Conceptualization of God in the Book of Psalm-A Study of Metaphor Based on Cognitive Theory

This study is aimed to describe how God is conceptualized through metaphors in The Book of Psalms by adopting the theory of conceptual metaphor (Lakkof & Johnson, 1980). After identifying all metaphorical verses of the Psalms, they can be classified into four main metaphors functioning to portray the image of God: (1) GOD IS REFUGE, (2) GOD IS SHEPHERD, (3) GOD IS SAVIOR and (4) GOD IS KING. Mapping and Blending methods are applied to reveal the meaning of those metaphors, provided with cultural and socio-historical context existing in the source domain. Findings from this study are (1) metaphors in the Psalms have function as religious language to express spiritual experience in relation with transcendent or divine reality. (2) Through metaphors God as target domain is conceptualized by means of real things as source domain.