Psalm 5 → 62

Reasoning: 8256 Output: 5217 Total: 13473

Argument

Here are lines of argument you could marshal to make the case that Psalm 62 is a deliberate “follow‑on” from Psalm 5.

1) Superscription and performance setting
- Identical heading skeletons: both begin לַמְנַצֵּחַ … מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד (Ps 5:1; Ps 62:1), marking them as Davidic performance pieces for the precentor.
- Distinct but complementary performance tags: Ps 5 is אֶל־הַנְּחִילוֹת (“to/for the flutes,” a rare term), Ps 62 is עַל־יְדוּתוּן (Jeduthun, the guild/choir-leader named in 1 Chr 16; 25). A plausible liturgical sequence emerges: a morning prayer to flute accompaniment (Ps 5), followed by a choral “Jeduthun” piece of instruction/confidence (Ps 62) later in the service/day.

2) Genre and macro‑movement: lament to confidence/exhortation
- Psalm 5 is an individual morning lament and petition (בֹּקֶר תשמע קולי … אערך לך ואצפה, 5:4), asking for guidance and protection from deceitful opponents.
- Psalm 62 is an individual confession of trust that widens into communal exhortation (בִּטְחוּ בו בכל־עת, עַם, 62:9), the classic “confidence” half that many laments anticipate but do not fully develop.
- So, as a sequence: the day begins with plea and moral polarity (Ps 5), and matures into settled quiet trust and teaching others to trust (Ps 62).

3) Exact lexical ties (rarer items listed first)
- הדִּיחַ “to topple/drive down”: Ps 5:11 הַדִּיחֵמוֹ (“thrust them out/overthrow them”) and Ps 62:5 לְהַדִּיחַ (“to topple”). This Hiphil is relatively rare and in both psalms targets the counsel/plots of the wicked.
- יעץ “counsel”: Ps 5:11 יִפְּלוּ מִמֹּעֲצוֹתֵיהֶם (“let them fall by their counsels”) is echoed by Ps 62:5 יָעֲצוּ לְהַדִּיחַ (“they plan to topple”), making the same nexus: wicked counsel leads to their own downfall.
- כָזָב “falsehood”: Ps 5:7 דֹּבְרֵי כָזָב; Ps 62:5 יִרְצוּ כָזָב and 62:10 כָזָב בְּנֵי אִישׁ. This is not just generic “lies,” but the same noun marking the enemy’s defining trait.
- חסה/מחסה “seek refuge/refuge”: Ps 5:12 חוֹסֵי בָךְ (verb) corresponds to Ps 62:8 מַחְסִי; 62:9 מַחֲסֶה (nouns). The same root-family frames the righteous response (take refuge) and God’s role (the refuge).
- ברך “bless”: Ps 5:13 אַתָּה תְּבָרֵךְ צַדִּיק (“You bless the righteous”) versus Ps 62:5 בְּפִיו יְבָרֵכוּ וּבְקִרְבָּם יְקַלְלוּ (“they bless with the mouth but inwardly curse”). Psalm 62 contrasts duplicitous human “blessing” with the authentic divine blessing affirmed in Psalm 5.
- שמ״ע “hear”: In Ps 5 the psalmist pleads for God to hear (הַאֲזִינָה; הַקְשִׁיבָה; תִּשְׁמַע, 5:2–4). Psalm 62 closes with the inverse: אַחַת דִּבֶּר אֱלֹהִים, שְׁתַּיִם־זֹאת שָׁמָעְתִּי (62:12). The morning’s “hear me” (Ps 5) culminates in “I have heard” (Ps 62)—a narratively satisfying answer.
- Stability/instability vocabulary set: Ps 5:6 לֹא־יִתְיַצְּבוּ (“the boastful will not stand”) versus Ps 62:3, 7 לֹא אֶמּוֹט (“I shall not be moved”) and 62:4 imagery of a leaning wall/tottering fence. Psalm 5 declares the wicked cannot “stand” before God; Psalm 62 declares the faithful will not “totter,” while the wicked are the ones who are truly tottering.
- חסד “steadfast love”: Ps 5:8 בְּרֹב חַסְדֶּךָ; Ps 62:13 וּלְךָ אֲדֹנָי חָסֶד. Psalm 62’s climactic theological axiom (עֹז… וחסד) underwrites Psalm 5’s request to enter the house “by your great hesed.”

