In his dense and erudite book, On Biblical Poetry, F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp insists on the lyric as the primary genre for the Bible’s poetry. As defined above, a lyric is not a story, but a thought or reaction presented directly by a single speaker whom the audience, as it were, overhears.

In chapter three, Dobbs-Allsopp defines the lyric as “a sung word,” shaped by the freedom and spontaneity of music. The singer has crafted the words into an “obviously linguistic creation.” Like drama, it is the direct  “utterance of a voice,” but without the story. Not bound by the linear sequence of narrative, it moves easily from topic to topic. It juxtaposes very different ideas, images, and emotions as it seeks an expression of complexity and depth. “Small in scale,” a lyric explores Hebrew parataxis, that is, the tendency of the Hebrew language to connect ideas with the conjunction “and” while leaving the hearer free to imagine and supply the relations. In this way, lyric creates “feeling through language” and gives them value. Finally, the “extravagance” of overstatement fuels a lyric’s reach for transcendence and excitement (178-232).

Psalm 121 offers a basic example. It belongs to the “Songs of Ascent,” which seem to be a collection of psalms sung on the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This psalm begins with the psalmist asking a question which the psalmist then answers. The psalm is then an internal dialogue that we overhear.

¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
² My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
³ He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ He who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
⁵ The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade at your right hand.
⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
⁷ The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
⁸ The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore.

The word “keep,” which repeats six times, establishes the basic theme affirming the “LORD” (five times) as the psalmist’s keeper. In the context of the journey, God is the guide who does not let the psalmist’s foot slip. “The LORD” also watches through the night and “neither slumbers nor sleeps.” Likewise, God guards the pilgrim by day and night (merismus: half and half). The sun, of course, can cause heatstroke, and, as in English, being moonstruck means going mad. The polar pair of “going out” and “coming in” embraces the whole journey. The merismus of the last line emphasizes that this does not come to an end.

Psalm 133 also gives us something to overhear.

¹ How very good and pleasant it is
when kindred live together in unity!

² It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.

³ It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the LORD ordained his blessing,
life forevermore.

The psalm begins with an affirmation about the harmony of living together. The Hebrew and other translations focus  on “brothers living together.” Genesis, with its stories of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, highlights the problem of brothers living in unity, yet the problem is not limited to brothers alone. The NRSV takes the image as metonymy and translates the Hebrew as “kindred.”

The word “good” appears often in the Bible. Genesis 1 repeats it seven times to affirm the goodness of creation. “Pleasant” is an understatement that captures the calm of daily unity.

The psalmist then gives us two metaphors for this living together. In the first, it is like oil running down, and the poetry repeats this and gives us a sense of its sensuality. The oil runs down upon Aaron and conjures up the image of his consecration as a priest. The metaphor suggests that living together somehow consecrates us and separates us out for God.

The second metaphor uses a very different image: living in unity is like dew falling on Mount Hermon, the great mountain of Lebanon—actually a ridge of mountains. Because of its elevation and cooler temperatures, its dewfall would have been heavy and a source of fertility in an arid climate. However, the dew of Hermon falls on the “mountains” of Zion, the temple mount in Jerusalem—the place of God’s holiness where “the LORD ordained his blessing, life forevermore.”

The psalm asserts that “living in unity” is similar to “oil running down…on the beard of Aaron” and to the dew of Hermon on Mount Zion, the place of the LORD’s blessing. In just over sixty words, the psalm explores a fundamental issue of life, and despite the distance between us and its world, the poem can still engage us.

While other lyrics exist, much of biblical poetry does not fit the definition of lyric given above. Even Psalm 121, with its interior monologue, is moving toward drama. Many psalms address God directly, as if they were speeches in a play. Hymns typically call others to join the praise. Laments make petitions directly to God. In wisdom instructions, a teacher or parent speaks to a student or child. The prophets bring a message from God to the people. Many psalms and perhaps all the poetry of the prophets presume an implied narrative. Even so, Dobbs-Allsopp’s insistence on lyric highlights an important dimension of this poetry.

10.1. Exercise for Chapter 10

Vocabulary

• lyric: not a story, but the direct presentation of reaction or idea by a single voice. §10.0

Questions

1. Write a lyric without rhyme or meter. Choose a familiar object, and describe it carefully so that a person reading the lyric will take away a real sense of the thing itself and maybe your emotional connection to it.

2. Look at the following texts and ask to what extent it fits the definition of lyric as not a story, but a thought or reaction presented directly by a single speaker whom the audience, as it were, overhears.

Psalm 43
Psalm 77
Psalm 131
Ecclesiastes 2:1-8
Song of Songs 8:6-7

3. Make a close reading of a text listed above.