16

Response
Ridderbos Nic. H. Vrije Universiteit 1105 De Boelelaan Amsterdam The Netherlands
Old Testament science owes a lot in the field of (stylistic) His article on Ps. 42-43 is to Alonso-Sch8kel. With pleasure I comply with the request of the a reaction to this article. In my opinion the best way to do this, is to put my reaction in a positive form, in to draw a sketch of my own vision of the structure of other words: this psalm, referring only a few times expressis verbis to the reflections of Alonso-Sch8kel.

structure-analysis also stimulating. editorship to give

1.
A.

At first I

shall make

few brief remarks

/1/

as

an

introduction.

I suggest the following 42.7-9 provides us with many problems. translation for v.7, retaining the Masoretic text: My God, my soul bows down in me; therefore, because I remember You, far away from the land of the Jordan, and (I remember) the holy places, far away from the Little Mountain (= Sion). Concerning v.8, great floods are often the symbol of great need in the psalms and elsewhere in the Old Testament, to which can be added, that there are repeatedly links between the great floods and the Thus it is not at all necessary that the environrealm of the dead. ment of the poet led to his speaking about great floods. Further: it is possible that this poet imagines he was in the realm of the dead, but this is no argument to support the opinion that he must have been ill, see Ps. 18.5 sqq., etc. In Israelite ideas Sion was the point of contact between heaven and earth; it was easy for him to believe that being banished from Sion was the same as being in the realm of the dead.

Rowley says in his article cited by Alonso-Scht5kel (Biblica 21, 1940, p. 47) that Buttenwieser renders the verb in v. 9 by a past tense and he writes that this rendering &dquo;is in no way new, for the older interpreters commonly adopted this view&dquo;. It is difficult for me to understand that later authors, with a single exception /2/, do not accept this idea. It does often happen that the Hebrew imperfect refers to the past /3/; in this connection it is especially

17

remarkable that Ps. 42 in v. 5 itself provides examples. Also after reading the views of Rowley and Alonso-Sch8kel about v. 9, I persist in my opinion that this verse does not conform with the context when referring to the future (or the present). At variance with Buttenwieser and Kissane (who changes the sequence of the verses) is my opinion that one should maintain the Masoretic text. I suggest the following translation: By day Jahwe disposed his unfailing love and by night His song was with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
,

In my opinion the poet has been a servant of the sanctuary, a temple-singer. The heading as well as the contents argue for it. I especially would like to point to the fact that the &dquo;praising&dquo; in the psalm is very important. In the refrain the poet puts his expectation of going back to the sanctuary into these words: &dquo;Once more I shall praise Him&dquo;. See further 43.4 (&dquo;I shall praise You with my zither&dquo;), also 42.5 and &dquo;song&dquo; in 42.9.

B.

In my

opinion

by foreign
II.

the poet probably had been carried off rulers to a heathen country.

or

expelled

Predominating in this psalm is the desire for communication with the desire for God and the God, as it is practised in the sanctuary; see especially 42.3. desire for the sanctuary are deeply allied; The psalm consists of three parts, 42. 2-6, 7-12; 43. 1-5; every In my opinion it is, generally speaking, part ends in the refrain. better not to use the word &dquo;strophe&dquo; in connection with the psalms, but in this psalm the word is usable. According to my counting the first part is composed of 22 stichoi, the second part of 22 stichoi A sense of balance is to be seen and the third part of 20 stichoi. with the poets of the psalms again and again, without any ambition to make use of a scholastic regularity.
The way from depth to heights is traversed in every part of the psalm. The &dquo;psalms of individual lament&dquo; usually begin in the depth, with complaints and prayers, and they end on the heights, expressing In some the certainty of a hearing or something of that sort /4/. psalms the way from the depth to the heights is traversed two or In p salm 42three times; see Ps. 31, 35, 38, 59, 71, 86, 94, 102.
In 43 also this way is traversed three times, in all three parts. this manner the ups and downs in the life of faith are rendered in a touching way. Faith has to struggle before it can stand on sure ground. Achieving certainty, however, does not mean that the struggle is over for ever. Again the sorrow takes the upper hand Over and over again there has to be a and complaints are uttered.

