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

Chapter 4: Analysis of Psalms 3-8‏(חֶ‏ סֶ‏ ד)‏ “love” focuses attention on the middle strophe, dealing with Yahweh’sthat inspires the psalmist’s confidence and worship.4.3.5 TerminologyAfter the opening strophe, strophes 2 and 4 depict “the wicked”, whilestrophes 3 and 5 depict “the righteous”. Terms depicting wickedness andrighteousness hold centre stage, including a number of terms with legalconnotations.The invocation (strophe 1). The opening strophe consists of a protractedappeal for a hearing with Yahweh. This is the most protracted emotionalappeal for a hearing in my corpus; its vocabulary reveals the urgency andרול terms, intensity of the psalmist’s emotions. Except for two very commonand מַ‏ ע ‏,שָ‏ the terminology of the appeal is unique to Psalm 5 within my corpus.The strophe contains six verbs and five nouns that are not used elsewhere inPsalms 3-8.The psalmist describes his petition to Yahweh as “my words” ‏,אֵ‏ מֶ‏ ש)‏ 48:7:1, v.1a), “my groaning” ‏,הָ‏ גִ‏ יג)‏ 2:2:1, v. 1b) and “my cry” ‏,שֶ‏ וַ‏ ע)‏ 1:1:1, v. 2a). The lattertwo nouns both imply strong emotions. הָ‏ גִ‏ יג (possibly a derivative of גָ‏ ה ‏,הָ‏ a root125