Ps. 22 (part 2)

You have / answered me! – Let me tell / of your name / to my brethren, - I will praise you / in the midst / of the congregation. Everything from this point on is different. There could be no greater, and more abrupt, reversal than what we find here. Reaching back to the very beginning of the psalm (ln. 3), the psalmist finds himself ‘answered’ whereas before nothing but silence seemed to blanket him. Likewise, this simple assertion directly contradicts the mocking of the scorners: Yhwh has, in fact, delivered/rescued him. Whereas before the only voices the psalmist could hear were those of doubt, mocking and betrayal (Yhwh’s voice was left solely in his memory), now Yhwh speaks and the river begins to flow once again. At this point the pain of memory is relieved as the present and the past begin to find their coordinates in the psalmist. Likewise, before, the psalmist sense of alienation from the past of his ‘fathers’ and his personal past with his ‘mother’, led him to feeling as if he had been disowned from the genetic family of Yhwh. Had he been exiled, for no purpose? One continuously felt as if he was an outsider looking in, with longing for communion with Yhwh’s people. Here, the rift begins to heal: “Let me tell of your name to my brethren.” Yhwh’s deliverance has done several things at once: 1) answered him; 2) reincorporated him back into the family; 3) allowed the Name to begin to be pronounced once again. This final point is one we have already made but it is important to note that the psalm began by saying that Yhwh was ‘enthroned upon the praises of Israel’. The psalmist, however, when he said this, said in the context of a reality he was not a part of. Here, he begins to become one of these ‘supports’. We have noted how the first time the Name appears it was on the lips of the scoffers. The second time it was in the urgent (almost final) plea of the psalmist. Now, however, the prayer has been heard and the Name can become the object of praise, sharing, communion. From this point on the Name will appear with greater frequency. It is as if the name was too difficult to pronounce before, whereas now it flows freely off the psalmist’s lips. There is also this small word, “Let”, which we noted in other contexts. There, the term often was associated with a type of internal judgment Yhwh was to permit to happen to the wicked (“Let their deeds come back on their heads”…). Here, however, the term denotes a sense of pent-up joy and exuberance on the part of the psalmist. Just as, in the judgment context, Yhwh must ‘let happen’ what is going to happen, so too here, the psalmist invokes Yhwh to ‘let me tell of your name’. The sense of restored communion with Yhwh is felt very poignantly here. Dialogue has not only been restored but an intimate and personal one has emerged. This is the voice of the psalmist when healed. And his voice changes dramatically from here on out. You / who fear Yhwh / praise him! – All you / descendants of Jacob / honor him! – And all you / descendants of Israel / stand in awe of him! To say this change of tone is shocking is an understatement. The psalmist has moved from feeling as if he was a ‘worm’ and ‘not a man’, to, here, becoming an instructor (a poignant example of ‘lifting up the lowly’). And he directs his address to all of Yhwh’s people: those who fear him, descendants of Jacob, descendants of Israel. The order may perhaps be important as well: fear : praise; Jacob : honor; Israel : stand in awe. By prefacing the entire group with ‘those who fear him’ as well as ‘praise’, the psalmist may be referring back to the fact that Yhwh is ‘enthroned on the praises of Israel’. Here, at the beginning, then, we see the fact that Yhwh’s enthronement is being heralded, his act of sovereignty. This psalmist is finding himself reintegrated and can now see, from within, the enactment of this sovereignty as he commands/entreats those who fear Yhwh to ‘praise him’. In the context of this psalm, this could be an almost political statement—that Yhwh’s sovereignty is extended by and through the praise of his people. By encouraging this act of praise the psalmist, now from a position of deliverance, can move that power outward.

