Psalm 7 → 123

Reasoning: 9408 Output: 4214 Total: 13622

Argument

Here are ways to argue that Psalm 123 can be read as a logical follow‑on to Psalm 7, grouped by type of evidence and weighted (rarer/more exact items first, then broader affinities).

Most diagnostic shared lexemes or forms (Hebrew)
- Shared root נשא “lift/raise” in marked positions:
  - Ps 7:7 הִנָּשֵׂא “be lifted up” (imperative to God)
  - Ps 123:1 נָשָׂאתִי “I have lifted” (the worshiper’s eyes)
  This exact root overlap, each in a programmatic verse, turns the plea “be exalted” (Ps 7) into the worshiper’s “I lift [my eyes]” (Ps 123).
- Vertical/height vocabulary clusters:
  - Ps 7:8 לַמָּרוֹם “to the height(s)”; 7:7 “arise… be lifted up”; 7:18 עֶלְיוֹן “Most High”
  - Ps 123: title הַמַּעֲלוֹת “ascents”; 123:1 הַיֹּשְׁבִי בַּשָּׁמַיִם “who sits in the heavens”
  While not identical roots, the concentrated “upward” lexicon in both psalms (height/Most High/heavens/ascents) makes Psalm 123 a natural “next step” after Psalm 7’s call for God to “return to the heights.”
- The divine designation with pronominal possession:
  - Ps 7:2,4 יְהוָה אֱלֹהַי “YHWH my God”
  - Ps 123:2 יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ “YHWH our God”
  Same two-word name with 1st-person suffix, shifting from individual (“my”) to corporate (“our”), which fits moving from an individual plea (Ps 7) to a communal Song of Ascents (Ps 123).
- נֶפֶשׁ “soul/life” in parallel complaint lines:
  - Ps 7:3,6 נַפְשִׁי “my soul” threatened by the pursuer
  - Ps 123:4 נַפְשֵׁנוּ “our soul” overfilled with contempt
  The same noun moves from individual mortal peril to communal social humiliation.
- הִנֵּה “behold” used to stage a key image:
  - Ps 7:15 “Behold, he travails with iniquity…”
  - Ps 123:2 “Behold, as the eyes of servants…”
  Both use הִנֵּה to introduce the psalm’s central picture (the wicked’s “pregnancy” of sin; the servants’ attentive gaze).

Form and stylistic alignments
- Direct petitions with vocative יהוה at or near the line head:
  - Ps 7:2,9,11 “יהוה… save/judge”; Ps 123:3 “חָנֵּנוּ יְהוָה חָנֵּנוּ”
  The plea + divine name + imperative pattern is shared, but Psalm 7 leans forensic (“judge me,” “establish the righteous”), whereas Psalm 123 leans gracious (“be gracious to us”), a natural rhetorical softening after a justice‑oriented prayer.
- Imperative momentum and temporal waiting:
  - Ps 7:7 “arise… be lifted up… awake for me the judgment you commanded”
  - Ps 123:2 “our eyes [are] to YHWH… עַד שֶׁיְּחָנֵּנוּ ‘until he is gracious to us’”
  Both mark time while awaiting divine intervention; Psalm 123’s “until” continues Psalm 7’s “awake/commanded judgment” in a more patient, watchful posture.
- Body‑metaphor style:
  - Ps 7:4 “in my palms” (בְּכַפָּי); 7:10 “tester of hearts and kidneys”
  - Ps 123:1–2 “I lift up my eyes… as the eyes of servants… to the hand of their masters”
  Both situate piety in embodied imagery (hands, eyes, heart/kidneys), making 123’s ocular/hand imagery a gentler counterpart to 7’s hands/heart imagery in the legal plea.

