Copyright © 1983 by
PSALM 74: A
LITERARY-STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
GRAEME E. SHARROCK
Ps 74 is not an easy psalm to
translate or interpret. This article
approaches the task through an inductive analysis
of the structure
of the text, in the process of which a fresh
translation is also
provided. It then focuses on the significance of
the structure for
three themes: religious rhetoric in times of national
crisis; the self-
identity of the community; and concern for the
name of God.
1. The Literary Structure of the Psalm
My investigation of the structure of
the psalm as given herein
will include these steps: determining the basic
structure, analyzing
the relationship between structure and content, and
then interpret-
ing the role of structure
for the total meaning of the psalm.
Determining the Basic
Structure
By structure1 I mean the
"inherent framework"2 of the psalm
which arises to the reader's view from a close
analysis of the text.
Such
a framework may or may not be evident at first reading. It can
seldom be reduced to a mere "outline," as is
attempted by most
commentaries.3 The emergent pattern
must be multi-dimensional;
1 This approach is to be
differentiated from both form-critical and structuralist
approaches. The form-critical scholar is primarily
interested in correlating texts
with pre-supposed social situations from which the
literature may have arisen. The
newer structuralist method
focuses on binary structures of the mind and their
manifestation in the text. My concern
is rather the literary-structural shape of the
text.
2 Rolf Knierim, "Old Testament Form-Criticism
Reconsidered," Int
27 (1973):
459.
3 Although many
commentators consider it too problematical to give an outline
for our psalm, some have tried. L. Sabourin, The Psalms: Their
Origin and
Meaning (
(
211
212 GRAEME
E. SHARROCK
pathos and movement must be charted along with the
more static
elements of the text.
How do we begin to describe the
structure of a text? The first
step is familiarity, achieved both by reading and by
hearing the text
read. Certain features—figures, ideas, metaphors, metre—will be-
come evident. The observant reader will be alert to
the presence
and placement of words and phrases, along with
variations in the
pace and intensity of the text. Particular attention
should be given
to the verbal pattern, because the action words in
any language
carry both meaning and movement.
In analyzing structure, it is
important to recognize that various
types of pattern are possible. The interpreter must
take care not to
superimpose a pattern that is alien to the text
itself, and then try to
compensate for the ill-fit by emending the text and
restructuring
the stanzas!
In the following examination of Ps
74, it is the verbal pattern
that will first claim our attention. Not only do the
verbs dominate
by their position and power, but they can be
easily divided accord-
ing to tense into five
consecutive groups. With attention to the
primary or initial verb of each line, we can
group the verses of
Ps
74 in this way:
1-3 Imperatives
(apart from introductory complaint)
4-9 Perfects
(with supplementary imperfect in vs. 9)
10-11 Imperfects
12-17 Perfects (with supplementary imperfect in vs. 14)
18-23 Imperatives
(and supporting jussives, etc.)
If we reduce the pattern to main
verbs only, the possibility of a
chiastic or mirror-structured psalm emerges:4
enemy. C. Briggs, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Psalms
(
tetrastichs—, but relies heavily on
the presence of supposed glosses. E. J. Kissane,
The Book of Psalms (
1-5,
6-11, 12-17, 18-23.
4 For discussion and
examples of chiastic literary constructions in biblical
literature, see, e.g., N. W. Lund, "The
Presence of Chiasmus in the Old Testament,"
AJSL 46 (1930): 104-126;
idem, Chiasmus in the New Testament (
1942).
On the psalms, see the studies of Robert L. Alden,
"Chiastic Psalms: A Study
PSALM 74 213
A. Imperatives
B. Perfects
C.
Imperfects
B'.
Perfects
A'.
Imperatives
The result is an inverted
symmetrical structure in which the
imperative paragraphs (A and A') introduce and
conclude the
psalm, the perfect verbs (B and B') develop some
concrete actions
in the psalm, and the central verses (C) form the
central axis,
pointing back to the earlier sections and forward
to the subsequent
ones.
In the next stage we examine the fit
between the verbal
structure and the contents of the psalm.
Relationship of
Structure and Content
If we overlay the linguistic
features and content of the psalm
on the skeleton above, the result is a symmetrical
but dynamic
structure in which individual features can be seen
as contributary
to the whole. The composition is complex and yet
clearly co-
ordinated, with minimal interplay
between motifs until the final
paragraph and climax.
We now translate and examine each
paragraph, noting its theme,
subjects, and mood. Between each paragraph lies
the significant
literary device of a "hinge" which
formally links part to part.
