Overview

There are four participants/characters in Psalm 7:

David
YHWH
- YHWH (יְהוָה)
- YHWH, my God (יְהוָה אֱלֹהַי)
- YHWH Most High (יְהוָה עֶלְיוֹן)
Enemies
- Cush, the Benjaminite (כוּשׁ בֶּן־יְמִינִי)
- My (=David's) pursuers (רֹדְפַי)
- Enemy (אוֹיֵב)
- David's foe(s) (צוֹרְרָי / צוֹרְרִי)
- Wicked (רְשָׁעִים)
The righteous
- Righteous (צַדִּיק)
- Upright in heart (יִשְׁרֵי־לֵב)

The identity of "Cush the Benjaminite" and the "words/events" (דברי) referred to are unknown. Some try and relate the historical note to some known person/event in the canonical history of David's life. The Targum, the Talmud and Midrash Tehillim interpret כוּשׁ as a figurative reference to Saul, son of קישׁ, the Benjaminite (‎Targum: על תברא דשׁאול בר קישׁ דמן שׁבט בנימן׃). The Greek translations (LXX, α', σ', θ') read χουσι, perhaps linking the name to the כוּשִׁי/הַכּוּשִׁי of 2 Sam. 18^[1] or to חוּשַׁי הָאַרְכִּי (= χουσι in LXX) in 2 Sam. 15-16; 1 Chron. 27:33.^[2] Others have taken כוּשׁ בֶּן־יְמִינִי as a reference to Shimei, the Bemjanite, who cursed David (2 Sam. 16; 19).^[3] Others assume that "the notation refers to an episode from some undetermined legendary source, a story which, though popularly told, was not consigned to the Dtr history. This solution to the problem is quick and popular, most recently represented by the commentaries of Kraus (1958, p. 56), Anderson (1972, p. 93), and Craige (1983, p. 99), but formerly proposed by Kittel (1914, p. 24), Gunkel (1926, p. 25), and Weiser (1962, p. 135) among others."^[4] This view is the least problematic and seems the most likely.^[5]

Participant Relations

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

YHWH will save David from his enemies, because YHWH judges the righteous from the wicked. He establishes the righteous and is indignant toward the the wicked, who bring about their own destruction.

Participants in the Psalm

Perhaps the biggest question in this Psalm is: Who is the subject of verses 13-14, YHWH or the wicked? Interpreters who see the "wicked" as the subject of vv. 13-17^[6] point out that the wicked are clearly the subject of v. 15f. Since there is no shift in subject indicated in v. 15, it is best to see the wicked as the subject of the previous verses as well.^[7] It is more likely, however, that YHWH is the main subject of vv. 13-15 (though the wicked may be the subject of ישוב in v. 13a).^[8] YHWH is clearly the subject of the previous verse (v. 12), and "no subject change has been indicated, so presumably 'He' is God."^[9] Furthermore, "the military imagery of vv. [13-14] can be understood as a continuation of the metaphor of God as shield introduced in v. [11]."^[10] The shift in subject (from YHWH to the wicked) occurs in v. 15: "'So' (hinnēh, v. [15]) then marks the change of subject to the wrongdoer."^[11] Paul Raabe has argued that the ambiguity is deliberate. "By the time one finishes reading the poem, one is not sure who does the repenting, whose weapons are prepared, and for whom! Upon reflection, the reader realizes all options are true... This type of sustained ambiguity causes the reader to be engaged more closely in reading the text and to consider how all the various options might be true."^[12]

