Psalm 111/Macrosyntax/Notes

There are no notes on divisions for this psalm.

• v. 2a. The fronting of גְּדֹלִים is poetic (ג line of acrostic) and probably also information-structural. Although "YHWH's deeds" have not been mentioned until this point, they are implied by אודה יהוה in the previous verse—the word אודה means "action by which humans openly express recognition of what someone else has done or achieved" (SDBH, italics added). The fronted predicate thus "establishes... [the] state or features... of the discourse active subject of a verbless clause" (BHRG 47.3.2).
• v. 3a. The fronting of הוֹד־וְהָדָר is, like גְּדֹלִים, both poetic (ה line of acrostic) and information-structural (cf. BHRG 47.3.2).
• v. 4a. The fronting of the object זֵכֶר is probably poetic, fitting the acrostic structure (ז line). The placement of לְנִפְלְאֹתָיו at the end of the line, even though it modifies the זֵכֶר, might be due to the length of לְנִפְלְאֹתָיו.
• v. 4b. The fronting of חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם is poetic, and, like the other verbless clauses in the psalm (vv. 2a, 3a, 9c, 10a), probably also information–structural (cf. BHRG 47.3.2).
• v. 5a. The fronting of the object טֶרֶף is poetic, fitting the acrostic structure (ט line).
• v. 5b. The adverbial לְעוֹלָם is placed before the object, probably to stress YHWH's ongoing commitment to his covenant: YHWH's covenant faithfulness is not just a matter of the past (cf. v. 5a). Rather, he will remember his covenant forever.
• v. 6a. The fronting of כֹּחַ מַעֲשָׂיו is probably poetic, fitting the acrostic structure (כ line).
• v. 7b. The fronting of the predicate נֶאֱמָנִים is poetic, both fitting the acrostic (נ line) and forming a chiasm in v. 7: S SC [אמת] // SC [אמן] S]).
• v. 9a. The fronting of the object פְּדוּת is poetic, both fitting the acrostic (פ line) and strengthening a correspondence with v. 6a (כֹּ֣חַ מַ֭עֲשָׂיו הִגִּ֣יד לְעַמּ֑וֹ), which also has a fronted object and the exact phrase לְעַמּוֹ (see poetic structure) (cf. Lunn 2006:327 "DEF").
• v. 9b. לְעוֹלָם (see v. 5b)
• v. 9c. The fronting of קָדוֹשׁ וְנוֹרָא is poetic (ק line of acrostic) and, like many of the other verbless clauses in the psalm (vv. 2a, 3a, 4b, 10a), probably also information structural (cf. BHRG 47.3.2).
• v. 10a. The fronting of רֵאשִׁית חָכְמָה is poetic (ר line of acrostic) and, like many of the other verbless clauses in the psalm (vv. 2a, 3a, 4b, 9c), probably also information structural (cf. BHRG 47.3.2). The subject יִרְאַת יְהוָה was implied in the previous line (נוֹרָא) and is therefore active in the discourse.

There are no notes on vocatives for this psalm.

There are no notes on discourse markers for this psalm.

There are no notes on conjunctions for this psalm.