Ps. 34.18-20 (close in affliction)

“Yhwh is close / to the broken hearted – and saves those / who are spiritually crushed. – The righteous one’s afflictions / are many – but Yhwh delivers him / from them all.” As a succinct summary of the psalm, much of what we have already said could be applied here. The question of “why, O Yhwh, do you not see” is no where present here. Rather, in the midst of injustice and suffering Yhwh is “close”. He “saves” those who crushed. Needless to say we are in a very different place than what has been experienced in other psalms. To summarize: the psalmist, himself, has experienced the saving and delivering hand of Yhwh; he was, when he called out to Yhwh, a “poor man” and, it seems, one of the ‘ashamed’; Yhwh, however, heard his call and saved him; the psalmist, now, in turn, sees his experience as laying the groundwork, or the ‘science’, as to how others can proceed to experience the same deliverance; this psalm is, then, an invitation to stand in the same realm as himself; one of the main points the psalmist has been making throughout is that, for those who are suffering, Yhwh is present—one can, in fact, ‘see him’, one can even ‘taste him’, Yhwh’s own angel that led Israel through the wilderness (which is where these listeners are now), is ‘encamped’ around the righteous; importantly, Yhwh’s eyes are, now, ‘upon’ the righteous and his ears are ‘open’ to them. The question: prior to the psalmist’s deliverance, would he have been praying laments of “how long, O Yhwh, will you forget me…”? To state it another way, could it be the case that the psalmist began where other psalmist’s began—with the vision of Yhwh’s ‘turned face’. Through Yhwh’s deliverance, though, the psalmist came to realize that, all along, Yhwh had had his ‘gaze upon him’. (i.e., that he had been wrong). And that, now, through his experience, he is attempting to show these ‘children’ and ‘poor’ what he himself came to realize. If this is the case, there had to emerge at some point this realization. Someone had to go through it so as to ‘pull the veil back’ for everyone else. This is all hypothetical but it seems to be demanded, at some level, by the psalms themselves and the experience many had of Yhwh. The important point, however, is that if this is the case then this ‘new experience’ can become somewhat ‘normalized’ into wisdom; it can be tradition-ed and ‘handed-down’. The psalmist’s experience becomes, itself, the ‘bridge’ of ‘patient assurance’ we have spoken of. This means that Yhwh’s ‘plans’ are embodied, and delivered, in the experiences of his saints. They go through the sudden ‘jumps’ and ‘changes’ inherent in Yhwh’s redemption. In this way, they are not ‘private’ experiences (nor are they ‘teachings’ delivered in the abstract). They are invitations and gifts. They are, by nature, meant to be passed-down. This is seen most paradigmatically in the exodus: it was to be retold and relived in each generation. It was not simply an event in the past but an opening and ‘ongoing present’. It was (and is) a living experience. For our purposes, this ‘sudden leap’ experienced in the psalmist, is something in his past but something he is saying is now open to those in the present and is an object of their assurance in the future. It is as if he opens a door previous closed and asks others to enter (he, himself, being that door). The goal remains the same in the original experience (“why, O Yhwh, do you not listen…”) and the current one; the difference is in the fact that during the time leading up to the deliverance, Yhwh is now understood to be ‘present’, to ‘see’ and to ‘hear’. He can, in fact, even be ‘tasted’. This will have significant implications when we come to our reflection on Christ.

Ps. 34.16-18 (his eyes are upon the righteous)

