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

Chapter 5: Concatenation in Psalms 3-8Although commentators occasionally make fleeting remarks about similaritiesor relationships between adjacent psalms in the chosen corpus, to myknowledge no detailed analysis of the relationships between Psalms 3-8 hasbeen conducted.The purpose of this chapter is to identify the editorial rationale for thejuxtaposition of each pair of adjacent psalms. My analysis of each pair ofpsalms covers three sections. The first section presents an exhaustivesynopsis of all shared lexemes together with an assessment as to whichones, if any, may have been significant linking words between the psalms.The second section explores factors other than verbal links which may tie apair of psalms together. This comparison is based on the exegeticalsummaries presented in the previous chapter and covers historical, functional,structural and thematic observations. The third section weighs the variouslinks identified in an attempt to discern which one(s), if any, motivated theeditors to place each pair of psalms side by side. The analyses in this chapterwill focus on adjacent psalms. Out of necessity, occasionally the broaderliterary context will be brought to bear on the evidence, but a full analysis ofthe wider context awaits the following chapter.181