Psalm 69:36 in the light of the Zion-tradition

Abstract

Zion is explicitly mentioned in Psalm 69:36a. This article will endeavour to outline its significance for the interpretation of the text of Psalm 69. The text of Psalm 69 functioned as an individual lament in the pre-exilic period. In the crisis of the exilic/early post-exilic period, as well as later in the post-exilic period, it became a vehicle for a divided Jewish community to express their laments as the personified ‘I’. Consequently, a new perspective has been created in this text: the sufferer of the basic text has now come to reflect the suffering community in the different epochs in the post-exilic Judah. Moreover, it is significant that the end of this text discovered the hope for Zion and the cities of Judah in God’s faithfulness expressed to the suffering individual.