“The eyes of Yhwh / are upon / the righteous – and his ears / open / to their cry for help. – Yhwh’s face / is against / those who do evil, - to cut off / the memory of them / from the earth. – They cry out / and Yhwh hears – and delivers them / from all their trouble.” A litany of assurance begins from this point onward in the psalm. As we saw with the previous wisdom saying, what appears to be fairly generic takes on a depth when read within the context of this psalm. Here, the “eyes of Yhwh” are said to be “upon the righteous”. This is almost a direct parallel to lines in the previous psalm; and the idea has been seen already numerous times in other psalms. Rather than detail those I want to reflect on what it means here. First, we must recall the first directive issued by the psalmist: “Look at him and be radiant, and let not your faces be ashamed.” Likewise, “taste and see how good Yhwh is.” Also, the wise man is one who will “take pleasure in life, that loves days so that he may see goodness.” All of these focus on human seeing. The first is specifically referring to ‘seeing Yhwh’ which, in turn, leads to a ‘radiant face’. As we have argued, many of these images are being deployed by the psalmist in order to show the lowly that their future deliverance is assured, that all they have to do is open their eyes (and see Yhwh, his angel, goodness, etc…). Here, though, the image of seeing shifts: now it is Yhwh himself who has his “eyes upon the righteous”. This is an very important change. Up to this point the psalmist has been ‘positioning’ the lowly. Everything has been referring to how they are to stand so as to be ushered into the sphere of Yhwh’s goodness and deliverance. They are to “fear Yhwh”, “seek Yhwh”, “find refuge in Yhwh”, become as a child to the wise man, “look at Yhwh”. Now, however, Yhwh turns to them. Now we find that their seeking is met by a similar seeking by Yhwh; their looking at Yhwh is met by his returning gaze upon them. And this—this gaze of Yhwh—is what constitutes the ‘answer to prayer’, what will be called in the next line “his ears open to their cry for help.” For Yhwh to ‘see’ the righteous is for him to act for their deliverance. This dynamic of the ‘science of humility’ and ‘fear’ in conjunction with this gaze of Yhwh is the essence of wisdom. It is, therefore, also what provides us with another element of what it means to “continuously praise Yhwh”. It does not mean simply the disciplines of the first part of the psalm: it involves the turning of Yhwh to the righteous. In this turning, when one realizes that to “see Yhwh” is to “be seen by him” and that, in that relational gaze, is the ‘continuous praise’. Again, the focus of this psalm has been not on obtaining a mode of detachment but of steadfastly looking to Yhwh for deliverance. Anything short is mere discipline and closure and a complete misunderstanding of the goal or purpose. Here, just as with the ‘encamped angel’ and the ‘tasting and seeing, we come to learn that Yhwh’s ‘eyes’ are, now, upon the righteous and, therefore, they will be delivered. The psalmist is attempting, as he has been throughout, to show the lowly that Yhwh is with them, now, and because of that, will be their deliverer. This is in contrast to other psalms where suffering is equated with Yhwh “not seeing”, “not remembering”, etc… This psalmist has a different view. As he will say later, “Yhwh is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are spiritually crushed.” This psalmist, we might say, sees in the suffering of the righteous something like a ‘plan’ being worked out by Yhwh. There is no hint that he can’t do anything about their suffering; the whole point of the psalm is that he can and will. Rather, space they inhabit is a type of ‘now, but not yet’. Yhwh is, now, looking upon them and can be seen and tasted. For whatever reason, though, this period is one of marked patience. He is, as will be said later, “watching over all of his bones” so that, in his future deliverance, “not one of them shall be broken”. Again, what holds this together, though, is this patient assurance, not detachment. Here, we come to see that it is based upon the twin of Yhwh’s gaze at the righteous and not merely their ‘seeing of him’. Conversely, this gaze upon the righteous is also a “face turned against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.” Here is a crucial insight—just as directly as Yhwh sees the righteous does he, now, have his face turned against the wicked. This is not a call for Yhwh to ‘rise up’ against the wicked. Rather, if one sees properly, one will see that Yhwh, now, has his face turned against them so as to wipe them out from the earth. This ‘destruction of their memory’ is something we have seen before and signifies utter and complete annihilation. It seems to me, although not explicitly stated, that an underlying vision of this psalm is that Yhwh is, in the present, working out something that will be fulfilled in the future. Right now his ‘eyes are turned’ to the righteous; right now he has his face against the wicked. All of these images, in other psalms, speak to what will happen at the time of deliverance. Here, they are happening now, even though deliverance has not yet occurred. In other psalms, this would be a ‘time of silence’, and of Yhwh’s ‘forgetfulness’. Here, there is no lack of presence. “Yhwh is close to the broken hearted.”  One wonders if we are not here on the edge of apocalyptic, with this ‘wisdom’ element, the sense that one must have the ‘eyes to see’ (for example, Yhwh or his encamped angel) even in the midst of present strife, and the sense that Yhwh will redeem in the future.

Ps. 34. 14-15 (tongue of evil; seekers of peace)

