Psalm 4 → 143
Reasoning: 11904 Output: 4634 Total: 16538
Argument
Short answer: Psalm 143 can be read as a morning, penitential intensification of Psalm 4’s evening trust. It deliberately reuses Davidic diction, key roots, and motifs from Psalm 4, and moves the experience forward from night-rest-in-trust to dawn-seeking-guidance-and-deliverance, with several rare or pointed lexical echoes.
Details
1) Form and “life setting” sequence (evening → night → morning/day)
- Evening rest to morning plea:
- Ps 4 ends: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep … you alone, YHWH, make me dwell in safety” (בשלום … אשכבה ואישן … לבטח תושיבני).
- Ps 143 turns to morning: “Make me hear in the morning your steadfast love” (השמיעני בבקר חסדך, 143:8). It’s natural to hear 143 as the next day’s prayer after the nighttime repose of 4.
- Light/face through night into dawn:
- Ps 4: “Lift up upon us the light of your face” (נשא עלינו אור פניך, 4:7), i.e., favor as light in the night.
- Ps 143: “Do not hide your face from me” (אל תסתר פניך ממני, 143:7) and then morning (בבקר), i.e., the night of hiddenness breaks into sought-for dawn favor.
- “Sleep” vs “darkness” → “morning”:
- Ps 4: safe sleep.
- Ps 143: the interim night is described as deathlike darkness (הושיבני במחשכים כמתי עולם, 143:3), followed by a plea for morning revelation (143:8). This reads like the experiential “night” between the two psalms.
2) Shared form-critical profile: Individual lament/prayer with trust
- Both are “מזמור לדוד,” individual pleas that pivot on trust and end with confidence in God’s action.
- Both open with the same prayer rhetoric: “Hear … Answer me” addressed directly to YHWH.
3) Direct verbal and root correspondences (rarer or more pointed first)
- Identical petitions and collocations:
- שמע תפלתי “hear my prayer”:
- Ps 4:2 וּשמע תפלתי
- Ps 143:1 יהוה שמע תפלתי
- ענני “answer me” (same imperative + 1cs suffix):
- Ps 4:2 ענני
- Ps 143:1, 7 ענני; מהר ענני intensifies the same plea.
- פנים “face” motif in antithetical parallel:
- Ps 4:7 אור פניך “the light of your face” (favor).
- Ps 143:7 אל תסתר פניך “do not hide your face” (disfavor reversed). Same noun, complementary verbs (shine vs hide).
- נשא “to lift”:
- Ps 4:7 נשא עלינו אור פניך “lift up upon us the light of your face.”
- Ps 143:8 אליך נשׂאתי נפשי “to you I have lifted up my soul.” Same root, both using lifting toward God/favor.
- ישב Hiphil with 1cs object—a tight echo:
- Ps 4:9 תושיבני לבטח “You make me dwell in safety.”
- Ps 143:3 הושיבני במחשכים “He (the enemy) made me dwell in darkness.”
The same verb, stem (Hiphil), person, and suffix pattern appears with opposite subjects and locations (safety vs darkness), creating a deliberate mirror.
- צדק/צדקה cluster:
- Ps 4:2 אלהי צדקי “God of my righteousness”; 4:6 זבחי צדק “sacrifices of righteousness.”
- Ps 143:1, 11 בצדקתך ענני … בצדקתך תוציא מצרה נפשי.
Both psalms yoke appeal to YHWH with the righteousness lexeme; 143 explicitly grounds the answer in God’s righteousness, expanding the motif.
- חסד/חסיד (same root):
- Ps 4:4 הפלה יהוה חסיד לו “YHWH sets apart the loyal/faithful one (חסיד) for himself.”
- Ps 143:8, 12 חסדך “your steadfast love.” The covenantal “חס-ד” root frames the relationship in both, with 4 asserting God’s special regard for his loyal one and 143 pleading on the basis of God’s loyal love.
- בטח “trust” (same root; same semantic field):
- Ps 4:6 ובטחו אל יהוה “trust in YHWH” (instruction to others); 4:9 לבטח “in safety.”
- Ps 143:8 בך בטחתי “in you I have trusted” (first-person appropriation). The trust theme moves from exhortation (Ps 4) to personal confession (Ps 143).
- צר/צרה “distress/trouble” (same root; similar function):
- Ps 4:2 בצר הרחבת לי “in distress you made room for me” (past deliverance).