4) Thematic and imagistic continuities
- Duplicity of speech: Ps 5:10 “their throat is an open grave… their tongue smooths,” Ps 62:5 “with their mouth they bless, inwardly they curse.” The same foe is envisaged: socially destructive, plausible speech masking violence.
- Protective imagery: Ps 5:13 “like a shield (כצִּנָּה) of favor you surround him,” Ps 62 piles up fortress terms: צוּר, מִשְׂגָּב, מַחְסֶה (62:3,7–9). Different words, same semantic field—God as protective surround, now intensified and personalized.
- Righteous retribution: Ps 5 asks God to “make them fall,” “destroy speakers of lies,” and bless the righteous (5:7, 11–13). Ps 62 universalizes the rationale: “You repay a man according to his work” (62:13). Psalm 62 thus provides the theological principle that explains Psalm 5’s petitions.
- Temple and posture: Ps 5 presents a worshiper entering the house in reverent fear (5:8) and asking to be led in a straight way (5:9). Ps 62 presents the settled posture that such guidance aims at: inward silence and trust (דּוּמִיָּה נַפְשִׁי, 62:2,6), then instructs the congregation to “pour out your heart before him” (62:9)—a communal echo of the individual’s “אמרי/הגיגי” (5:2–3).

5) Structural progression and “answer”
- Morning to all‑day/all‑times: Ps 5 is explicitly a morning prayer (בקר), which ends with confidence that the righteous will be encircled with favor. Ps 62 invites trust “בְכָל־עֵת” (at all times, 62:9), as if extending the morning’s reliance into the whole day.
- From “I” to “we”: Ps 5 is almost entirely in the singular first person. Ps 62 begins with “I” confidence but turns to the plural address (עָם … לְבַבְכֶם … לָּנוּ, 62:9), converting the individual experience of Psalm 5 into communal instruction.
- Call-and-response in hearing language: Ps 5’s triple “hear/listen” plea (האזינה, הקשיבה, תשמע) is answered by Ps 62’s “this I have heard,” coupled with a compact creed (Power belongs to God; steadfast love is yours; you requite each person).

6) Life‑setting plausibility in ancient Israel
- Daily pattern: It is natural to pair a morning petition (Ps 5) with a later‑day confession of trust/exhortation (Ps 62), especially within a temple‑choir context signaled by the superscriptions (flutes → Jeduthun guild). Psalm 62’s communal lines fit a liturgical response to (or reprise of) the morning leader’s prayer.
- Royal/civic ethics: Both psalms warn against the social sins of the court/city (deceit, bloodshed, oppression, extortion: Ps 5:6–7,10–11; Ps 62:4–5,10–11) and affirm Yahweh/Elohim as the only reliable stronghold, a theme apt for royal liturgy and public instruction.

7) Smaller but telling verbal echoes
- “Much/abundance” wordplay: Ps 5:8 בְּרֹב חַסְדֶּךָ; Ps 62:3 לֹא אֶמּוֹט רַבָּה (“I shall not be greatly shaken”). The adverb/adjective רב marks both abundance of divine loyalty and the extent of the psalmist’s stability.
- Inner person focus: Ps 5:10 קִרְבָּם הַוּוֹת (“their inward part is destruction”), Ps 62:5; 62:9 וּבְקִרְבָּם יְקַלְלוּ … שִׁפְכוּ לְפָנָיו לְבַבְכֶם. Both attend to what is “inside” people, for ill or for good.

A concise synthesis
- Psalm 5 sets the scene: an individual, in the morning, faces a world of duplicitous opponents, and asks God to hear, lead, shield, judge, and bless. Several key lemmata crystallize the conflict: כָזָב, יעץ, הדיח, חסד, חסה, and stability terms (יתיצבו).
- Psalm 62 reads like the theological and experiential “answer”: the same foes are there (כזב, plotting to הדיח), but the speaker now stands unshaken (לא אמוט), articulates the principle behind the hoped‑for judgments (תשלם לאיש כמעשהו), names directly the attributes already implicit in Psalm 5 (עֹז, חֶסֶד), and turns his private morning petition into a public call to trust and pour out one’s heart.
- The combination of matching superscriptions, rare shared lexemes (especially הדיח, כזב, יעץ; and the חסה/מחסה cluster), mirrored themes (deceitful speech, divine shelter, retributive justice), and a credible liturgical/life‑setting (morning prayer → communal trust song) makes a strong case that Psalm 62 can be read as a logical and liturgically plausible follow‑on to Psalm 5.

