Psalm 6 → 113

Reasoning: 5824 Output: 3845 Total: 9669

Argument

Here is a set of mutually reinforcing arguments—formal, stylistic, lexical, thematic, and cultural-liturgical—that can justify reading Psalm 113 as the logical sequel to Psalm 6.

1) From lament to praise: the canonical “arc” completed
- Form-critical sequence: Psalm 6 is a classic individual lament (complaint → petition → confidence, vv. 9–10), and Psalm 113 is a pure hymn of praise. In Israelite worship the movement “lament/deliverance → hallel” is a standard sequence. Psalm 113 can be read as the public doxology that follows the personal plea and assurance of Psalm 6.
- Seam by structure: Psalm 6 ends with a threefold confidence formula (YHWH has heard my weeping… YHWH has heard my supplication… YHWH accepts my prayer, 6:9–10). Psalm 113 opens with a threefold imperative to praise (hallelu Yah; hallelu avdei YHWH; hallelu et-shem YHWH, 113:1). The triplet of “YHWH has heard” naturally hands the congregation a triplet of “praise!”

2) The question in Psalm 6 is answered by Psalm 113
- Psalm 6:6 “In death there is no remembrance of You; in Sheol who will give thanks to You?” (mi yodeh lakh?) is a rhetorical motivation for deliverance so that God might be praised in the land of the living.
- Psalm 113 answers with global and perpetual praise: “Blessed be the name of YHWH from now and forever” (me’atah ve’ad olam, 113:2) and “From sunrise to sunset the name of YHWH is praised” (113:3). The anxious “Who will praise You?” (6:6) yields to “All day, everywhere, His name is praised” (113:2–3). The lament’s logic is fulfilled.

3) Shared rhetorical markers that link the two
- Interrogatives: Both pivot on mi-questions. 6:6 “mi yodeh-lakh?” and 113:5 “mi kaYHWH Eloheinu?” The first laments the lack of praisers in Sheol; the second exalts the unique praiseworthiness of YHWH above heaven and earth.
- The ad…ad time-frame: 6:4 asks “Ad matai?” (How long?), expressing open-ended distress; 113:2–3 responds with resolved temporality “me’atah ve’ad olam” (from now to forever) and “mimmizrach-shemesh ad mevo’o” (from sunrise to sunset). The “How long?” gives way to “forever,” and the night-weeping of 6:7 gives way to day-long praise (113:3).

4) The reversal motif: from deathlike lowliness to exaltation
- Psalm 6 paints a deathward descent: weakness (umlal, 6:3), bones and soul “terrified” (nivhalu, 6:3–4), bed drenched with tears at night (6:7), the nearness of Sheol (6:6).
- Psalm 113 celebrates God’s signature reversals: He is “high/exalted” (ram, 113:4–5) yet “stoops” (hamashpili) to see; He “raises” (meqimi) the poor from dust (me’afar) and “lifts” (yarim) the needy from the ash heap (me’ashpot), seating them with princes (lehoshivi ‘im nedivim, 113:7–8); He turns barrenness into joyful motherhood (113:9).
- The language of lifting (r-w-m; q-w-m; r-w-m/yarim) in 113 directly answers the abyss-ward trajectory of Psalm 6. In other words: the God who can avert Sheol (6:6) is precisely the One who raises from dust and ash heaps (113:7), i.e., from “death-adjacent” states.

5) Praise-lexicon continuity: yadah/hallel/barakh
- Psalm 6 uses yadah “to give thanks/praise” as the desired response of the living (6:6 mi yodeh-lakh?). Psalm 113 piles up the other two praise verbs: hallel (vv. 1, 3) and barakh/mevorach (v. 2). While the exact verb yadah is not repeated in 113, the three principal praise-verbs of the Psalter (yadah–hallel–barakh) are functionally sequenced: Psalm 6 argues for yadah, Psalm 113 realizes hallel and barakh. This is a strong thematic and lexical progression in the same semantic field.

6) Name and remembrance: a subtle conceptual tie
- Psalm 6:6 “In death there is no remembrance (zikrekha) of You” leverages the covenantal idea that YHWH is “remembered” and “thanked” by the living.
- Psalm 113 shifts that remembrance to the “Name” (shem YHWH occurs three times in vv. 1–3; mevorach, mehullal), the liturgical object of blessing and praise. “Remembrance of You” in 6:6 becomes explicit “blessing/praise of Your Name” in 113:1–3.

7) Night vs day; private bed vs public seat
- Psalm 6 is nocturnal and private: “All night I flood my bed” (6:7).
- Psalm 113 is diurnal and public: “from sunrise to sunset” (113:3) and God “seats” the raised person “with princes” (113:8). The furniture moves from the tear-soaked bed (mittah/‘eres in 6:7) to the princely seat (lehoshivi in 113:8). Domestic misery (6) yields to domestic joy: “He makes the barren woman dwell as a joyful mother of children” (113:9). The domestic setting is transformed by divine elevation.

8) Rare/striking lexemes and images that strengthen the link by reversal
- Sheol (6:6) is a rarer, weighty term; 113’s me’ashpot (ash-heap/dunghill, 113:7) is also rare and vivid. Both evoke extremity—one the underworld of death, the other the lowest social/material state. Psalm 113’s God is precisely the one who reverses such extremities.
- The paired hifil participles in 113 (hamagbihi, hamashpili) stress God’s transcendence-immanence paradox; this answers the existential gap felt in 6:4 “And You, YHWH—how long?” by asserting that the high God stoops to look and act “in heaven and on earth” (113:6), i.e., in the psalmist’s world of distress.

