The Psalms

Abstract

The psalmists sometimes wrote about the ‘enemies’ and the ‘evil-doers’ who sought their destruction. However, a close reading of these verses suggests that at least in some instances the psalmist is describing his own paranoid ideation or possibly even paranoid delusions rather than real enemies. Thus, in Psalm 31 there is a description of paranoia, threats conspiracy, fears of being killed and auditory hallucinations.