The Spirit of Psalms

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Abstract

This survey of the Spirit’s activity in the book of Psalms examines six prominent texts in which the word “spirit” (‮רוח‬‎) appears (Psalms 18, 51, 104, 139, 142, and 143). The study of these texts suggests that the Spirit is described in the Psalter as the agent of God’s life-giving power and as the administrator of God’s moral authority. As the agent of God’s life-giving power, the Holy Spirit creates all life and sustains all life. As administrator of God’s moral authority, the Holy Spirit saves, guides, sanctifies, and enacts judgment.

Keywords: creation; sanctification; ethics; judgment; power; purity

1 Introduction

This study surveys the Spirit’s¹ activity in the Psalms and suggests theological implications that emerge from that survey.² The Psalter witnesses unambiguously to the Holy Spirit’s role as the agent of God’s life-giving power and as the administrator of God’s moral authority. As the agent of God’s life-giving power, the Holy Spirit creates all life and sustains all life. As administrator of God’s moral authority, the Holy Spirit saves, guides, sanctifies, and enacts judgment.

The Hebrew word for “spirit” (ruach, ‮רוּחַ‬‎), found thirty-nine times in the book of Psalms, poses difficulties for translators. It can refer to the Holy Spirit (Ps 51:11 [13]),³ the human spirit (Ps 76:12 [13]), the wind (Ps 1:4), God’s breath (Ps 33:6), the breath of all living things (Ps 104:29), or a disposition (Ps 78:8). As a metaphorical extension of “wind,” it can also signify transience or emptiness (Ps 78:39).⁴ The New Revised Standard Version of the Psalms translates the Hebrew ‮רוּחַ‬‎ with three different English words: “spirit” (eighteen times), “wind” (sixteen times), and “breath” (five times). There is no scholarly consensus regarding how many of these thirty-nine texts refer directly to the Holy Spirit, but I would identify the following eight as such: 18:15 [16]; 33:6; 51:10, 11, 12 [12, 13, 14]; 104:30; 139:7; 143:10.⁵

The biblical text does not always clearly distinguish ‮רוּחַ‬‎ as “wind” from ‮רוּחַ‬‎ as “breath” or from ‮רוּחַ‬‎ as “spirit.” Christopher Seitz, commenting on Ezek 37:1–14, where ‮רוּחַ‬‎ is first the Spirit of Yahweh (v. 1), then breath (v. 5), then wind (v. 9), and finally is the Spirit again (v. 14), insists that “a clean separation of ‘spirit’ in some more theological sense from the concrete manifestations of ‘breath’ or ‘wind’ would be unwarranted. Yahweh’s spirit is at once Israel’s breath and at the same time a wind gathered from the four compass points.”⁶

2 The Holy Spirit Creating and Sustaining

2.1 Psalm 104

Psalm 104 is a hymn of praise to Yahweh that celebrates his creative power and majesty. In this song, the motive for blessing God takes the form of a lengthy description of God’s role in creating and maintaining all of creation. God’s authority over creation includes his control of the waters, the clouds, wind, and fire. God “goes forth”—that is, interacts with creation—by riding the “wind” (‮רוּחַ‬‎, v. 3, cf. Ezek 1:12, 20). Furthermore, God uses the winds (‮רוּחַ‬‎) as his messengers (v. 4). Both uses of ‮רוּחַ‬‎ are symbolic, inasmuch as God neither travels from one place to another, nor does he send messages in the winds. These symbols represent God’s omnipresence and his mysterious activities (such as his revelatory work), which are carried out by the Holy Spirit.⁷

