Life triumphs
Life will triumph over death. Goodwill overcomes evil. The defiled will be cleansed, the broken mended, the wicked judged, the faithful rewarded, and God’s creation purposes will be accomplished. All these realities play into biblical hope. From this perspective, the psalmists write. The psalmists have come to understand that Israel will be exiled from the land, but they also believe that Yahweh will keep His promises to show mercy in the form of a new exodus and return from exile (see Deut 4:25–31, and esp. the quotation of Deut 32:36 in Ps 135:14). They know that though the Davidic king may be dethroned (Ps 89), ultimately God will keep his 2 Sam 7 promises to David (Ps 110). Gary Millar concludes, “To pray in the psalter, then, is to call on the name of Yahweh, as the psalms fill out the conviction that has shaped the other material in the Old Testament.” The Fear of God The most important thing that can happen to anyone who studies the Psalms is precisely what their authors intende