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About the Discourse Layer

Our Discourse Layer includes four additional layers of analysis:

Participant analysis
Macrosyntax
Speech act analysis
Emotional analysis

For more information on our method of analysis, click the expandable explanation button at the beginning of each layer.

Participant Analysis

What is Participant Analysis?

Participant Analysis focuses on the characters in the psalm and asks, “Who are the main participants (or characters) in this psalm, and what are they saying or doing? It is often helpful for understanding literary structure, speaker identification, etc.

For a detailed explanation of our method, see the Participant Analysis Creator Guidelines.

There are # participants/characters in Psalm 30:

Profile List

David (v. 1)

YHWH (vv. 2–5, 8–9, 11, 13)

"my God" (vv. 3, 13)

"the Lord" (v. 9)

YHWH's faithful ones (v. 5)

David's enemies (v. 2)

Profile Notes

The psalmist is identified as David in the superscription. The psalm recounts his calling out to YHWH, YHWH's healing, and David's subsequent praise among the community of faithful ones. David is the speaker throughout the psalm, quoting his previous speech in vv. 10–11.
YHWH is also identified as "David's God" and "the Lord," who rescued and restored David after a period of illness. YHWH is the addressee throughout vv. 2–4 and 7–13.
The congregation are identified as YHWH's faithful ones and are exhorted to praise him. They are the addressees in vv. 5–6.
David's enemies are only mentioned in passing in v. 2, as those who would rejoice in his succumbing to illness and death (cf. Ps 22:8–9; 18–19). Nevertheless, they are not agentive and, in fact, only their inaction is mentioned, since "YHWH did not let them rejoice over David."

Approved/30/Participants

Is the addressee in v. 7 the faithful ones or YHWH?

Some scholars consider v. 7 a hinge verse standing independently between the first and second halves.^[1] Nevertheless, the topic shift, indicated by וַ֭אֲנִי at the beginning of the verse, and the continuity of discourse topic with v. 8 (a false sense of independent security ➞ security provided by YHWH) indicate a stronger continuity there. Thus, while it is somewhat ambiguous, the interpretation of YHWH as the addressee seems preferable. (Alternatively, one could argue that the vocative at the beginning of v. 8 indicates a return to YHWH as the addressee.)

vv. 10–11. We understand vv. 10–11 to be the content of the "crying out" mentioned in v. 9.^[2]
v. 12. "After quoting the crisis psalm the worshiper recited while in distress, the psalm narrates God’s rescue"^[3] and "goes back to describe the salvation that he had experienced in the past."^[4]

Participant Relations Diagram

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

Participant Analysis Summary Distribution

Notes:

David is only absent in the section which introduces and addresses the faithful ones (vv. 5–6).
YHWH's absence follows closely behind (v. 7), after which David in the first-person and YHWH in the second-person dominate the rest of the psalm.
The enemies are only mentioned in passing in v. 2.

Macrosyntax

What is Macrosyntax?

Macrosyntax Diagram

Legend

Macrosyntax legend
Vocatives	Vocatives are indicated by purple text.
Discourse marker	Discourse markers (such as כִּי, הִנֵּה, לָכֵן) are indicated by orange text.
	The scope governed by the discourse marker is indicated by a dashed orange bracket connecting the discourse marker to its scope.
	The preceding discourse grounding the discourse marker is indicated by a solid orange bracket encompassing the relevant clauses.
Subordinating conjunction	The subordinating conjunction is indicated by teal text.
	Subordination is indicated by a solid teal bracket connecting the subordinating conjunction with the clause to which it is subordinate.
Coordinating conjunction	The coordinating conjunction is indicated by blue text.
	Coordination is indicated by a solid blue line connecting the coordinating clauses.
	Coordination without an explicit conjunction is indicated by a dashed blue line connecting the coordinated clauses.
	Marked topic is indicated by a black dashed rounded rectangle around the marked words.
	The scope of the activated topic is indicated by a black dashed bracket encompassing the relevant clauses.
Marked focus or thetic sentence	Marked focus (if one constituent) or thetic sentences^[5] are indicated by bold text.
	Frame setters^[6] are indicated by a solid gray rounded rectangle around the marked words.
[blank line]	Discourse discontinuity is indicated by a blank line.
[indentation]	Syntactic subordination is indicated by indentation.
	Direct speech is indicated by a solid black rectangle surrounding all relevant clauses.
(text to elucidate the meaning of the macrosyntactic structures)	Within the CBC, any text elucidating the meaning of macrosyntax is indicated in gray text inside parentheses.

If an emendation or revocalization is preferred, that emendation or revocalization will be marked in the Hebrew text of all the visuals.

Emendations/Revocalizations legend
Emended text	Emended text, text in which the consonants differ from the consonants of the Masoretic text, is indicated by blue asterisks on either side of the emendation.
Revocalized text	Revocalized text, text in which only the vowels differ from the vowels of the Masoretic text, is indicated by purple asterisks on either side of the revocalization.

