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

Chapter 6: Composition of Psalms 3-8the arrangement of a group of psalms to restrict themselves to conservativeconclusions regarding why the redactors’ placed a particular psalm in aparticular place and what message(s) they may have been trying to convey byits placement.Using these conservative assumptions as my point of departure, I found noevidence in the text to suggest that the shape of the six psalms in my corpusis designed to communicate a message greater than the sum of the individualpoems. I did detect some thematic interplay, but nothing strong or clearenough to persuade me the editors were trying to convey a special messagethrough the arrangement.I conclude, therefore, that the references to enemies provide a loose thematicunity to Psalms 3-8. Enemies are a pervasive theme in all six psalms. Theirpresence largely accounts for other shared themes amongst these psalms.There is no evidence in the text itself to suggest that the order of Psalms 3-8was designed to tell a story or to convey a message.6.4 Conclusions: the compilation of Psalms 3-8The objective of this chapter was to discover how the larger unit consisting ofPsalms 3-8 was compiled. How did it come to exist in its present form? What,290