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

Chapter 1: IntroductionThe validity of ending with Psalm 8 is confirmed by other scholarly analyses ofthis corpus. Brennan (1980) demarcated Psalms 1-8 as a unit. Labuschagne(2007) treats Psalms 2-8 as a sub-group, considering Psalm 1 as anintroduction to the Psalter. He regards Psalms 2 and 8 as respectively theintroduction and conclusion to the sub-group of Psalms 2-8. Van der Lugt(2005, cited in Labuschagne) considers Psalms 3-8 as a mini-collection. 2 Stek(2002:784, 789) treats Psalms 3-14 as a major group consisting of twobalanced subsubgroups, namely, Psalms 3-8 and Psalms 9-14.1.5 DesignThe research design falls under qualitative, literary research (textual analysis;see Mouton 2001:167-168). The research asks primarily descriptive andcausal questions, seeking first to identify links between the selected psalms(descriptive) and then to explain the rationale for those links (causal). Thelogical framework is inductive since the researcher will first gather data fromobservations of the psalms and then use the data to assess the basis and2 Van der Lugt (cited by Labuschagne 2007) believes Psalm 7 is a composite of twoindependent poems, namely, verses 1-9a and 9b-18. Whether or not Psalm 7 was originally asingle psalm does not materially affect his recognition that Psalm 8 represents the mostlogical ending point for the mini-corpus of psalms beginning with Psalm 3.7