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Post by Dr Rich Klein on Mar 11, 2015 9:04:02 GMT -6
Psalm 3 is an individual lament psalm set in four Hebrew stanzas.
Correct or incorrect?
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Post by CowboysDad on Mar 11, 2015 13:46:36 GMT -6
The three uses of "selah" create structure (perhaps stanzas as you have said) for the psalm (following vs. 2, 4 and 8 in the English text). There are no notations in the Hebrew that mark off any stanzas, but clearly the "selah"s suggest THREE. I wouldn't see the title as a stanza in itself, but that may be the reason for your suggestion that there are four stanzas. I see three stanzas.
- Daniel
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Post by brianwagner on Mar 11, 2015 20:37:25 GMT -6
Correct enough, Brother Klein! :-) I'm not a fan of the title "Lament" for this category of Psalms, but I guess it is the popular term. I would prefer "Supplication Psalm" more. JP Lange says there are 4 stanzas, two verses each. I like him as a commentator. And if there was a Selah after vs 6, that would make one think even more of four equal parts.
But if we ignore the Selahs altogether, there are two prayers at either end of an affirmation of trust. Verses 1-3 form a prayer of complaint; Verses 4-6 an affirmation of trust, and Verses 7-8 a prayer for help and a doxology. I know the Selahs are in 4th century LXX manuscripts, but does anyone know if they were found in the Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts containing portions from the Psalms?
And out of curiosity... why this question? |
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Post by CowboysDad on Mar 11, 2015 22:02:30 GMT -6
Let me clarify my post above. If we are looking to the HEBREW for any help with the structure, then the selahs would be our only clue, and they would suggest three "musical" divisions, but "thematically" there are other possibilities. Ross too sees three thematic divisions, Brian, but instead he suggests vs. 1-2 (surrounded), vs. 3-6 (sustained) and vs. 7-8 (saved).
I know for a fact that Pastor Klein has written extensively on the Psalms and reads through them with great regularity.
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Post by Dr Rich Klein on Mar 14, 2015 17:22:20 GMT -6
What set me thinking was David G. Mobberley's comment in the Cokesbury Basic Bible Commentary, "Psalms"
that the Third Psalm possesses four stanzas. Yes, I too saw and see the three Selahs. But, between Selah two and
three the paragraph is disproportionate to the first two "selah" paragraphs. Even Charles Ryrie in his
Study Bible shows a gap between verses six and seven for whatever reason he had in mind.
If you count the Hebrew words in verses one and two, then verses three and four, and then verses five and six they
add up to fifteen words each. Verses seven and eight add up to eighteen words. Its all curious to me:)
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Post by brianwagner on Mar 14, 2015 17:56:22 GMT -6
Form can certainly be interesting, but not as much as content, as I am sure you would agree. It is such an interesting prayer, and meditation, when one considers the historical context of being run out of town by ones own son! But another "form" question that rises to my mind, when I consider this historical context, is why God wanted this Psalm placed early in the hymnbook of OT faith!
I am still wondering, however, if the Selahs were added, or were they original and inspired. I remember that in seminary I was presented with the argument that the psalm in Habakkuk "proved" that the headings in all Psalms were original and inspired. But I had never thought about the Selahs in that regard.
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Post by CowboysDad on May 12, 2015 22:28:06 GMT -6
Brian, in the DSS there is no fragment of Psalm 3 in which to look for "selah," but there are examples in the DSS as a whole. See the following link: archive.org/stream/TheBiblicalQumranScrolls/61301866-The-Biblical-Qumran-Scrolls-Eugene-Charles-Ulrich#page/n646/mode/1upLook at 44:8 (English), 44:9 (Hebrew), page 642, 4QPsc, which has extant סל[ה. Psalm 49, also in 4QPsc, page 644, has סלה two times extant as well, lines 28 and 31. |
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