volume 6, issue 1, 2014, pages 41-69

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64438/sbsGGAQ3999
Published online: 2014-06-01
Published in print: 2014-06-30

Abstract: Psalm 63 is known to represent one of the finest testimonies of Psalter piety and it is a literary pearl among the Psalms. The present study is focused on some unique expressions of Ps 63 and aims to determine their significance in the psalm and within the context of the Psalter and suggests an approximate period for the final redaction of the psalm. After proposing a structure, emphasis is put on three central strophes (vv. 3-9). First, the immediate literary context of the given theological key expression in v. 4a is analysed and then the imagery of the desert and the metaphors of the winged YHWH, present in the psalm, are examined against the background of the Psalter. The statement that God’s faithfulness is better than life is in a hinge of theological change within the Psalter that has been identified in vv. 3-4. The two verbs – “see” hzָxַ (v. 3a) and “celebrate” xbָ;vַ I (v. 4b) – mark this theological shift that describes the interior movement of an orant from admiration to praise. Against the background of the introductory verse of the Psalm on the exiled king in the desert and on the bases of the careful use of the relatively new terms especially within the Psalter, the proposal situate the final redaction of the Psalm no earlier than the 5th century B.C.