A:
Vss. 1-3
JsAxAl; lyKiW;ma1 A Maskil of Asaph
Hcan,lA TAH;nazA
Myhilox< hmAlA Why, 0 Elohim, are you perpetually
:j`t,yfir;ma
NxcoB; j~P;xa Nwaf;y, angry?5
Why do your nostrils smoke
against the sheep of your pasture?
in the Mechanics of Semitic Poetry in Psalms
1-50," JETS 17 (1974): 11-28,
and
sequels JETS
19 (1976): 191-200; 21 (1978): 199-210.
5 A study of this word in
its Qal form does not support the usual rendering,
"to
reject, spurn, abandon." Most OT uses are
intransitive like the Akkadian verb zenu,
referring to a state, not an action requiring an
object. See R. Yaron, "The Meaning
of ZANAH," VT 13 (1963): 237-239.
214 GRAEME
E. SHARROCK
Md,q, tAyniqA
j~t;dAfE rkoz; 2 Remember your congregation, acquired
j~t,lAHEna
Fb,we TAl;xaGA of old! Redeem your
inheritance, Mt.
:OB
TAn;kawA hz, NOy.ci-rha
Hcan,
tOxwu.mal; j~ym,fAP;
hmAyrihA 3 Lift up your feet6 toward
the perpetual
:wd,qo.Ba byeOx frahe-lKA ruins! Every evil doer is in the sanc-
tuary!
The initial approach to Elohim is in question form, and serves
as an introduction to the whole psalm. The tone
then quickly
moves with the urgent imperatives—"Remember! ...
Redeem! .. .
Lift
up! . . ." —to the most direct form of address possible.
The
subjects of the plaint are the people of God and
the place of sacred
presence, a dual motif which extends throughout
the psalm. The
first paragraph thus introduces all the characters
and emotion of
the drama, with a plea for intervention.
The final colon (vs. 3b)
thematically links the first and second
paragraphs by juxtaposing the offenders and the
plaintiffs and
announcing the subject of the second paragraph.
B:
Vss. 4-9
j~d,fEOm
br,q,B; j~yr,r;co UgxEwA 4 The
adversaries roared in the middle
:tOtxo MtAtOOx UmWA of your assembly; they set up their
ensigns (for signs).7
hlAf;mAl;
xybimeK; fdaUAyi 5 They
slashed like a man who goes up
:tOm.Dur;qa
Cfe-j`bAsEBi with an axe into a
thicket of trees;8
dHayA.
hAyH,UTPi TAfav; 6 and then all its carved work they
:NUmlohEya tPolaykev; lywi.kaB; smashed with hatchet and axes.
6 The Hiphil
imperative "Lift up!" is clear, but the object is debated. Dahood
assumes the addition of the yodh due to the unfamiliarity of
the Massoretes with pa
as a conjunction. F. Delitzsch,
Biblical Commentary on the Psalms
(Edinburgh,
1873)
2: 329, paraphrases, "May God then lift His feet up high ... i.e. with
long
hurried steps, without stopping, move towards
His dwelling-place that now lies in
ruins, that by virtue of His interposition it may
rise again."
7 The second colon is
generally considered corrupt and untranslatable. Weiser
refuses to translate the final word and all of vss. 5-6. Dahood redivides the
consonants and translates "emblems by the hundreds."
See P. R. Ackroyd, "Some
Notes
on the Psalms," JTS 17 (1966):
392.
8 The verses here are
considered as being among the most difficult in the entire
PSALM 74 215
j~w,DAq;mi
wxebA UHl;wi 7 They
have burned your sanctuary com-
:j~m,w;-NKaw;mi
Ull;.Hi Cr,xAlA pletely;9 they desecrated the
dwelling-
place of your name.
dHayA
MnAyni MBAlib; Urm;xA 8 They said in their hearts, "We will
:Cr,xABA lxe-ydefEOm-lkA Upr;WA utterly destroy!" They burned all the
assemblies of El in the land.10
dOf-Nyxe
UnyxirA xlo UnytetoOx 9 Our signs" we have not seen; there is
xybinA no one among us who knows "Until
:hmA-dfa
fadeyo UnTAxi-xlov; when?"
The attention of Elohim
is now directed to the enemies who
have ravaged the sanctuary. The citation of
destructive acts is not
Psalter, with no definitive translation
possible.
The difficulty begins immediately
with yiwada’, a rarer
form from the verb "to know." However, the context provides
no object, and the concept of knowing is not
congruent with the sense which would
favor an act, preferably violent. Here we follow Bardtke's text in Biblia Hebraica,
where he emends to yigde'u, "they
smash/break in pieces."
