The Arrival of the King: The Shape and Story of Psalms 15-24
The suffering psalmist and chosen king
The Psalter evinces meaningful arrangement. When psalms are read with attentiveness to their textual context, striking connections emerge. In The Arrival of the King: The Shape and Story of Psalms 15–24, Carissa Quinn approaches these psalms as a compositional unity. When read as a unit, Psalms 15–24 tell the story of God’s kingdom, established through the suffering and deliverance of his Davidic king.
Quinn interprets Psalms 15–24 as a sequence and a chiasm, revealing provocative links in adjacent and parallel psalms. These psalms have a sense of progress, beginning with the question of who may ascend the holy hill and culminating in the divine king’s own ascent. They also display recursion, as themes in one psalm are developed in its chiastic parallel. At the peak of the chiasm is Psalm 19, where the king praises God’s creation and Torah and prays for righteousness.
The Arrival of the King establishes and explores the rewards of approaching the Psalms as a carefully arranged literary work.
Praise for The Arrival of the King
Carissa Quinn has ventured into exciting new territory in studying the compositional design of the Psalms. She has sharpened a number of methodological tools and then put them to fruitful use in analyzing Psalms 15–24. This book is packed with insight and represents an important step forward in Psalms studies.
—Tim Mackie, co-founder of BibleProject
Scholars have long noted the chiastic grouping of Psalms 15–24, but Carissa Quinn here provides a deeper dive into the structure and message of this grouping, placing it on a more empirical footing. Her attention not only to the structures of the grouping but also to its narrative story-line advances our understanding of the Psalter’s overall message: the duality of Yahweh’s eternal kingship and that of his faithful human king/messiah. Highly recommended.
—David M. Howard Jr., professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, Bethel Seminary
Dr. Quinn's book comes as a breath of fresh air filled with invaluable insights about the need to interpret these beloved psalms within their carefully and strategically designed literary context. For anyone who wants to better understand the book of Psalms, Dr. Quinn’s book is a must.
—Seth D. Postell, academic dean, Israel College of the Bible
Studies in Scripture and Biblical Theology
Studies in Scripture and Biblical Theology is a peer-reviewed series of contemporary monographs exploring key topics and issues in biblical studies and biblical theology from an evangelical perspective.
Learn more about the other titles in this series.
- Introduction
- Methodology: Identifying Relationships Between Psalms
- From Approach to Arrival: Psalms 15, 19, and 24
- Awaiting the Arrival with Confidence: Psalms 16 and 23
- A Twist in Plot: Suffering in Psalms 17 and 22
- The Hinge: The King’s Deliverance in Psalms 18, 20, and 21
- The Message of Psalms 15–24
- Title: The Arrival of the King: The Shape and Story of Psalms 15-24
- Author: Carissa Quinn
- Series: Studies in Scripture and Biblical Theology
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Publication Date: 2023
- Pages: 280
- Format: Logos Digital, Paperback
- Trim Size: 6x9
- ISBN: 9781683597148
Carissa Quinn is a biblical scholar and teacher and former director of scholarship at BibleProject, an EdTech organization and animation studio in Portland, Oregon.