The creative role of the Spirit is stated more directly in vv. 29–30. First, from a negative perspective, when God removes the Spirit (or breath, ‮רוּחַ‬‎), the creature dies and returns to dust.⁸ Second, from a positive perspective, when God gives his Spirit (also ‮רוּחַ‬‎) the creature is “created” (‮ברא‬‎). In the OT, the verb “create” (‮ברא‬‎) is used only with God as the subject.⁹ Humans can “make” (‮עשה‬‎) or “form” (‮יצר‬‎) things (Isa 22:11), but only God can “create” (‮ברא‬‎). The giving of the Spirit recalls Gen 2:7, when the Lord breathed into Adam and he became a “living soul” (cf. Gen 7:22; Job 33:4).¹⁰ The removal of the Spirit recalls Gen 6:3, when, because of human corruption, the Lord decided to shorten the human lifespan; and the shortening of life was accomplished by removing the Spirit. The removal of the Spirit continues to be the cause of death for all living things (cf. Job 27:3; 34:14–15). Indeed, the spirit “belongs to God and can be taken away according to his discretion … Human breath is always at the disposition of God’s grace and must continually be renewed by a creative act of grace.”¹¹ Taken together, these two verses declare that God’s Spirit is both the creator of all life and the sustaining life-force of all living things (cf. Isa 42:5).

Three other points should not be overlooked. First, this psalm is concerned not with human life alone but with all created life. “God does not just stand outside and over against his creation. Through the Spirit he enters into it and already ‘dwells’ in it.”¹² Second, this psalm associates the creating spirit with the “face” (‮פנה‬‎) of God, which signifies God’s immediate presence.¹³ Third, these references to the “spirit” appear in a hymn; and, therefore, they offer significant motives for praising God.

2.2 Psalm 142

In Psalm 142, the “spirit” (‮רוּחַ‬‎) of the psalmist is “faint,” because his enemies have “hidden a trap” (v. 3 [4]) for him; therefore, he must cling to God as his “refuge” (v. 5 [6]). The weakening of the psalmist’s spirit demands that he call on the Lord for strength. Although we may feel obliged to distinguish between the spirit of the psalmist and the Spirit of God, the Psalter does not draw a sharp distinction. If the Holy Spirit is the life-force of all created beings, as we have argued above, then the spirit of the psalmist is dependent on the Holy Spirit in some sense.¹⁴ Therefore, in response to the psalmist’s prayer, the Spirit of God—which is “strong and transcendent, not frail and feeble” like humanity—will renew the spirit of the psalmist.¹⁵

3 The Holy Spirit Guiding and Sanctifying

3.1 Psalm 51

Psalm 51 is an individual prayer of repentance. The psalmist understands the severity of his sin and suffers its distressful consequences. The psalm begins with a solemn and earnest confession of sin and a plea for forgiveness (vv. 1–9 [1–11]), followed by a prayer for inner renewal and restoration of joy (vv. 10–12 [12–14). The pain of broken fellowship is registered throughout the psalm, and it finds unique expression in the psalmist’s prayer, “Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me” (v. 11 [13]). To be cast away from God’s presence and to be void of God’s Spirit would surely signify utter abandonment.

The Hebrew word for “spirit” (‮רוח‬‎) appears three times in Ps 51:10–12 [12–14]. The psalmist desires a “steadfast spirit” (v. 10 [12]), the “Holy Spirit” (v. 11 [13]), and a “generous spirit” (v. 12 [14]). Scholars are divided over the identification of the “spirit” in these three verses. On the one hand, John Goldingay argues that all three verses refer to the Holy Spirit. He writes, “The psalm draws our attention to the fact that the Holy Spirit is also the steadfast or persistent spirit and the generous spirit.”¹⁶ On the other hand, W. Creighton Marlowe insists that none of these verses refers to the Holy Spirit; rather, they all point to the spirit of the psalmist.¹⁷

In the first reference to “spirit,” the psalmist prays, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (v. 10 [12]). God alone has the power to create (‮ברא‬‎); therefore, the psalmist seems to be asking not for the cleansing of the old heart but for the creation of a new heart, one that is free from contamination (cf. Ezek 36:26–28 and Jer 31:31–34).¹⁸ Along with a pure heart, the psalmist asks for “a steadfast spirit.” Because “a steadfast spirit” stands in parallel to “a pure heart,” the word “spirit” has often been interpreted to be the human spirit of the psalmist. However, if a pure heart is created and a steadfast spirit is renewed, how might that work be accomplished if not by the Holy Spirit?

