Ps. 30.9-11 (between dust and dust)

“To you / O Yhwh / will I cry – And to you / my Governor / I will plead / for mercy.” In Jeremiah and in Judges, the people forget how to “cry out”. In Judges, the story is one of progressive silence as Israel sinks in a downward spiral; at the end, they cease crying out all together and simply “do what they think is right in their own eyes”. In Jeremiah, the book could be read as a type of guide in how to ‘cry out’. The point in drawing attention to these two books is in the fact that the psalmist had engaged in a similar ‘silence’ when said “But I-I said in my security – I will never be moved”. As we have seen, there was no dialogue between himself and Yhwh. His saw his ‘strength’ as something beginning (and ending) with himself. It is important to recognize that this type of hubris, of non-covenantal strength, is, in effect, silence and therefore emblematic of the silence of the pit and Sheol. Where Yhwh’s name is absent there silence reigns (although, this ‘silence’ is, in the context of this psalm, full of weeping). With that said, we begin to see how the psalmist has, from his fall, begun to realize his error—the ‘name’ appears (O Yhwh), where before it was ‘forgotten’; likewise, Yhwh is deemed his “Governor”. This is, in effect, a reversal of his previous error: Yhwh is now the one who ‘governs’ his fate and therefore bestows strength and security, not himself. It is therefore highly significant that he would use this term when calling upon Yhwh as a type of penance for his previous error. Furthermore, just as strength resides in Yhwh’s ‘favor’ so too here does the psalmist realize that he must ‘plead’ for mercy.  “What profit / is there / in my weeping – in my / going down / to the pit? -  Will dust praise you? – Will it / declare / your faithfulness?” We have pointed this out already, but the psalm is operating along the lines of covenantal curses and blessings. Here, with the psamlist’s fall he has come to see not simply that his ‘strength’ is actually Yhwh’s favor, but that by his error he was operating within the realm of covenantal curse (death). This verse is the voice of one who stands within the realm of covenantal curse but seeks release (is seeking, in the words of the opening, to be ‘drawn up’ out of the depth of the curse). In doing so, this ‘cry’ focuses, entirely on the benefit conferred by the psalmist’s voice: what profit my weeping—will dust praise you?—will it declare?.  Yhwh delights in liturgy, in praise to him and in declarations of his faithfulness. In the Pit, all of this is silenced, for there Yhwh’s name is ‘forgotten’. The psalmist’s appeal is, interestingly, focused sheerly on this aspect and not on his own ‘righteousness’ (as in other psalms), presumably because he is need of mercy for his error. Perhaps we are to see here Yhwh’s command to ‘fill the earth’ a desire to have more ‘voices’ reach to him in liturgy; here, the psalmist’s death would be a removal, something that Yhwh (he believes) would have an interest and desire in avoiding. The fact that ‘mercy’ is rooted in this desire on Yhwh’s part to hear praise is profound: it is not abstract, but rooted in liturgical worship. For Yhwh to ‘draw up’ the sinning psalmist from the pit—to enact mercy—is so that he might rejoin and continue praise to Yhwh. The action does not begin with Yhwh and end in the psalmist; it begins with Yhwh, to the psalmist, so that he might return in liturgical praise to Yhwh. One cannot isolate one of these movements. This is most effectively conveyed by the image of silent dust. “Will dust praise you?” Man is made from and returns to dust; in between, man praises Yhwh. Here is one of the more exquisite embodiments of the psalmist’s new realization: creation and covenant both merge in this single image of ‘shaped’ dust engaged in praise of Yhwh’s faithfulness. “Hear / O Yhwh / and be merciful / to me – O Yhwh / be my helper”. Here is an effective conclusion to the prayer. Are we to hear in Yhwh’s thrice repeated name the appeal to Yhwh’s holiness as puling him from the unholy/unclean pit and Sheol? An appeal rooted solely in his mercy? The psalmist concludes his prayer to Yhwh as “his helper”. Before, he saw himself as his own ‘helper’.