Smith DTh Thesis (final).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

Chapter 4: Analysis of Psalms 3-8multiple discourse features in the psalm? Although the use of selah, whateverits meaning, often does serve as a good indicator of the structural divisions ofa psalm, this is not always the case (e.g., Pss 52, 55 and 59). Mostsignificantly, the rhetorical structure of Psalm 4 is remarkably similar to that ofPsalm 3, and the two selah’s in Psalm 4 do not represent strophic divisions.The alternation between first and third person references to Yahweh, coupledwith rhythmic 2 + 1 balance of the substrophes, makes Kselman’s (1987)analysis of the structure of Psalm 3 much more convincing than the traditionalfour-strophe view. 26 Kselman’s interpretation could be graphically illustratedas follows:26 Christensen’s logoprosodic analysis tends to confirm this structure. He sees Psalm 3 asconsisting of “6 strophes arranged in 3 cantos” (2005a:7)—canto I: 3:1-3 and 3:4; canto II: 3:5and 3:6; canto III: 3:7 and 3:8-9. His arithmetic count identified 3:5-6 as the centre of thepsalm and motivated him to group 3:7 with 3:8-9.96