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

Chapter 6: Composition of Psalms 3-8message(s) conveyed through arrangements of psalms, but I thinkresearchers should err on the side of expressing these cautiously andconservatively. 141Turning to my corpus, it would be easy to posit creative but plausiblecommunicative significance underlying the arrangement of the psalms. Forexample, we could posit that Psalms 6-8 offer a progression from penitence(Ps 6) through protest (Ps 7) to praise (Ps 8). Alternatively, if we accepted achiastic arrangement of Psalms 3-7, placing the focus on Psalm 5, we mightinterpret the entire collection as a call for those afflicted by enemies to enter141 Knud Jeppesen (2003:795, emphasis added) recently sounded a similar caution: “Theresults of the form-critical method are much easier to cross-examine and control, than what aholistic reading [of the Psalter] can produce. We don’t know and probably never will knowwhether the canonical order of the Psalms follow [sic] a thought-through plan; on the otherhand, the present form and order is a historical fact we can relate to, and when the Psalmsare read in a canonical order, different lines of ideas seem to be revealed. But it is necessaryto stress again and again that it should not be claimed that the holistic reading represents withany measure of doubt an original intention, and furthermore, it should be borne in mind thatthe lines of thoughts found, might not be the only possible lines. However, studying some ofthe new methods has convinced the writer that through the cautious use thereof, it is possibleto obtain new knowledge about the Psalter and to also make adjustments to results achievedby for example the form-critical researchers.”288