- Ps 143:11 תוציא מצרה נפשי “bring my soul out of trouble” (present plea). Present request builds on the same type of deliverance.
- לב/לבב “heart” (shared body of inner life vocabulary):
- Ps 4:5 בלבבכם … 4:8 בלבי.
- Ps 143:4 ישתומם לבי.
- ידע “to know” in imperative appeals:
- Ps 4:4 וּדְעוּ “know [this]” (addressed to people).
- Ps 143:8 הודיעני “make me know” (addressed to God). Same root; the didactic note of 4 becomes a discipleship request in 143.
- טוב “good” in question/answer progression:
- Ps 4:7 רבים אמרים: מי יראנו טוב “Who will show us good?”
- Ps 143:10 רוחך טובה “Your Spirit is good.” The “good” for which people ask in 4 is, in 143, embodied as God’s good Spirit guiding the psalmist.
4) Thematic progressions that make 143 a plausible “next step”
- From confidence to urgency:
- Ps 4:4 “YHWH will hear when I call” (ישמע … בקרואי אליו) is a confident assertion.
- Ps 143:1, 7 repeats the same verbs but with urgency: “Answer me … Hasten … do not hide your face … my spirit fails.”
- From instructing others to asking to be taught:
- Ps 4 instructs the “sons of man” (בני איש): “Tremble, do not sin … Offer sacrifices of righteousness … Trust in YHWH” (imperatives to others).
- Ps 143 internalizes that posture: “Teach me to do your will … Lead me on level ground” (למדני … תנחני), turning the psalmist from teacher of men into disciple of God.
- From favor asserted to favor sought:
- Ps 4: “Lift up the light of your face upon us” and “You make me dwell in safety.”
- Ps 143: “Do not hide your face … Revive me … Bring out my soul from trouble.” The same relational dynamic is pursued through a deeper valley.
- Servant identity as the concrete form of the “חסיד”:
- Ps 4 names the status: God “sets apart the חסיד for himself.”
- Ps 143 twice avers: “your servant” (עבדך, vv. 2, 12). The personal self-designation clarifies the covenantal status implied in 4.
5) Canonical/editorial logic
- Psalm 143 (in the late Davidic cluster, 138–145) intentionally recycles hallmark Book I Davidic vocabulary and motifs (answer me/hear my prayer; righteousness; trust; face; morning), making it sound like a mature reprise of those earlier prayers (including Psalm 4). Reading 143 after 4 is thus canonically sensible: 143 gathers and deepens early-Davidic laments into a penitential morning plea.
6) A plausible lived sequence in ancient Israel
- Evening: Ps 4’s call to stop sinning, offer righteous sacrifice, trust YHWH, and lie down in peace.
- Night: Crisis persists—felt as “being seated in darkness” like the dead (143:3), and hidden face (143:7).
- Morning: Ps 143’s “make me hear in the morning your steadfast love,” with petitions for rescue, guidance, and teaching for the day’s path (“make known to me the way I should go,” “lead me in level land”).
Summary of strongest lexical/motif links (weightiest first)
- Exact plea formula duplicated: שמע תפלתי // ענני.
- Face motif in antithesis: אור פניך vs אל תסתר פניך.
- Same rare-ish Hiphil of ישב with 1cs object: תושיבני (4:9) vs הושיבני (143:3).
- Same roots used in tightly parallel ways: צדק, חסד/חסיד, בטח, נשא, צר/צרה, ידע, לב, טוב.
- Night-sleep → morning-hesed sequence explicitly stated.
Taken together, these give good literary, lexical, and experiential reasons to say that Psalm 143 “logically follows” Psalm 4: it is the next morning’s, deepened, penitential cry of the same Davidic voice that lay down in trust the night before.
Evaluation
Score: 6.5
Evaluated at: 2025-11-12T04:06:59 (UTC)
Evaluator model: gpt-5
Evaluator version: v2
Reasoning: 2880 Output: 5481 Total: 8361
Checklist
- Has verse refs: Yes
- Factual error detected: No
- Only generic motifs: No
- Counterargument considered: No
- LXX/MT numbering acknowledged: No
Vocabulary specificity: 4.5 / 10
Strong: exact “שמע תפלתי/ענני,” mirrored Hiphil ישב (תושיבני/הושיבני), evening→morning (4:9; 143:8), face motif. Downgraded: much is common lament diction; non-adjacent psalms; ignores Ps 3–4 pairing; no counterargument.