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

References

↑ This interpretation is favored by Rodney Hutton, “Cush the Benjaminite and Psalm Midrash” in Hebrew Annual Review 10 (1986): 123–37.
↑ so interpreted by Athanasius, "Letter to Marcellinus," https://www.athanasius.com/psalms/aletterm.htm; also Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms (Digital Psalms version, 2007), http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/otesources/19-psalms/text/books/augustine-psalms/augustine-psalms.pdf.
↑ Goldingay, Psalms; see sources in Hutton, “Cush the Benjaminite and Psalm Midrash.”
↑ Hutton, “Cush the Benjaminite and Psalm Midrash.” Calvin voiced the same opinion centuries earlier: "In my opinion... he here expresses by his proper name, and without figure, a wicked accuser, who had excited hatred against him by falsely charging him with some crime."
↑ "What we can glean from the superscription is to be found in the words which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush the Benjaminite. It is clear that the Benjaminites bore ill will to David and his reign. It is also likely from the psalm that the psalmist is crying to the Lord because of false words that have been spoken about the psalmist. It is also worth noting that the psalm was later associated with the Jewish Feast of Purim, a context in which the ill will and witness of an enemy play a key role" (Jacobson 2014).
↑ E.g., NJB, FRCL, NJV; Gunkel, Mowinckel, Olhausen, Baethgen, Ehrlich, Kraus, Weiser.
↑ E.g., Baethgen: "Dass aber der Dichter einen solchen fortwährenden Wechsel des Subjekts durch nichts angedeutet haben sollte, ist kaum denkbar. Daher wird man besser überall den Frevler d. i. die Kollektivperson desselben als Subjekt betrachten" (Baethgen 1904).
↑ So LXX and "most modern translations" (Bratcher and Reyburn 1991); Hengstenberg, Delitzsch, Perowne, Briggs, Kirkpatrick, Alonso-Schokel, Goldingay. It is also possible to see YHWH as the subject of ישוב (e.g. NIV, Hossfeld, Wilson).
↑ Rogerson and McKay 1977.
↑ Jacobson 2014.
↑ Goldingay 2006:143.
↑ Paul Raabe, “Deliberate Ambiguity in the Psalter,” Journal of Biblical Literature 110, no. 2 (1991): 213–227.

[1] This interpretation is favored by Rodney Hutton, “Cush the Benjaminite and Psalm Midrash” in Hebrew Annual Review 10 (1986): 123–37.

[2] so interpreted by Athanasius, "Letter to Marcellinus," https://www.athanasius.com/psalms/aletterm.htm; also Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms (Digital Psalms version, 2007), http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/otesources/19-psalms/text/books/augustine-psalms/augustine-psalms.pdf.

[3] Goldingay, Psalms; see sources in Hutton, “Cush the Benjaminite and Psalm Midrash.”

[4] Hutton, “Cush the Benjaminite and Psalm Midrash.” Calvin voiced the same opinion centuries earlier: "In my opinion... he here expresses by his proper name, and without figure, a wicked accuser, who had excited hatred against him by falsely charging him with some crime."

[5] "What we can glean from the superscription is to be found in the words which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush the Benjaminite. It is clear that the Benjaminites bore ill will to David and his reign. It is also likely from the psalm that the psalmist is crying to the Lord because of false words that have been spoken about the psalmist. It is also worth noting that the psalm was later associated with the Jewish Feast of Purim, a context in which the ill will and witness of an enemy play a key role" (Jacobson 2014).

[6] E.g., NJB, FRCL, NJV; Gunkel, Mowinckel, Olhausen, Baethgen, Ehrlich, Kraus, Weiser.

[7] E.g., Baethgen: "Dass aber der Dichter einen solchen fortwährenden Wechsel des Subjekts durch nichts angedeutet haben sollte, ist kaum denkbar. Daher wird man besser überall den Frevler d. i. die Kollektivperson desselben als Subjekt betrachten" (Baethgen 1904).

[8] So LXX and "most modern translations" (Bratcher and Reyburn 1991); Hengstenberg, Delitzsch, Perowne, Briggs, Kirkpatrick, Alonso-Schokel, Goldingay. It is also possible to see YHWH as the subject of ישוב (e.g. NIV, Hossfeld, Wilson).

[9] Rogerson and McKay 1977.

[10] Jacobson 2014.

[11] Goldingay 2006:143.

[12] Paul Raabe, “Deliberate Ambiguity in the Psalter,” Journal of Biblical Literature 110, no. 2 (1991): 213–227.

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Psalm 7 Participant analysis