02_VanWieringen_179_197 15/07/14 12:15 Pagina 183 PSALM 65 183 bines the finale with the beginning of the poem 7. The hymn has developed from silence to singing, a transition effectuated by God through his liberating activities, which involve both universal fea- tures as well as the actual Land. II. Non-appropriation by the “I”-character in Psalm 65 The plot of Psalm 65 has only one single “I”-verse. Only in verse 4, does the “I” become visible in the tension between past and present and in the transition from the individual to the collec- tive, to a “we”. The “I”, therefore, cannot be directly reached in the poem of Psalm 65. The position of the “I” is continued in verse 5 regarding being chosen by God and concerning God’s sanctuary. The psalmist does not say “happy I whom you choose” and not even “happy we whom you choose”. The praying psalmist uses the third person (“he whom you choose”), as if he himself were not included among the chosen. From this third person singular, he switches straight to the first per- son plural “we” (suffix Wn-). The “I” is omitted 8. This is all the more remarkable because of the fact that, in verses 2-4, the “I”-character is involved in the movement from the third person (“all flesh”) to the first person plural (“our transgression”). Concerning the election by God with regard to his sanctuary, the first person singular “I” is however not used. Here, the first person plural “we” is not used just like that. Whereas concerning the third person it is stated that he has been cho- sen, only the modal form is used concerning the “we”: “let us satisfy ourselves”. The realization of the wish of the “we” is still left open. The “I”-character neither claims the election nor the sanctuary. By using the modal form of the “we”-form, the psalmist expresses that making any claim whatsoever, i.e. any appropriation, is impossible. 7 See also J.P. FOKKELMAN, Major Poems of the Hebrew Bible at the In- terface of Prosody and Structural Analysis (SSN 41; Assen 2000) 115; G. RAVASI, Il Libro dei Salmi (Bologna 1983) II, 307. 8 See also J. CLINTON MCCANN, “The Shape of Book I of the Psalter and the Shape of Human Happiness”, The Book of Psalms. Composition and Re- ception (eds. P.W. FLINT – P.D. MILLER) (VTS 99; Leiden 2005) 346, who points out that neither an “I” nor a “we” can be connected to a beatitude.