9) Enemies silenced vs nations relativized
- Psalm 6 ends with the enemies shamed and turning back in a moment (6:11).
- Psalm 113 relativizes the nations altogether: “YHWH is high above all nations” (al kol goyim, 113:4). The local conflict of Psalm 6 is subsumed by the cosmic kingship in Psalm 113; the outcome of Psalm 6 (enemies shamed) naturally transitions into the broader confession of YHWH’s supremacy.

10) Liturgical life-cycle and Israel’s memory
- In Israel’s cult, individual lament could segue into communal thanksgiving/hallelujah. Psalm 113 is the opening of the Egyptian Hallel (Pss 113–118), sung especially at Passover—a festival of reversal (slavery to freedom), which ideologically matches 113:7–9 and answers the plea for deliverance in Psalm 6.
- The barren-woman-to-mother image (113:9) echoes Hannah’s reversal (1 Sam 2:8, “He raises the poor from the dust… sets them with princes”), the archetypal narrative of distress-to-praise. Psalm 6 sounds like the “before,” Psalm 113 the “after.”

11) Smaller but suggestive stitching
- The repeated divine name YHWH is dense in both compositions and climactic at the seam: 6:9–10 (threefold YHWH) is immediately matched by 113:1–3 (threefold “hallelu … YHWH/shem YHWH”). This is exactly the kind of editorial hinge an ancient compiler could exploit.

Summary
Read this way, Psalm 113 stands as the liturgical and theological resolution of Psalm 6. Psalm 6’s night, frailty, nearness to Sheol, and urgent “How long?” are answered by Psalm 113’s day-long, world-wide praise of the Name; God’s nearness from heaven to earth; and His signature act of lifting the lowly from dust and ash to seats of joy and honor. Even where exact lexemes do not repeat, the shared rhetorical devices (mi-questions; ad…ad frames), the contiguous praise-lexicon (yadah/hallel/barakh), and the rare, weighty images (Sheol; ash-heap) all point to a coherent lament→deliverance→praise progression.

Evaluation

Score: 6.0

Evaluated at: 2025-11-21T04:06:16 (UTC)

Evaluator model: gpt-5

Evaluator version: v2

Reasoning: 2944 Output: 4670 Total: 7614

Vocabulary specificity: 3.0 / 10

Specific links (6:6↔113:2–3; 6:4↔113:2–3; mi-questions; triple YHWH/hallelu) are plausible, but common across Psalms and non-adjacent; no decisive editorial marker. No caps.

Prompt

Consider Psalm 6 and Psalm 113 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 113 logically follows on from Psalm 6? 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 6:
Psalm 6
1. לַמְנַצֵּ֣חַ
        בִּ֭נְגִינוֹת
        עַֽל־
        הַשְּׁמִינִ֗ית
        מִזְמ֥וֹר
        לְדָוִֽד׃
2. יְֽהוָ֗ה
        אַל־
        בְּאַפְּךָ֥
        תוֹכִיחֵ֑נִי
        וְֽאַל־
        בַּחֲמָתְךָ֥
        תְיַסְּרֵֽנִי׃
3. חָנֵּ֥נִי
        יְהוָה֮
        כִּ֤י
        אֻמְלַ֫ל
        אָ֥נִי
        רְפָאֵ֥נִי
        יְהוָ֑ה
        כִּ֖י
        נִבְהֲל֣וּ
        עֲצָֽtמָי׃
4. וְ֭נַפְשִׁי
        נִבְהֲלָ֣ה
        מְאֹ֑ד
        ואת
        וְאַתָּ֥ה
        יְ֝הוָ֗ה
        עַד־
        מָתָֽי׃
5. שׁוּבָ֣ה
        יְ֭הוָה
        חַלְּצָ֣ה
        נַפְשִׁ֑י
        ה֝וֹשִׁיעֵ֗נִי
        לְמַ֣עַן
        חַסְדֶּֽךָ׃
6. כִּ֤י
        אֵ֣ין
        בַּמָּ֣וֶת
        זִכְרֶ֑ךָ
        בִּ֝שְׁא֗וֹל
        מִ֣י
        יֽוֹדֶה־
        לָּֽךְ׃
7. יָגַ֤עְתִּי ׀
        בְּֽאַנְחָתִ֗י
        אַשְׂחֶ֣ה
        בְכָל־
        לַ֭יְלָה
        מִטָּתִ֑י
        בְּ֝דִמְעָתִ֗י
        עַרְשִׂ֥י
        אַמְסֶֽה׃
8. עָֽשְׁשָׁ֣ה
        מִכַּ֣עַס
        עֵינִ֑י
        עָֽ֝תְקָ֗ה
        בְּכָל־
        צוֹרְרָֽי׃
9. ס֣וּרוּ
        מִ֭מֶּנִּי
        כָּל־
        פֹּ֣עֲלֵי
        אָ֑וֶן
        כִּֽי־
        שָׁמַ֥ע
        יְ֝הוָ֗ה
        ק֣וֹל
        בִּכְיִֽי׃
10. שָׁמַ֣ע
        יְ֭הוָה
        תְּחִנָּתִ֑י
        יְ֝הוָ֗ה
        תְּֽפִלָּתִ֥י
        יִקָּֽח׃
11. יֵבֹ֤שׁוּ ׀
        וְיִבָּהֲל֣וּ
        מְ֭אֹד
        כָּל־
        אֹיְבָ֑י
        יָ֝שֻׁ֗בוּ
        יֵבֹ֥שׁוּ
        רָֽגַע׃

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׃