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

Chapter 6: Composition of Psalms 3-87. The editors elected to keep Psalms 4-6 together, inserting thembetween Psalms 3 and 7.4) The compilers found a logical place for Psalm 8, which might initiallyhave seemed out of place among the enemy psalms. 144 Noting thatPsalm 7 ends with praise for “the name of the Lord, the Most High” andPsalm 9 begins with praise for “the name of the Lord, the Most High”,Psalm 8, which opens and closes with adoration of the Lord’s majesticname, became an ideal bridge between Psalms 7 and 9.At the risk of using a simplistic analogy, in my minds eye I picture this entiresorting process taking place along similar lines to the way we would organisea filing cabinet. We would first select a few major categories and then sort allthe files into those categories; some files would clearly fit into certaincategories, while others would be a less-than-perfect match. Next we wouldcarefully work through each category, containing a pile of files, carefullysorting it into a chosen order, such as by date or by name. Similarly, it seemsthe editors of the Psalter, when arranging the Davidic psalms of Book I, had acategory for “enemy psalms”. After collecting all the ones they felt belonged in144 Perhaps it was not even in this group originally, but was imported because of its idealability to link Psalms 7 and 9.293