For he has not despised / and he has not detested – the affliction / of the afflicted; and he has not / hidden his face / from him – but when he / cried for help / he heard him. Here we come to the reason for the praise / honor / awe due to Yhwh. There is something rather perplexing about this: all of these designations, which seem to point to sovereign power/control, typically involve the destruction of foreign enemies. Now, that aspect is probably somewhere present but that is not the focus of these verses. Rather, it is on the fact that Yhwh does not despise/detest the affliction of the afflicted. Yhwh’s sovereign power shines forth out of the fact that he does not despise what is typically despicable. Mercy (the willingness to cross the boundary toward the despicable) is a sign of Yhwh’s ‘honor and awe’ that are due him. This willingness is precisely what the psalmist’s mockers refused to do; they all stood at a distance, jeering and taunting. When they ‘heard his cry’ they cast him back onto Yhwh, refusing any succor. One wonders whether the psalmist had asked himself whether, in fact, he was so afflicted that he was beyond a boundary that Yhwh would not cross. Perhaps he wondered whether the silence of Yhwh was really, at root, the fact that his affliction had removed him too far from Yhwh, that he could no longer be heard, that he lived, in a sense, a purely secular realm ‘without Yhwh’. All of this doubt has been wiped away: Yhwh’s sphere of power extends even to this point of affliction. Someone this despicable is not ‘too far away’ to be heard by Yhwh. One’s voice can be heard from these depths. (One wonders, in light of Christ, if we could not translate these lines to say, “He does not despise the death of the dead”.).

An interesting point of view is also used in these verses: notice how the psalmist is referring to himself in the third person (Yhwh has not hidden his face form the afflicted, but when he cried for help he heard him). In the context of our psalmist’s deliverance this seems important. Before, everything was utterly personal to the psalmist—without a community or family he was alone and left to himself, without even Yhwh. Now, though, he can speak about his experience with some distance, as shown by the fact that he refers to himself as ‘the afflicted’. His experience has been subsumed into the same experience of his ‘fathers’, who trusted in Yhwh and were saved. In essence, he now sees himself as a member of a group (the ‘afflicted’) whom Yhwh preserves and redeems. By being rejoined to Yhwh’s people the psalmist’s experience becomes a piece of the whole, rather than being the whole (as it had been before, when he was alone). This ‘expansion’ of the psalmist only increases as he moves into more broad exclamations of Yhwh’s sovereignty and control. For you / comes my praise / in the great congregation. – I will / fulfill my vows / before those who fear him. – The afflicted / shall eat / and be satisfied; - those who seek him / shall praise Yhwh – may your hearts / live forever! It may be that this first and second line are saying the same thing in different ways: “praise in the great congregation” = “fulfilling my vows before those who fear him.” Read this way, it could be that these ‘vows’ were promises of sacrifice that would be offered in the event the psalmist was delivered/healed. The fact that this takes place publicly and culticly is important in that, as we have seen, part of his immense burden has been his isolation from the people and, probably, from cultic worship. His vow would then have pointed to both of these facts: that he was not able to participate within the cult and that he was isolated. The deliverance signaled both of these could not be rejoined. The turn to ‘eating’ is perhaps strange. Why eating? Maybe this refers to the sacrifice that was brought? “The afflicted” are those who are in the same camp the psalmist was in, and also those whom Yhwh does not ignore and hears. Is this an assertion whereby the psalmist now furthers the ‘testimony of the trusting fathers’? Now that he, an afflicted, has been healed, so too, in the future, will other afflicted come ‘to eat’? Or, perhaps we see here another effect of the “fused tongue to the jawbone.” In his affliction/weakness, the psalmist had not been able to eat. Now, the tongue will be loosened, and strength will again be provided through sustenance. This would seem to be the reason for the ‘eating’ inclusion: throughout the psalm the psalmist has emphasized his growing weakness, not just psychologically, but physically. The fact that food can now pass his lips would, indeed, be one of the many ways that Yhwh’s ‘face’ would be shining on the ‘afflicted’. 

