Ps. 30.7 (the height of error)

“But I / I said / in my security – I will / never / be moved.” In light of the covenantal proverb spoken previously, this comment may, at first, appear to be a statement of confidence, of standing within the covenant blessing of Yhwh. Upon closer inspection, however, one realizes that this statement is the ‘stumbling’ of the psalmist. It may not be the reason he falls into the pit, but it is, however, an expression of the pit and all of the negative images arrayed in our previous reflection. One can see why this is the case in simply pointing to the fact of how many times the psalmist draws attention to himself in direct contrast to the opening verses “But I – I said in my security, I will never be moved”; opening verses: “I will extol you, O Yhwh, for you have drawn me out…O Yhwh, my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me. O Yhwh, you brought up my soul from Sheol….you made me live.” If we might further develop the insight from the previous reflections (of which this is very speculative). This psalmist has placed himself in the liminal stage of the surrounding people: he stands within creation and can, to some extent, assert his own independence from the gods within that created order due to the gods not being the direct causes of creation but merely its governors or controllers. Due to this ‘gap’, there is a space of autonomy opened up for man (Gilgamesh like) where his freedom and the gods freedom can actually compete. This can lead to assertions of one’s own “security”. It does not need to be one at odds with the gods, but it is one that is filled out by man. In Israel, however, this is not possible. Because Yhwh is both Creator and King (covenant maker), every aspect of the individual is appropriated by Yhwh within his covenant (‘you shall love Yhwh, your God, with all your heart, soul…”). Man’s ‘security’ then cannot rest on a ‘third’ party (namely, creation). Rather, as Genesis makes clear, man’s security is found only ‘in Yhwh’ and in covenantal relation with him; man has no grounding in anything other than that (indeed, creation itself is not grounded in anything other than the same bond; as we have said elsewhere, Yhwh’s ‘saints’ are fully aware of their and creation’s utter contingency). The words of the psalmist are the words of ‘heroes’ in other mythological systems; men who stand, in their own strength (often with the help of other gods, and often at odds with others), and therefore in a glory that is there own. For Israel—this was possibly the greatest of all errors and something the prophets tirelessly railed against (as against the fertility religions). This is nowhere better exemplified than in the contrast of Noah with Gilgamesh: Noah simply obeys; Gilgamesh outwits the gods to survive the flood (although aided by another god, there is an element of glory that is Gilgamesh’s own and, arguably, this exists because of the fact that the gods are not the creator(s)). Finally, this is why, for Israel, ‘security’ is only (only) found in the opening words: of a person standing in dialogue and praise to Yhwh (the dynamic of the opening lines is “I-thou”; in the verse in question it is only “I”). For Israel, reality is dialogue with Yhwh—and nothing else.