The presence of God is mediated by the Holy Spirit; therefore, the psalmist prays, “and do not take your Holy Spirit from me” (v. 11 [13]). Despite the scholarly consensus that “Holy Spirit” (‮רוח קדשך‬‎) in Ps 51:11 [13] refers to God’s Holy Spirit, W. Creighton Marlowe argues that it is the psalmist’s spirit and should be translated “a spirit that desires your holiness.”¹⁹ He suggests that if the psalmist had intended to say “your Holy Spirit,” the word “holy” should have been an attributive adjective; and because the Hebrew “spirit” (‮רוח‬‎) is feminine, the adjective “holy” would also be feminine (‮קדשה‬‎). On the surface, this makes sense; but the argument does not hold up, because the feminine form of the adjective “holy” does not exist in biblical Hebrew.²⁰ In biblical Hebrew, whenever an adjective is needed but is not available, the adjectival function is fulfilled with a different grammar, the construct–genitive. The noun “holiness” “replaces the adjective as a genitive attribute.”²¹ This usage is paralleled throughout the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew ‮קדשך‬‎ occurs twenty times in the Hebrew Bible, and nowhere does it mean “your holiness”; it is always translated “your holy …”²² Without an available feminine adjective, the genitive construction “spirit of holiness” (in which “holiness” functions as an adjective) is the best way to convey the English phrase “Holy Spirit.”²³

Another important indicator that ‮רוח קדשך‬‎ refers to God’s Holy Spirit is the use of the pronoun “your.” The psalmist is addressing God, and both the word “presence” and the word “spirit” are spoken of as “your presence” and “your spirit.”²⁴ The pronoun “your” refers clearly to God.²⁵

Because he views the Spirit’s presence as incompatible with the presence of sin, the psalmist fears the loss of the Holy Spirit. At the initial anointing of David, the Spirit had come upon him “from that day forward” (1 Sam 16:13), that is, as a permanent endowment. However, considering the Spirit’s departure from King Saul (1 Sam 16:14; 18:12), it appears that the Spirit can be lost.²⁶

Although the NT frequently refers to the Spirit as the “holy” Spirit, the phrase “Holy Spirit” is found in the OT only three times (Ps 51:11 [13]; Isa 63:10, 11). The naming of the Spirit as the “Holy Spirit” emphasizes the “ethical element”²⁷ and indicates that holiness is an attribute of the Spirit. Inasmuch as holiness is essential to God and to the Spirit of God, the sanctification of God’s people is a crucial work of the Spirit.²⁸

In his third reference to the “spirit,” the psalmist prays, “and sustain me with a generous spirit” (v. 12 [14]). The Hebrew ‮סמך‬‎ means “support, uphold, sustain.”²⁹ Thus, in prayer, “the lamenter hopes for [Yahweh’s] support”³⁰ through the giving of a “generous spirit.” The translation of “generous” (‮נדיב‬‎) is debated. The Hebrew can signify “inclined, generous, noble … willing.”³¹ Goldingay remarks that there is an “intrinsic link between the human spirit and the divine spirit … God breathes into us his steadfast or persistent, holy, generous spirit, to make us steadfast, holy, generous people.”³² Erich Zenger adds, “And when God causes the divine ‘holy spirit’ (v. 13b) to work in him, he can live a ‘holy’ life.”³³

3.2 Psalm 139

Psalm 139 stands out among the psalms as a powerful statement of trust in God. The emphasis of this psalm is upon God’s complete knowledge of the psalmist from the beginning to the end of the psalmist’s life (vv. 1–6). Not only does the Lord know the psalmist, but the Lord is present with the psalmist at any place in heaven, on earth, in the sea, or in the darkness (vv. 7–12). Obviously, this passage assumes the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit;³⁴ but, more than that, the parallel between “your spirit” and “your presence” is a powerful expression of God’s relationality.³⁵ Furthermore, “The Lord’s presence is essential to the psalmist’s expression of hope in the face of personal challenge and crisis.”³⁶

3.3 Psalm 143

In Ps. 143:10, the “holy” spirit is called the “good” spirit, and just like the “Holy Spirit” of Ps 51:11 [13], the good spirit teaches the believer to perform God’s will. Psalm 143 begins with a prayer for deliverance from enemies (v. 3), which is followed by a recounting of God’s interventions in “days long past” (v. 5) and a word of appreciation for God’s “faithful love” (v. 8). The last section of the psalm, the psalmist prays, “Teach me to do your will.” The request to be in God’s will is paralleled by a further prayer that God’s “good spirit” would “lead” the psalmist on “level ground” (v. 10). The combination of terms in Ps 143:10 (“teach” and “good spirit”) recalls the prayer of Nehemiah, who, in reference to the exodus generation, says to God, “You gave your good Spirit to instruct them” (Neh 9:20).

