When Prayer Takes Place

J. Gerald Janzen is MacAllister-Petticrew Emeritus Professor of Old Testament at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. His most recent book is At the Scent of Water: The Ground of Hope in the Book of Job (2009).Brent A. Strawn is Associate Professor of Old Testament at the Candler School of Theology and Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University.Patrick D. Miller is Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary.

"Janzen has been looking at these biblical texts all his life. Every time he looks again, he sees something else by way of connection or nuance . . . It is a delight to salute this long-loved colleague on this rich offer that, as always from him, is a gift of newness."Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary"Rare is the exegete who is wise beyond his or her own specialty. Rarer still is the interpreter who explores the text down to its minutest of details with infectious wonder. Janzen is that exegete: text critic, theologian, philosopher, and poet. His exegetical forays are unhurried expeditions of a vivacious mind that will touch the heart, indelibly."William P. Brown, Columbia Theological Seminary"Janzen models what the exegetical imagination can do when it is focused on significant questions and disciplined by wide-ranging study, thorough and exact knowledge of the biblical text, and the life of prayer itself. These essays invite us to slow down and savor Scripture."Ellen F. Davis, Duke Divinity School"In these essays, both old and new, Janzen delves into detailed exegetical and intertextual analyses of biblical texts, crossing both Testaments and constantly appealing to the original languages with a sensitivity that generates profoundly existential reflection on one's own relationship with God. I found his essays transformative both for my reading of Scripture and for my own life."J. Richard Middleton

• Foreword, by Brent A. Strawn and Patrick D. MillerPrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction: From Plane to PlanePart I: Orienting Ourselves in the Biblical World1 ". . . and the Bush Was Not Consumed"Addenda2 What's in a Name? "Yahweh" in Exodus 3 and the Wider Biblical ContextNames and Their MeaningsThe Name "Yahweh" and Its Meaning for IsraelThe Name and Its Meaning for Existence Today3 What Does the Priestly Blessing Do?The Priestly Blessing and God's Blessing in CreationThe Vocabulary of P and the Priestly BlessingCosmos, Tabernacle, and the Priestly Blessing4 Praying in the Space God Creates for the WorldMaking SpaceThe MemraSpace for GodPraying in the SpacePart II: Forays into a Biblical World5 Prayer as Self-Address: The Case of HannahComfort: God's and the Self'sSelf-Encouragement in the Worship of Godsiah: The Means of Self-EncouragementHannah's Meditation and Self-Address6 The Root skl and the Soul Bereaved in Psalm 35skl as Maternal BereavementCompassion Requited and UnrequitedSuffering the Loss of Matrixal Connections: A Psychological PerspectiveRage and the Bitterness of Unrequited Compassion7 As God Is My Witness: Another Look at Psalm 12:6What, Precisely, Does God Promise the Psalmist?Another Look at the Language of the PromiseGod's Promise and Job's Hope-Against-Hope in Job 16:198 "And Not We Ourselves": Psalm 100:3 and the Eschatological Reign of GodIs "Not We Ourselves" Grammatical Hebrew?The Range of Variation in a Stock ExpressionBut Why the Need to Disavow Self-Creation?On Divine and Human "Making"The Verb ga'ahPractical Atheism in Psalm(s) 9-10More on the Self-Confident Claim, " Won't Slip"Recurring to Craigie's Remarks on Psalm 9-10"And Not We Ourselves": Resolving the Conflict Drama in Psalms 93-99Themes in Psalms 93-100 Bearing on Psalm 100:3The Conflict Drama Resolved in Psalm 100:3Is "Not We Ourselves" Palatable in Today's World?9 Standing on the Promises of God: On the Thematic Resonance of "No Foothold"in Psalm 69Thematic Ligatures in the PsalmsOn the Social Significance of "Standing"One's Standing in Others' EyesStanding in the Face of Reproach in Psalm 69"Standing" as a Ligature throughout the PsalterThe Case of JeremiahStanding before God: The Case of DanielOn Some Hebrew Expressions Involving the Verbs hazaq and 'amesStanding before God: The Case of HabakkukBack to PsalmA Last Word, then, on Psalm 69A Belated Confession10 The Verb ya'ames in Psalm 27:14: Who Is Strengthening Whom?A Preliminary Review of the Hebrew Text in Psalm 27:14The Verb 'ms in the Qal StemThe Verb 'ms in the Piel StemThe Verb 'ms in the Hithpael StemThe Verb 'ms in the Hiphil StemWeighing the Pros and the ConsThe Special Case of the Verb 'rk in the Hiphil StemFinal AssessmentA Brief Excursion to Psalm 27:8Two Modern Afterwords to Psalm 2711 Revisiting "Forever" in Psalm 23:6Aspects of Experience "in God's House"Experiencing Time, Mundane and OtherwiseConnotations of the Phrase, "Length of Days," and Its CognatesOn Some Axes of Affirmation Converging in Psalm 23:6bDrawing Matters to a ConclusionAddendumPart III: The Standpoint of Two Prophets12 Solidarity and Solitariness in Ancient Israel: The Case of Jeremiah13 Eschatological Symbol and Existence in HabakkukFrom Despairing Complaint to Affirmation in HopeOn Existing Eschatologically within and for the Present TimePart IV: An Interlude14 Toward a Hermeneutics of Resonance: A Methodological Interlude between the TestamentsRichard B. Hays on Intertextual ResonancePatrick D. Miller on ResonanceSamuel Taylor Coleridge on Resonance in the Nature of ThingsResonance and Alfred North Whitehead's Di-Polar CosmologyRupert Sheldrake on Morphic ResonanceHans Loewald on Resonance in Nature and in Human BecomingResonance and The Disenchantment of Secular DiscourseResonance between the Testaments in Proverbs 8 and Colossians 1On Hymnic Resonance and Community CohesionPart V: New Testament Afterword15 "Hid with Christ in God"Praying to the Father Who Is "in Secret" (Matthew 6:6)God's "Secret Place" as Temptation and as Reality"Your Life Is Hid with Christ in God"Prayer in Romans 8 as the Nexus of the Solidarity of Heaven and EarthGarrisoned in PrayerA Postscript to Be Read in Retrospect16 Faith as a Foothold "within the Veil": Afterwords in the Letter to the HebrewsFaith as a Foothold on Things Hoped ForReproach and "Standing" in Hebrews and in Psalm 69Jesus as Son on the Throne / High Priest in the TabernacleJesus as archegon kai teleioten of Faith(fulness)17 Redeeming the Expression "Redeeming the Time"Exagorazo in Classical GreekBuying Time in Daniel 2The Verb pa'am as a "Beating of Times"Redeeming the Time in Ephesians 5:16The Prayer of Empowerment in Ephesians 3:14-21 and the Empowering Vision in Daniel 10ConclusionBibliographyA