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

Chapter 6: Composition of Psalms 3-86.2 Verbal linksIn the previous chapter, I conducted an exhaustive analysis of words linkingadjacent psalms. In this section, I shall examine words shared by nonadjacentpsalms. The purpose of this analysis is to determine what, ifanything, provided a rationale for the arrangement of Psalms 3-8 as a whole.6.2.1 The relationship between Psalms 3 and 7An analysis of the headings (see §6.1) identified Psalm 7 as being the oddone out amongst Psalms 3-8 because it belonged neither to the musicdirector’s collection ( ַ ֵ מְ‏ נַ‏ ‏(לַ‏ nor to the genre classification “psalm” זְ‏ מוש)‏ ‏.(מִ‏ Theheadings also revealed some affinity between Psalms 3 and 7 that called foran explanation as to how and why Psalm 7 came to occupy its presentposition. The quest for that explanation must begin with a verbal analysis.Table 6.5 presents an exhaustive list of all lexemes in Psalm 3 that are sharedwith other psalms in my corpus. Entries in light grey indicate cognate wordsinstead of identical lexemes.Table 6.5: Lexemes that Psalm 3 shares with other psalmsPsalm 3 Psalm 4 Psalm 5 Psalm 6 Psalm 7 Psalm 8אֹיֵב אֹיֵב אֹיֵב אֹיֵב244