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This dissertation is a study of the theme of the unity of cosmic order and moral order in a set of psalms within the wisdom tradition. Whereas the prophetic and covenant traditions are preeminently concerned with obedience to the law, wisdom is concerned with creation. Central to the concept of creation is the idea of order, the belief that an order governed “the heavens and the earth” and governed society as well. The ancients looked to nature and observed the succession of days and nights, the seasons of the year, and rain and drought. They saw that the tides, the stars, moon, and sun all moved within prescribed patterns. The order which was evident in the physical world likewise was a governing principle in the world of the individual and society. Egypt expressed this world view in the principle of ma‘at, a sense of order in the cosmos and justice in society; Mesopotamia as mīšarum or “justice;” and ancient Israel as sedeq/sědāqâ or “righteousness.” The ancients believed that these principles, expressed in a fairly similar way across the cultures of the ancient Near East, originated from the foundations of the world and were meant to govern all of reality. Of all the traditions of the Bible it is the wisdom tradition in which the influence of the ancient Near East is most clearly discernable. Like the sages of its neighbors, Israel believed there was a principle of order which governed the world. The moral principle of retribution, an idea of justice which brought reward to the righteous and punishment to the wicked, was built into the very order of the cosmos. The methodology in this dissertation is the literary method. It assumes that the poets of ancient Israel did not think in a systematized way; nor did they formulate a theology directly. There are, nevertheless, intimations of theological ideas which can be found in the psalms' poetry: through figures of speech, the poem's structure, a controlling image that somehow embodies the poem's main thought, and other rhetorical features. It is through the intertwining of the form and poetic elements that the poet intertwines the ideas of cosmic order and moral order. These psalms show that nature or creation cannot be found without a reference to retribution (the moral order), and vice versa. Like the things of nature, the righteous and wicked follow a course or “way” of their own. This is the nature or derek, “way,” of the world and part of the order of the universe.
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