Just as holiness is central to the moral attributes of the Spirit, so is goodness (Exod 33:19). Because God is good, the Spirit is good (Pss 106:1; 107:1; 118:1; 136:1), and because the Spirit “is good, it leads on level ground.”³⁷ Goldingay comments, “At the moment, the suppliant walks treacherous, uneven ground, and is in danger of falling. The plea for rescue asks for the journey to involve level ground instead of this.”³⁸ The OT knows of lying spirits (1 Kgs 22:22–23) and bad spirits (1 Sam 16:14–23), which corrupt the individual, disrupt the community, and wreak havoc; but the “good spirit” can be trusted to teach and to lead according to God’s will.

4 The Holy Spirit Saving and Judging

4.1 Psalm 18

This psalm is a jubilant celebration of God’s victory, and its salvific symbolism is expanded into one of the most eloquent and moving narratives of deliverance in all the Psalter (vv. 3–21). The narrative is rich with figurative rhetoric in which God’s mighty deeds are described in “theophanic and cataclysmic terms in answer to the cry of the petitioner.”³⁹ The Lord “came swiftly upon the wings of the wind” (v. 10 [11]), and his salvation was on the same order as the Red Sea deliverance. At the “blast of the breath of his nostrils” the sea was removed, and the “foundations” of the earth were uncovered (v. 15 [16]). Moreover, the psalmist’s enemies will be “beat” into a fine powder “like dust before the wind” (v. 42 [43]). The Spirit as “wind” often represents God’s power that is displayed in judgment and in salvation. The wind is “God letting forth divine power in the world, in order to achieve something.”⁴⁰

5 Conclusions

This study has shown that “spirit” (‮רוּחַ‬‎) represents the nature, actions, and attributes of God. The Spirit brings both blessing and judgment, life and death. The Spirit upholds the righteous and scatters the wicked.

Taken together, these “spirit” texts show that God’s Holy Spirit is active in two broad theological arenas: purity and power. In the arena of power, the Spirit creates all life and ends all life. Whatever lives has Spirit; whatever is dead does not have Spirit; and the life-giving Spirit is derived solely from God. In this role, the Spirit acts not just upon humans but upon the whole creation (Ps 104:28–30). In the arena of purity, the Spirit is the administrator of God’s moral authority. The Psalms show that the Spirit is “holy,” even as God is holy; and the “good Spirit” is God’s agent engaging humanity for “good.” God rules over his creation, and that rule is administered by the Holy Spirit. Finally, the Psalter is a songbook of prayer and worship; therefore, its references to the Spirit must be considered as worship texts that affirm the role of worship in theological formation.⁴¹

1Whenever referring to the Spirit of God, the phrases “the Spirit” and “the Holy Spirit” will be capitalized according to Christian convention.

2For a brief pneumatology of the OT, see Lee Roy Martin, “The Spirit and the Old Testament,” in T&T Clark Handbook of Pneumatology, ed. Daniel Castelo and Ken Loyer (London: T&T Clark, 2020), 75–88.

3Verse numbers of the English and the Hebrew versions do not always match. In this study, the English verse number will be listed first, and the Hebrew verse number (if different) will follow in square brackets.

4Cf. John Goldingay, “The Breath of Yahweh Scorching, Confounding, Anointing: The Message of Isaiah 40–42,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 11 (1997): 25.

5Constraints of space will not allow for the discussion of all thirty-nine texts. We will focus on the most prominent ones.

6Christopher R. Seitz, “Ezekiel 37:1–14,” Interpretation 46, no. 1 (1992): 53. Cf. A. Rebecca Basdeo Hill, “Sights and Sounds of Death Valley: A Close Reading of Ezekiel 37:1–14,” Old Testament Essays 31 (2018): 547; and Goldingay, “The Breath of Yahweh,” who observes the similar creative use of ‮רוּחַ‬‎ in Isaiah 40–42.

