Ruth Fidler, «A Touch of Support: Ps 3,6 and the Psalmist’s Experience», Vol. 86 (2005) 192-212
Vv. 5-6 mark a turning point in Psalm 3, both structurally
and thematically, probably reflecting a significant personal experience. Due to
the mention of sleeping and waking (v. 6a) this experience is sometimes
interpreted as a dream in which the psalmist got word of his imminent
deliverance. Recently supported by a Qumran parallel that mentions dreaming
explicitly (11QPsa xxiv 16-17;B. Schroeder,
Biblica 81 [2000] 243-251), this argument nevertheless
seems questionable, given e.g. the tendency of later Judaism to attribute dreams
also to biblical figures that are not characterized in such terms in the Bible.
The main thrust of this article is to examine the psalm in comparison with
theophanic reports elsewhere in the Bible and in ANE literature. This analysis
shows the language of Psalm 3 to be compatible with an incubatory ritual that
culminates in a real experience of presence with a divine gesture of support.
These findings are related to the proximity to God that finds expression in the
psalms.
A Touch of Support: Ps 3,6 and the Psalmist’s Experience 199
7,13; Dan 2,1-3; 7,1) and in ancient Near Eastern literature (27).
Nevertheless, reports of theophanies and divine messages that exhibit
some dream-like features (e.g. nocturnal timing, reference to sleeping
or to waking) but lack explicit dream terminology are sufficiently
widespread and significant a phenomenon to merit some consid-
eration. Elsewhere I have used the title ‘liminal reports’ for such
threshold cases (28).
Liminal reports can be categorized according to the recipients of
the theophany or divine word: (1) Patriarchs: Gen 15; 21,12-13; 22,1-
2; 26,24; 46,1-5; (2) National leaders: Judg 6,25-26; 7,9-11; 1 Chr
1,7; (3) Prophets and apocalyptic visionaries: Num 22,20; 1 Sam 3;
15,10-12a; 2 Sam 7,4; 24,11-13; 1 Kgs 19,9-18; Jer 31,26; Zech 1,8;
4,1; Dan 8,17-18; 10,9; (4) Sages: Job 4,12-21; (5) Psalmists: Ps
17,3.15; 3,6 — the passage under discussion. The list — though not
exhaustive (29) — reveals the incidence of the phenomenon in a variety
of types and genres in the Hebrew Bible, as well as the prominence of
its prophetic affiliation.
Although their distribution, terminology and other characteristics
differ from those of dream reports, liminal reports are often (and all too
easily, as it seems to me) labeled ‘dreams’, the absence of dream terms
sometimes dismissed as inexplicable and the presence of elements that
indicate wakefulness practically ignored (30). Since many of these
(27) A.L. OPPENHEIM, The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East
with a Translation of an Assyrian Dream-Book (Transactions of the American
Philosophical Society n.s. 46/3; Philadelphia 1956) 179-373. Oppenheim’s
collection of “dream-reports from ancient Near Eastern sources†(ibid., 245-255)
has 33 excerpts. In 29 of them a dream statement can be found.
(28) R. FIDLER, “The Shiloh Theophany (I Samuel 3): A Study of a Liminal
Reportâ€, Proceedings of the Twelfth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Division
A: The Bible and its World (Jerusalem 1999) 99-107 [Hebrew]. Further
discussion of this subject will be found in my forthcoming book Dreams Speak
Falsely? Dream Theophanies in the Bible – Their Place in Ancient Israelite Faith
and Tradition (Magnes Press, Jerusalem) [Hebrew], esp. in chapter 6.
(29) On other possible cases in the Psalms see above, note 13. On other
prophetic passages (Isa 21,1-4; Ezek 24,15-21) see J.-M. HUSSER, Le songe et la
parole. Etude sur le rêve et sa fonction dans l’ancien Israël (BZAW 210; Berlin
– New York 1994) 186, 228-230.
(30) EHRLICH, Der Traum im AT, 135, considered the absence of dream terms
in Gen 21,17-19; 22,1-2; 26,24; Num 22,9-13.20-21 inexplicable. Gnuse’s
insistence that 1 Sam 3 reports a “dream theophany†of Samuel plays down some
of the signs of wakefulness in vv. 5-10. See R.K. GNUSE, The Dream Theophany
of Samuel (New York – London 1984) 140-152.