IN THE POETRY
IN THE POETRY
The Word That Comes Back Wearing a Crown
In the second verse of Psalm 3, the enemies are rising — “many are those rising against me.” By verse 8, someone else is told to rise: “Rise up, YHWH!” The same root, thrown back across the poem, and the second time it lands on the only one who can make the rising of enemies pointless.
The real fireworks are on one word: victory, or salvation — the Hebrew root yasha. It appears three times, and it never appears the same way twice. In verse 3, it’s in the mouths of the enemies, mocking: “There is no victory for him in God.” There it is a rare form, marked with an unusual accent that functions to stress the word in the verse. In verse 8, David flings it back as a plea: “Save me!” And in verse 9, it returns one last time, now with the definite article — the only word in the entire psalm to carry it: the victory. “Victory is YHWH’s.”
The enemies first denied David’s victory. David lets them, then picks the same word up and hands it to God, who has the last use of it. Both the taunt and the triumph are built from identical letters. While the enemies rise up against David, God is the one who will ultimately rise up and give David victory!
The repetition sets up a contrast between the enemies’ view of the situation and the reality of the situation. The enemies may act and speak as they like, but they are powerless when faced with YHWH. He will do as he pleases, and he will have the last word.
