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

Chapter 4: Analysis of Psalms 3-8Psalm 7 is sometimes listed among the so-called imprecatory psalms (e.g.,Laney 1981:36; Day 2002, note 5).4.5.4 Structural analysisStructurally, this is a problematic psalm. Believing its flow of thought to bedisjointed, scholars have speculated that it may be composed of a collectionof fragments (e.g., Weiser 1962:135; Terrien 2003:118-119). Van der Lugt(2005, cited by Labuschagne 2007) argued that Psalm 7 is a composite of“two originally independent poems”, namely, verses 1-9a and 9b-18. Weiser(1962:135) indicates that “various problems are raised by the change of styleand rhythm, the linguistic peculiarities of phrases used in the psalm, and thewide range covered by the feelings, moods and thoughts which have foundexpression here.”Robert Alden (1974:15) claimed to find a complex four-level chiastic structurein the psalm, but his outline seems forced in that it violates the surfacestructure of the psalm’s strophes. 73 Terrien (2003:118) also suggested a73 Using English Bible verse divisions, Alden’s (1974) analysis treated verses 3-7 as a unit inhis chiastic structure. A natural stanza division requires treating verses 3-5 as a unit, with a155