7Other texts that link “spirit” with creation are Ps 33:6; 135:7, 17; 147:16–18; 148:7–8.

8The Qumran manuscript reads “your spirit” rather than “their spirit” in v. 29, thus removing any ambiguity about the identification of ‮רוּחַ‬‎. See James A. Sanders, The Dead Sea Psalms Scroll (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1967), 163.

9David J.A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press; Sheffield Phoenix Press, 1993–2011), II, 258 (hereafter, DCH).

10However, the OT does not teach pantheism; see Lloyd R. Neve, The Spirit of God in the Old Testament, Centre for Pentecostal Theology Classics Series (Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2011), 69, who writes:

In carefully distinguishing the creative spirit of God from the life-breath in the nostril of every creature, the Psalmist has precluded that concept of the spirit of God which would make of it a substance or a life force which emanates throughout the universe and exists in the nostrils of all creatures. Such a concept would make every creature the possessor of a portion of the divine and would contradict the strict separation between God and his creation which the Old Testament so frequently and so vividly describes.

11Neve, Spirit of God, 69.

12Jürgen Moltmann, “The Spirit of Life,” in The Spirit in Creation and New Creation, ed. Michael Welker (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012), 67. However, the spirit of the creature and the spirit of God are “not identical” (70).

13See Anthony C. Thiselton, The Holy Spirit—in Biblical Teaching, through the Centuries, and Today (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 4.

14Other texts that link “spirit” to the inner life of humanity are Ps 31:5 [6]; 32:2; 34:18; 77:3, 6 [4, 7]; 143:4, 7; 146:3–4.

15Thiselton, The Holy Spirit—in Biblical Teaching, through the Centuries, and Today, 8.

16John Goldingay, “The Holy Spirit and the Psalms,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 27, no. 1 (2018): 11. Cf. Marvin E. Tate, Psalms 51–100 (Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1990), 25, 31.

17W. Creighton Marlowe, “ ‘Spirit of Your Holiness’ (‮רוּחַ קָדְשְׁךָ‬‎) in Psalm 51:13,” Trinity Journal 19, no. 1 (1998): 30. Cf. Daniel J. Estes, “Spirit and the Psalmist in Psalm 51,” in Presence, Power and Promise: The Role of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, ed. D.G. Firth and P.D. Wegner (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011), 122–134, whose lengthy argument fails to convince. Along with the Aramaic Targum, a few writers suggest that while “steadfast spirit” is a human attitude, both “Holy Spirit” and “generous spirit” are references to the Holy Spirit. See, for example, Charles A. Briggs and Emilie Grace Briggs, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Psalms, ICC (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1906–1907), II, 8. Still other commentators interpret only the middle verse (“Holy Spirit”) as a reference to God’s Holy Spirit. Cf. James Luther Mays, Psalms, Interpretation (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1994), 202–203.

18Cf. Scott A. Ellington, “The Face of God as His Creating Spirit: The Interplay of Yahweh’s Panim and Ruach in Psalm 104:29–30,” in The Spirit Renews the Face of the Earth: Pentecostal Forays in Science and Theology of Creation, ed. Amos Yong (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publishers, 2009), who writes, “Restoration in verse 10 requires a fresh act of creation. Neither the heart nor the spirit marred by sin can be rehabilitated. They must be created anew” (8); and “Every breath of every creature is a new act of God’s creation, an act which is only sustainable before the face of God as he breathes out new life” (11). Cf. Stanley M. Horton, What the Bible Says about the Holy Spirit (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1976), 50.

19Marlowe cites John Calvin as support but misrepresents Calvin’s view. While it is true that Calvin translates‮רוח קדשך‬‎ as “Spiritum sanctitatis” (“Spirit of holiness”), his commentary on the verse, along with his capitalization of “Spirit” throughout, makes clear that he interprets the phrase to be a reference to the Holy Spirit. For example, he states that David is praying “that he might continue in possession of the Spirit” (maneat in possessione Spiritus). David’s fear of losing the Spirit is real but unfounded, Calvin goes on to say, because the elect cannot lose the Spirit, even if they sometimes feel that they can; John Calvin, In Librum Psalmorum (Geneva: Excudebat Nicolaus Barbirius & Thomas Courteau, 1564), 340–341. It should be noted that the translators of the English edition cited by Marlowe do not accurately represent Calvin’s capitalization of “Spiritus.”

