Psalm 4 → 72

Reasoning: 6528 Output: 5386 Total: 11914

Argument

Below are ways to argue that Psalm 72 can be read as logically following Psalm 4. The case rests on shared vocabulary and roots (with an emphasis on rarer items), parallel motifs, and a plausible movement from an individual’s nighttime plea to the communal/royal realization of what was asked for.

1) Shared lexemes and roots (rarer/marked items first)
- פלא “wonder”:
  - Ps 4:4 הִפְלָה יְהוָה חָסִיד לוֹ (“YHWH has set apart/treated wondrously his loyal one”). The verb hiphʿil of פלא is relatively rare.
  - Ps 72:18 עֹשֵׂה נִפְלָאוֹת לְבַדּוֹ (“who alone does wonders”). Same root פלא. Psalm 72 thus universalizes the “distinctive/wonder-working” action asked for in Ps 4.
- לבד “alone”:
  - Ps 4:9 יְהוָה לְבָדָד לָבֶטַח תּוֹשִׁיבֵנִי (“you, YHWH, alone make me dwell in safety”). Form: לְבָדָד.
  - Ps 72:18 לְבַדּוֹ (“alone”). Identical lexical base; the “alone” who secures individual safety in Ps 4 is the “alone” who works world-defining wonders in Ps 72.
- צדק/צדקה/צדיק:
  - Ps 4:2 אֱלֹהֵי צִדְקִי; 4:6 זִבְחֵי־צֶדֶק.
  - Ps 72:1 מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ לְמֶלֶךְ תֵּן וְצִדְקָתְךָ; 72:2 בְצֶדֶק; 72:3 בִּצְדָקָה; 72:7 צַדִּיק. Psalm 72 expands the personal “my righteousness” and “sacrifices of righteousness” into the king’s program of justice/righteousness for the whole people and land.
- שָׁלוֹם:
  - Ps 4:9 בְּשָׁלוֹם… אֶשְׁכְּבָה וְאִישָׁן.
  - Ps 72:3 שָׁלוֹם לָעָם; 72:7 רֹב שָׁלוֹם. The peace the individual enjoys in sleep becomes the abundant, public peace of a just reign.
- תְפִלָּה/פָלַל (prayer):
  - Ps 4:2 וּשְׁמַע תְּפִלָּתִי.
  - Ps 72:15 וְיִתְפַּלֵּל בַּעֲדוֹ תָמִיד; 72:20 כָּלּוּ תְפִלּוֹת דָוִד בֶּן־יִשָׁי. Psalm 72 closes (editorially) the “prayers of David,” making it a fitting capstone to earlier Davidic prayers like Ps 4.
- כָּבוֹד:
  - Ps 4:3 כְבוֹדִי לִכְלִמָּה (“my glory to shame”).
  - Ps 72:19 שֵׁם כְּבוֹדוֹ לְעוֹלָם; וְיִמָּלֵא כְּבוֹדוֹ אֶת־כָּל־הָאָרֶץ. The threatened, contested “glory” of the psalmist in Ps 4 is countered by the filling of the earth with God’s glory in Ps 72.
- Agricultural prosperity:
  - Ps 4:8 דְּגָנָם וְתִירוֹשָׁם רָבוּ.
  - Ps 72:16 פִסַּת־בַּר… פִּרְיוֹ כַלְּבָנוֹן; יָצִיצוּ… כְּעֵשֶׂב הָאָרֶץ. The private, seasonal increase (grain and new wine) yields to an ideal reign marked by overflowing, land-wide fertility.
- Light/face—Priestly blessing trajectory:
  - Ps 4:7 נְסָה־עָלֵינוּ אוֹר פָּנֶיךָ יְהוָה (“lift upon us the light of your face”), echoing Num 6:25–26.
  - Ps 72:7 רֹב שָׁלוֹם; 72:5–17 “sun/moon” cosmics. In Num 6 the lifted face culminates in “peace”; Ps 4 petitions the lifted/lighted face, Ps 72 displays the abundance of shalom under cosmic signs (sun, moon), which reads like the realized outcome of Ps 4’s request.

