Enrico Cerasi

Published in June, 2026

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«Because he was him, because I was me». Friendship as a parable in Psalm 63

Abstract

In the biblical Psalter, most of the psalms are attributed to David. The final editor added a superscription to some of them, indicating the occasion on which David composed the psalm. With the exception of B. Childs, scholars have not given any weight to these headings. However, reading Psalm 63 first without and then with the heading gives a new interpretation. Without the heading, it appears as an intense prayer to God by a worshipper who could be Jewish or any other human being, because there are no specific references to Jewish history. With the superscription, on the other hand, the psalm is placed in the context of the conflict between Saul and David and Jonathan’s friendship for the latter. Jonathan fails in his filial duty to obey his father, the king of Israel, unconditionally in order to help his friend, whom Saul considers a threat to the kingdom. The friendship between Jonathan and Saul is an anarchic event, which does not tolerate any moral or political conditions. Montaigne speaks in these terms about the friendship between himself and La Boétie. But something similar can already be found in the Gospel parable of the Good Samaritan. In this sense, the friendship in Psalm 63, with its superscription, appears as the human parable of the relationship between the soul and God.