20Cf. Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann, Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), 1106 (hereafter TLOT).

21W. Kornfeld and Helmer Ringgren, “‮קדשׁ‬‎,” Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. G. Johannes Botterweck and Heinz-Josef Fabry, trans. Douglas W. Stott (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2003), 528. Cf. Jackie A. Naudé, “‮קָדַשׁ‬‎”, in Willem VanGemeren, ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997), III: 879, who writes, “the genitive, instead of the adj., is used most frequently after another nom., but is rendered like an adj., holy”; also, Wilhelm Gesenius, E. Kautzsch, and A.E. Cowley, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910), § 128p; and A.B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1902), § 24 (c).

22The translation “Holy Spirit” in Ps 51:11 [13] is confirmed by the LXX (τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιόν σου) and by the Latin Vulgate (spiritum sanctum tuum). The Aramaic Targum, using a construct–genitive phrase, conforms to the Hebrew.

23BDB, 871. Cf. David J.A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press; Sheffield Phoenix Press, 1993–2011), II: 200 (hereafter DCH); TLOT, 1111. However, the feminine adjective “holy” does appear much later. For example, the Qumran sectarian document The Rule of the Community has “by the Holy Spirit” (‮וברוח קדושה‬‎, 1QS 3:7). Cf. Florentino García Martínez and Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Leiden; New York: Brill, 1997–1998), 75. Oddly, the attributive adjective ‮קדושה‬‎ was misinterpreted by noted DSS scholar Geza Vermes, who translated the phrase as “spirit of holiness,” probably due to the influence of the Hebrew Bible. Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1995), 56, 72, 75.

24In an attributive genitive, a pronominal suffix is attached to the genitive but usually modifies the whole construct chain; Bruce K. Waltke and Michael Patrick O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990), 149.

25Thiselton, The Holy Spirit—in Biblical Teaching, through the Centuries, and Today, 13.

26See Leonard P. Maré, “Psalm 51: ‘Take Not Your Holy Spirit Away from Me,’ ” Acta Theologica 28, no. 1 (2008), 99. Goldingay remarks, “[I]t seems to me obvious that God” might take the spirit away from us (“The Holy Spirit and the Psalms,” 11). Cf. John Rea, The Holy Spirit in the Bible: All the Major Passages About the Spirit: A Commentary (Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 1990), 64.

27Lloyd R. Neve, The Spirit of God in the Old Testament (ed. J.C. Thomas and L.R. Martin; Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2011), 86.

28See Martin, “The Spirit and the Old Testament,” 80–82.

29BDB, 702. Cf. DCH, VI:168.

30TLOT, 804.

31BDB, 622.

32Goldingay, “The Breath of Yahweh,” 11.

33Erich Zenger, “Psalm 51,” in Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger, Psalms 2: A Commentary on Psalms 51–100, ed. K. Baltzer; trans. L.M. Maloney, Hermeneia (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2005), 21 (emphasis original).

34Wilf Hildebrandt, An Old Testament Theology of the Spirit of God (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995), 82.

35Ellington, “The Face of God as His Creating Spirit,” 3–16.

36Jamie A. Grant, “Spirit and Presence in Psalm 139,” in Presence, Power and Promise: The Role of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, ed. D.G. Firth and P.D. Wegner (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011), 139.

37Goldingay, “The Holy Spirit and the Psalms,” 12.

38John Goldingay, Psalms, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), III: 677.

39Hildebrandt, An Old Testament Theology of the Spirit of God, 78.

40Goldingay, “The Breath of Yahweh,” 4.

41According to John Goldingay, “The Holy Spirit and the Psalms,” “the existence of the Psalms suggests” that the Spirit was active in Israel’s worship. The psalms “were written by people who were inspired by the Spirit and they could be used only by people who were full of the Spirit” (13). Cf. George T. Montague, The Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition (New York: Paulist Press, 1976), 69–70.