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

Chapter 6: Composition of Psalms 3-8Besides asking whether the psalms in my corpus tell a story with sequentialmovement, it might also be asked whether they are arranged to convey aparticular theological message, that is, to make a point the editors wished toexpress. In my opinion, a pitfall to be avoided in modern studies on corpi ofpsalms is overeagerness on the part of the researcher to attributecommunicative significance to the positioning of a particular psalm or to theflow of motifs through a small group of psalms. Since the redactors of thePsalter seldom signpost their communicative intent underlying the positioningof a particular psalm, modern interpreters are on much more solid groundwhen they are observing concrete links between groups of psalms than theyare when they attempt to move from those observations to conclusions aboutthe redactors’ communicative intention behind their arrangement. Forexample, it is easy to observe the prominent, central position of Psalm 119 inBook V, but it would be speculation to suggest that its exact positioningserved as a call from the redactors for pilgrims to open themselves to thetorah. This may be a legitimate inference a reader might draw from thearrangement, but it is difficult to demonstrate that it is the inference the editorsintended readers to draw. There is room for tentative hypotheses about the287