Psalm 3 → 113
Reasoning: 6720 Output: 3335 Total: 10055
Argument
Here are lines of argument that make Psalm 113 a logical follow-on to Psalm 3. 1) A seam formed by “blessing” - Psalm 3 ends: “To YHWH belongs salvation; Your blessing upon Your people” (3:9). Root ברך. - Psalm 113 opens by enacting that blessing in the other direction: “Blessed be the name of YHWH” (113:2). Same root ברך, now from the people toward God. Thematically, Ps 3’s benediction becomes Ps 113’s response. 2) From individual cry to communal hallel - Psalm 3 is an individual lament-cum-trust (David fleeing Absalom), shifting from “I/me” to a brief communal horizon (“Your people,” 3:9). - Psalm 113 is a communal call to praise (“Praise, servants of YHWH,” 113:1), as if the community now answers the salvation claimed in Psalm 3:9. The pronouns shift from “my God” (3:5) to “our God” (113:5), an expected movement after deliverance: private plea → public praise. 3) Shared and tightly related vocabulary and roots - כבוד “glory”: Ps 3:4 “my glory”; Ps 113:4 “His glory above the heavens.” The personal “my glory” widens to cosmic “His glory,” i.e., the deliverance in Ps 3 proves the transcendent status declared in Ps 113. - רו״ם/גבה “exalt, raise”: Ps 3:4 “You are the lifter of my head” (וּמֵרִים רֹאשִׁי); Ps 113:4 “Exalted (רָם) over all nations,” 113:5 “the One who makes high to sit” (הַמַּגְבִּיהִי), 113:7–8 “raises” (מֵקִים), “lifts” (יָרִים). The same semantic field (high/raise) moves from one man’s restoration (head lifted) to God’s universal exaltation and His lifting of the lowly. - קו״ם “rise/raise”: Ps 3:2 “many are rising against me”; 3:8 “Arise, YHWH!” (קוּמָה). Ps 113:7 “raising (מְקִימִי) the poor from the dust.” The “arise” request of Ps 3 becomes God’s characteristic action of “raising” in Ps 113. - עַם “people”: Ps 3:7 “ten-thousands of people” arrayed against; 3:9 “Your people.” Ps 113:8 “seats [the lowly] with nobles, the nobles of His people” (נְדִיבֵי עַמּוֹ). The “people” who threatened (3:7) now frame honorable re-seating (113:8), a reversal motif. - אֱלֹהַי/אֱלֹהֵינוּ: Ps 3:8 “Save me, my God”; Ps 113:5 “Who is like YHWH our God.” The restored individual joins the community’s doxology. - כֹּל “all”: Ps 3:8 “You smote all my enemies”; Ps 113:4 “YHWH is high above all nations.” The “all” of enemies in 3 becomes the “all” of nations under His exaltation in 113. 4) The “high/low” reversal as a narrative bridge - Psalm 3 depicts God vindicating the beleaguered king (breaking the wicked, lifting the head). - Psalm 113 universalizes the same justice: God seats the humiliated with nobles, gives the barren a home, i.e., the social reversal implicit in Ps 3’s deliverance is made a general principle of God’s rule. This is precisely the Hannah–David theology of reversal (cf. 1 Sam 2:7–8, verbally close to Ps 113:7–8), which historically frames David’s rise and so fits the Absalom-crisis resolution in Ps 3. 5) Spatial enthronement coherence - Psalm 3: God “answers me from His holy mountain” (3:5). God is enthroned yet responsive. - Psalm 113: God is enthroned “on high” (113:4–5) yet “stoops to look in heaven and on earth” (הַמַּשְׁפִּילִי לִרְאוֹת, 113:6). The same paradox—transcendent enthronement plus immanent care—moves from specific help (Ps 3) to a hymn of character (Ps 113). 6) Temporal continuity: night/morning → daylong praise - Psalm 3: “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for YHWH sustains me” (3:6). A night of danger turns into a morning of security. - Psalm 113: “From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of YHWH is to be praised” (113:3). The single rescued night/morning experience expands to an every-day, sunrise-to-sunset praise regime. 7) Imperative logic: plea answered by praise - Psalm 3 contains imperatives addressed to God: “Arise, YHWH; save me” (3:8). - Psalm 113 contains imperatives addressed to the worshipers: “Praise Yah … praise the name of YHWH” (113:1). The community’s imperative to itself is the proper sequel to God’s heeded plea. 8) Davidic/political restoration mirrored in 113:8 - Psalm 3 is set in a royal crisis (Absalom’s revolt) that temporarily dislodges the king from his seat with nobles. - Psalm 113:8 “to seat [the lowly] with nobles” reads like the public, generalized statement of the kind of restoration experienced by David after deliverance—a move from humiliation to re-enthronement among the leaders of his people. 9) Editorial plausibility markers (rarer or weightier links) - The direct repetition of כבוד (not just the idea), with pronominal shift (כבודי → כבודו), is a concrete lexical hinge. - The cluster of “raising” lexemes (רו״ם/גבה/קו״ם) is unusually dense across the pair and in both cases marks turning points (Ps 3: lifted head; Ps 113: God high, lifting the lowly). - The benediction root ברך at the close/open of the two psalms is a strong seam, especially because it reverses direction (God → people in 3; people → God in 113). 10) Life-cycle/liturgical sequence - In Israelite practice and later Jewish usage, lament is followed by thanksgiving/hallelujah. Psalm 3 (a morning trust psalm after a night of peril) naturally precedes a Hallel-style hymn like Psalm 113, which is recited on festivals commemorating deliverance. The movement from crisis (3) to celebratory Hallel (113) matches a well-attested worship sequence. In sum: Psalm 3 narrates a concrete deliverance where YHWH lifts the head of the afflicted king; Psalm 113 universalizes that deliverance into a theology and practice of perpetual praise to the High God who raises the lowly. The lexical seams (ברך; כבוד; רו״ם/קו״ם), the shift from individual plea to communal hallel, the enthronement/high–low motif, and the night-to-day temporal expansion all make Psalm 113 a natural and logical follow-on to Psalm 3.