The phrase
"who goes up" from the Hiphil fem. sing.
Part. poses a problem of
gender, but the meaning is clear. See J. A. Emerton, "Notes on Three Passages in
Psalms
Book III," JTS 14 (1963): 2.
Also cf. Jgs 9:48; Neh
8:15; Isa 40:16.
The second colon contains a hapax legomenon
where the clearest member is
"tree." I understand the bicolon
as a simile in which a man goes up a hillside into a
thicket of trees with axes to chop them down. In
Zech 11:2ff. the felling of trees,
sounds of lions roaring, and the misfortune of the
flock are again combined. See
also Isa 10:33-34 and Jer 46:22.
9 The literal rendering
is "to the ground"—an idiom meaning "completely" or
"utterly."
10 Dahood
reads, ". . . let all their progeny be burned, all the divine assemblies
in the land," but this assumes some equation
between "progeny" and "assemblies."
B.
D. Erdman, The Hebrew Book of Psalms
(
"all the younger generation, the offspring of the oppressors,
will believe that all the
places of assembly of El have been burned up."
This would require the fusion of
two cola into one, and force an unnecessary future
sense upon the text. As Delitzsch,
p.
329, notes, the Qal fut. of sargu equals the Hiphil hunah "to force, oppress." See
also Num 21:30 and Exod
24:19.
11 Although
straightforward in the MT, this verse is a crux
interpretum. The 3d-
person masc. pl. suffix on "signs" is not to
be overlooked, as is done by some
interpreters. "Our signs"
is to be contrasted with "their signs" in vs. 4. See J. J. M.
Roberts,
"Of Signs, Prophets and Time Limits: A Note on Psalm 74:9," CBQ 39
(1967):
481.
216 GRAEME
E. SHARROCK
merely an indictment of the violent invaders; it is
designed to incite
Elohim to avenging action; it is his sanctuary and
assemblies that
have been harried.
Vs. 9 serves both as a verbal and
dramatic link to the next
paragraph. Not only is there already a transition
from "they" to
"we," but the single phrase "Until when?" is
immediately repeated
at the start of C.
C:
Vss. 10-11
rcA
Jr,HAy; Myhilox< ytamA-dfa 10 Until when, 0 Elohim,
will the adver-
:Hcan,lA j~m;wi byeOx CxenAy; sary revile? Will the enemy
deride your
name forever?
j~d;yA
bywitA hmA.lA 11 Why
do you draw back your hand,
:hl.eka j~q;vHe br,q,.mi j~n,ymiyvi even your right hand
from the middle
of your assembly?12
The pivotal paragraph of the psalm
refocuses the major issue
by the use of direct questions which recall both
previous para-
graphs (A and B). The subjects there are now presented
in the light
of a new motive: Elohim's
possible concern for his own name. This
move from the extrinsic to the intrinsic requires
reflection on part
of the deity, heightening the psychological
engagement of the
psalm. The threat to reputation is presented as a
greater danger
than the accomplished destructions, as a more urgent
basis of the
appeal for salvation.
This section itself is the hinge of
the whole psalm in its
synthesis of prior arguments and its anticipation
of A'. However,
the simple waw at the beginning of vs. 12 acts as a paragraph
connector—a rare occurrence in this psalm.
12 The first colon is
clear, but the middle word of the line could be placed in
either colon. Does God keep his hand in the fold of
his garment instead of laying it
upon his enemies in destruction (cf. Exod 4:6ff; Isa 52:10; Lam 2:8),
as most
translations suggest? The LXX and
versions misread or emend huqka to mean
your bosom." See also Ezra 8:18, Ps 80:18, and Isa 50:2 in support of "hand" in a
favorable sense.
PSALM 74 217
B':
Vss. 12-17
Md,q,.mi yKil;ma Myhiloxve 12 Yet,
0 Elohim, you have been my13
:Cr,xAhA br,q,B; tOfUwy; lfePo king from of old;
performing deliver-
ances in the middle of the
land:
MyA
j~z.;fAb; TAr;raOp hTAxa 13 You
split14 Yam with your strength;
:Myim.Ah-lfa
Myniyni.ta ywexrA TAr;Bawi you shattered the heads
of Tanninim
upon the waters.
