Biblica - Vol 96 (2015) Booij, Thijs, Psalm 118 and Form Criticism (2015)

Psalm 118 was recited in the time of Nehemiah. The speaker in the first person singular passages is Israel's representative. The psalm, a communal song of thankfulness, belongs to a group of texts related to Succoth (Psalms 65; 66; 67; 98; 107; 124; 129; Isaiah 12; 25,1-5). These texts, dating from the later post-exilic period, do not constitute a welldelineated literary genre. Psalm 118 and Isaiah 12; 25,1-5, however, constitute a special category. Psalm 118,24 refers to Succoth as the time when YHWH judges the world and decides on the nation's well-being (v. 25) for the year to come.