Bernard P. Robinson, «Form and Meaning in Psalm 131», Vol. 79 (1998) 180-197
Psalm 131 displays a subtle play on words. The psalmist has silenced and calmed down his soul/breast (he has put an end to its loud complaints). The two verbs used express or suggest the idea of assimilation (I have transformed it into something silent and something calm), which leads up to the material image which follows. In 2b gamul means a child that has been weaned or is happy (and has stopped crying loudly); instead of kaggamul one should read tiggmol, you have been nice to me. Although the psalm has an unusual form, it has the same structure as Psalm 130. It probably constitutes a literary unit. It may by royal psalm.
I think, to see why they should have thought this of hwhy, unless of course they anticipated some modern scholars in supposing that a Psalm that ended by addressing the people could not have begun by addressing the deity. Even if this view should have such early backing, however, I remain unconvinced that the reading hwhy is wrong.
Nor am I persuaded by form-critical arguments that something has fallen out after hwhy. Crow, as noted earlier, maintains that there must be a petition missing:
With the vocative, "O Yhwh " at the beginning, one naturally expects that a petition will follow. This is reinforced by the "negative confession" of v. 1, the purpose of which is normally to provide the grounds for divine action on the supplicants behalf 52.
As for the initial address, it is true that it is hard to find an example of a Psalm where it is not followed by a request 53 or an expression of thanks54. But it seems hard to rule that an ancient Jewish writer who wanted to express his confidence in God had always to refer to him in the third person. It seems unlikely that there were hard and fast rules about such things. Similarly with what Crow calls the negative confession: although the common context of protesting ones innocence was to plead for help55, it is readily conceivable that an author should have wanted on occasion to tell God that after a struggle with self-will he had achieved a calm and humble confidence in him. Indeed, I think that Ps 130 (which with Volz and Weiser I take as a Psalm of Thanksgiving56) we have a good parallel: in v. 1 he reminds Yhwh that he has in the past thrown himself upon his mercy, using the plea spelt out in vv. 2b-6. He implies that his appeal had been successful, and proceeds in vv. 7-8 to urge others to follow suit. If this is right, the temptation to excise verse 3 of our Psalm should also be resisted. It forms the natural culmination to the Psalm: the Psalmists gratitude to God for the peace of mind he has achieved leads him naturally to call on