Human suffering is universal, but the his attitude towards suffering is found in rarities and complexities. The people of Israel had ample reasons to go through many kinds of sufferings physically and spiritually. The problem of suffering Israel for t...
Human suffering is universal, but the his attitude towards suffering is found in rarities and complexities. The people of Israel had ample reasons to go through many kinds of sufferings physically and spiritually. The problem of suffering Israel for them, however, is not to know what made them suffer but how did they overcome the sufferings with their piety, their faith in Yahweh the Lord of history. The psalmists of Israel give us the triumphant records of how they made victories over the human sufferings, to which all human souls are ever attracted by reading and memorizing these Verses they sang at home, and in the fields and the temple.
The aim of this thesis is trying to show that the suffering and piety of the Israelites are interwoven in the pages of the lament-psalms-Klagelieder, and to know how their sufferings are expressed in the Klagelieder and what are the theological significance of their sufferings and hows they solve the problems.
In order to accomplish these aims, in the first chapter, the writer deals with the relationship between the problem of suffering and the Israelite literatures. In the second chapter, the with traces in the Psalms the painful experience of life and yet finds their unchanging piety, suffering through the sufferings. In the third and fourth chapter, the writer introduces the general outlines of H. Gunkel's theory on "Gattungen" to the Korean readers and tries to see the problem of suffering and deity in the structures of the lament-psalms, Klagelieder.
In the fifth chapter, the writer analyzes the nature of suffering of the psalmists in terms of physical, spiritual, sociological and theological aspect. The psalmists seem to suffer on account of illness and imprisonment. They do not deserve to be suffered, if the doctrine of retribution has any validity. They are also suffered from the disorder and unjustice created by the wicked, enemies to the innocent and the righteous. (The first part of present study ends here and it will be continued in the next issue.)
In the next issue, the writer will deal with the hardest and hearbreak experiences of suffering, caused by the betrayal of the faith of Yahwism. These are the enemies of the pious psalmists. The final chapter of this study will be an attempt to show the psalmists who have solved the problem of suffering. They seem to believe that the only key to solve it was in the sincere, God-fearing, and trusting-faith in Yahweh.