(Click diagram to enlarge)

vv. 1–4 and vv. 5-6 are separated by the distinct vocative "his faithful ones."
vv. 5–6 and v. 7 are separated by the topic shift וַ֭אֲנִי "but I" beginning v. 7.
v. 7 and vv. 8–13 are separated by the verse-initial vocative in v. 8 (see the notes on the vocatives), establishing a pattern of five vocatives containing YHWH in the following six verses.

v. 6b. The constituent בָּ֭עֶרֶב provides a frame-setter within which to process the rest of its clause, in contrast to the following לַבֹּ֥קֶר in the next clause.
v. 7. The fronting of וַ֭אֲנִי provides a topic shift from the concerns of "his faithful ones" throughout vv. 5–6.
v. 8. The constituent בִּרְצוֹנְךָ֮ provides a frame-setter within which to process the rest of its clause, the time of YHWH's favor, in contrast to YHWH hiding his face in the following clause.
v. 9. The constituent אֵלֶ֣יךָ is fronted for narrow focus, perhaps best interpreted as restrictive, correcting the view that David would have called out to any other gods for reprieve. The fronted אֶל־אֲ֝דֹנָ֗י in the second line is probably best understood as poetic repetition, binding the two lines of this verse, indicated also by the relatively rare waw conjunction in this poem.
v. 13. The adverbial לְעוֹלָ֥ם immediately follows the vocative, so is considered fronted within the clause proper. There are two possible functions of this fronting: (1) scalar focus, i.e., no less than forever, or, preferably, (2) what is called "altruistic movement," that is, movement in order to enable another clausal constituent to assume a certain position. In this case, the final position of אוֹדֶֽךָּ intentionally provides an inclusio in the poetic macrostructure with the only other first-person singular cohortative verb (see verbal semantics)—the very first word of the body of the psalm: אֲרוֹמִמְךָ֣.

There are nine vocatives in the psalm. With the exception of "his faithful ones" in v. 4, the rest involve YHWH, with vv. 3 and 13 containing the appositives "YHWH, my God."

v. 2. The vocative precedes a subordinate clause, increasing the prominence of the subordinate clause.^[7]
vv. 3–4. The verse-initial position of these two vocatives seems only to contribute to the overall poetic structure, rather than containing any sentence-pragmatic function (cf., e.g., v. 13).
v. 5. The line-/clause-final position of חֲסִידָ֑יו provides a ballast variant to balance the two lines of v. 5 without disrupting the repetition of the imperative followed by the initial lamed constituent. It also provides its own repetition of a third-person suffixed form (cf. קָדְשֽׁוֹ at the end of the following line).
v. 8. The line-/clause-initial position of YHWH (יְהוָה) could signals the beginning of a conversational turn,^[8] that is, in the context of our poem, a new discourse unit. Nevertheless, in light of the signs of continuity between vv. 7–8 (see v. 7 above), it more likely serves as a strategy of discourse management without signaling a new unit.
v. 9. The vocative follows the focus-fronted אֵלֶ֣יךָ (see notes on word order).
v. 11a. The vocative intervenes between the two imperatives "listen" and "be merciful," highlighting their urgency.
v. 11b. The second vocative of v. 11 aids in delimiting the verse's poetic lines.
v. 13. Just as in vv. 3–4, the vocative does not seem to contain any sentence-pragmatic function, but in the poetic macrostructure corresponds to the other instance of "YHWH, my God" in v. 3.

v. 2. The כִּי of v. 2 subordinates the following to clauses to the verse's first clause, whereas the כִּי of v. 6 grounds the entirety of v. 6 to the imperatives of v. 5, so has been considered a discourse marker grounding the previous discourse, rather than a subordinator.
v. 7. As discussed in Bandstra (1995), topic-shifting with waw often marks a new discourse unit. Nevertheless, in determining what the waw conjoins syntactically, it seems preferable to return to the pair of imperatival clauses in v. 5, which contain the vocative "his faithful ones" now contrasted with "But I..."
v. 12. As reflected in the diagram, the semantics of v. 12 make transparent the interpretation of these three clauses as a thought unit, though only the second and third clauses are explicitly conjoined with a waw. The content introduced by לְמַ֤עַן is then considered subordinate to the entirety of v. 12.

There are no notes on discourse markers for this psalm.

Speech Act Analysis

What is Speech Act Analysis?

The Speech Act layer presents the text in terms of what it does, following the findings of Speech Act Theory. It builds on the recognition that there is more to communication than the exchange of propositions. Speech act analysis is particularly important when communicating cross-culturally, and lack of understanding can lead to serious misunderstandings, since the ways languages and cultures perform speech acts varies widely.

For a detailed explanation of our method, see the Speech Act Analysis Creator Guidelines.

Summary Visual
Analysis Chart

Summary Visual

Speech Act Analysis Chart

The following chart is scrollable (left/right; up/down).

Legend

Verse	Hebrew	CBC	Sentence type	Illocution (general)	Illocution with context	Macro speech act	Intended perlocution (Think)	Intended perlocution (Feel)	Intended perlocution (Do)
Verse number and poetic line	Hebrew text	English translation	Declarative, Imperative, or Interrogative Indirect Speech Act: Mismatch between sentence type and illocution type	Assertive, Directive, Expressive, Commissive, or Declaratory Indirect Speech Act: Mismatch between sentence type and illocution type	More specific illocution type with paraphrased context	Illocutionary intent (i.e. communicative purpose) of larger sections of discourse These align with the "Speech Act Summary" headings	What the speaker intends for the address to think	What the speaker intends for the address to feel	What the speaker intends for the address to do

If an emendation or revocalization is preferred, that emendation or revocalization will be marked in the Hebrew text of all the visuals.

Emendations/Revocalizations legend
Emended text	Emended text, text in which the consonants differ from the consonants of the Masoretic text, is indicated by blue asterisks on either side of the emendation.
Revocalized text	Revocalized text, text in which only the vowels differ from the vowels of the Masoretic text, is indicated by purple asterisks on either side of the revocalization.

This resource is forthcoming.

Emotional Analysis

What is Emotional Analysis?

This layer explores the emotional dimension of the biblical text and seeks to uncover the clues within the text itself that are part of the communicative intent of its author. The goal of this analysis is to chart the basic emotional tone and/or progression of the psalm.

For a detailed explanation of our method, see the Emotional Analysis Creator Guidelines.