NtAyAv;li ywexrA
TAc;ca.ri hTAxa 14 You15
crushed the heads of Leviathan,
Myyi.cil;
MfAl; lkAxEma Un.n,T;Ti and
gave them as food to the people
of the desert.
lHanAvA
NyAf;ma TAf;qabA hTAxa 15 You cleaved spring and stream; you
:NtAyxe tOrhEna TAw;baOh hTAxa dried up the perennial
rivers.16
hlAy;lA
j~l;-Jxa MOy j~l; 16 To you belongs the day, yet more to
:wm,wAvA rOxmA tAOnykihE hTAxa you belongs the night;
you established
luminary and sun.17
13 The suffix is changed
to "our king" in the Syriac, but reflects
the commu-
nity's later use of the psalm
rather than any textual variant.
14 The translation of porreta
is hotly disputed. Some have seen here the division
of the
reading has strongly influenced commentators.
Although "divide" is the common
translation, the root means "to
cleave/break." The object is yam,
a surprising form,
when the poetic use is more often plural, as in the
second colon. It is probably a
personification, hence my translation.
15 The emphatic personal
pronoun is used seven times to emphasize the subject
of the actions.
16 "Cleaved" is
used of the dividing of the Sea in Exod 14:16, Ps
78:13, Isa 63:12,
etc., but whether it is to be used so here is
unclear.
The context and other parallels
(Ps
89:11; Isa 51:9; Job 27:12-13) suggest rather a
hostile action. However, is "spring
and stream" a suitable object? The parallelism
of cola suggests a reference to the sea,
perhaps the ocean currents and subterranean
channels from which the forces of
chaos rush up, as in Gen 7:11. See H. Gunkel, Genesis (
132.
Emerton, "'Spring and
Torrent' in Psalm LXXIV.15," VT, Suppl. Volume du
Congres Geneve, 1965,
suggests instead that "the whole of Ps. Ixxiv.15 describes the
removal of the primeval waters from the earth.
God cleft open springs so that the
water might descend through them."
17 "Luminary"
probably refers to moon. God thus establishes his dominion over
both light and dark zones at creation. See Isa 40:26ff.
218 GRAEME
E. SHARROCK
Cr,xA tOlUbG;-lKA
TAb;ca.hi hTAxa 17 You
appointed all the boundaries of
:MTAr;cay;
hTAxa Jr,HvA Cyiqa the earth; summer and winter—you
formed them.18
What a transformation of tone! God
is now addressed with the
emphatic pronoun; his "deliverances"
are recited in an ancient
hymn; the very initial vocative erases the previous
tone of com-
plaint—an affirmation of faith in the context of
perplexity. The
psalmist wishes to stimulate confidence in Elohim's present ability
to defeat the enemies of the nation.
A subtle but deliberate link between
B' and A' is provided by
the word play upon horep, "winter" in vs.
17 and herep,
"revile"
in vs. 18.
A':
Vss. 18-23
hvAhy;
Jr,He byeOx txzo-rkAz; 18 Remember this!19 The enemy
has re-
:j~m,w;
UcxEni lbAnA Mfav; viled Yahweh; and a foolish
people
has spurned your name.20
j~r,OT
wp,n, tya.Hal; NTeTi-lxa 19 Do not give the life of your dove to a
:Hcan,lA HKaw;ti-lxa j~yy,.nifE ty.aHa wild animal; Do not
forget the soul of
your afflicted ones!
Uxl;mA yKi
tyriB;la FBeha 20 Consider
your covenant,21 for the dark
:smAHA tOxn; Cr,x,-yKewaHEma places of the land are full of violent
inhabitants!
MlAk;ni j`Da
bwoyA-lxa 21 Do not let the ashamed sit oppressed!22
:j~m,w;
Ull;hay; NOyb;x,v; ynifA Let the afflicted and
miserable praise
your name!23
18 This is a classic chiastic
construction in which the very sounds of the words
create an aesthetic balance—a fitting conclusion to
the sevenfold paeon. Perhaps the
verse reflects a polemic against the season-based
Baal cycle.
19
The initial verb is to be repointed as an imperative,
as in vs. 2.
20 This synonymous
parallelism forms an inclusio or envelope around the
hymn
(B') with the same idea in vs. 10.
21 Dahood
redivides the syllables, replacing
"covenant" with "temple," but this
seems unnecessary. The real difficulty is with the
rest of the verse, where the syntax
is unclear and the metre
undefined. I assume that the subordinate clause is designed
to provide a motive for God to "Consider the
covenant."
22 The command is either
"Do not (let) return" or "do not (let) sit, dwell." The
Syriac seems to be correct in interpreting the
practice as part of a mourning ritual.
