Psalm 7 → 62
Reasoning: 8896 Output: 5888 Total: 14784
Argument
Thesis in one line: Read Psalm 62 as the composed, public “answer” to Psalm 7: what the Davidic suppliant pleads for under slander and pursuit in Psalm 7 (rescue, vindication, retributive justice), he calmly confesses and teaches to the community in Psalm 62 (exclusive trust in God, secure honor, and the principle that God repays each person according to his deeds). Evidence, ordered from strongest (identical forms and rarer lexemes) to broader thematic/structural links: 1) Identical forms that are not very common - וכְבוֹדִי “and my honor” (Ps 7:6; Ps 62:8). In Psalm 7 the psalmist fears “my honor will dwell in the dust”; in Psalm 62 “upon God are my salvation and my honor.” Same form, but reversed outcome—perfect for a “follow-on” psalm. - נַפְשִׁי “my soul” (Ps 7:3,6; Ps 62:2,6). In Psalm 7 “my soul” is prey (“like a lion”); in Psalm 62 “my soul” is in silence/rest before God. The same subject (נפשי) moves from peril to peace. - לְדָוִד in the superscriptions (both). Same Davidic voice. 2) Same roots (with multiple morphological realizations), including several that cluster in laments/trust psalms but are notably interlocked here - ישע “save/deliver”: • Ps 7:2 הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי (Hifil ‘save me’), 7:11 מוֹשִׁיעַ (‘one who saves’). • Ps 62:2,3,7 יְשׁוּעָתִי (‘my salvation’), 62:8 יִשְׁעִי (‘my salvation/deliverance’). The plea (save me) in 7 becomes the settled confession (my salvation) in 62. - חסה “seek refuge”: • Ps 7:2 בְּךָ חָסִיתִי (‘in you I have taken refuge’). • Ps 62:8 מַחְסִי בֵאלֹהִים (‘my refuge is in God’), 62:9 אֱלֹהִים מַחֲסֶה־לָּנוּ (‘God is a refuge for us’). The personal refuge of 7 expands to a communal confession in 62. - כבד “weight/honor”: • Ps 7:6 וּכְבוֹדִי (‘my honor’) threatened with burial in dust. • Ps 62:8 וּכְבוֹדִי (‘my honor’) is grounded in God; 62:10 plays on “weight” explicitly: “in the balances to go up” (בְּמֹאזְנַיִם לַעֲלוֹת), contrasting human worthlessness (הֶבֶל) with true “weightiness.” The cluster כבוד–מאזנים–הבל in 62 reads like a reflective resolution to the threatened כבוד of 7. - לב “heart”: • Ps 7:10 בֹּחֵן לִבּוֹת (‘tester of hearts’), 7:11 יִשְׁרֵי־לֵב (‘upright of heart’). • Ps 62:9 שִׁפְכֽוּ־לְפָנָיו לְבַבְכֶם (‘pour out your heart before him’), 62:11 אַל־תָּשִׁיתוּ לֵב (‘do not set your heart’). God who examines the heart in 7 becomes the God before whom hearts are poured out in 62. - נשׂא “lift/exalt”: • Ps 7:7 הִנָּשֵׂא (‘be exalted’), 7:8 לַמָּרוֹם שׁוּבָה (‘return on high’). • Ps 62:5 מִשְׂאֵתוֹ (‘his elevation/dignity’; a rarer noun from נשׂא): enemies “advise to push him down from his elevation.” Both psalms share the “height/exaltation” motif: in 7 the speaker asks God to be exalted; in 62 enemies plot to topple the psalmist “from his elevation,” while God is the true “high place” (מִשְׂגָּבִי v3,7). This is a tightly knit lexeme/motif linkage. 3) Parallel and complementary imagery of protection and height - Psalm 7: “shield” (מָגִן, 7:11), “return on high” (7:8). - Psalm 62: “rock/fortress/high tower” (צוּר/מִשְׂגָּב, 62:3,7), “refuge” (מַחְסֶה, 62:9). The defensive field widens: from shield (individual combat) to rock/stronghold/tower/refuge (settled security). This reads naturally as an aftermath to the danger in 7. 4) Retributive justice: from narrative exemplification to general maxim - Psalm 7 states the case as a concrete, almost proverbial outcome: “His trouble will return on his own head … his violence will descend on his skull” (7:17), paired with the “pit” motif (7:16). - Psalm 62 universalizes the principle in a wisdom closure: “For you repay each man according to his work” (62:13). This is the same doctrine of recompense, now articulated didactically. 5) Enemies and their speech: from superscription to inner-outer duplicity - Psalm 7’s heading frames the crisis as “על־דברי כוש” (“about the words of Cush”), and the psalm stresses slander/pursuit. - Psalm 62:5–6 paints the attackers as duplicitous: “in his mouth they bless, but inwardly they curse” (בְּפִיו יְבָרֵכוּ וּבְקִרְבָּם יְקַלְלוּ), and “they delight in lies” (יִרְצוּ כָזָב). Psalm 62 thus explicitly names the verbal assault implied already in Psalm 7’s title. 