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

Chapter 4: Analysis of Psalms 3-8‏,סָ‏ כַ‏ ‏ְך)‏ “protect” 56 God, in turn, will do three things for the righteous. First, he will16:3:1, v. 12c) them, a term indicating that he will “cover” them so as to makethem unapproachable (see Holladay 2000, s.v. I.2). Second, he will “bless”7:4:2, v. 13b)—a term ‏,ףָ‏ טַ‏ ש)‏ “cover” 327:74:1, v. 13a) them. Third, he will ‏,בָ‏ שַ‏ ‏ְך)‏‏,שָ‏ קון)‏ “favour” meaning “to surround” (Schultz 1999:§1608)—them with his56:13:1) as a soldier covers himself with his “shield” ‏,קִ‏ נָ‏ ה)‏ 20:3:1). Unlike thesmall shield in Psalm 3:4, the shield mentioned here is “a large rectangularcovering for the whole body” (Swanson 1997:§7558). The final metaphorpictures Yahweh accepting the righteous and expressing his approval of themby placing a shield of protection around them.4.3.6 ThemesIn essence, the psalm is about who may approach Yahweh (see Broyles1999:56-58) and receive a favourable hearing. The central theme seems to be56 The majority of translations treat the waw copulative + imperfect וְ‏ תָ‏ סֵ‏ ‏ְך as semanticallyimperatival (see Gesenius, Kautzsch and Cowley 2003:§107.4), drawing its ‘mood’ from thepreceding jussives. Grammatically, nothing prevents one interpreting it as a straightforwardcoordinate imperfect (“and you will spread your protection over them”), which would carry asemantic nuance of grounds, purpose or result (e.g., NKJV; ASV; see Van der Merwe, Naudéand Kroeze 1997:§21.4-5; Putnam 2002:§2.2).134