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More notes, taken from or inspired by Michael Dahood's Anchor Bible commentary.
1) Dahood makes good sense of the entire Psalm by assuming that it moves from a place of battle and victory (vv. 5-14), to the victory celebration in the tents of the war camp (vv. 15-18), and then the army returns to the city (v. 19) and the temple (vv. 26-27). This also makes sense of the connection of this Psalm with Palm Sunday: Jesus has been in confinement, surrounded by enemies, but His Father has delivered Him and brought Him to Jerusalem, where the crowds greet Him in a triumphal procession.
2) Dahood notes the contrast between the "confinement" in which the Psalmist finds himself, and the "large place" to which he is brought (or from which Yahweh answers). He's given room to maneuver.
3) Dahood also notes the pun on "fear" (YARE) and "see" (R'AH) in verses 6-7. The Psalmist does not fear, because he is confident that he will "look on" (Dahood: "gloat over") his enemies.
4) Dahood takes "cut off" as a reference to circumcision, and cites 1 Samuel 18:25-27. He suggests that the Psalm has specific reference to David's conflicts with the Philistines, who were one of the few nations surrounding Israel that did not practice circumcision.
5) The second person address in verse 13 is odd. Dahood suggests that it is the Psalmist's address to Death, who pushes him so that he begins to fall into the confinement of the grave, where he cannot praise Yahweh. Yahweh rescues him, so that he can record the words of Yahweh.
6) Dahood interprets verse 24 as "This is the day Yahweh has acted." It is the day of the Yahweh, the day of Yahweh's appearance and triumph.
7) Verse 27a is not, Dahood argues, a sentence (Yahweh is God) but the composite name of Yahweh: El Yahweh. The WAW attached to the following verb ("he has shone") is not conjunctive. Hence, he translates: "El Yahweh has truly shone upon us," that is, in giving victory over enemies.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 09:26 AM
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