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

Chapter 7: Conclusionprevious chapter to the effect that verbal-thematic links provided the primarycriterion for concatenation. An exhaustive study of lexemes shared betweenPsalms 4, 5 and 6 somewhat corroborated the perception created by theheadings that they were a pre-existing trio in the music director’s collectionbefore being included in Book I of the canonical Psalter. 154 Finally, anexhaustive list of shared lexemes between all six psalms confirmed theimportance of terms depicting “enemies”, especially קשש and יַב ‏,אָ‏ as linkingwords in the corpus.By analysing recurring motifs in Psalms 3-8, 155 I concluded that they coherearound themes emerging from the presence of the psalmists’ enemies. Lesserrecurring themes, such as God’s favour on the righteous and his disapprovalof the wicked, and urgent prayers for God’s intervention, protection anddeliverance, are present because of the threat the enemies pose. Thus154 The four shared terms were “you Lord” ( ָ ה יהוה ‏,(אַ‏ “hear” מַ‏ ע)‏ ‏,(שָ‏ “pray/prayer” ‏(ץלל)‏ and‏.חסד155 I selected seven themes for analysis, namely, (a) enemies, (b) God’s disfavour, (c) God’sfavour, (d) salvation, (e) protection, (f) prayers and (g) righteousness, joy and praise. Thesewere chosen because they appeared to be the most prominent and frequent themes recurringin my corpus.309