Psalm 8 Participant analysis

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Psalm Overview

• Grammar
• Semantics
• Story behind the Psalm
• Discourse
• Poetics

Overview

"In this psalm, the identification of the characters and their relations is decisive."

There are five participants/characters in Psalm 8:

• David
• YHWH
  • YHWH our master (יְהוָה אֲדֹנֵינוּ)
• Humanity
  • Humanity (אֱנוֹשׁ)
  • Son of man (בֶן־אָדָם)
  • Nursing children (עֽוֹלְלִים וְֽיֹנְקִים)
• Enemies
  • Your (=YHWH's) foes (צוֹרְרֶיךָ)
  • Vengeful enemy" (אוֹיֵב וּמִתְנַקֵּם)
• Animals
  • Sheep (צֹנֶה)
  • Oxen (אֲלָפִים)
  • Wild beasts (בַּהֲמוֹת שָׂדָי)
  • Birds (צִפּוֹר שָׁמַיִם)
  • Fish (וּדְגֵי הַיָּם)

Who are the "nursing children" in v. 3? They probably stand figuratively for all of humanity (v. 5), of which they are the weakest part. Thus, "we may take 'babes and infants' as a metaphor for the weak and inherently helpless condition of human beings." Görg argues that the image in v. 3 is of humanity as "a royal child," citing Egyptian texts and statues that celebrate the rule of kings even in their infancy.

Who are the "foes" (cf. "vengeful enemy") in v. 3? "God's foes may be historical persons and nations (Ps. 2:1-3) or mythological beings and disruptive cosmic forces (Ps. 74:13; 89:10; 93:3)." Those who argue for the latter think that "the enemy and avenger in v. [3]c are best explained as a reference to the foes that God overcomes in the process of creation. As is well known, the mythic concept of creation as a conflict was commonly held among Israel’s neighbors. Within the Old Testament, vestiges of this mythic idea are found... It is particularly enlightening that both Psalms 8 and 74 refer to God’s might (ʿōz; cf. Isa. 51:9; Ps. 89:11). The term is part of the vocabulary of the creation conflict myth, lending support to the view that the phrase you have established might because of your foes, to put an end to enemy and avenger is another reference to the act of creation." Those who argue that the foes are human and historical point to the use of אויב ומתנקם in Ps. 44:17 to refer to Israel's enemies along with the fact that "here, as throughout the psalms, the psalmist is fluidly able to identify personal enemies with those hostile to God" (cf. Ps. 2:3). "Lund suggests that the three words together represent the 'totality of God's enemies' and that no attempt should be made to sort out one type of enemy or another. This is probably correct; the enemies in this context embody whatever or whoever threatens the divine purpose of the Creator."

Participant Relations

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

• YHWH founds a fortress to stop his enemies and exalts weak humanity to a position of dominion over all animals.

• "Enemies" (v. 3) and "animals" (vv. 8-9) have been grouped together in order to represent the connections between these two participants within the psalm. The animals are said to be placed under humanity's feet (v. 7); the same might be said of a conqueror's enemies (cf. Josh. 10:24; Ps. 110:1). Note also that in the book of Psalms (as elsewhere in the Bible [cf. Daniel 7], enemies are depicted metaphorically as animals (e.g., Ps. 22:13-14). The point is not to say that animals are somehow morally on par with YHWH's wicked enemies. It is to say, however, that they represent a force of chaos that must be subdued.

Participants in the Psalm

• Vocative YHWH occurs twice -- in the first and last lines.
• The entire psalm is addressed to YHWH in the 2nd person. "It is worth stressing that throughout the entire poem, the Creator is addressed directly and intimately: your name, you have established, your heavens, you remember them, and so on."

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