18
struggle before the poet is able to end his psalm with the &dquo;Once I shall praise Him, the release of my face and my God.&dquo;

more

There is still more to be said about the phenomenon just menBut In 42.6 it says, &dquo;Once more I shall praise Him&dquo;. tioned. so different. The contrast smarts. So the comis very reality more severe: calls to ...&dquo; become &dquo;Deep /5/. deep plaints
In 42.12 the poet comes for the second time to the &dquo;Once more I That is what the poet expects from his God, that shall praise Him&dquo;. This God may at last grant that salvation: he is allowed to expect. What has already been &dquo;Administer justice to me, 0 God ...&dquo; (43.1). The first part said indicates that every part has its own sound. here what entirely dominates is the desire for is the most central: here the complaints the second part is the darkest: the sanctuary; it conthe third part is the strongest: have the largest place; tains the prayer proper and it speaks most about the glorious future.

reflections also it will be shown that every A remarkable part of Ps. 42-43, its own sound. that it contains the prayer in the strict sense The first part contains only a about enemies. be called a 42. 3b, d; the second which can sigh, pronouncement, part approaches nearer to prayer, 42. 10; but only in the third part In the first part see below. do we find the prayer proper, 43. 1-4; the enemies are described only vaguely, 42. 4c, d; in the second part already more concretely, 42. 10; the most concrete description is given in the third part, 43. 1-2.

part

following psalm has as of many psalms, is and also the speaking

In the of the

extent it can already be seen from the above that in One can say that the first the climax is very important. psalm and the second part have their climax at the end, the refrain. It can also be said that the structure of the psalm as a whole is climactic (see the remarks about the place of the prayer and of the speaking about the enemies), and further: the third part is clearly the climax of the whole. The third part is also climactically constructed: first a negative prayer, a prayer for release from the enemies, 43. 1-2 and after that a positive prayer, a prayer in the latter for being brought back to the sanctuary, v.3-4; prayer the poet imagines he sees the answer to the prayer before his In v. 3-4 he first speaks about the sending of guidance, very eyes. then about coming to the dwelling places of God and finally about joy in God and praising of God. As the objects of the journey there are mentioned in succession: the holy mountain of God, the dwellingplaces of God, the altar of God, God Himself. The refrain here has the function of a decrescendo; see below. To
some our

19
We have to examine further the transitions which III. the psalm. In the first part you can hear the song of the song of sorrow, v. 4, the song of recollection, v.
are

made in

6 (see J. Ridderbos, II, 1958). 2-3 (ending in a sigh), is motivated by a complaint, In v. 5 the poet tears himself away from the painful present v. 4. about which he complained in v. 4, and he starts to recall the joyful past (cf. 77.6 sqq., also Lam. 3.20 sqq.). V. 5 is the transition to v. 6, the refrain, in more than one way. When the poet starts to recall the past, his soul bows down all the more in him, because the present seems even darker when it stands out sharply outlined against the shining past. But the memories also give a hold to the poet, they provide a reason to plead in his prayer: how would it ever be possible that the God who once had given him so much joy would pernanently give him tears as food? The matters mentioned result in the fords of v. 6: &dquo;Why do you bow down in me, my soul? etc.&dquo;

expectation, expressed in

v.

desire, v. 2-3, 5, the song of The desire, which is

v.

The transition from the first part to the second is very remarkable. In v. 6 it says: &dquo;Why do you bow down in me, my soul?&dquo; There is a reproach in that question: in fact there is no reason for acting like that. Immediately following this the poet says in v.7: &dquo;My It seems that the poet wants to say: God, my soul bows down in me&dquo;. this &dquo;Why do you bow down in me, my soul?&dquo; sounds gcod, but meanwhile the need remains as heavy as before. The transitions in this part In v. 7 again we can find the are similar to those in part one. phenomenon of memory increasing sorrow. So in v. 8 there follows We may say: as in v. 8 a further elaboration is another complaint. given of the &dquo;far away from the land of the Jordan and from the Little Mountain&dquo; of v. 7, so v. 9 (in the interpretation adopted by me, see above) gives a further elaboration of the &dquo;I remember You and the Holy places&dquo;. Here too it is very evident that memory not only increases sorrow, but it also provides a ground to plead, it makes the poet stimulate himself to ask God: why is the present so very different from the past?, v. 10. V. 11 again is a complaint in describing further the &dquo;oppressing by the enemy&dquo; which is referred to at the In the first part the end of v. 10. V. 12 contains the refrain. refrain is preceded by an utterance about the past, which, as we Now the refrain is have seen, prepares for the refrain in two ways. preceded by an utterance about the present. And that is why it is more difficult here, but also more a matter of necessity for the poet to say: &dquo;Why do you bow down in me, my soul?&dquo;
Also in the third part, 43. 1-5, the way from complaining to expressing the certainty of a hearing is traversed, but here too in its own way. On the ground of all that preceded (the complaints, nemories, expressions of the certainty of a hearing) here the poet

