The Messiah and Eschatology in the Psalms of Solomon

The central purpose of this thesis is to read the Psalms of Solomon as a literary and theological whole while considering the particular historical and theological milieu in which they were written. My reading of the Psalms of Solomon will demonstrate that, in these poems, the Messiah is expected to be a Davidic monarch who will restore the righteous to their appropriate position under the rule of YHWH with a decisive victory that will include the ingathering of the exiles in the penultimate period of history and an everlasting theocratic peace. I will further demonstrate that the writers of these psalms came to this conclusion through a careful rereading of their scriptural traditions based on their current historical circumstances. Connections will be drawn between this understanding of the Messiah’s eschatological role and the role of messianic figures in the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as messianic interpretations in the Septuagint.