02_VanWieringen_179_197 15/07/14 12:15 Pagina 184 184 A.L.H.M. VAN WIERINGEN In the first main unit, the “I” becomes a “we”, but the actual re- alization of this transition has not taken place yet. In the second main unit, this realization is touched upon in verse 10. I have al- ready mentioned the special relationship between the verb “to fix” and the noun “wheat” from a semantic point of view. However, there is more. Whereas elsewhere in the second main unit the pos- sessive suffix second person masculine singular is used, a different possessive suffix is used in verse 10d. Because of this, this posses- sive suffix attains a remarkable significance. After what occurs in the first main unit, the “we” is expected to possess the fertile land. This means that a first person plural suffix is expected to be used. The text, however, does not say: “you fix our wheat”. It speaks about ~n"gd “their wheat” 9. This means that the psalmist views the fertile land as the result of God’s liberating activity 10, as it were, from the outside. He uses the third person “their” instead of the first person “our”. The ideal décor is not appropriated by the “I”-character. The prayer of Psalm 65, therefore, remains non-appropriative 11. In my view, this non-appropriative attitude of the “I”-character is the clue to answering the diachronic question for the dating of Psalm 65 as well. Diachronic relations cannot be determined on the 9 The possessive suffix “their” is hardly discussed in the exegetical liter- ature. If it is, the suffix is very often interpreted as referring to people in gen- eral; see for example M.E. TATE, Psalms 51-100 (WBC 20; Waco, TX 1990) 137. This interpretation already occurs in Jewish exegesis; see for example M.I. GRUBER, Rashi’s Commentary on Psalms (Philadelphia, PA 2007) 438. In the text tradition, however, only the Syrohexapla reads thn panspermian authj, which supposes hngd as the Hebrew text, with a third person feminine singular suffix, referring to the feminine noun #rah the earth (v. 10a). TATE, Psalms 51-100, 137 even leaves the possibility open that the m is just an en- clitic m without any further meaning. 10 See S. GILLMAYR-BUCHER, “Images of Space in the Psalms of Ascent”, The Composition of the Books of Psalms (ed. E. ZENGER) (BETL 238; Leuven 2010) 497, who points out that the spatial décor is not a partner in the com- munication, but that God is. 11 The indications of the genre of Psalm 65 as ‘thanksgiving psalm’ or ‘hymn of praise for the harvest’, therefore, are not adequate, pace, among many others, D.J.A. CLINES, “Psalm Research since 1955: the Literary Gen- res”, TynBul 20 (1969) 113, 115; J. DAY, Psalms (OTG; Sheffield 1992) 112. See also the critical remarks by R.D. MILLER, “The Origin of the Zion Hymns”, The Composition of the Books of Psalms (ed. E. ZENGER) (BETL 238; Leuven 2010) 667-668.