Psalm 11 Participant analysis
Back to Psalm 11
Overview
There are five participants/characters in Psalm 11:
- David
- YHWH
- The wicked
- The Wicked (הָרְשָׁעִים / רָשָׁע)
- One who loves violence (אֹהֵב חָמָס)
- The upright
- The upright of heart (יִשְׁרֵי־לֵב)
- The upright (יָשָׁר)
- The righteous (צַדִּיק)
- Advisors
The advisors are the ones who advise David to flee (v. 1f). They are the primary addressee of the psalm. Who exactly are these "advisors"? According to Sumner, "scholars commonly refer to the advisors as the 'friends' of the psalmist.[1][2] Sumner argues, however, that "the cultic ideology of the Psalter and the literary context of Psalm 11... suggest an identification of the advisors with prophets."[3] Assuming that the psalmist is a royal figure, he notes that "the Hebrew Bible contains several examples of the close connection between prophets/prophetesses and monarchs, e. g., Elisha and Ahab (1 Kings 17-22), Huldah and Josiah (2 Kings 22), and Jeremiah and Zedekiah (Jeremiah 21, 27, 34). Kings called upon prophets for military advice. Hezekiah consulted Isaiah during Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah (2 Kings 18-20; Isaiah 36-39). Ahab solicited over four hundred prophets before embarking on a joint military campaign (1 Kgs 22:5-7). Likewise, David and his family fled to Moab from Saul where he took counsel from the prophet Gad on his next maneuver (1 Sam 22:1-5)."[4]
Participant Relations
The relationships among the participants may be abstracted and summarised as follows:
- YHWH sees and tests the upright, who take refuge in him and will see his face.
- He hates and destroys the wicked, who prepare to attack the upright.
Participants in the Psalm
- In terms of participants, the psalm divides neatly into two sections (vv. 1-3; vv. 4-7).
- The first section (vv. 1-3) is mostly embedded speech directed at David.
- In the second section (vv. 4-7), David resumes speaking, and YHWH is the subject throughout.
- However, this assumes that the speech of the "advisors" continues through v. 3. Some translations end the quotation at the end of v. 1 (LUTHEUTE, NBH). Other translations (NEB, cf. Craigie 2004) continue the speech through the end of v. 2. Most translations continue the speech through v. 3 as we have done.[5]
- The "advisors" never once mention YHWH. He is not a factor in their advice to flee. By contrast David's response (vv. 4-7) is focused completely on YHWH.
Participant Analysis Diagram
Legend
For Visual, click "Expand" to the right
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. For Visual, click "Expand" to the right
Chart
For Visual, click "Expand" to the right
