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

Chapter 4Analysis of Psalms 3-8The purpose of this chapter is to lay a foundation for evaluating the basis onwhich the redactors of the Psalter arranged Psalms 3-8. Any attempt toidentify the criteria of arrangement must be based on a sound workingknowledge of what is known about each psalm. Therefore, this chapter willpresent an exegetical summary of each psalm in the chosen corpus.The objective of the chapter is a modest one—to provide a basis for the nextphase of the study. The exegetical work is not intended to be innovative orgroundbreaking. It needs to make sound observations about each psalm,observations that will expose possible links between them.For each psalm, I shall explore six elements. The first four—textual variants,historical reconstruction, setting in life and structural analysis—succinctly87