Editing Psalms (section)

===Influences===
Some of the psalms show influences from related earlier texts from the region; examples include various [[Ugaritic texts]] and the Babylonian [[Enūma Eliš]]. These influences may be either of background similarity or of contrast. For example, [[Psalm 29]] shares characteristics with Canaanite religious poetry and themes. [[Robert Alter]] points out that the address to "sons of God" at the opening "[is] best thought of [as] the flickering literary afterlife of a polytheistic mythology" but that "belief in them...is unlikely to have been shared by the scribal circles that produced ''Psalms''".{{sfn|Alter|2007|pp=98-99}} The contrast between the Psalmist's theology and the surrounding area's polytheistic religion is well seen in Psalms 104:26,<ref>{{bibleverse|Psalms|104:26|HE}}</ref> in which locals' mythical fierce sea-god—such as the Babylonian [[Tiamat]], Canaanite [[Yam (god)|Yam]] and the [[Leviathan]] which also appears in the Hebrew Bible—is "reduced to an aquatic pet with whom [[YHWH]] can play".{{sfn|Alter|2007|pp=xiv-xv}}