23 The second colon is
parallel to the first, but states the thought positively. The
PSALM 74 219
j~b,yri
hbAyri Myhilox< hmAUq 22 Arise, 0 Elohim,
and plead your
:MOy.ha-lKA
lbAnA-yni.mi j~t;PAr;H, rkoz; case!24
Remember that your insult
comes from the foolish one daily!
j~yr,r;co
lOq HKaw;Ti-lxa 23 Do
not forget the voice of your adver-
:dymitA hl,fo j~ym,qA NOxw; saries, the uproar25
of your opponents
which arises continually!
The abrupt movement from the hymn of
acclamation in B' to
the intense appeal for deliverance in A' is
striking. No room
appears to be allowed for denial of the urgent
pleas of the psalmist.
The
direct entreaty recapitulates the previous appeals and synthe-
sizes the incentives. In the structure it corresponds
to A (note the
use of "Remember!" as the initial
imperative), but it also in-
corporates thematic threads from B
("Enemy"/"enemies," "roar"/
"uproar") and C
("adversary"/"adversaries," "your name,"
"enemy," "revile"/"scorn," etc.). Elohim's anticipated reaction is a
response to blasphemies of the oppressor, the
pleadings of the
oppressed, and the dishonor done to the divine
name.
The Role of Structure
for the Total Meaning of the Psalm
The third step in describing the
structure of the psalm ex-
amines the less obvious but integral movements within
the psalm
which further endorse our proposed analysis and
suggest an inter-
pretive stance.
The general structure outlined above
highlights five distinct
but related paragraphs. Each exhibits its own
predominant verbal
tense, mood, and sentence type; yet, assisted by the
editorial link-
ages, the psalm moves toward a crescendo of
intensity.
chiastic construction of the verse demonstrates
the anticipated movement from
depression to delight:
Do NOT LET sit . . . ashamed,
oppressed;
afflicted, miserable
Do LET praise your name.
24 The verb and noun
cognates ribah ribeka have
no English equivalent, but the
theme is familiar to OT readers as the legal idiom of
the lawsuit. Yahweh's response
is conceived to be shaped by the covenant
procedures, hence the appeal in vs. 20.
25 "Uproar" may
be compared with "roared" in vs. 4 on onomatopoeic as well
as lexical grounds.
220 GRAEME
E. SHARROCK
The chiastic structure of the psalm
suggests a mode of inter-
pretation in which the paragraphs
may be seen as wholes in
relation to other sections. If we first examine
A, C, and A', we
detect a common form of plaintive address that is not
shared by B
and B'. Here the main thread of the psalm centers
around the
religious, political, and psychological
consequences of the work of
the enemy. The direct appeal to Elohim
employed here is rare in
the OT; the urgent imperatives are near the edge of
the human
capacity of language. The interrogatives of C
advance into cries of
desperation in A'. Although A' recapitulates the
imperatives of A,
the intensification is obvious.
The two intermediary paragraphs B
and B' serve a contrasting
purpose. Each group of six verses is a catalog
of actions in the
perfect tense, yet these stand in antithetical
relation to each other:
the enemy's acts of destruction are
"answered" by Yahweh's de-
liverances. Although the verbs in
each paragraph are clearly strong
and active, not one of the actions of the enemy is
predicated of
Yahweh, or vice
versa.
J. P. M. van der Ploeg
notices this contrast,
but concludes that it is not certain whether in the
psalmist's mind
this was intentional."26 However,
the structural opposition of B
and B' forces us to favor deliberate construction.
The hymn of Yahweh's deliverances in
B' may then be seen as
a negation of the account of the enemy's work. In
so doing, it is
first of all a statement of faith—transcending
present religious
bewilderment by recourse to the
supra-historical understanding of
God
as "King"—which attends the entreaty sections, A, C, and A'.
It
is also a sermon (we assume the psalm was composed and
communicated to the community in
public prayer) in which the
psalmist seeks to alleviate religious anxieties
by recalling traditions
which preceded the existence of the sanctuary.
Finally, the hymn as
addressed to God himself urges the Divine One to
demonstrate
again his superiority over all evil and mortal
sacrilegious forces, to
pitch his creative power in a radical demonstration
of antithesis to
the destructive rampages of the enemy.
26 J. P. M. sin der Ploeg, "Psalm 71 and Its
Structurce," in Travels in the World
of the Old Testament:. Studies Presented to Professor M. A. Beek on the occasion of
His 65th Birthday (Asses. 1974). p.
209.
