ABSTRACT
This book assumes a literary approach to the Psalms. In Chapter 1 I examined briefly a number of familiar forms of reading which address concerns other than those of a literary character. I want now to make explicit what was tacit there: that we are not engaged upon a theological, spiritual or pious quest for meaning. At the end of Chapter 1 I identified certain assumptions necessary to our project of reading the Psalms in general, and any psalm in particular, in such a way as to attend specifically to their character as text, literary composition, or poetry (albeit of a rather specific kind). In Chapter 2 I considered the first of those assumptions—the choice of a suitable translation; the next step is to define the set of readers. Clearly that is in general an impossible requirement, since anyone with the necessary language and the ability to read is free to pick up a text of the Psalms and ‘read’ it. I have, however, defined a joint enterprise in this particular instance, and so it is reasonable to hope that a ‘reader’ will have those qualities which will enable her or him to be willing to read in company with us, to be prepared to allow our chosen approach, and to agree to the bracketing out of certain alternative agendas.
