PsALM 73 As rInG COMPOsITIOn 23 that in vv. 27-28a insights gained in the second half of the psalm, which brought an end to the psalmist’s struggles in the first half, are succinctly summarised. Thus, while the psalmist’s realization about the precarious situation of the wicked in vv. 18-20 is summarised in v. 27 through a prediction about their ultimate destruction, his renewed appreciation of an intimate relationship with God in vv. 21-26 is en- capsulated in his declaration in v. 28a of how good it is to be near to him. here, the use of the semantically contrastive root-pair, qxr (“far”) in v. 27 and brq (“near”) in v. 28a, ties the two statements to- gether into a close relationship 23. As for v. 28b, a declaration of trust and a vow to recount God’s works probably represent the psalmist’s personal response to his new insight. rhetorically, the demarcation of the concluding section at the beginning of v. 27 is also supported by the structural markers hnh-yk. In this regard, more will be said about the psalmist’s use of the parti- cles $a, yk, and hnh as structural markers. For now, it will suffice to point out that $a and yk appear to be used as a complementary pair to mark section beginnings, while hnh appears to be an occasional marker to signal conclusions 24. The combination of hnh-yk at the be- ginning of v. 27 thus seems to simultaneously mark v. 27 both as the beginning of a new rhetorical unit (through yk) and as the concluding section for the entire psalm (through hnh). Determining the boundaries of the introductory section is some- what more complicated. While the section obviously begins at v. 1, it is less clear where it ends. In this regard, almost half of those sur- veyed favour taking v. 1 as a stand-alone introduction to the psalm. These justify their decision by noting a break in sense between v. 1 and v. 2, with v. 1 stating the overall theme for the whole psalm, and v. 2 introducing the psalmist’s plight 25. That v. 2 begins with a WITTe, “Auf dem Weg”, 18-20; BOADT, “Panels”, 538-539 all see a break between v. 27 and v. 28. While Witte’s decision is based primarily on redactional con- siderations, none of the others have provided strong justification for their positions. 23 For use of this pair of words in other closely contrastive contexts, see Pss 22,12; 119,150; Prov 5,8; Isa 46,13; 54,14. 24 By “occasional”, I am referring to the fact that hnh does not occur at the conclusion of every major rhetorical unit within the psalm, but appears only at v. 12 for vv. 4-12, v. 15 for vv. 13-15, and v. 27 for the conclusion of the entire psalm. 25 M. BuBer, Right and Wrong. An Interpretation of some Psalms (London 1952) 37-38; L.G. PerDue, Wisdom and Cult. A Critical Analysis of the view of Cult in Wisdom Literature of Israel and the Ancient near east (sBLDs 30; Mis-