20

can

For the first time there are prayers in the proper at first a strong negative prayer, a prayer sense of the word; for the release from the enemies, v. 1, which is supported by a

the

speak with complaint.

more

freedom.

Only

small space has been left for

after that a positive prayer, a and a complaint, v. 2; in the elabprayer for being brought back to the sanctuary, v. 3-4; oration of this prayer the poet imagines he sees the answer before In this way the psalm reaches, in 43.4, its climax. his very eyes. The psalm cannot end at such a But this cannot be the final chord. height: still the sanctuary is far away. In a touching way the poet rounds his psalm off by saving the refrain for the third time. So the refrain has here the function of a decrescendo; cf. Ps. 3.9; Once more the refrain has a new sound 18. 18-20; 20. 6c, 10b, etc. created by the utterance which preceded: &dquo;Though the words remain the same, they are now sung on a new note. They sing with triumphant hope and certainty&dquo; (A. Cohen, 1950). The refrain is here preceded therefore the expresby an utterance of the future, of the release; sion of the certainty of a hearing in the refrain has this time in In the second part of the psalm the full the dominating sound. refrain is preceded by thoughts about the present misery, giving the bowing down of the soul a very heavy accent. In the first part both elements of the refrain are prepared for by the thoughts about the

profession

past.
A few concluding remarks. IV. In the above, rather lengthy consideration is given to the refrain. I would like to point out here that the utterances of 42. 4c, d and 42. llc, d, of 42. 10_c, _d and of 43. 2_c, _d also have to some extent the function of a refrain. It is remarkable, that 42. 4c, d and

42. 11_c, _d are a connecting element between the first and the second part of the psalm, and 42. 10_c, _d and 43. 2c, d between the second and the third part. The purpose of my considerations about the
refrain is to make a few amplifications to those of Alonso-SchtSkel, but there is no fundamental difference between his view and mine. In my opinion also it is necessary to have a dynamic view of the refrain. This does not preclude an element of truth in the static It is certainly true that very different feelings and a strong view. restlessness are expressed in this psalm. In my opinion, one can then say, together with Gunkel /6/, that over against that the refrain and the refrain-like expressions just mentioned form a well-considered counterbalance. The refrain belongs to the style of the repetition. Other applications of this style have been mentioned above, see sub I,B about &dquo;praising&dquo;, which can be called a keyword of the psalm, sub
III in the reflection
on

the transition from the first to the second

21

The poet achieves in 42:2-3 I point to a few other examples. certain &dquo;effect&dquo; in using the words &dquo;pant&dquo; and &dquo;my soul&dquo; twice. &dquo;By day and by night&dquo; his tears have become bread to him, 42.4; in former days Gods unfailing love, His song was &dquo;by day and by night&dquo; with him, 42. 9. Other examples of this kind could be mentioned.

part.
a

1.

A further

working-out is

to be found in my De

Psalmen,

II

(Kampen), 1973. My ideas about of the psalms in general can be

the stylistic structure-analysis found in my Die Psalmen. Mit besonderer BeriicksichtStilistische Verfahren und Aufbau. igung von Ps. 1-41 (Berlin, New York, 1972).

2.
3.

For instance A.F. See for

Kirkpatrick (1902),

E.J.

Kissane

(I, 1953).

(28th edn.,
4.

example Gesenius-Kautzsch, EIebr~ische Grammatik Leipzig, 1909), paragraph 107, b.

With many authors I think this phenomenon is connected with the cultic origin of Israels psalmody, but there is little sense in

discussing this matter in a contemplation of Ps. because in the present case the most that can be the after-effect of the cultic ritual.
5.

42-43, spoken of

is

See also below for the transition from the first to the second

part.
6.
To

take away

possible misunderstanding:
as

Gunkel does

justice

to the

dynamic view

well

as

to the &dquo;static&dquo; view.