Abstract:
Every human being inevitably experiences illness, loss, failure, and
disappointment. When it happens to a perceived-to-be “righteous”
person, the problem of theodicy arises, the question whether it is
just when deities allow righteous human beings to suffer. The
existential crisis caused by severe suffering is a central theme in the
Psalter. This study departs from the working hypothesis that
suffering can be described in spatial terms and illustrates it with
reference to Ps 11. Ultimately suffering implies separation from
YHWH and his saving presence at-centre (Ps 11:2-3). In the universe
as imagined by the poet there is but one solution: to take refuge in
YHWH (11:1) at-centre. That confession, amidst the crumbling of
personal security and comfort (11:2-3), draws the eyes of the poet to
YHWH in his holy temple and in heaven. In 11:4 the poet’s imagined
space transports him from to . There, in the presence of
YHWH (11:7), he arrives at-centre, convinced that the wicked will
finally be destroyed.
