Description

In the majority of canonical lists, the Psalms and the book of Job sit next to one another, perhaps due to their size. They share a theme, lament, or complaint, though in the case of Job the intensity of Job's distress and the singularity of its causation--something we know but he does not--sets that book apart. Job's laments are relentless and are made more severe in the face of the assault of those who would purport to comfort him.

The Psalms and Job also both bear witness to the theme of the majesty of God in creation. Psalms of creation appear across the five books of the Psalter and have been carefully distributed. The present study will examine the character of this psalm form and how the Psalter takes us on a journey in which God's majestic control of creation forms a major compass heading.

The notion of a collection of "Wisdom Literature" created a different context for reading Job, one in which it occupied a medial position between Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and participated in a movement from traditional empirical wisdom to extreme skepticism about its utility and indeed about God himself. On this view, creation is out of sorts, and testifies to pointlessness and impenetrability. This book will plot a different course, seeking to hear afresh the response of God to Job by means of his created order. By situating the divine speeches in the context of what is said about God in creation in the Psalms, a new range of distinctive notes arises, making sense of Job's own impassioned confession that his eye has seen God, with this in turn leading to his magnificent restoration.