Psalm 10 Participant analysis

Back to Psalm 10

Psalm Overview

• Grammar
• Semantics
• Story behind the Psalm
• Discourse
• Poetics

Overview

There are four participants/characters in Psalm 10:

• David
• YHWH
  • YHWH (יְהוָה)
  • God (אֵל / אֱלֹהִים)
• The Wicked
  • The Wicked (רָשָׁע)
  • One who pursues unjust gain (בֹּצֵעַ)
  • Evildoer (רָשָׁע וָרָע)
  • Nations (גּוֹיִם)
  • Humans (אֱנוֹשׁ)
• The Poor
  • The Poor (עָנִי)
  • The Helpless (חֵלְכָה)
  • The Orphan (יָתוֹם)
  • The Innocent (נָקִי)
  • The Oppressed (דַּךְ)

Participant Relations

The relationships among the participants may be abstracted and summarised as follows:

• The wicked despise YHWH and persecute the poor. The poor fall, but entrust themselves to YHWH, who sees and hears them, while David prays for them.

Participants in the Psalm

• The greatest shifts simultaneously in speaker, addressee, number and participants happen after v. 11 and 14 which divides the psalm into three sections (from the perspective of participant analysis)
  • vv. 1–11 (opens with a question)
  • vv. 12–13 (opens with a request)
  • vv. 14–18 (opens with an indicative statement)
• We hear the Wicked's inner monologue four times (v. 4, v. 6, v. 11, v. 13). In the last ‘section’ we no longer hear their voice.
• The most striking visual shift of participants is between vv. 11–12. Before that, the wicked dominate, afterwards YHWH.
• It looks as if the poor play only a minor role. They cluster at vv. 8–10 and at the very end. The poor interact with the wicked until the very end, where they interact with YHWH.
• The only first person statement in the whole psalm is in v. 6, in the mouth of the wicked.

Participant Analysis Diagram

Legend

Diagram

The following image is the grammatical diagram overlaid with information regarding the participants, or characters, of the psalm. It makes explicit who is doing what to whom.

Chart