Ps. 28 (part 1)

“O Yhwh / I call out / to you – O my rock / do not turn / a deaf ear / to me, - lest / if you are silent / to me – I should become / like those / who go down / to the pit.” The central image here is of silence. The psalmist begins with the emotionally charged call to Yhwh, “O Yhwh”.He ‘calls out’ to him. In the words of a devotee, he layers that initial calling with an image, “O my rock”. This movement from call to metaphor is similar to what lovers do and it points to the psalmist’s intense and personal attachment to Yhwh. The first calls him by name; the second speaks of him as his possession (“my rock”). This relationship between the psalmist and Yhwh has obviously been a long one marked by devotion and trust. This is further fleshed out when he implores Yhwh not to “turn a deaf ear to me”. The image is interesting. One would expect him to say, do not turn away your ear from me (which, in some ways, would amount to the same thing). However, here, what he is concerned about is not that Yhwh will ‘turn from him’, but rather that he will turn to him but remain inactive/silent. His ear will not be receptive—nothing would be able to enter into his heart. As we will see later, this is important because he is imploring Yhwh, as judge, to ‘hear’ his case. For a judge to ‘turn a deaf ear’ is to have him be unpersuaded by the appeal (or defense) made. The result of this ‘deaf ear’ is itself ‘deafness’/silence: “I should become like those who go down to the pit.” As we have seen in many other psalms, the ‘pit’(or, Sheol) is the place where Yhwh’s name is not (cannot) be spoken and, therefore, where praise cannot be made. It is significant that, for the Jews, to enter a realm where Yhwh’s name is absent is to enter death (we have commented on this rather extensively in another post). Furthermore, death is experienced most clearly, in life, by the cessation of praise. In a very real sense, to be incapable of praise is to already be an initiate of the grave/pit/Sheol. In the context of this psalm, the enter the pit is to be judged as a member of the‘wicked’ and to have lost one’s ‘appeal to Yhwh’. More of this as we proceed.

“Hear the voice / of my supplications – when I cry / to you for help, - when I / lift up / my hands – toward your / most holy place.” Rather than the ‘deaf ear’ leading to ultimate silence (the pit), the psalmist implores that Yhwh ‘hear’ not just my supplications, but “the voice of my supplications” and the “cry for help”. This is met by a seeming liturgical action of ‘lifting up his hands’ ‘toward Yhwh’s holy place’. There are several things to observe here. We have noted before how mere ‘words’ are never what the psalmist asks Yhwh to hear; rather it is the psalmist’s ‘voice’ or ‘cry’.The emotional desperation of the psalmist as they cry for help is what they hope enters into Yhwh’s presence, as they know Yhwh can be ‘moved to pity’;here, it would be that this cry would enter his ear and cause him to just rightly, removing him from the company of the wicked (who are rushing toward oblivion). This emotionality is matched by the physical gesture of ‘raised hands’, as they are open waiting to receive blessings or open in an attempt to ‘grab his knees’ and gain his attention (an attempt to hang on and refuse to let go). At this point is when we are perhaps given a glimpse into the actual setting: the hands are raised to Yhwh’s “most holy place” which could be a reference to the‘holy of holies’. If so, then the psalmist is in the outer court and making his final appeal to Yhwh himself after, presumably, losing his case in front of other judges in the community. If this is the case, this is his ‘last resort’and if he loses this appeal he will be judged guilty with the wicked. For that reason he turns, physically, to the place where Yhwh resides most essentially: the Holy of Holies. This turning stands it total contrast to the other ‘place’mentioned so far: the pit. The psalmist therefore stands, literally, between heaven and hell (so to speak) and knows that whatever judgment is to be handed over will determine in what sphere he will reside (life or death, blessing or curse). Understood this way, it is no surprise that he is ‘crying out’ and gesturing with everything he has that Yhwh hear him.

“Do not / drag me away / with the wicked – and with those / who do wrong; - those who speak / peace with their neighbors, - but evil / in their heart.” Here we come to the crux of the danger perceived by the psalmist: it is that he would be regarded the same as the wicked, that he would be ‘found in their company’. The image of ‘dragging’ is telling—it speaks of an unwilling and forceful removal. The image is also one of humiliation. To be ‘dragged away’ is not only to be shown to be beaten, but to be publicly humiliated. There are many images in the ancient world of people being ‘dragged’ (either through the walls of a destroyed city, as if on fish hooks, or behind a horse). In all of them, the victim is subjected to a public display of powerlessness and mockery. Here, it is the double-tongued that are ‘dragged away’. The psalmist is intensely aware of the fact that he should not be regarded as of like company. He should be separated from them. The real danger is a mixture of improper categories: the innocent with the guilty. This is something seen over and over in the OT. From the moment of creation, things are separated into their proper places and, in fact, it is when they cross their boundaries that ‘sin’enters the world (as in the Flood). Likewise, in the levitical laws, those things that cannot be eaten are those things that exhibit a mixture of categories: birds that can’t fly, fish that have scales, etc… These animals represent transgression in their very make up: the combine in one body two animal features that should be separated. Here, the psalmist seeks to have himself separated from the wicked, to not ‘be counted’ among them. It seems, then, that there is a desire on his part for Yhwh to recognize and hold apart, in his judgment, those things that are (and have been) improperly mixed (probably by inaccurate rulings by other judges). Notice too how this ‘mixture’is embodied in these men: they speak peace with neighbors but evil in their hearts. Their hypocrisy is much like the unclean animals: they combine in themselves what should be mutually distinct. In its precisely this ‘mixture’that marks out the wicked in many other psalms (their ‘two-faced’ nature). And, finally, if we are correct, then we are to see the “pit” as being ‘mixed’ with the Temple—and the psalmist is seeking a purification of the Templeby Yhwh such that those whose nature is most proper for the Pit are ‘dragged away’ there. The psalmist is imploring Yhwh to, in a way, in his judgment, enact a type of creation (a type of separation) and consign those of mixed nature to one realm (to be ‘dragged away’) while those who are of a single nature (the innocent) to another. Finally, are we to hear the wicked being ‘dragged away’from Yhwh’s presence, while the innocent remain? If so, then the innocent, when he is proclaimed righteous by Yhwh, will remain in the Temple while the wicked will be ‘dragged away’to the Pit/Sheol.