2) Parallel moves in form and rhetoric
- From imperative admonitions to royal petitions:
  - Ps 4 addresses adversaries directly with imperatives: רִגְזוּ… אַל־תֶּחֶטָאוּ; אִמְרוּ בִלְבַבְכֶם; זִבְחוּ… וּבִטְחוּ (“tremble… do not sin; ponder; offer; trust”).
  - Ps 72 turns to a chain of jussives/wishes about the king: יָדִין… יִשְׁפֹּט… יֵרֵד… יִפְרַח… יְהִי שְׁמוֹ לְעוֹלָם. The logic: the moral/ritual correction urged in Ps 4 is institutionalized in Ps 72 through a righteous monarch.
- Individual to communal scale:
  - Ps 4 is a first-person night psalm culminating in personal security.
  - Ps 72 is a public royal psalm projecting that security across peoples, kings, and “ends of the earth” (עַד־אַפְסֵי־אָרֶץ).

3) Narrative/ritual logic linking the two
- Daily-life arc: Ps 4 is an evening trust psalm (“I will lie down and sleep in peace”); Ps 72 reads like a morning/daytime enthronement/intercession psalm seeking the tangible, daylight fruits of that trust—justice, peace, prosperity.
- Dynastic arc: Ps 4 is “לְדָוִד,” while Ps 72 is “לִשְׁלֹמֹה” and closes “תְפִלּוֹת דָוִד… כָּלּוּ.” Read consecutively, the father’s private plea (Ps 4) is “answered” in the son’s idealized reign (Ps 72), and editorially the Davidic prayer collection is thereby rounded off.
- Cultic arc: Ps 4’s “זִבְחוּ זִבְחֵי־צֶדֶק” (right sacrifices) anticipates Ps 72’s sacrificial/tributary language to the righteous king and his cause: “מִנְחָה… אֶשְׁכָּר יַקְרִיבוּ” (72:10). The ethical worship of Ps 4 scales up to international homage in Ps 72.

4) Problem–solution logic
- Problem in Ps 4: social falsehood and vanity (“תֶּאֱהָבוּן רִיק; תְבַקְשׁוּ כָזָב”), shame cast on the psalmist’s honor, felt distress (“בַּצָּר”), a chorus asking “מִי יַרְאֵנוּ טוֹב?”
- Solution in Ps 72: a regime that “דּוֹן בְצֶדֶק,” protects the needy, crushes the oppressor (72:4), ends predation (72:14), floods the land with “טוֹב” equivalents—shalom, fertility, and blessing. Thus Ps 72 functionally answers Ps 4’s “Who will show us good?” with the portrait of a king through whom that good becomes public and enduring.

5) Additional verbal/structural ties
- “בְּקָרְאִי… יִשְׁמַע” (Ps 4:2, 4) and “מְשַׁוֵּעַ” (Ps 72:12): differing roots (קרא/שׁוע) but same speech-act domain of supplication, with Ps 72 promising the king’s decisive answer to cries.
- “בְּנֵי אִישׁ” who wrong David (Ps 4:3) vs. “לִבְנֵי אֶבְיוֹן” whom the king saves (Ps 72:4): two “sons of X” groups, the former as adversaries, the latter as beneficiaries—another problem/solution pairing.
- Cosmos/breadth markers: Ps 4’s petition about God’s “face/light” turns cosmic in Ps 72 (sun, moon, sea-to-sea, ends of the earth), a natural escalation if one reads 72 as the outworking of 4.

6) Stylistic and editorial coherence
- Both psalms are prayers framed poetically with balanced cola and marked epithets of God; both lean on parallelism and climactic closure.
- The doxology in Ps 72:18–19 (“בָּרוּךְ יְהוָה…”) not only matches the tone of confidence at the end of Ps 4 but universalizes it; the closing “אָמֵן וְאָמֵן” seals the arc from the individual’s “בִּטְחוּ אֶל־יְהוָה” (Ps 4:6) to a world that now blesses God and the king continually (Ps 72:15, 19).

In sum: Reading Psalm 72 after Psalm 4 makes thematic and lexical sense. Psalm 4’s plea—centered on צדק, the light of God’s face, and the gift of שָׁלוֹם manifesting as secure rest and seasonal increase—is taken up and magnified in Psalm 72’s vision of a righteous king through whom those very petitions become societal realities: comprehensive justice (צדקה/משפט), abundant peace (שָׁלוֹם), prosperity (דגן/בַּר), and God’s unique, wonder-working agency (פלא… לְבַדּוֹ) filling the earth with glory (כָּבוֹד). This yields a coherent “from individual night-trust to royal day-fulfillment” progression, tightly anchored in shared Hebrew roots and motifs.

