On The Harmonious Holy-Mortal Relationship In Psalm23

Psalm23 presents a harmonious holy-mortal relationship. Being concise and wonderful, it is worth an in-depth study and a high appreciation. The holy-mortal relationship in this thesis refers to the relationship between God and humans: in psalm23, man trusts and follows God; and God provides man with restoration, guidance and protection. Many scholars conducted researches on this piece of poem. But most of their researches have limited views and tend to separate psalm23 from the society, the history and the culture discourse.The present thesis tries to fill up this gap by interpreting psalm23 in respectively the religious, literary, cultural and historical perspectives and thus reveal the holy-mortal relations involved in the poem.This thesis contains four chapters:Chapter one discusses the holy-mortal relationship in a literary perspective. In psalm23, David adopted double symbolic figures: first he symbolized the relationship between God and mankind as that of the good shepherd and his sheep. Just as a shepherd provides his sheep with food and restoration, God provides humans with spiritual nourishment, rest and restoration. Just as a shepherd leads his sheep, God guides his people. God leads his people in path of righteousness. Then David symbolized the relationship between God and mankind as that of the hospital host and his guests. To sit as a guest at the table of a host is to be assured of food, housing, fellowship and protection. God abundantly supplies satisfaction, significance and security to his believers, as indicated by the imagery of the hospitable host. Believers enjoys their residence in God's house forever.Chapter two discusses the holy-mortal relationship in a religious perspective: in a religious sense, the holy-mortal relationship refers to God's absolute authority as opposed to man's obedience to God. If man follows God, the holy-mortal relationship is positive. Otherwise it is negative. The young generation is experiencing a crisis in their relationship with God, according to Brian Mclaren. This is reflected from their attitudes toward psalm23. They doubt the holy-mortal relations...