David in Ruth and Psalms

Ruth is the only book of the Tanakh that ends with a genealogy, notes Stephen Dempster ( Dominion and Dynasty: A Biblical Theology of the Hebrew Bible , 193). The “ten-member genealogy powerfully echoes two other ten-member genealogies in the narrative books that had soteriological implications for the human race” – the genealogy from Adam to Noah, and the one from Noah to Abram. David, coming at the end of Ruth’s genealogy is a new Abram, Noah, Adam.

That ending provides a nice segue into the following book of the Hebrew Bible, the Psalms, but Dempster finds a more specific verbal link:

When [Ruth] reminds [Boaz] of his responsibility as a kinsman redeemer, she tells him to spread the ‘wing’ . . . of his garment over her. His marriage to her anticipates the nations’ finding refuge under the wings of Yahweh through a Davidic descendant. The stress on finding refuge ( hasa ) becomes extremely important” in the Psalms (p. 194).

It first arises at the end of Psalm 2: “The text looks back to David and forwards to the universal reign of his descendant. The four-fold reference to the Davidic descendant, using different terms ( masiah , v. 3; melek , v. 6; ben , v. 7) culminates with an exhortation to the leaders of the nations to kiss the son (nassequ bar), for all who take refuge ( kol hose bo ) in him will be blessed . . . . The use of the unique Aramaism bar in this text . . . is arresting, and points forward to a mysterious figure who will be described later as one to whom all authority will one day be given and whom all the nations will worship (Dan. 7:13-14)” (195).

The establishment of this Davidic house is the theme of the Psalms, as it was of Ruth. In Book 5 of the Psalms, the Torah is presented (119) as the goal of pilgrimage (songs of ascent, 120-134), as Israel and the nations flow toward Zion to hear the word of Yahweh. At the center of this sequence, Psalm 127 “celebrates building,” using a series of puns: bana (build), bayit (house) and banim (sons). The literary context shows that “the house is not just the individual Israelite home and the individual family, but the temple and dynasty of David,” a fact supported by “the Solomonic psalm title” (pp. 200-1). The Davidic house/dynasty implicitly promised at the end of Ruth is celebrated in the final book of Psalms.