Evaluation

Score: 2.0

Evaluated at: 2025-11-10T03:48:13 (UTC)

Evaluator model: gpt-5

Evaluator version: v2

Reasoning: 3072 Output: 6203 Total: 9275

Vocabulary specificity: 3.0 / 10

Flags: hallucination

Ps 4:4 הִפְלָה is פלה (“set apart”), not פלא; factual error → MAX 2. Remaining links rely on common vocabulary/themes; no strong sequencing marker; counterarguments unaddressed.

Prompt

Consider Psalm 4 and Psalm 72 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 72 logically follows on from Psalm 4? 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 4:
Psalm 4
1. לַמְנַצֵּ֥חַ
        בִּנְגִינ֗וֹת
        מִזְמ֥וֹר
        לְדָוִֽד׃
2. בְּקָרְאִ֡י
        עֲנֵ֤נִי ׀
        אֱלֹ֘הֵ֤י
        צִדְקִ֗י
        בַּ֭צָּר
        הִרְחַ֣בְתָּ
        לִּ֑י
        חָ֝נֵּ֗נִי
        וּשְׁמַ֥ע
        תְּפִלָּתִֽי׃
3. בְּנֵ֥י
        אִ֡ישׁ
        עַד־
        מֶ֬ה
        כְבוֹדִ֣י
        לִ֭כְלִמָּה
        תֶּאֱהָב֣וּן
        רִ֑יק
        תְּבַקְשׁ֖וּ
        כָזָ֣ב
        סֶֽלָה׃
4. וּדְע֗וּ
        כִּֽי־
        הִפְלָ֣ה
        יְ֭הוָה
        חָסִ֣יד
        ל֑וֹ
        יְהוָ֥ה
        יִ֝שְׁמַ֗ע
        בְּקָרְאִ֥י
        אֵלָֽיו׃
5. רִגְז֗וּ
        וְֽאַל־
        תֶּ֫חֱטָ֥אוּ
        אִמְר֣וּ
        בִ֭לְבַבְכֶם
        עַֽל־
        מִשְׁכַּבְכֶ֗ם
        וְדֹ֣מּוּ
        סֶֽלָה׃
6. זִבְח֥וּ
        זִבְחֵי־
        צֶ֑דֶק
        וּ֝בִטְח֗וּ
        אֶל־
        יְהוָֽה׃
7. רַבִּ֥ים
        אֹמְרִים֮
        מִֽי־
        יַרְאֵ֢נ֫וּ
        ט֥וֹב
        נְֽסָה־
        עָ֭לֵינוּ
        א֨וֹר
        פָּנֶ֬יךָ
        יְהוָֽה׃
8. נָתַ֣תָּה
        שִׂמְחָ֣ה
        בְלִבִּ֑י
        מֵעֵ֬ת
        דְּגָנָ֖ם
        וְתִֽירוֹשָׁ֣ם
        רָֽבּוּ׃
9. בְּשָׁל֣וֹם
        יַחְדָּו֮
        אֶשְׁכְּבָ֢ה
        וְאִ֫ישָׁ֥ן
        כִּֽי־
        אַתָּ֣ה
        יְהוָ֣ה
        לְבָדָ֑ד
        לָ֝בֶ֗טַח
        תּוֹשִׁיבֵֽנִי׃

