may mean in the language of prosody a reeling poem, i.e., one composed in a most excited movement and with a rapid change of the strongest emotions, therefore a dithyrambic poem, and שׁגינות dithyrambic rhythms, variously and violently mixed together. Thus Ewald and Rödiger understand it, and thus even Tarnov, Geier, and other old expositors who translate it cantio erratica. What we therefore look for is that this Psalm shall consist, as Ainsworth expresses it (1627), “of sundry variable and wandering verses,” that it shall wander through the most diverse rhythms as in a state of intoxication - an expectation which is in fact realized. The musical accompaniment also had its part in the general effect produced. Moreover, the contents of the Psalm corresponds to this poetic musical style. It is the most solemn pathos of exalted self-consciousness which is expressed in it. And in common with Hab it gives expression to the joy which arises from zealous anger against the enemies of God and from the contemplation of their speedy overthrow. Painful unrest, defiant self-confidence, triumphant ecstasy, calm trust, prophetic certainty-all these states of mind find expression in the irregular arrangement of the strophes of this Davidic dithyramb, the ancient customary Psalm for the feast of Purim (Sofrim xviii. §2).
Verses 1-2
Psa 7:1-2 (Hebrew_Bible_7:2-3) With this word of faith, love, and hope בּך חסיתּי (as in Psa 141:8), this holy captatio benevolentiae, David also begins in Psa 11:1; Psa 16:1; Psa 31:2, cf. Psa 71:1. The perf. is inchoative: in Thee have I taken my refuge, equivalent to: in Thee do I trust. The transition from the multitude of his persecutors to the sing. in Psa 7:3 is explained most naturally, as one looks at the inscription, thus: that of the many the one who is just at the time the worst of all comes prominently before his mind. The verb טרף from the primary signification carpere (which corresponds still more exactly to חרף) means both to tear off and to tear in pieces (whence טרפה that which is torn in pieces); and פּרק from its primary signification frangere means both to break loose and to break in pieces, therefore to liberate, e.g., in Psa 136:24, and to
