BIBLIOTHECA SACRA 161 January March 2004 55 71 Copyright 2004 by Dallas Theological Seminary Cited with permission POETIC ARTISTRY IN THE EXPRESSION OF FEAR IN PSALM 49 Daniel J Estes AS POETIC TEXTS THE PSALMS ARE TYPICALLY MARKED by the expression of emotions The Psalter evidences the full range of feelings from the most tender to the most turgid sentiments experienced by humans One recurrent emotion in the psalms is fear Most frequently the object of fear is God as His worshipers demonstrate respect for Him as in Psalm 115 11 You who fear the LORD trust in the LORD He is their help and their shield It is not however unusual for the object of fear to be human or impersonal enemies as in Psalm 56 2 5 English 1 4 1 Be gracious to me O God for man has trampled upon me fighting all day long he oppresses me My foes have trampled upon me all day long for they are many who fight proudly against me When I am afraid I will put my trust in You In God whose word I praise in God I have put my trust I shall not be afraid What can mere man do to me Psalm 49 offers an instructive case for analyzing the expression of the emotion of fear in the Psalms After his initial proclamation addressed to all of humanity in verses 2 5 the psalmist asked a rhetorical question in verses 6 7 that sets forth the problem Why should I fear in days of adversity when the iniquity of my foes surrounds me even those who trust in their wealth and boast in the abundance of their riches This question communicates a real situation of distress it introduces us to the fearful perplexity of those who are helplessly Daniel J Estes is Associate Academic Vice President and Professor of Bible Cedarville University Cedarville Ohio 1 Numeration of verses is based on the Hebrew text even when the text is quoted in English translation 56 BIBLIOTHECA SACRA January March 2004 at the mercy of the rich and powerful 2 In verses 8 16 the psalmist probed this problem and by this means exposed its logical and theological flaws His conclusion vv 17 21 begins with the prohibition Do not be afraid in verse 17 which provides a corrective balance to Why should I fear in verse 6 There are numerous Hebrew terms for fear 3 but the two uses in Psalm 49 are both verbal forms of xry The semantic range of xry includes nuances such as to be terrified to fear to respect and to worship In discussing the aspects of fear encompassed by this term van Pelt and Kaiser state Terror and worship are in some sense polar opposites the former is characteristic of complete anxiety while the latter suggests trust The aspect of respect however can be either a weakened sense of fear or worship Therefore the concept of terror can be weakened to express respect which can once again be intensified to express worship Only by context can the particular sense of each occurrence be determined 4 Fuhs concludes The content of the verb is varied by context sensitive classificators in such a way as to cover the entire semantic range in all its variety from alarm in the face of everyday threats through fear of numinous powers to fear of God 5 In Psalm 49 the psalmist focused on the aspect of xry that relates to fear in the face of a threatening situation in life He speaks of a fear that is a deep apprehensive anxiety about the meaning and destiny of life a worry in the face of the faith of the rich in their wealth that one has failed and missed it all That is a fear that disorients one from the only fear that belongs to faith the fear of the LORD Prov 1 7 6 Recent psychological analyses of emotions have elucidated the dynamics inherent in fear Although caution must be exercised lest contemporary scholarship attribute anachronistic insights to the psalmist such research can be useful for enhancing the interpreter s appreciation of the psalmist s sense of fear Berkowitz states that fear is typically associated with a 2 Hans Joachim Kraus Psalms 1 59 Continental Commentary trans Hilton C Oswald Minneapolis Fortress 1978 482 3 H F Fuhs xreyA in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament ed G Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren trans David E Green vol 6 Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1990 293 95 4 M V van Pelt and W C Kaiser xry in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis ed Willem A VanGemeren Grand Rapids Zondervan 1997 2 528 5 Fuhs xreyA 295 6 James Luther Mays Psalms Interpretation Louisville John Knox 1994 192 Poetic Artistry in the Expression of Fear in Psalm 49 57 relatively predominant avoidance tendency an urge to get away from the perceived danger and he contrasts this impulse with anger which is usually linked to an urge to approach and strike at some target 7 Similarly Izard and Youngstrom note Because of the potency of fear feeling the motivation to escape or to reduce threat dominates all functional systems Any emotion feeling tends to bias perception Intense fear feeling exercises such tight control over information processing that it tends to eliminate all parts of the perceptual field that hold no promise of an escape route 8 As Ben Ze ev explains the emotional object of fear can be a certain situation e g I am afraid of the dark or of a person e g I am afraid of this violent person or of oneself e g I am afraid of losing my reputation In each of these cases fear prompts one to avoid the perceived threat Fear then causes a person to try to flee from a situation that threatens his or her feeling of security or well being 9 In Psalm 49 the psalmist endeavored to untie the tangled thoughts and feelings that fear produces by expressing or opening up by explanation the riddle hdAyHi of the relationship between life and death 10 Psalm 49 has been examined frequently in terms of its philol11 ogy theology 12 and provenance 13 What have not often been 7 Leonard Berkowitz Cause and Consequences of Feelings Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2000 190 8 Carroll E Izard and Eric A Youngstrom The Activation and Regulation of Fear and Anxiety in Perspectives on Anxiety Panic and Fear ed Debra A Hope Lincoln NE University of Nebraska Press 1996 12 9 Aaron Ben Ze ev The Subtlety of Emotions Cambridge MIT 2000 480 10 Peter C Craigie Psalms 1 50 Word Biblical Commentary Waco TX Word 1983 359 11 Mitchell Dahood characteristically suggests new meanings of the Hebrew terms by appealing to potential parallels in Ugaritic Psalms 1 50 Anchor Bible Garden City NY Doubleday 19651 295 303 12 Of particular theological interest to interpreters has been the possible