Psalm 72:
Psalm 72
1. לִשְׁלֹמֹ֨ה ׀
        אֱ‍ֽלֹהִ֗ים
        מִ֭שְׁפָּטֶיךָ
        לְמֶ֣לֶךְ
        תֵּ֑ן
        וְצִדְקָתְךָ֥
        לְבֶן־
        מֶֽלֶךְ׃
2. יָדִ֣ין
        עַמְּךָ֣
        בְצֶ֑דֶק
        וַעֲנִיֶּ֥יךָ
        בְמִשְׁפָּֽט׃
3. יִשְׂא֤וּ
        הָרִ֓ים
        שָׁ֘ל֥וֹם
        לָעָ֑ם
        וּ֝גְבָע֗וֹת
        בִּצְדָקָֽה׃
4. יִשְׁפֹּ֤ט ׀
        עֲ‍ֽנִיֵּי־
        עָ֗ם
        י֭וֹשִׁיעַ
        לִבְנֵ֣י
        אֶבְי֑וֹן
        וִֽידַכֵּ֣א
        עוֹשֵֽׁק׃
5. יִֽירָא֥וּךָ
        עִם־
        שָׁ֑מֶשׁ
        וְלִפְנֵ֥י
        יָ֝רֵ֗חַ
        דּ֣וֹר
        דּוֹרִֽים׃
6. יֵ֭רֵד
        כְּמָטָ֣ר
        עַל־
        גֵּ֑ז
        כִּ֝רְבִיבִ֗ים
        זַרְזִ֥יף
        אָֽרֶץ׃
7. יִֽפְרַח־
        בְּיָמָ֥יו
        צַדִּ֑יק
        וְרֹ֥ב
        שָׁ֝ל֗וֹם
        עַד־
        בְּלִ֥י
        יָרֵֽחַ׃
8. וְ֭יֵרְדְּ
        מִיָּ֣ם
        עַד־
        יָ֑ם
        וּ֝מִנָּהָ֗ר
        עַד־
        אַפְסֵי־
        אָֽרֶץ׃
9. לְ֭פָנָיו
        יִכְרְע֣וּ
        צִיִּ֑ים
        וְ֝אֹיְבָ֗יו
        עָפָ֥ר
        יְלַחֵֽכוּ׃
10. מַלְכֵ֬י
        תַרְשִׁ֣ישׁ
        וְ֭אִיִּים
        מִנְחָ֣ה
        יָשִׁ֑יבוּ
        מַלְכֵ֥י
        שְׁבָ֥א
        וּ֝סְבָ֗א
        אֶשְׁכָּ֥ר
        יַקְרִֽיבוּ׃
11. וְיִשְׁתַּחֲווּ־
        ל֥וֹ
        כָל־
        מְלָכִ֑ים
        כָּל־
        גּוֹיִ֥ם
        יַֽעַבְדֽוּהוּ׃
12. כִּֽי־
        יַ֭צִּיל
        אֶבְי֣וֹן
        מְשַׁוֵּ֑עַ
        וְ֝עָנִ֗י
        וְֽאֵין־
        עֹזֵ֥ר
        לֽוֹ׃
13. יָ֭חֹס
        עַל־
        דַּ֣ל
        וְאֶבְי֑וֹן
        וְנַפְשׁ֖וֹת
        אֶבְיוֹנִ֣ים
        יוֹשִֽׁיעַ׃
14. מִתּ֣וֹךְ
        וּ֖dמֵחָמָס
        יִגְאַ֣ל
        נַפְשָׁ֑ם
        וְיֵיקַ֖ר
        דָּמָ֣ם
        בְּעֵינָֽיו׃
15. וִיחִ֗י
        וְיִתֶּן־
        לוֹ֮
        מִזְּהַ֢ב
        שְׁ֫בָ֥א
        וְיִתְפַּלֵּ֣ל
        בַּעֲד֣וֹ
        תָמִ֑יד
        כָּל־
        הַ֝יּ֗וֹם
        יְבָרֲכֶֽנְהֽוּ׃
16. יְהִ֤י
        פִסַּת־
        בַּ֨ר ׀
        בָּאָרֶץ֮
        בְּרֹ֢אשׁ
        הָ֫רִ֥ים
        יִרְעַ֣שׁ
        כַּלְּבָנ֣וֹן
        פִּרְי֑וֹ
        וְיָצִ֥יצוּ
        מֵ֝עִ֗יר
        כְּעֵ֣שֶׂב
        הָאָֽרֶץ׃
17. יְהִ֤י
        שְׁמ֨וֹ ׀
        לְֽעוֹלָ֗ם
        לִפְנֵי־
        שֶׁמֶשׁ֮
        ינין
        יִנּ֢וֹן
        שְׁ֫מ֥וֹ
        וְיִתְבָּ֥רְכוּ
        ב֑וֹ
        כָּל־
        גּוֹיִ֥ם
        יְאַשְּׁרֽוּהוּ׃
18. בָּר֤וּךְ ׀
        יְהוָ֣ה
        אֱ֭לֹהִים
        אֱלֹהֵ֣י
        יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל
        עֹשֵׂ֖ה
        נִפְלָא֣וֹת
        לְבַדּֽוֹ׃
19. וּבָר֤וּךְ ׀
        שֵׁ֥ם
        כְּבוֹד֗וֹ
        לְע֫וֹלָ֥ם
        וְיִמָּלֵ֣א
        כְ֭בוֹדוֹ
        אֶת־
        כֹּ֥ל
        הָאָ֗רֶץ
        אָ֘מֵ֥ן ׀
        וְאָמֵֽן׃
20. כָּלּ֥וּ
        תְפִלּ֑וֹת
        דָּ֝וִ֗ד
        בֶּן־
        יִשָֽׁי׃