“Keep your tongue / from evil – and your lips / from speaking deceit. – Turn from evil / and do good – seek peace / and pursue it.” The mouth has again taken center stage. The psalm opened with “praise constantly in my mouth”. Presumably the remaining portion of the opening is that of vocal ‘praise and exultation’. Importantly, this idea is picked up again in that rather astonishing phrase: “taste and see how good Yhwh is.” Without these verses, this admonition is very ‘generic’ and can be found peppered throughout the wisdom literature; arguably, the wisdom literature’s primary concern is how to ‘train the tongue’ in both silence and praise. Here, though, with our background, these few verses take on an added depth. First, we must remember that this admonition is being offered so as to be able to “see goodness” and the ‘love of days”. This desire is what initiates the instruction—this is the reason for the ‘discipline’ now being offered. The same pattern is seen when Yhwh instructs Israel prior to entering the land: “today I place before you life and death; choose life so that you may live long in the land.” The instructions are not simply directives issued without a purpose; they have an origin and a goal. As to this specific instruction: we have seen throughout the psalms that in order to dwell in Yhwh’s protective gaze one must engage in to simultaneous dynamics: avoiding evil and pursuing the good. That type of generalization is found in the second part of the verse (“turn from evil and do good”). As to the first, though, the psalmist is more specific: “keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.” I believe we are to hear here the fact that the ‘constant praise’ alluded to in the first verse cannot coexist with a mouth of ‘evil’ and ‘lips of deceit’. And, this is very important in the context of this psalm because, following the logic, to be able to experience the ‘patient assurance’ one must be able to attune oneself to this ‘constant praise’. In essence, to have a mouth of evil and tongue of deceit will not enable one to: “seek Yhwh”, “look at him and be radiant”, “call upon Yhwh”, see his “encamped” angel, “taste and see how good Yhwh is” or be fed by this “father of wisdom”. All of this has been summarized as “seeing goodness”. The ‘mouth’ then affects the sight (“taste and see”). To have a ‘mouth of evil’ is to be ‘blind to Yhwh’s face’ and ‘goodness’. The senses work in a unified fashion—one cannot ‘see’ how good Yhwh is while one has a ‘mouth’ of evil and deceit. How can one have praise “in the mouth” while evil is there? Or, how can one “call out” to Yhwh when one is speaking wickedness? The mouth is the organ of man’s deliverance. It must, therefore, be unified. Here, we see why the ‘fear of Yhwh’ must be something almost chewed upon. It must create, within the mouth, this empty and clean space whereby man can speak to and praise Yhwh. In the same way that the angel is ‘encamped’ around the righteous, so too must they “keep” their tongue from evil by a similar vigilance. The second directive is in regards to the “peacemakers”. Whereas the first action is more defensive (“keep your tongue from evil..”), this one is much more active (“seek peace…”). These actions are, however, related. The ‘tongue of evil’ and ‘lips of deceit’ create division. Deceit, by definition, creates a state of antagonism (hidden, but always potentially unleashed) by its self-serving nature. The injunction to ‘peace’ is then not random but an active movement towards the root of the problem of pure self-interest. Whereas deceit is often a purely private exercise, seeking peace is, by definition, an exercise oriented to the community. The command, then, to “turn from evil and do good” closely matched to “seek peace and pursuit it” must be referring tot his dynamic of individual deceit and self-interest, as pushed back by this communal searching for peace.

Ps. 34.13 (the wise man: lover of goodness and days)

“Who is the man / that takes pleasure in life – that loves days / so he may see goodness?” Here is the central ‘wisdom’ question of the psalm and it is important to realize that this is a very positive question. This ‘man’ is the ideal man, the ‘blessed’ man. Often, as a person stands on the brink of death and is peering into Sheol he implores Yhwh to save him so that he can continue to praise Yhwh’s good things on earth. That idea is certainly present here although Yhwh’s name is not mentioned. The ‘goodness’ here should refer us back to vs. 9 (“Taste and see how good Yhwh is; blessed is the man who seeks refuge in him”) and vs. 11 (‘The young lions are in need and are hungry, but they who seek Yhwh shall not lack any good thing”). Are we to see here, also, the ‘goodness’ that Yhwh sees in the created order when he looks upon and declares “It is good”? It would seem that this ‘goodness’ is very closely aligned with ‘blessedness’—it is the natural ‘glory’ of the created order, what is ‘delightful’ about creation. It is, here, the “pleasure of life” and what makes “days” the object of “love”. In other contexts this seems similar to the sphere of covenantal blessing promised by Yhwh to the Israelites just before entering the promised land: “Today I place before you life and death; choose life so that you may live long in the land.” Notice, again, the ‘length of days’ that is the promise guaranteed to covenant faithfulness. What is crucial to recognize is that this ‘goodness’ is where the psalmist was redeemed ‘into’—this is the ‘sphere of Yhwh’ we have speaking of and it is decidedly ‘worldly’. This is the place where the lowly are aspiring  to: in the words of the psalm, this is the land where the lowly are patiently assured of obtaining if they listen to the psalmist for he has already been granted admission. To see this place, and to know that one will be ushered into it, is to be able to “praise Yhwh continuously”. It is in order to be guided there that Yhwh’s angel ‘encamps’ around the ‘poor’ (importantly, this ‘angel’ is both a conquering and guiding angel in the wilderness journey). We have said this over and over again, but it is crucial: the answer as to how one ‘praises Yhwh continuously’ is not in a detachment from the earth but in this assurance that one will “see goodness” and the “love of days”. To briefly look forward: this is the germ of resurrection and it will play a massively important role when we come to the verse regarding how Yhwh makes sure his ‘child’s bones’ are not broken and how and why John quotes this precisely at the death of Christ (which seems to be the total and utter opposite of what this psalm is speaking about…).

