Psalm 4 → 123

Reasoning: 8960 Output: 3640 Total: 12600

Argument

Here are lines of evidence that make it plausible to read Psalm 123 as a logical follow‑on to Psalm 4. I arrange them from the most “objective” linguistic ties (same roots/forms) to broader thematic and ritual links, and I weight rarer/identical items more heavily.

Shared lexemes and forms (same roots; often the same speech act)
- חנן “be gracious”
  - Ps 4:2 חָנֵּנִי (“be gracious to me,” 2ms imperative + 1cs suffix).
  - Ps 123:2 שֶׁיְּחָנֵּנוּ (“that he may be gracious to us,” jussive 3ms + 1cp suffix) and 123:3 חָנֵּנוּ יְהוָה חָנֵּנוּ (imperative repeated, 2ms + 1cp suffix).
  - Significance: identical root, same prayer-genre imperative/jussive, and Psalm 123 explicitly pluralizes and intensifies the plea first made individually in Psalm 4.

- נשׂא “lift”
  - Ps 4:7 נְסָה־עָלֵינוּ אוֹר פָּנֶיךָ יְהוָה (“lift up upon us the light of your face, O YHWH”). The ketiv נְסָה reflects the same root נשׂא.
  - Ps 123:1 אֵלֶיךָ נָשָׂאתִי אֶת־עֵינַי (“to you I have lifted my eyes”).
  - Significance: same (rarely juxtaposed) root and the same “lifting” action, but reversed roles: in Psalm 4 the petitioner asks God to lift his face toward us; in Psalm 123 the petitioner(s) lift their eyes toward God. It reads like call and response across the two psalms.

- ישׁב “sit/dwell”
  - Ps 4:9 לָבֶטַח תּוֹשִׁיבֵנִי (“you make me dwell in safety,” Hiphil).
  - Ps 123:1 הַיֹּשְׁבִי בַּשָּׁמָיִם (“the One enthroned [who sits] in the heavens,” Qal participle).
  - Significance: same root binds the individual’s secure dwelling (Ps 4) to God’s cosmic enthronement (Ps 123), underlining that our safety is grounded in his throne.

- עד framing (time‑pressure/waiting)
  - Ps 4:3 עַד־מֶה (“how long?”), confronting the scorners.
  - Ps 123:2 עַד שֶׁיְּחָנֵּנוּ (“until he shows us grace”), the community’s patient watch.
  - Significance: the temporal particle marks the tension between complaint (Ps 4) and persevering expectancy (Ps 123).

- רב “much/many”
  - Ps 4:7 רַבִּים אֹמְרִים (“many are saying”); Ps 4:8 … דְּגָנָם וְתִירוֹשָׁם רָבוּ (“their grain and wine increased”).
  - Ps 123:3–4 כִּי־רַב שָׂבַעְנוּ בּוּז; רַבַּת שָׂבְעָה־לָּהּ נַפְשֵׁנוּ (“we have had much/scads of contempt; our soul is utterly sated”).
  - Significance: the “surplus” motif flips: Ps 4 contrasts joy with others’ material surplus; Ps 123 laments an excess of contempt. Same root, contrasting contents, tight intertext.

Closely related images (face/eyes, grace, peace), strongly echoing the Aaronic blessing
- Psalm 4 condenses the priestly blessing (Num 6:24–26):
  - “light of your face” (Ps 4:7) ~ “יאר יהוה פניו”;
  - “be gracious” (Ps 4:2) ~ “ויחנך”;
  - “in peace I will lie down” (Ps 4:9) ~ “וישם לך שלום”;
  - “lift” (Ps 4:7 נְשָׂא) ~ “ישא יהוה פניו אליך.”
- Psalm 123 explicitly picks up two of those same blessing elements:
  - “be gracious to us” (חָנֵּנוּ, repeated);
  - the “lifting” verb, now “I lift my eyes.”
- Read together: Psalm 4 asks God to enact the blessing; Psalm 123 adopts the waiting posture to receive it. The shift from face (פנים) to eyes (עיניים) and from God’s “lifting” to our “lifting” stages a dialogical progression.

Form-critical and speaker shift (a recognized editorial move)
- Psalm 4: individual lament/trust psalm with didactic asides to opponents (vv. 3, 5–6), ending in confident rest (v. 9).
- Psalm 123: communal lament/plea (first person plural dominates vv. 2–4).
- This common movement—from solo trust to corporate supplication—is frequent in the Psalter’s editorial logic and can be read as “personal assurance leads into communal liturgy.”

Shared conflict field: shame/scorn from the arrogant
- Psalm 4:3 “my glory to shame (לִכְלִמָּה)… you love emptiness (רִיק)… seek lies (כָזָב).”
- Psalm 123:3–4 “we are sated with contempt (בּוּז)… the scorn (הַלַּעַג) of the complacent (הַשַּׁאֲנַנִּים), the contempt of the proud (לִגְאֵיוֹנִים).”
- The adversaries are characterized similarly (vain, arrogant, scornful). Psalm 123 can be heard as the community-wide version of the pressure faced in Psalm 4.

