Matthew Montgomery, "An Intercessor Like Moses: A Key Component of the Psalter's Message" (European Hebrew Journal, 2026)
September 22, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readIn the Psalter, Moses and Aaron are first mentioned at the climactic end of Psalm 77, and from that point forward they appear with increasing frequency in books four and five. Matthew Montgomery argues this is no accident. The Psalter, he contends, is presenting Moses as an archetypal intercessor—someone who can stand between God and a covenant-breaking people and appeal to divine mercy—and holding out hope that such a figure will emerge again in the aftermath of the Babylonian exile.
The Argument: Intercession as a Key Psalter Message
Montgomery’s article, published in the inaugural issue of the European Hebrew Journal, builds on his doctoral research on inheritance terminology in the Asaph psalms (Psalms 50, 73–83). That research revealed a deliberate tension in book three: idealized theological hopes for Yahweh’s inheritance (people, land, temple) are juxtaposed with the harsh reality of exile and destruction. Psalm 78 ends with an idealized David shepherding Israel, Yahweh’s inheritance; Psalm 79 opens with the same inheritance term lamenting that very inheritance destroyed. Montgomery saw that book three was already reaching for a hopeful resolution, and that the introduction of Moses and Aaron at the end of Psalm 77 was a crucial part of it. The Psalter, he argues, is pointing to historical precedent: when things went wrong before, an intercessor stood between God
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of New Books in Christian Studies
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (03:56) **Guest Introduction and Academic Background** - Matthew Montgomery, Trinity College Bristol and University of Aberdeen, is introduced; his article examines Moses as an intercessor in the Psalter's later books.
- 2 (07:50) **From Dissertation to Article: The Inheritance Theme** - How research on inheritance terminology in the Asaph Psalms led Montgomery to identify Moses as a key intercessory figure.
- 3 (12:30) **Main Argument: Hope for an Intercessor Like Moses** - The Psalter's message includes a need for a figure who can stand between God and a covenant-breaking people after the Babylonian exile.
- 4 (17:52) **Idealized Presentation of Aaron** - Despite Aaron's failures in the Torah (e.g., the golden calf), later psalms present him as an idealized priestly figure.
- 5 (25:15) **On the Name "Moses"** - Montgomery declines to debate the Hebrew or Egyptian origin of the name, preferring to focus on Moses' literary and theological significance.
- 6 (27:48) **Why Learn Biblical Hebrew?** - Montgomery shares his personal motivation for studying the language.
- 7 (30:46) **Current and Future Research Plans** - Montgomery outlines ongoing projects related to interbiblical allusion and related themes.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
In this episode of the New Books Network, Željko Stanojević speaks with Matthew Montgomery about his article “An Intercessor Like Moses: A Key Component of the Psalter’s Message”, published in the European Hebrew Journal.
Montgomery’s study asks how the final form of the Masoretic Psalter communicates hope after the collapse of Judah and the Babylonian exile. Building on the widely recognized observation that Book III of the Psalter engages the downfall of the Southern Kingdom while Book IV places unusual emphasis on Moses, he traces textual signals connecting these sections with Exodus 32–34. Particular attention is given to the introduction of Moses and Aaron, the clustering of references to them in Books IV and V, and repeated allusions to Moses’ intercession after Israel’s covenant-breaking at Sinai.
The central argument is that these features are not isolated reminiscences. Read together, they help shape the Psalter’s theological and literary message. Moses appears as the paradigmatic representative who can stand between God and a disobedient people, plead on their behalf, and turn away divine anger. Montgomery argues that, in the post-exilic horizon of the Psalter, this Mosaic pattern contributes to an emerging hope for an intercessory figure capable of mediating between God and a covenant-breaking community. The interview explores what this proposal contributes to final-form readings of the Psalter and why the arrangement of psalms can itself become a vehicle of meaning.
Matthew Montgomery is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible whose research includes Psalms, scriptural reuse, rhetoric, literary coherence, and the shaping of biblical collections. His article was published on 18 June 2026 after double-blind peer review, with Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. Eckart Otto serving as Academic Editor. The article is freely available through its permanent DOI.
Montgomery will also speak at the EHJ International Scholarly Online Conference 2026, “New Discoveries and New Directions in Biblical, Hebrew, and Theological Studies”. On More from this podcast