6) Violence vocabulary and downward motion - Psalm 7: “tear like a lion” (יִטְרֹף), “trample to the ground” (וְיִרְמֹס לָאָרֶץ), “pit” (בּוֹר), “fall” (וַיִּפֹּל), “violence” (חָמָס). - Psalm 62: “you all murder” (תְּרָצְּחוּ), “oppression” (עֹשֶׁק), “robbery” (גָזֵל), “to push down, to depose” (לְהַדִּיחַ), “the pushed-over fence” (הַדְּחוּיָה). Both psalms use violent/downward imagery; Psalm 62’s wall/fence about to be pushed over (62:4) is a civil-architectural counterpart to Psalm 7’s predatory/pit imagery. 7) From personal plea to communal instruction - Psalm 7 is an individual lament with courtroom appeal (“Judge me, YHWH, according to my righteousness,” 7:9) culminating in praise (7:18). - Psalm 62 is an individual trust psalm with a public summons: “People (עָם), trust in him at all times; pour out your hearts before him” (62:9). That communal exhortation suits a sequel in which the rescued king teaches the populace what he learned. 8) Courtroom/governance frame, then pedagogy - Psalm 7: “YHWH will judge the peoples” (יְהוָה יָדִין עַמִּים, 7:9), “You commanded judgment” (מִשְׁפָּט צִוִּיתָ, 7:7). - Psalm 62 closes with God’s sovereign attributes (power and loyal love) and the recompense maxim (62:12–13), the wisdom-style doctrinal takeaway that would follow after a judicial vindication. 9) Honor “down to dust” vs honor secured in God, with scale/weight wordplay - Psalm 7: “my honor will dwell in the dust” (וּכְבוֹדִי לֶעָפָר יַשְׁכֵּן). - Psalm 62: “upon God are my salvation and my honor” (עַל־אֱלֹהִים יִשְׁעִי וּכְבוֹדִי), then immediately, “on the scales to go up … lighter than vapor” (62:10). Psalm 62 plays on the “weight” (כבד) of honor via the imagery of balances, offering a poetic, reflective correction to the threatened “lightness”/disgrace of Psalm 7. 10) The inner life of the suppliant: from agitation (Shiggaion) to silence (Dumiyyah) - Psalm 7’s rare heading שִׁגָּיוֹן (also in Hab 3) suggests an impassioned, erratic lament. - Psalm 62 twice begins sections with אַךְ and centers on דֻּמִיָּה/דּוֹמִּי (“silence/rest”), a rare noun for quiet waiting. Literarily, Psalm 62 reads as the emotional resolution of Psalm 7’s crisis. 11) Height/exaltation cluster: God’s elevation and the psalmist’s “high place” - Psalm 7: “Arise, YHWH … be exalted … return on high” (קוּמָה … הִנָּשֵׂא … לַמָּרוֹם שׁוּבָה, 7:7–8). - Psalm 62 answers with spatial security metaphors: “my high stronghold” (מִשְׂגַּבִּי, 62:3,7) and the enemy scheme “to depose him from his elevation” (מִשְׂאֵתוֹ לְהַדִּיחַ, 62:5). A tightly coordinated spatial lexicon links the two. 12) Shared liturgical trajectory in Israelite life - Psalm 7 (personal crisis under slander, possibly early in David’s conflict with Saul—“Cush the Benjaminite”) fits a private/forensic plea. - Psalm 62 (set “for the choirmaster; according to Jeduthun”) situates the same Davidic theology in guild-led liturgy. This maps a plausible historical-social sequence: private vindication → public catechesis led by temple musicians. That is a natural “follow-on.” 13) The retributive “pit” vs the didactic “repay” aphorism - Psalm 7 culminates in narrative irony: the wicked falls into his own pit (7:16–17). - Psalm 62 abstracts that into covenantal wisdom: God repays each person according to his work (62:13). Same doctrine, different register (story → proverb). Why this matters for ordering: Taken together, the two psalms form a movement from (a) an individual, impassioned forensic lament (Shiggaion) in which honor, life, and justice are threatened by slanderous pursuers, to (b) a poised, communal trust-teaching in which that same “soul,” “honor,” “refuge,” and “salvation” vocabulary is reaffirmed, and the retributive lesson is codified. The rare/elevated lexemes (וכבודי; משׂאתו from נשׂא; דמיה) and the identical roots (ישע; חסה; לב; נשׂא/מרום; כבד with the scale wordplay) stitch the two together more tightly than chance, and the social-liturgical headings (Shiggaion → Jeduthun) reflect the move from private crisis to public instruction typical of ancient Israelite religious life.
Evaluation
Score: 6.5
Evaluated at: 2025-11-25T03:33:11 (UTC)
Evaluator model: gpt-5
Evaluator version: v2
Reasoning: 3840 Output: 6729 Total: 10569
Checklist
- Has verse refs: Yes
- Factual error detected: No
- Only generic motifs: No
- Counterargument considered: Yes
- LXX/MT numbering acknowledged: No
Vocabulary specificity: 5.0 / 10
Strong overlaps: identical וכבודי (7:6; 62:8), rare דומיה/דומי (62:2,6), and נשא–משאתו linkage (62:5; 7:7). Yet most links use ubiquitous psalmic lexemes; no editorial marker or inclusio. Plausible, not decisive.
