Psalm 73 is a challenging Psalm in which the Psalmist draws on rich imagery to juxtapose doctrine and experience and to juxtapose the goodness of God with divine retribution. Drawing on data provided by 15 theological educators within the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, this study tests the thesis that the imagery of Psalm 73 will be perceived differently by sensing types and by intuitive types and that the issue ‘Is God really good to the upright?’ will be (...) judged differently by feeling types and by thinking types. The findings from this study are consistent with the broader hermeneutical theory that the psychological type profile of the reader, in terms of perceiving preference and judging preference, plays a formative part in shaping the interpretation of biblical material.Contribution: Situated within the reader-perspective approach to biblical hermeneutics, the SIFT method is concerned with identifying the influence of the psychological type of the reader in shaping the interpretation of text. The present study demonstrates that this theory holds true for the way in which theological educators read Psalm 73. (shrink)

Working within the reader perspective approach to biblical hermeneutics, a recent series of empirical studies has tested the theory that the readers’ psychological type preferences between sensing and intuition and between feeling and thinking shape distinctive readings of biblical texts. This study advances the debate by distinguishing between the two orientations within which the functions are expressed. The added clarity offered by this refinement is illustrated by the distinctive voices of introverted intuition and introverted sensing engaging with the Matthean Beatitudes, (...) eight verses rich in materials to engage the perceiving functions. (shrink)