Ps. 11

Ps. 11

In Yhwh / I have sought / refuge How / can you say / to me: Immediately we are introduced into what is essentially an argument. And, as we will see, these two participants are in sharp disagreement. Even if we look simply at these two lines we can imagine where the conversation will be headed: the psalmist believes Yhwh is able to provide refuge. As we have seen many times already, the image of ‘refuge’ is used almost exclusively to describe a righteous person who is vulnerable, exposed and under attack from ‘the wicked’. Sometimes the refuge is something the righteous person is desperately seeking to find; sometimes it is a matter of simply ‘staying put’. Often, when the image is one of ‘remaining’ it involves images of the Temple—one finds ‘refuge’in Yhwh precisely by ‘remaining’ in ‘his house’, or, in other contexts, ‘under his wings’ (although it seems like a counter-example, in Jeremiah there are those who seek ‘refuge’ in the Temple because they are convinced it cannot fall (they are mistaken, of course, but the point is similar; there was a rich vein of understanding that the Temple was an impregnable ‘refuge’; the problem, for Jeremiah, is that it is only a refuge ‘for the righteous’…). In contrast to the psalmist, then, we will call him a ‘friend’ (only because he is offering him advice) disagrees: Yhwh is not a refuge; the Temple is not safe. The wicked are in pursuit, the righteous man needs shelter, and, so the friend says, “here is not the place”. Already we intimate the fundamental difference between the two: for the psalmist, exposure is, in fact, anywhere but where he currently is; for his friend, it is precisely where he is standing that is the most dangerous place. His friend begins: “Flutter / like a bird / to the mountain for look / the wicked / are bending / the bow they ‘ have fitted / their arrow / onto / the bowstring to shoot / in the dark / the upright / in heart. The foundations / are indeed / being torn down! What / is the righteous / to do?” There are a few things, in fact, these two agree on. One is that the psalmist is a righteous person; they have no doubt that any attacks on him would be a crime. Likewise, they both realize that, in fact, the psalmist is on the verge of being destroyed. Where they differ, however, as we saw above is: 1) where the righteous should go for shelter/refuge; 2) where the righteous currently stands; and 3) the power of the wicked. For the friend, the righteous man is, essentially, a weak bird that can only ‘flutter’. The image of the righteous man’s delicate nature and extreme vulnerability is touching; the friend is obviously very concerned and sees the psalmist as utterly unable to protect himself except through ‘flight’. Along these same lines, it is important to note the fact that the friend believes it is night-time. For him, the light has fled; in fact, the only one can see (in some form of terrible ‘night-vision’) is the wicked. This is important on a metaphoric level in this psalm: for the friend, the righteous man is not currently standing in the light but in darkness; for the psalmist ‘refuge’ is found not in hiding but underneath the protection of Yhwh—for the friend, protection is found in hiding (in the mountains); in other words, for the psalmist any ‘light’/protection is something he receives from Yhwh; for the friend, darkness is present and the only way for the righteous to save himself is by hiding (in further darkness)—nothing is received for the friend. This ties into the second idea: for the friend, whatever protection this ‘building’ could afford, has be(ing) destroyed by the wicked. He claims the foundations have been destroyed, as if the walls themselves have crumbled leaving the righteous man standing on an empty platform (he is the proverbial “duck on the water”). We must grasp here what the friend is saying: for him, the righteous man is standing, against the night, in the home of a vacant God. In a sense, the friend is rather (post)modern in his understanding (except for the fact that I detect no ‘heroism’ in this). For the friend, when everything is topsy-turvy the only thing left to do is run (and, isn’t this precisely what Jeremiah will later say?). If this is in fact what the friend is saying, it is rather shocking and could be understood by the psalmist as incredibly insulting. One final point in this regard: for the friend the ‘exit’ is to ascend the ‘mountain’, to leave this lower area for a higher vantage point. This image will emerge again soon, and yet I have to wonder if there is not here a echo of other “higher mountains”; the prophets often speak of idols on the high mountains and the offering of sacrifices to these other gods. Could we see here the friend’s subtle claim that the psalmist run to other gods?

. The psalmist replies: Yhwh / is in / his holy temple; Yhwh’s / throne / is in the heavens His eyes / see; His eyelids / scrutinize / the sons of man. Yhwh / tests / the righteous but / the wicked / and the one / loving violence his soul / hates! He / rains down / on the wicked / coals / fire / and brimstone and / a burning hot wind / is the portion / of their cup But / Yhwh / is righteous / he loves / righteous deeds. The upright / shall see / his face. Based on what we have heard from the psalmist’s friend, we might get a better grasp if we actually place their words side-by-side, like this:

	Yhwh is in his holy temple
	Yhwh's throne is in the heavens
Flutter like a bird to the mountain	His eyes see
for look the wicked are bending the bow	His eyelids scrutinize the sons of man
they have fitted their arrow onto the bowstring	Yhwh tests the righteous
to shoot in the dark the upright in heart	but the wicked and the one loving violence
the foundations once destroyed	his soul hates!
what is the righteous to do?	He rains down on the wicked coals fire and brimstone
	and a burning hot wind is the portion of their cup
	But Yhwh is righteous, he loves righteous deeds
	The upright shall see his face.

It immediately becomes apparent what the psalmist is doing in response to his friend when looked at in this manner, and he is doing two things at once, both indicated by the opening phrase: Yhwh is present in his Temple and his throne is in his heavenly dwelling. By emphasizing the fact that Yhwh is in fact in his home, he counteracts his friends contention that the psalmist must flee to high ground; by emphasizing the fact that Yhwh’s throne is in the heavens he has done what nearly every psalm we have looked at thus far has done—drawn attention to Yhwh’s ‘ascension’ in the heavens as his utterly sovereign power over the situations on earth. For the friend, everything consists of the duality of light and darkness (the righteous and the wicked) and, importantly, everything is darkness right now. For the psalmist, because Yhwh is both present on earth and enthroned in the heavens, his ‘refuge’ is secure within Yhwh’s light. Admittedly, the term ‘light’ never occurs, but it seems to be implied by two things: Yhwh’s ‘scrutinizing’ eyes that overcomes and reigns over the ‘sons of men’ and ‘his face’. As to ‘his eyes’: the term used here is similar to the process of metal purification and it applies not just to the wicked but to all men. For the righteous, presumably, the ‘scrutiny’ of Yhwh will be a purifying fire that will remove the ‘dross’ of the wicked bring them into his presence, to dwell with “his face” (probably a reference to the Temple). This, again, brings us back to a common thread in every psalm we have seen: deliverance by Yhwh entails the mutual action of salvation and judgment. Here, though, the image is particularly well suited: the act of ‘cleansing’ the righteous is the removal of the wicked dross. It is, precisely, the same action but with entirely different effect depending on what one is (righteous: vision of his face; wicked: burning away and ‘removal’). It is the same as what happened in the Exodus, if one pictures the ‘iron’ of Israel being drawn from the ‘furnace of Egypt’: as they emerged from the flames, Egypt was burned/judged/devoured and left behind. This is how the ‘darkness’ alleged by the friend is met. The claim that the ‘building’ the psalmist is standing in is but a mere platform, is met in two ways: 1) saying that the Yhwh is, in fact, in his temple (and, importantly, he is ‘in his temple’ by also being ‘in the heavens’; we do not have one without the other); and 2) by referring back to Sodom and Gomorrah the psalmist claims that any city/building/dwelling of the wicked will, itself, be subjected to the awesomeness of Yhwh’s judgment. This accomplishes a reversal for the friend: it is the wicked’s ‘house’ that will be destroyed, not Yhwh’s.