Evaluation

Score: 6.5

Evaluated at: 2025-11-15T03:22:32 (UTC)

Evaluator model: gpt-5

Evaluator version: v2

Reasoning: 4032 Output: 6039 Total: 10071

Vocabulary specificity: 5.0 / 10

Multiple specific, correct lexical links (rare הדיח; יעץ+כזב; ‘hear’→‘I heard’; morning→‘at all times’), with coherent rationale. But most vocabulary is common; no editorial markers; psalms lie in different books.

Prompt

Consider Psalm 5 and Psalm 62 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 62 logically follows on from Psalm 5? 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 5:
Psalm 5
1. לַמְנַצֵּ֥חַ
        אֶֽל־
        הַנְּחִיל֗וֹת
        מִזְמ֥וֹר
        לְדָוִֽד׃
2. אֲמָרַ֖י
        הַאֲזִ֥ינָה ׀
        יְהוָ֗ה
        בִּ֣ינָה
        הֲגִֽיגִי׃
3. הַקְשִׁ֤יבָה ׀
        לְק֬וֹל
        שַׁוְעִ֗י
        מַלְכִּ֥י
        וֵאלֹהָ֑י
        כִּֽי־
        אֵ֝לֶ֗יךָ
        אֶתְפַּלָּֽל׃
4. יְֽהוָ֗ה
        בֹּ֭קֶר
        תִּשְׁמַ֣ע
        קוֹלִ֑י
        בֹּ֥קֶר
        אֶֽעֱרָךְ־
        לְ֝ךָ֗
        וַאֲצַפֶּֽה׃
5. כִּ֤י ׀
        לֹ֤א
        אֵֽל־
        חָפֵ֘ץ
        רֶ֥שַׁע ׀
        אָ֑תָּה
        לֹ֖א
        יְגֻרְךָ֣
        רָֽע׃
6. לֹֽא־
        יִתְיַצְּב֣וּ
        הֽ֭וֹלְלִים
        לְנֶ֣גֶד
        עֵינֶ֑יךָ
        שָׂ֝נֵ֗אתָ
        כָּל־
        פֹּ֥עֲלֵי
        אָֽוֶן׃
7. תְּאַבֵּד֮
        דֹּבְרֵ֢י
        כָ֫זָ֥ב
        אִישׁ־
        דָּמִ֥ים
        וּמִרְמָ֗ה
        יְתָ֘עֵ֥ב ׀
        יְהוָֽה׃
8. וַאֲנִ֗י
        בְּרֹ֣ב
        חַ֭סְדְּךָ
        אָב֣וֹא
        בֵיתֶ֑ךָ
        אֶשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֥ה
        אֶל־
        הֵֽיכַל־
        קָ֝דְשְׁךָ֗
        בְּיִרְאָתֶֽךָ׃
9. יְהוָ֤ה ׀
        נְחֵ֬נִי
        בְצִדְקָתֶ֗ךָ
        לְמַ֥עַן
        שׁוֹרְרָ֑י
        הושר
        הַיְשַׁ֖ר
        לְפָנַ֣י
        דַּרְכֶּֽךָ׃
10. כִּ֤י
        אֵ֪ין
        בְּפִ֡יהוּ
        נְכוֹנָה֮
        קִרְבָּ֢ם
        הַ֫וּ֥וֹת
        קֶֽבֶר־
        פָּת֥וּחַ
        גְּרוֹנָ֑ם
        לְ֝שׁוֹנָ֗ם
        יַחֲלִֽיקוּן׃
11. הַֽאֲשִׁימֵ֨ם ׀
        אֱ‍ֽלֹהִ֗ים
        יִפְּלוּ֮
        מִֽמֹּעֲצ֢וֹתֵ֫יהֶ֥ם
        בְּרֹ֣ב
        פִּ֭שְׁעֵיהֶם
        הַדִּיחֵ֑מוֹ
        כִּי־
        מָ֥רוּ
        בָֽךְ׃
12. וְיִשְׂמְח֨וּ
        כָל־
        ח֪וֹסֵי
        בָ֡ךְ
        לְעוֹלָ֣ם
        יְ֭רַנֵּנוּ
        וְתָסֵ֣ךְ
        עָלֵ֑ימוֹ
        וְֽיַעְלְצ֥וּ
        בְ֝ךָ֗
        אֹהֲבֵ֥י
        שְׁמֶֽךָ׃
13. כִּֽי־
        אַתָּה֮
        תְּבָרֵ֢ךְ
        צַ֫דִּ֥יק
        יְהוָ֑ה
        כַּ֝צִּנָּ֗ה
        רָצ֥וֹן
        תַּעְטְרֶֽנּוּ׃

