Back to Course

Psalms and Song of Songs

  1. Lesson One
    Overview of Poetry
    31 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  2. Lesson Two
    Poetic Structures
    22 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  3. Lesson Three
    Praise and Lament
    24 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  4. Lesson Four
    The Diversity of Psalms
    28 Activities
  5. Lesson Five
    Song of Songs
    20 Activities
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

Participants 19

Show more
Psalms and Song of Songs The Diversity of Psalms Behind | Workbook: Psalms and a Hymn from the Temple of Amun, El-Charga, Part 1
Lesson 4, Activity 19

Behind | Workbook: Psalms and a Hymn from the Temple of Amun, El-Charga, Part 1

Lesson Progress
0% Complete

Grab your Workbook Journal!

[Record your answers in the workbook provided at the beginning of this course.]

  1. Last lesson, we explored the uniqueness of YHWH and His relationship with humanity. It’s worth returning to this theme one more time to reinforce the distinctiveness of the God of the Bible. As we do this, we’re also reinforcing a responsible approach to textual similarities that surface between the Bible and other ancient sources. Below, you’ll find a Psalm and an Egyptian hymn from the Persian Period. Note the similarities between the two hymns in the space provided.
Psalm 139:13-16 (ESV)Hymn from the Temple of Amun, El-Charga (Persian Period)
For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them. 		(15) He has built the human person, (18) he has colored their skin and turned their tongue away from sin. He has (19) opened their noses and let their throats breathe; he has . . . the eyes . . .; the heart directs their hands. 

Source: Bernd U. Schipper, “Egyptian Backgrounds to the Psalms,” The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms, Ed. By William P. Brown, 2014, p. 63.