Psalm 88/Test/Participant Analysis/Set
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
There are 4 participants/characters in Psalm 88:
| Psalmist |
| The psalmist's soul |
| The psalmist's eye |
| The psalmist's prayer |
| YHWH |
| "God of my salvation" (v. 2) |
| YHWH's waves |
| YHWH's outbursts of wrath |
| YHWH's terrifying assaults |
| Friends |
| "Acquaintances" (v. 9) |
| "Companions" (v. 19) |
| The dead |
| "those who go down to the Pit" (v. 5) |
| "departed spirits" (v. 11) |
| The slain |
- YHWH's outbursts of wrath (חֲמָתֶךָ, חֲרוֹנֶיךָ v. 8a, 17a), YHWH's waves (ָמִ֝שְׁבָּרֶ֗יך v. 8b), YHWH's terrifying assaults (אֵמֶ֣יךָ, בִּ֝עוּתֶ֗יךָ v. 16b, 17b) are taken as YHWH's agents of destruction sent to afflict the psalmist (cf. common-ground assumption for v. 17b in Story Behind the Psalm for a more detailed argumentation). Since their role in the context of the psalm is identical with YHWH's, but they are not identical to him, they are considered related participants.
- The soul (נֶפֶשׁ) is often used as a substitute for a personal pronoun, particularly in poetry (e.g. Psa 11:1; 7:3; cf. comment next on נֶפֶשׁ in Semantics), while the eye (עֶיִן) may be used, like in v. 10a, as a synecdoche for the whole person (e.g. 1Sam 14:27, 29; Gen 27:1; Job 17:7; Ps 6:8; 38:11; cf. common-ground assumption for v. 10a in Story Behind the Psalm and comment on v. 10a in Semantics, esp. Goldingay 2007). Therefore, the psalmist's soul and the psalmist's eye are understood as synonymous participants of the Psalmist.
- In a similar way to YHWH's waves, outbursts of wrath and terrifying assaults, which were taken as YHWH's semi-independent agents and thus as related participants (see box above), we consider the psalmist's prayer as an agent acting on behalf of the psalmist in front of YHWH, as also indicated by virtue of it being the subject of a dynamic verb, and therefore define it as a related participant.
- The friends of the psalmist are not strictly agentive, but are still taken as participants for two reasons. First, they constitute the causee in both causative verbs of v. 9a and v. 19a (הִרְחַקְתָּ, "to make shun") and would therefore be the agents of a corresponding underlying non-causative clause. In this sense, they are similar to YHWH's messengers expounded in the previous paragraph. Second, they are pivotal to the message of the psalm, as their estrangement from the psalmist is a major reason for his misery.
- The slain have an identical function in the psalm to the one of the dead, as the psalmist's situation is compared to both of them. However, being a subset of the larger set of the dead, they are not identical with it. The specific choice of the slain in v. 6b is deliberate and meaningful (cf. common-ground assumption for v. 6b in Story Behind the Psalm for a more detailed argumentation) and they are therefore considered related, not synonymous, participants.