Prompt
Consider Psalm 4 and Psalm 143 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 143 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 143:
Psalm 143
1. מִזְמ֗וֹר
לְדָ֫וִ֥ד
יְהוָ֤ה ׀
שְׁמַ֬ע
תְּפִלָּתִ֗י
הַאֲזִ֥ינָה
אֶל־
תַּחֲנוּנַ֑י
בֶּאֱמֻנָתְךָ֥
עֲ֝נֵ֗נִי
בְּצִדְקָתֶֽךָ׃
2. וְאַל־
תָּב֣וֹא
בְ֭מִשְׁפָּט
אֶת־
עַבְדֶּ֑ךָ
כִּ֤י
לֹֽא־
יִצְדַּ֖ק
לְפָנֶ֣יךָ
כָל־
חָֽי׃
3. כִּ֥י
רָ֘דַ֤ף
אוֹיֵ֨ב ׀
נַפְשִׁ֗י
דִּכָּ֣א
לָ֭אָרֶץ
חַיָּתִ֑י
הוֹשִׁיבַ֥נִי
בְ֝מַחֲשַׁכִּ֗ים
כְּמֵתֵ֥י
עוֹלָֽם׃
4. וַתִּתְעַטֵּ֣ף
עָלַ֣י
רוּחִ֑י
בְּ֝תוֹכִ֗י
יִשְׁתּוֹמֵ֥ם
לִבִּֽי׃
5. זָ֘כַ֤רְתִּי
יָמִ֨ים ׀
מִקֶּ֗דֶם
הָגִ֥יתִי
בְכָל־
פָּעֳלֶ֑ךָ
בְּֽמַעֲשֵׂ֖ה
יָדֶ֣יךָ
אֲשׂוֹחֵֽחַ׃
6. פֵּרַ֣שְׂתִּי
יָדַ֣י
אֵלֶ֑יךָ
נַפְשִׁ֓י ׀
כְּאֶֽרֶץ־
עֲיֵפָ֖ה
לְךָ֣
סֶֽלָה׃
7. מַ֘הֵ֤ר
עֲנֵ֨נִי ׀
יְהוָה֮
כָּלְתָ֢ה
ר֫וּחִ֥י
אַל־
תַּסְתֵּ֣ר
פָּנֶ֣יךָ
מִמֶּ֑נִּי
וְ֝נִמְשַׁ֗לְתִּי
עִם־
יֹ֥רְדֵי
בֽוֹר׃
8. הַשְׁמִ֘יעֵ֤נִי
בַבֹּ֨קֶר ׀
חַסְדֶּךָ֮
כִּֽי־
בְךָ֢
בָ֫טָ֥חְתִּי
הוֹדִיעֵ֗נִי
דֶּֽרֶךְ־
ז֥וּ
אֵלֵ֑ךְ
כִּֽי־
אֵ֝לֶיךָ
נָשָׂ֥אתִי
נַפְשִֽׁי׃
9. הַצִּילֵ֖נִי
מֵאֹיְבַ֥י ׀
יְהוָ֗ה
אֵלֶ֥יךָ
כִסִּֽתִי׃
10. לַמְּדֵ֤נִי ׀
לַֽעֲשׂ֣וֹת
רְצוֹנֶךָ֮
כִּֽי־
אַתָּ֢ה
אֱל֫וֹהָ֥י
רוּחֲךָ֥
טוֹבָ֑ה
תַּ֝נְחֵ֗נִי
בְּאֶ֣רֶץ
מִישֽׁוֹר׃
11. לְמַֽעַן־
שִׁמְךָ֣
יְהוָ֣ה
תְּחַיֵּ֑נִי
בְּצִדְקָתְךָ֓ ׀
תּוֹצִ֖יא
מִצָּרָ֣ה
נַפְשִֽׁי׃
12. וּֽבְחַסְדְּךָ֮
תַּצְמִ֢ית
אֹ֫יְבָ֥י
וְֽ֭הַאֲבַדְתָּ
כָּל־
צֹרֲרֵ֣י
נַפְשִׁ֑י
כִּ֝֗י
אֲנִ֣י
עַבְדֶּֽךָ׃