Jackson Raudy
RHE330E
Prayer Rhetorical Analysis: Rough Draft
1/28/2023
Psalm 22 Everywhere you look, disorientation is around us. Disorientation can be as minuscule as getting a failing grade on a test to the death of a loved one. Whatever the case may be, it is an innate instinct in human nature to minimize this disorientation in order to maintain a homeostasis of comfort. One way people would resist this disorientation is through some sort of address to God. More specifically, in the religious text “Psalms” many people look towards God to aid them in their hardship. Breugmann asserts that this call for help is segmented in four sections: the address, complaint, an ask, and a promise. In order to dive deeper in this ideology of how people in Psalms seeked sanctuary in their own turmoil, we will be analyzing Psalm 22. Before getting into any specific analysis of what makes up the Psalm 22 sense of disorientation, it’s crucial to determine why the speaker is
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In fact, the complaint of this psalm reaches the same magnitude as the address (around nine lines). The speaker uses heavy imagery, describing their strength as being “dried up like potsherd” or claiming that their tongue “cleaves to my jaws” (Psalms 22:16). This usage of heavy imagery is used by the reader to invoke a strong sense of pathos and ultimately sympathy from God as the speaker seems to have their body essentially deteriorating, whether that be from torture or malnutrition. Additionally, the speaker hopes to invoke God with a feeling of responsibility for the speaker since the transition from address to complaint says, “But you are he who took me out of the womb; you made me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.” (Psalms 22:10). By making the complaint one of the larger sections of the psalm, it’s clear to see that the speaker is going for a negligent/responsibility argument towards