Jacob, not of the Jews. The Joseph story is certainly Ya'qubi subsequently Judaised; even the Samaritans couldn't restore the original. The Samaritans perhaps should have made more effort to preserve the nonZion Psalms.
Psalm 84 is however Zionist, and being linked with sura 65 (Elohist) perhaps always was. Inasmuch it invites the north (as Psalm 87 invites everybody), it invites to shift face to Zion. As part of Book 3 of the Psalter in the order 84-89: the arrangement may even be postZionist, for the exile.
In our service, our Psalm 84 extracts did not sing of Zion. In Jesus' times the presence of God was immanent in His person.
BACKDATE 12/31
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