Psalm 3/Macrosyntax/Notes

• The discourse can be divided based on the recurrence of selah at the ends of sections (vv. 3b, 5b, 7b) and vocatives at the beginnings of sections (vv. 2a, 4a, 8a).

• vv. 2b, 3a. Although רַבִּים could be read as the unmarked topic of a verbless predication in these two clauses, we have preferred to interpret the topic of these clauses as קָמִ֥ים עָלָֽי, (since צָרָ֑י "my adversaries" has already been discourse-activated in v. 2a), such that the comment, רַבִּים, is clause-initial. Thus, the initial placement of this comment seems to function as scalar/confirming focus (see the grammar notes for further details).
• v. 5a. The first constituent of the clause is the noun phrase קוֹלִי ("aloud," lit.: "my voice"). The pre-verbal position of this constituent might not be related to information structure but to some unique usage of the phrase קוֹלִי. It also results in the poetic juxtaposition of "my voice" at the beginning of v. 5 and "my head" at the end of v. 4. The fronting of the prepositional phrase "to YHWH" is probably related to information structure, marking this prepositional phrase as focal.
• v. 6a. The previous clause describes YHWH's action, while this section (vv. 6-7, following the selah of v. 5b) is now about the psalmist and his actions. The independent pronoun אֲנִי marks this transition and activates "I" as the topic of the following clauses. The presence of the personal pronoun also contributes to the division of these poetic sections (see poetic structure).
• v. 6b. The כִּי clause at the end of v. 6 has subject-verb word order, marking the clause as a thetic, which grounds the previous propositional content.
• v. 7b. The adverb סָבִיב ("all around") is fronted, probably for marked focus. The enemies do not just take position against him on one side (which would allow him an escape route), but on every side, all around him.
• v. 8c. The fronting of the object "wicked people's teeth" (שִׁנֵּי רְשָׁעִים) results in a symmetrical structure with the previous line: A. you have struck B. my enemies C. on the jaw // C. the teeth B. of wicked people A. you have broken.
• v. 9a. The prepositional phrase לַיהוָה is fronted for exclusive focus. Victory belongs to no one else but YHWH; he alone determines who wins and who loses.
• v. 9b. The phrase "on your people" is fronted for exclusive focus. YHWH's blessing is not on the enemy "people" (see v. 7), but on his own "people."

• v. 2. The opening vocative is clause-initial, as often at the beginning of psalms (cf. Pss 6; 7; 8; 15; 21; 109; etc.; but see e.g., Pss 4; 5; 10; 13; 16; 17; 18; etc., though in several of these examples [e.g., Pss 4; 5; 10; 13] there are poetic and/or pragmatic explanations for the non-initial position of the vocative). The initial position of the vocative at the beginning of a psalm might reflect the discourse function of the clause-initial vocative to signal the beginning of a conversational turn.
• v. 4. The vocative "YHWH" is placed after וְאַתָּה to allow for adversative waw and create the intensive focus reading of the pronouns (אַתָּה), as claimed by Miller.
• v. 8. The fact that the imperatives in v. 8 ("rise... save") occur before the vocatives ("YHWH... my God") might increase the urgency of the imperatives.

There are no notes on Discourse Markers for this psalm.

• v. 6. The כִּי in v. 6 is causal, explaining how it is that the psalmist was able to wake up safely, without having been killed in his sleep.
• v. 8. The כִּי in v. 8 is a speech-act causal כִּי. The psalmist grounds his request for YHWH to save (v. 8a) in the recollection of YHWH's past acts of salvation (v. 8bc). See The Verbal Semantics of Psalm 3:8b–c for details.