ps.34.11-12 (children of wisdom)

 “The young lions / are in need / and are hungry – but they / who seek Yhwh / shall not lack / any good thing. – Come / children / listen to me – I will teach you / the fear of Yhwh.” At first I separated these two lines but now realize they serve as contrasting images and therefore must be read together. The “young lions” who are “hungry” are juxtaposed with the “children” who, through learning of the “fear of Yhwh”, will “lack no good thing”. As we said yesterday, in this psalm the “fear of Yhwh” is closely associated with the ‘seeking of Yhwh’ (for refuge and protection). The first thing to reflect upon is the imagery of the ‘young lions’. In every previous psalm we have looked at, the ‘lion’ was matched with the wicked in their pursuit of the righteous. The idea is of such overpowering strength that the only one who can save the righteous is Yhwh. Far from being ‘in need’, it is the righteous, in those psalms, who are ‘in need and hungry’. Here, the roles are completely reversed. Now, the lions are suffering the privation and presumably the fear of death and hunger. And, most importantly, these are ‘young’ lions. It seems as if we are to ask where the lion’s parents are. Are they hungry because they have no one to provide food for them? This would make sense based on the next lines where the psalmist says, “Come, children, listen to me…” Traditionally, wisdom is passed down from a ‘father’ to a son; it is very much a household chore and duty of parents to teach their children. What we see, then, is the fact that the ‘young lions’ have no ‘father’ while those who ‘seek Yhwh’ have, in the psalmist, a father and teacher of wisdom. The “young lions”, then, are those who are full of the potential power, strength and virility of the animal kingdom and yet, due to fact that they have no parent, will never reach their assigned stature. Like abandoned children they are “in need” and they are hungry. As a metaphor for wisdom, this is particularly poignant and even troubling: to be a child without a wise parent is to be like these young lions dying of starvation. They have not been taught to ‘fear Yhwh’ or to ‘seek him’. One pictures these young lions wandering aimlessly and growing ever-weaker. It works on both levels: the natural and the metaphor and needs to be interpreted along both lines. On the ‘natural’ level, we see here the fact that ‘seeking Yhwh’ brings one into the ‘redemptive sphere’ that the psalmist has been attempting to convey to his listeners (his ‘children’). They will be brought out of this state of ‘need and hunger’ and into the realm of ‘good things’. On the metaphoric level, this will be accomplished because a ‘father’ will be given to them in order to teach them the wisdom necessary to enter this ‘sphere of blessing’. The image shifts with the word “but”: “but they who seek Yhwh shall not lack any good thing.” The ‘answer’ to their seeking of Yhwh is the psalmist himself—“Come, children, listen to me…” This is very important—for those who seek Yhwh, what is provided is a ‘father’, a ‘teacher of wisdom’. We will come back to how important this is in a moment. As we have said already, the psalmist is a teacher because he has, himself, already gone through this redemptive experience. In him, this sphere of redemptive wisdom has opened up and therefore become capable of being ‘handed down’ (‘tradition’). His ‘tradition’ he is passing down is his invitation to enter into the realm of Yhwh’s goodness. And yet, the next line will be the final time the psalmist uses the word “I”. From this point on the psalmist will speak as a ‘wisdom teacher’ and not ‘personally’. This comes back to our original thought: although a ‘father’ is provided who can teach wisdom based on his own experience, it is not a ‘private experience’ but, rather, something that discloses a type of ‘science’, or ‘reason’ and, therefore, something that can be taught. Essentially, it is something that can be ‘traditioned’ (handed down). This, of course, does not mean that if one adheres to this ‘method’ then Yhwh will, by necessity, redeem the ‘child’. The beginning of this wisdom—the very first step—is an acknowledgment of the divine freedom (“fear Yhwh…”). However, it does mean that there is a ‘wisdom’ to Yhwh, there is a way of speaking and teaching that does pass down through the generations what ‘delights’ Yhwh. One final thought (and something we will pick up on in our final reflection on the entire psalm): when Jesus says to allow the ‘children to come to him’ and that ‘unless you have faith like a child’ you cannot inherit the ‘kingdom of god’—are we to understand not that Jesus is interested in ‘toddlers’ but that he is making himself the master, the ‘father’ and true ‘teacher of wisdom’? Is he, as he does with so much else, focusing all of the wisdom tradition on himself and away from any other source? In essence, is he saying that unless you become ‘his child’, you will not come to the ‘good things’ promised in this psalm? 