Prompt
Consider Psalm 7 and Psalm 62 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 62 logically follows on from Psalm 7? 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 7:
Psalm 7
1. שִׁגָּי֗וֹן
לְדָ֫וִ֥ד
אֲשֶׁר־
שָׁ֥ר
לַיהוָ֑ה
עַל־
דִּבְרֵי־
כ֝֗וּשׁ
בֶּן־
יְמִינִֽי׃
2. יְהוָ֣ה
אֱ֭לֹהַי
בְּךָ֣
חָסִ֑יתִי
הוֹשִׁיעֵ֥נִי
מִכָּל־
רֹ֝דְפַ֗י
וְהַצִּילֵֽנִי׃
3. פֶּן־
יִטְרֹ֣ף
כְּאַרְיֵ֣ה
נַפְשִׁ֑י
פֹּ֝רֵ֗ק
וְאֵ֣ין
מַצִּֽיל׃
4. יְהוָ֣ה
אֱ֭לֹהַי
אִם־
עָשִׂ֣יתִי
זֹ֑את
אִֽם־
יֶשׁ־
עָ֥וֶל
בְּכַפָּֽי׃
5. אִם־
גָּ֭מַלְתִּי
שֽׁוֹלְמִ֥י
רָ֑ע
וָאֲחַלְּצָ֖ה
צוֹרְרִ֣י
רֵיקָֽם׃
6. יִֽרַדֹּ֥ף
אוֹיֵ֨ב ׀
נַפְשִׁ֡י
וְיַשֵּׂ֗ג
וְיִרְמֹ֣ס
לָאָ֣רֶץ
חַיָּ֑י
וּכְבוֹדִ֓י ׀
לֶעָפָ֖ר
יַשְׁכֵּ֣ן
סֶֽלָה׃
7. ק֘וּמָ֤ה
יְהוָ֨ה ׀
בְּאַפֶּ֗ךָ
הִ֭נָּשֵׂא
בְּעַבְר֣וֹת
צוֹרְרָ֑י
וְע֥וּרָה
אֵ֝לַ֗י
מִשְׁפָּ֥ט
צִוִּֽיתָ׃
8. וַעֲדַ֣ת
לְ֭אֻמִּים
תְּסוֹבְבֶ֑ךָּ
וְ֝עָלֶ֗יהָ
לַמָּר֥וֹם
שֽׁוּבָה׃
9. יְהוָה֮
יָדִ֢ין
עַ֫מִּ֥ים
שָׁפְטֵ֥נִי
יְהוָ֑ה
כְּצִדְקִ֖י
וּכְתֻמִּ֣י
עָלָֽי׃
10. יִגְמָר־
נָ֬א
רַ֨ע ׀
רְשָׁעִים֮
וּתְכוֹנֵ֢ן
צַ֫דִּ֥יק
וּבֹחֵ֣ן
לִ֭בּ֗וֹת
וּכְלָי֗וֹת
אֱלֹהִ֥ים
צַדִּֽיק׃
11. מָֽגִנִּ֥י
עַל־
אֱלֹהִ֑ים
מ֝וֹשִׁ֗יעַ
יִשְׁרֵי־
לֵֽב׃
12. אֱ֭לֹהִים
שׁוֹפֵ֣ט
צַדִּ֑יק
וְ֝אֵ֗ל
זֹעֵ֥ם
בְּכָל־
יֽוֹם׃
13. אִם־
לֹ֣א
יָ֭שׁוּב
חַרְבּ֣וֹ
יִלְט֑וֹשׁ
קַשְׁתּ֥וֹ
דָ֝רַ֗ךְ
וַֽיְכוֹנְנֶֽהָ׃
14. וְ֭לוֹ
הֵכִ֣ין
כְּלֵי־
מָ֑וֶת
חִ֝צָּ֗יו
לְֽדֹלְקִ֥ים
יִפְעָֽל׃
15. הִנֵּ֥ה
יְחַבֶּל־
אָ֑וֶן
וְהָרָ֥ה
עָ֝מָ֗ל
וְיָ֣לַד
שָֽׁקֶר׃
16. בּ֣וֹר
כָּ֭רָֽה
וַֽיַּחְפְּרֵ֑הוּ
וַ֝יִּפֹּ֗ל
בְּשַׁ֣חַת
יִפְעָֽל׃
17. יָשׁ֣וּב
עֲמָל֣וֹ
בְרֹאשׁ֑וֹ
וְעַ֥ל
קָ֝דְקֳד֗וֹ
חֲמָס֥וֹ
יֵרֵֽד׃
18. אוֹדֶ֣ה
יְהוָ֣ה
כְּצִדְק֑וֹ
וַ֝אֲזַמְּרָ֗ה
שֵֽׁם־
יְהוָ֥ה
עֶלְיֽוֹן׃
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׃