Psalm 62:
Psalm 62
1. לַמְנַצֵּ֥חַ
        עַֽל־
        יְדוּת֗וּן
        מִזְמ֥וֹר
        לְדָוִֽד׃
2. אַ֣ךְ
        אֶל־
        אֱ֭לֹהִים
        דּֽוּמִיָּ֣ה
        נַפְשִׁ֑י
        מִ֝מֶּ֗נּוּ
        יְשׁוּעָתִֽי׃
3. אַךְ־
        ה֣וּא
        צ֭וּרִי
        וִֽישׁוּעָתִ֑י
        מִ֝שְׂגַּבִּ֗י
        לֹא־
        אֶמּ֥וֹט
        רַבָּֽה׃
4. עַד־
        אָ֤נָה ׀
        תְּה֥וֹתְת֣וּ
        עַלc
        אִישׁ֮
        תְּרָצְּח֢וּ
        כֻ֫לְּכֶ֥ם
        כְּקִ֥יר
        נָט֑וּי
        גָּ֝דֵ֗ר
        הַדְּחוּֽיָה׃
5. אַ֤ךְ
        מִשְּׂאֵת֨וֹ ׀
        יָ֥עֲצ֣וּ
        לְהַדִּיחַ֮
        יִרְצ֢וּ
        כָ֫זָ֥ב
        בְּפִ֥יו
        יְבָרֵ֑כוּ
        וּ֝בְקִרְבָּ֗ם
        יְקַלְלוּ־
        סֶֽלָה׃
6. אַ֣ךְ
        לֵ֭אלֹהִים
        דּ֣וֹמִּי
        נַפְשִׁ֑י
        כִּי־
        מִ֝מֶּ֗נּוּ
        תִּקְוָתִֽי׃
7. אַךְ־
        ה֣וּא
        צ֭וּרִי
        וִֽישׁוּעָתִ֑י
        מִ֝שְׂגַּבִּ֗י
        לֹ֣א
        אֶמּֽוֹט׃
8. עַל־
        אֱ֭לֹהִים
        יִשְׁעִ֣י
        וּכְבוֹדִ֑י
        צוּר־
        עֻזִּ֥י
        מַ֝חְסִ֗י
        בֵּֽאלֹהִֽים׃
9. בִּטְח֘וּ
        ב֤וֹ
        בְכָל־
        עֵ֨ת ׀
        עָ֗ם
        שִׁפְכֽוּ־
        לְפָנָ֥יו
        לְבַבְכֶ֑ם
        אֱלֹהִ֖ים
        מַחֲסֶה־
        לָּ֣נוּ
        סֶֽלָה׃
10. אַ֤ךְ ׀
        הֶ֥בֶל
        בְּנֵֽי־
        אָדָם֮
        כָּזָ֢ב
        בְּנֵ֫י
        אִ֥ישׁ
        בְּמֹאזְנַ֥יִם
        לַעֲל֑וֹת
        הֵ֝֗מָּה
        מֵהֶ֥בֶל
        יָֽחַד׃
11. אַל־
        תִּבְטְח֣וּ
        בְעֹשֶׁק֮
        וּבְגָזֵ֢ל
        אַל־
        תֶּ֫הְבָּ֥לוּ
        חַ֤יִל ׀
        כִּֽי־
        יָנ֑וּב
        אַל־
        תָּשִׁ֥יתוּ
        לֵֽב׃
12. אַחַ֤ת ׀
        דִּבֶּ֬ר
        אֱלֹהִ֗ים
        שְׁתַּֽיִם־
        ז֥וּ
        שָׁמָ֑עְתִּי
        כִּ֥י
        עֹ֝֗ז
        לֵאלֹהִֽים׃
13. וּלְךָֽ־
        אֲדֹנָ֥י
        חָ֑סֶד
        כִּֽי־
        אַתָּ֨ה
        תְשַׁלֵּ֖ם
        לְאִ֣ישׁ
        כְּֽמַעֲשֵֽׂהוּ׃