Words Fail Me: Silence, Wisdom, and Liturgy in Psalm 73

The integrity of the psalmic move from complaint to praise, from suffering to salvation, is founded on the conviction that Israel’s words receive a divine hearing. Yet, in the midst of a book that so elevates the efficacy of human speech, Ps 73 presents an alternative experience of this salvific transition, one in which the psalmist’s initial response to theological crisis is explicitly unvoiced. These verses underscore the communicative value of verbal restraint as an often unacknowledged but integral aspect of the dialogue that we hear throughout the Psalter.