All the ends of the earth / shall remember / and turn to Yhwh. At this point the psalm is reaching its most expansive. This movement from the purely individual and isolated has now broadened out to the “ends of the earth”. This is an astonishing transition. We began with psalm with a man who did not even believe himself to be part of the human race he was so dejected. In addition, his enemies were so overwhelming that he saw them in terms of powerful abstractions: as beasts. Furthermore, at the end of his lament he was nothing but a hollowed out jar, dropped to the earth (presumably shattered) and with absolutely no reserves to draw from. He couldn’t even bring himself to address his attackers. Once Yhwh speaks, though, everything changes: he addresses those around him, his voice returns (in a powerful way), he completely leaves behind his individual situation and now finds himself calling upon all of creation to join in the praising of Yhwh. It is set in the future (the shall remember), but, as with other psalms, it ‘shall’ happen; it is merely a matter of time. No more is the ‘dust’ the end of the psalmist. A question I wonder is whether this ‘turning’ is somehow rooted in his healing (is it because they hear of his healing that they turn?), or is the fact that his vision is so cleared by his redemption that he can, with unobstructed sight, see into the future (as a ‘shall’) and en-vision the earth praising Yhwh (meaning, it is not in relation to him and his redemption but solely on his conviction of Yhwh’s persuasive power). It is at this point that further enhancement is introduced: and all the clans / of the nations / shall worship before you. There is, here, an incredibly important development beyond what we saw in the opening of the psalm. There, we saw that Yhwh was ‘holy and enthroned on the praises of Israel’. Here, when the ‘ends of the earth’ are regarded as ‘remembering’ Yhwh, they are also understood as ‘worshipping before’ Yhwh. In this regard, Yhwh is now the not simply enthroned on the praises of Israel, but enthroned on the worship of the entire world. This is the ‘kingdom of God’. Israel was never to be understood as sealed off in itself, but, rather, it was to be beacon to the ‘ends of the earth’ and, thereby, bring Yhwh’s sovereign control over all the world. When David was anointed, it was to be the beginning not of the ‘kingdom of Israel’ but of the international ‘kingdom of God’ (see Ps. 2). Here, we see that forward looking glance to such a time. For the dominion / belongs to Yhwh – and he is / the one ruling / over the nations. It is not the case that dominion is not Yhwh’, already; rather, the future will be a time when that dominion is acknowledged and ‘worshipped’ as such.

Indeed / all those about to sleep / in the earth – shall bow down / to him – all those about to / descend to the dust / shall bend down / to him. These lines are perplexing. On the one hand it would almost seem like those who are going to descend to Sheol are going to praise Yhwh. That, however, would be very odd in light of other statements regarding Sheol where it is specifically said remembrance of Yhwh cannot be had. On the other hand, these people are not described as dead, yet, but “about to sleep in the earth/dust”. Perhaps we are to see here a reference back to the fact that the psalmist saw himself deposited “in the dust” and those, like him, who are close to death will revive and worship Yhwh. This interpretation would be supported by the immediately following lines: And he / who did not keep / his life – his descendants / shall serve him. Here, we are explicitly told of one who does in fact die. However, his descendants will live to worship Yhwh. These lines indicate the psalmist has gained a perspective on his near-death experience and says that those who are not as blessed as him—those who, in fact, die—will be rewarded by their descendants worshipping Yhwh. This is almost a Job-like answer to the dilemma: meaning, not an answer at all but a distance that emphasizes Yhwh’s freedom. Furthermore, these lines also point in another direction: the fact that even if one dies apart from Yhwh’s blessing, one’s descendants will not, themselves, be removed. In this way, the original anxiety of the psalmist that he had been disowned in some fashion from his ‘fathers’ is healed—the ‘line’ will continue even if he does not. It shall be told / concerning Yhwh / to a generation / that will come; - and they / shall declare his righteousness / to a people / about to be born – what he has done! Here, at the conclusion, the ‘family’ is reintegrated, the story of ‘trust’ is passed down and the rift that opened the psalms is closed. Whereas the psalm opened with an almost questioning of Yhwh’s righteousness (“Why have you forsaken me?”), it closes with the telling, generationally, of Yhwh’s righteousness. And this to a people not even born—those who, like the psalmist, will be ‘taken form their mother’s womb’ by Yhwh and ‘cast upon him’.