Posture and instruction realized
- Psalm 4:5 “Tremble and do not sin; say in your heart on your beds, and be still (וְדֹמּוּ).”
- Psalm 123:2 depicts the quiet, steady, upward gaze “like the eyes of servants to the hand of their masters … until he shows us grace.”
- The inward stillness instructed in Psalm 4 becomes the outward, fixed attention of servants in Psalm 123; both are postures of trustful restraint.

Cultic/ritual sequencing that bridges the two
- Psalm 4 calls for “sacrifices of righteousness” and trust (זִבְחֵי־צֶדֶק וּבִטְחוּ אֶל־יְהוָה), then bed‑time peace. A natural next step in Israelite life is pilgrimage/approach to the sanctuary to receive the priestly blessing and divine favor.
- Psalm 123 is a שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת (Song of Ascents), a liturgy of approach, and its core petition is exactly “be gracious to us,” the blessing sought in Psalm 4. So, after the evening trust of Psalm 4 comes the communal ascent and waiting of Psalm 123.

Answering an unresolved question in Psalm 4
- Psalm 4:7 “Many are saying, ‘Who will show us good?’ Lift up upon us the light of your face, YHWH.”
- Psalm 123 answers in behavior: “To you I lift my eyes … our eyes [are] to YHWH our God until he is gracious to us.” The “who will show us good?” is implicitly answered: the Master in the heavens, whose hand signals favor.

Additional, lighter affinities
- Superscriptions: both are performative pieces for worship (“למנצח… בנגינות… מזמור” vs “שיר המעלות”), aligning them as liturgical, not merely private verse.
- Inner-person vocabulary: Psalm 4 “בְלִבִּי” (my heart), Psalm 123 “נַפְשֵׁנוּ” (our soul) — the locus of emotional resolution/shame borne inwardly in both.

Why these links matter (weighting by rarity and closeness)
- Highest-weight items: the shared imperatival/jussive petitions from the same rare prayer-verb חנן; the same action-verb נשׂא used for the same blessing-dynamic; the Aaronic-blessing triad (“light of face,” “be gracious,” “peace/lift”) explicitly present in Psalm 4 and partially resumed in Psalm 123.
- Medium-weight items: shared roots with different stems (ישׁב), temporal ‘עד’ framing, and the “רב” surplus motif.
- Thematic/formal continuity: individual-to-communal move; adversaries as arrogant scorners; posture of quiet trust developing into watchful waiting. These are standard but still meaningful editorial cues in the Psalter.

Taken together, Psalm 123 reads naturally as the community’s morning/pilgrimage continuation of Psalm 4’s evening, individual plea: the blessing asked for in Psalm 4 (lifted face, grace, peace, secure dwelling) is awaited with lifted eyes in Psalm 123, amid the same social pressure of scorn, until YHWH grants the very grace repeatedly requested in both.

Evaluation

Score: 6.0

Evaluated at: 2025-11-12T03:43:10 (UTC)

Evaluator model: gpt-5

Evaluator version: v2

Reasoning: 4096 Output: 4478 Total: 8574

Vocabulary specificity: 3.5 / 10

Many verse-level links (חנן; נשׂא ‘lift’; עד; ישב; רב) plus Aaronic-blessing echoes, but largely common vocabulary; 123 lacks ‘face/peace’. No structural markers. Songs of Ascents offer closer intra-collection ties (e.g., 121↔123) than to 4.

Prompt

Consider Psalm 4 and Psalm 123 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 123 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 123:
Psalm 123
1. שִׁ֗יר
        הַֽמַּ֫עֲל֥וֹת
        אֵ֭לֶיךָ
        נָשָׂ֣אתִי
        אֶת־
        עֵינַ֑י
        הַ֝יֹּשְׁבִ֗י
        בַּשָּׁמָֽיִם׃
2. הִנֵּ֨ה
        כְעֵינֵ֪י
        עֲבָדִ֡ים
        אֶל־
        יַ֤ד
        אֲ‍ֽדוֹנֵיהֶ֗ם
        כְּעֵינֵ֣י
        שִׁפְחָה֮
        אֶל־
        יַ֢ד
        גְּבִ֫רְתָּ֥הּ
        כֵּ֣ן
        עֵ֭ינֵינוּ
        אֶל־
        יְהוָ֣ה
        אֱלֹהֵ֑ינוּ
        עַ֝֗ד
        שֶׁיְּחָנֵּֽנוּ׃
3. חָנֵּ֣נוּ
        יְהוָ֣ה
        חָנֵּ֑נוּ
        כִּֽי־
        רַ֝֗ב
        שָׂבַ֥עְנוּ
        בֽוּז׃
4. רַבַּת֮
        שָֽׂבְעָה־
        לָּ֢הּ
        נַ֫פְשֵׁ֥נוּ
        הַלַּ֥עַג
        הַשַּׁאֲנַנִּ֑ים
        הַ֝בּ֗וּז
        לִגְאֵ֥יוֹנִֽים׃