Idea‑thematic bridges
- From judgment to grace, same adversarial cast:
  - Ps 7 is forensic and retributive: “YHWH will judge the peoples… let the evil of the wicked come to an end,” with the boomerang of sin (pit falls back on the digger; violence descends on his head).
  - Ps 123 identifies the adversaries socially: “the mockery of the complacent, the contempt of the proud.” The same wicked/proud opposition is present, but now the community asks not for verdicts, but for gracious relief from scorn. This reads naturally as the next stage after vindication: the righteous, formerly hunted (Ps 7), now live under derision and seek mercy (Ps 123).
- Cosmic enthronement carried forward:
  - Ps 7 culminates in praise to “the name of YHWH Most High” and imagines a court scene with “an assembly of peoples” and God “returning to the heights.”
  - Ps 123 begins by addressing the enthroned one “who sits in the heavens,” and the community “lifts up” its gaze—an enacted response to the earlier call that God “be lifted up.”
- Narrative/ritual sequence that fits Israelite life:
  - Individual supplication in peril (Ps 7; superscribed to David, with concrete enemies) → communal pilgrimage posture (Ps 123; a Song of Ascents used by groups traveling to worship).
  - The upward movement is continuous: “arise/be lifted up… to the heights” (Ps 7) transitions into a liturgical “ascent” (title) and the worshiper’s “lifting of the eyes” to heaven (Ps 123). This mirrors yearly pilgrimage rhythms from crisis‑prayer to temple‑waiting for favor.
- Humbling/exalting polarity:
  - Ps 7 fears being trampled to the ground and “my glory dwelling in the dust,” while God is “Most High.”
  - Ps 123 contrasts “our soul” burdened by scorn with “the proud” (גֵאיוֹנִים), then fixes attention on the Heavenly Enthroned. The arc is from down (dust, derision) to up (heaven, grace), matching the ascent motif.

Secondary lexical/semantic echoes
- Manual imagery:
  - Ps 7:4 “if there is injustice in my palms”
  - Ps 123:2 “to the hand of their masters… to the hand of her mistress”
  Though כַּף and יָד differ, the shared “hand” field ties innocence/justice (Ps 7) to dependence/submission (Ps 123).
- Nations and scorn:
  - Ps 7:8 “an assembly of peoples will surround you; and over it to the heights return”
  - Ps 123: contempt from “the proud/complacent” (a social face of the hostile “peoples”); Psalm 123’s complaint can be heard as what remains after the courtroom scene of Psalm 7—public derision that only divine favor can silence.

Why these links are compelling
- The most probative items are the exact נשא root match (be lifted up / I lift up), the tightly clustered “height” vocabulary (מרום, עֶלְיוֹן ↔ הַמַּעֲלוֹת, שָׁמַיִם), and the matched divine designation with 1st‑person suffix shifting from singular to plural. These are not generic overlaps; they knit together a vertical movement and a change of speaker (individual → community) that a Song of Ascents is designed to embody.
- Stylistically both are direct, prayerful addresses to YHWH that frame conflict with the wicked/proud and end with trustful orientation to God’s throne—first juridically (Ps 7), then liturgically and humbly (Ps 123).

In sum: Psalm 123 reads like a liturgical and communal continuation of Psalm 7’s upward, enthronement‑and‑vindication arc. The same “lift” root (נשא), the shared high‑place lexicon (מרום/עליון ↔ שמים/מעלות), the shift from “YHWH my God” to “YHWH our God,” and the movement from courtroom vindication to patient looking for grace together justify reading Psalm 123 as logically following Psalm 7.

Evaluation

Score: 2.0

Evaluated at: 2025-11-27T03:33:07 (UTC)

Evaluator model: gpt-5

Evaluator version: v2

Reasoning: 2560 Output: 5039 Total: 7599

Vocabulary specificity: 3.0 / 10

Flags: misquote

Specific overlaps (נשא; height lexicon; יהוה אלהי/אלהינו; נפש) suggest link. But factual error: Ps 7:11 isn’t vocative יהוה or a petition—hard cap max 2. Also motifs are common in Psalms.

Prompt

Consider Psalm 7 and Psalm 123 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 123 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 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׃