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

Chapter 5: Concatenation in Psalms 3-8Other than both psalms being attributed to David in the headings, there is noevidence of any historical relationship between them. As I have argued inchapter 4 (see §4.2), the internal evidence from Psalm 4 does not fit thetheory that the heading of Psalm 3, which speaks of David’s flight fromAbsalom, provides the historical occasion for both psalms. 104 Although Psalm3 harmonises with the occasion implied by its heading (see Craigie 1998;Terrien 2003), the implied occasion of Psalm 4 does not appear to be amilitary crisis.The cultic explanation for the placement of Psalms 3 and 4 also suffers fromserious drawbacks. The basis of this view is that they were morning andevening hymns used in morning and evening worship (so Briggs and Briggs1906; Scroggie 1948; Leupold 1961; Weiser 1962; Bratcher and Reyburn1991; Craigie 1998; Broyles 1999; Keil and Delitzsch 2002; Goldingay 2006).While the hypothesis that one or both of these psalms were used in thismanner is plausible, we have no positive internal or external evidence to verifyit. I have doubts about the suitability of Psalm 3 for generalised use in104 This theory has been supported, with varying degrees of confidence, by suchcommentators as Lussier (1947), Leupold (1961), Kidner (1973), Phillips (1988), Richards(1990), Motyer (1994) and Wilcock (2001)193