PSALM 74 221
With this foregoing overview of the
structure in relationship
to the total meaning of the psalm, we are ready to
note further the
three themes mentioned earlier—religious rhetoric in
times of
national crisis, the self-identity of the
community, and concern for
the name of God.
2. Prominent Themes in the Psalm
Religious Rhetoric
What I have stated above about B and
B' reveals that these
sections serve a distinctly rhetorical purpose,
especially as the
hymn in B' simultaneously speaks hope to the
worshippers and
elicits help from God. Once the hymn is stated,
the psalmist
returns to the present crisis, but is now
himself reinforced with a
stronger sense of both the urgency and the
possibility of Elohim's
response. His questions are replaced with a holy
courage that
relentlessly pushes the psalm to a
crescendo—and then a severe
silence.
Thus, the placement of paragraphs B
and B' serves a clear
rhetorical function in the total address: In the
mind of the congre-
gation, Elohim's
salvations now displace the destructions of the
enemy; but, recited as a hymn to Elohim,
they also appeal to God
to "live up to his name."
Self-Concept of the
Community
Our second theme examines the status
and self-concept of a
community bereft of their house of worship and
ritual apparatus
and oracles—and hence, also of their national and
religious con-
fidence. The petition is much
more than a mere personal com-
plaint, as the "we" continually indicates.
Several figures are used
for the community's self-designation, but the
animal imagery—
"sheep" and "dove"—is the most vivid.
In A and A' the movement within this
imagery is most
marked. The sheep metaphor is the conventional rural
image of the
relation between God and people immortalized in
David's Twenty-
third Psalm.27 There the leadership of God
is expressed, but here,
27 See also Ezek 34.
222 GRAEME
E. SHARROCK
in A (vs. 1) Elohim
seems to snort at, rather than succor, the flock.
The counterpart in A' only partly
resolves the question. The
people no longer see themselves as a domestic herd
resting "in
green pastures ... beside the still waters"
under the watchful,
benevolent care of a divine shepherd. Rather, they
are the innocent,
defenseless, and pathetic dove about to fall prey to
vicious carni-
vores: "Do not give the
life of your dove to a wild animal!" The
people, like the bird, are "your" possession
as King of creation, as
the one who had power to crush Leviathan (vs. 14)
and the Sea
Monster (vs. 13).
In this way, the intervening hymn
has transformed the image
of God from shepherd of the domestic flock to Lord
of the total
animate creation. The self-designation of the
community is like-
wise adjusted. The metaphor is heightened, the
appeal made more
forceful.
The Name of God
Our third theme for interpretation
in light of the psalm's
structure is the "name" of God. Far more
than mere appellation,
the name is a metonym for the total character,
presence, reputation,
and authority of God. As the sanctuary in
acclaimed "dwelling-place of your name"
(vs. 7), so the attack
upon it by the invaders was an attack upon the
character, credi-
bility, and honor of God
himself. In B,
dwelt" (vs. 2), becomes "the sanctuary ...
the dwelling place of
your name" (vs. 7). Here begins the drawing of Elohim's self-
concern. The central section of the plea is explicit
in its question-
ing, "Will the enemy
deride your name forever?" (vs. 10). The same
theme is taken up immediately after the hymn, "a
foolish people
has spurned your name" (vs. 18), suggesting
that the hymn is
recited in the ears of Elohim
to remind him of his reputation.
Then
the final use of the name offers the possibility that, if God
acts in harmony with his past actions and delivers
his people, then
even "the afflicted and miserable [will] praise
your name" (vs. 21).
In this interpretation, the destructive
acts of the enemy in B
provide a negative incentive for Yahweh to act,
especially when
linked in C with the direct verbal taunts of the
blaspheming
invaders. The positive incentive in reminding Elohim of his repu-
tation in history and creation
(B') is linked in A' with the prospect
PSALM 74 223
of praise instead of ridicule and derision. If
indeed C is the axis of
the petition, then the primary theme of the psalm
is the status of
God's name and reputation. The flanking paragraphs
work to
heighten the issue and prompt God to an act of
salvation for the
desperate community.
3.
Conclusion
Each of the three themes provides a
pattern of development in
which the chiastic structure of the psalm is
demonstrated as being
basic. This is particularly so with regard to the
thematic opposi-
tion, yet functional
co-operation, between B and B', and the
pivotal position of C.
This material is cited with gracious
permission from:
SDA Theological
Berrien Springs
http://www.andrews.edu/SEM/
Please report any errors to Ted
Hildebrandt at: