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

Chapter 5: Concatenation in Psalms 3-8The heading of Psalm 3 posits its historical occasion (“when he [David] fledfrom Absalom, his son”), whereas the heading of Psalm 4 offers musicalinformation (“for the director of music; with stringed instruments”).The heading for Psalm 3 offers no information regarding its usage in ancientIsrael. The use of סֶ‏ לָ‏ ה in both psalms shows only that they were both usedwith musical accompaniment. However, there is no evidence that the editors102 ‏.סֶ‏ לָ‏ ה attempted to group psalms usingIt is widely believed by modern form critics that Psalms 3 and 4 were usedrespectively as morning and evening prayers in cultic worship (e.g., Briggsand Briggs 1906; Feinberg 1948; Scroggie 1948; Leupold 1961; Weiser 1962;Bratcher and Reyburn 1991; Craigie 1998; Broyles 1999; Keil and Delitzsch2002; Goldingay 2006). The internal evidence connecting Psalm 3 with themorning consists of the psalmist’s past tense references to sleeping andwaking in verse 6. Psalm 4:9 contains a future tense allusion about going tosleep. These imply that the psalmist, and by extension the worshipper (the102 There are 23 psalms that have more than one לָ‏ ה ‏.סֶ‏ Among them, 13 occur in isolation,meaning that their neighbouring psalms do not contain לָ‏ ה ‏.סֶ‏ The remaining 10 include twopairs (Psalms 4-5 and 76-77) and two triplets (Psalms 66-68 and 87-89). There does notappear to be any attempt to group psalms using סֶ‏ לָ‏ ה together.189