Psalms 90, 91 and 92 as a means of coping with trauma and adversity

Jennifer E. Brown; Joanna Collicutt

doi:10.1080/13674676.2021.2021873

Psalms 90, 91 and 92 as a means of coping with trauma and adversity

Jennifer E. Brown, Joanna Collicutt

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

193 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Psychology has an interest in the ways in which religion can aid coping with life’s adverse events, as most, perhaps all, individuals will face trauma or adversity at some point in life. The COVID19 pandemic has created adversity for individuals and societies globally and has for many been the cause of traumatic events. Religious coping in the face of crisis is not merely a contemporary phenomenon. This paper argues that several religious coping mechanisms can be found within the texts of Psalms 90, 91 and 92 of the Hebrew Bible. These psalms may represent a community’s attempt to cope with the aftermath of a society-wide traumatic event, such as the 6th Century BCE Exile to Babylon. This paper reads these psalms through the lens of coping theory, explores how a traumatic event may have influenced their composition, and considers ways in which they might be used in pastoral situations today.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	276-287
Number of pages	12
Journal	Mental Health, Religion and Culture
Volume	25
Issue number	3
Early online date	1 Feb 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2021.2021873
Publication status	Published - 16 Mar 2022

Bibliographical note

This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for
publication in [Mental Health, Religion and Culture]. [Brown, JE & Collicutt, J 2022,
'Psalms 90, 91 and 92 as a means of coping with trauma and adversity', Mental
Health, Religion and Culture, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 276-287.].
It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which
permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.

Keywords

Psalms 90 91 92
psychology and the Bible
Religious coping
trauma

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Clinical Psychology
Psychiatry and Mental health

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1080/13674676.2021.2021873

Post-PrintAccepted author manuscript, 1.14 MBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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Psalms 90, 91 and 92 as a means of coping with trauma and adversity

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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