Evaluation
No evaluation has been recorded for this pair yet.
Prompt
Consider Psalm 3 and Psalm 113 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 113 logically follows on from Psalm 3? Consider stylistic similarities, similarities of form, similarities of vocab or ideas, shared roots (if you're doing the search in Hebrew), connections to sequences of events common in ancient Israelite life, mythology or history shared by the two psalms. Rarer words are more significant than commoner words. Identical forms are more significant than similar forms. The same word class is more significant than different word classes formed from the same root. Identical roots are more significant than suppletive roots. Psalm 3: Psalm 3 1. מִזְמ֥וֹר לְדָוִ֑ד בְּ֝בָרְח֗וֹ מִפְּנֵ֤י ׀ אַבְשָׁל֬וֹם בְּנֽוֹ׃ 2. יְ֭הוָה מָֽה־ רַבּ֣וּ צָרָ֑י רַ֝בִּ֗ים קָמִ֥ים עָלָֽי׃ 3. רַבִּים֮ אֹמְרִ֢ים לְנַ֫פְשִׁ֥י אֵ֤ין יְֽשׁוּעָ֓תָה לּ֬וֹ בֵֽאלֹהִ֬ים סֶֽלָה׃ 4. וְאַתָּ֣ה יְ֭הוָה מָגֵ֣ן בַּעֲדִ֑י כְּ֝בוֹדִ֗י וּמֵרִ֥ים רֹאשִֽׁtי׃ 5. ק֖dוֹלִי אֶל־ יְהוָ֣ה אֶקְרָ֑א וַיַּֽעֲנֵ֨נִי מֵהַ֖ר קָדְשׁ֣וֹ סֶֽלָה׃ 6. אֲנִ֥י שָׁכַ֗בְתִּי וָֽאִ֫ישָׁ֥נָה הֱקִיצ֑וֹתִי כִּ֖י יְהוָ֣ה יִסְמְכֵֽנִי׃ 7. לֹֽא־ אִ֭ירָא מֵרִבְב֥וֹת עָ֑ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר סָ֝בִ֗יב שָׁ֣תוּ עָלָֽtי׃ 8. ק֘וּמָ֤ה יְהוָ֨ה ׀ הוֹשִׁ֘יעֵ֤נִי אֱלֹהַ֗י כִּֽי־ הִכִּ֣יתָ אֶת־ כָּל־ אֹיְבַ֣י לֶ֑חִי שִׁנֵּ֖י רְשָׁעִ֣ים שִׁבַּֽרְתָּ׃ 9. לַיהוָ֥ה הַיְשׁוּעָ֑ה עַֽל־ עַמְּךָ֖ בִרְכָתֶ֣ךָ סֶּֽלָה׃ Psalm 113: Psalm 113 1. הַ֥לְלוּ יָ֨הּ ׀ הַ֭לְלוּ עַבְדֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה הַֽ֝לְלוּ אֶת־ שֵׁ֥ם יְהוָֽה׃ 2. יְהִ֤י שֵׁ֣ם יְהוָ֣ה מְבֹרָ֑ךְ מֵֽ֝עַתָּ֗ה וְעַד־ עוֹלָֽם׃ 3. מִמִּזְרַח־ שֶׁ֥מֶשׁ עַד־ מְבוֹא֑וֹ מְ֝הֻלָּ֗ל שֵׁ֣ם יְהוָֽה׃ 4. רָ֖ם עַל־ כָּל־ גּוֹיִ֥ם ׀ יְהוָ֑ה עַ֖ל הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם כְּבוֹדֽוֹ׃ 5. מִ֭י כַּיהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵ֑ינוּ הַֽמַּגְבִּיהִ֥י לָשָֽׁבֶת׃ 6. הַֽמַּשְׁפִּילִ֥י לִרְא֑וֹת בַּשָּׁמַ֥יִם וּבָאָֽרֶץ׃ 7. מְקִֽימִ֣י מֵעָפָ֣ר דָּ֑ל מֵֽ֝אַשְׁפֹּ֗ת יָרִ֥ים אֶבְיֽוֹן׃ 8. לְהוֹשִׁיבִ֥י עִם־ נְדִיבִ֑ים עִ֝֗ם נְדִיבֵ֥י עַמּֽוֹ׃ 9. מֽוֹשִׁיבִ֨י ׀ עֲקֶ֬רֶת הַבַּ֗יִת אֵֽם־ הַבָּנִ֥ים שְׂמֵחָ֗ה הַֽלְלוּ־ יָֽהּ׃