Ps. 34.10 (fear of Yhwh)

“Fear Yhwh / O you his saints – for they / who fear him / have no lack.” The ‘fear of the Lord’ has been so frequently spoken of that I only want to reflect on what this ‘fear’ could mean in our context. The first thing to note is that this ‘fear’ has already been alluded to. The ‘angel of Yhwh’ encamps around those who ‘fear Yhwh’. It is an important point: that the deliverance, defense and battle engaged in by Yhwh’s angel commences and continues for those who are rooted in this ‘fear’. And this is not an idle choice of wording—this ‘fear’ is the root of everything in this psalm; it is the ‘beginning’ and the ‘foundation’. It is, therefore, to be understood as closely aligned with what the psalmist has called “the poor man”, the “humble” and the “children”. The second thing to note is that this ‘fear’ is not at all opposed or even in tension with the ‘blessedness’ that flows towards the man “who seeks refuge in Yhwh”. Indeed, they follow from one another and this verse explicitly makes the connection—they who ‘fear him have no lack’ (i.e, they are ‘blessed’). And, perhaps most importantly, this ‘fear’ of Yhwh, as we have been charting this psalm, is absolutely tied to the intimate presence of Yhwh. As we have seen, the psalmist has been attempting to convince his ‘children’, that Yhwh in fact has his face turned toward them, has in face sent his own angel to protect them and is, in fact, already ‘in their mouths’ to be tasted. Closer and closer has the psalmist made Yhwh to his ‘poor ones’, that hear he continues this descent by calling upon them to ‘fear Yhwh’. Generally, this would seem strange as ‘fear’, even reverence, tends to have associations of respectful distance, of subservience under the gaze of the powerful. And yet, here, the ‘tasting’ of Yhwh is closely matched to ‘fear’ of him and of his showering goodness. There is, then, in the psalmist a very deep understanding that intimacy and fear are not only not mutually exclusive but, in fact, are necessary; they feed into each other. In other words, the deliverance and saving power of Yhwh, his ‘exodus hand’, is closest when one fears him. It may be the ‘beginning of wisdom’ but it is, apparently, also the guiding and continuing light of his presence; it is his ‘terrible beauty’, his ‘glory’. It seems one never abandon’s this fear in favor of intimacy. Rather, the more intimate one becomes with Yhwh the more one enters into this fear. This ‘intimacy’ is confirmed by the fact that the psalmist describes those who experience this as “his saints”. These are his ‘prized possession’, the ‘apple of his eye’ and those he has chosen out of the world in order to make of them a nation of priests to the world. These ‘saints’ are those who ‘have no lack’. Where else do we see this ‘fear’ in this psalm then? The next line does not explicitly mention fear, however, it is very closely worded on this psalm: “The young lion / are in need/ and are hungry- but they / who seek Yhwh / shall not lack / any good thing.” Here, the ‘seeking of Yhwh’ and the provision of “good things” is very similar to our verse where those who ‘fear him’ ‘have no lack.’ This is confirmed by the fact that the verse immediately preceding our verse (on fear) ends on “blessed in the man who seeks refuge in him”. It is, therefore, apparent that to ‘seek Yhwh’ is also very closely aligned to ‘fear of him’. They both initiate Yhwh’s provision and, as we saw, also provide a camp within which the ‘angel of Yhwh’ can ‘encamp’. The final time ‘fear’ is mentioned is when the psalmist calls to himself the ‘children’ to whom he will ‘teach the fear of Yhwh’. Interestingly, the remaining ‘teaching’ consists almost entirely with how and when Yhwh reaches out to those who call to him for deliverance. There are mentions of ‘the wicked’ and the judgment that falls on them, but the focus is not there—it is on how close Yhwh is to the ‘brokenhearted’. Can this be summarized? It would seem that the ‘fear of Yhwh’, in this psalm, is almost synonymous with the humble, the ‘poor man’, the ‘one in need’. Furthermore, they are those who, from this lowly position, ‘seek Yhwh’. In the context of this psalm, it makes sense: the psalmist is attempting to lift these ‘children’s’ eyes from the ground to Yhwh (his first directive is not ‘fear Yhwh!’ but “Look at him and be radiant!”). The grounding of this ‘looking’ is found in his own experience of radical deliverance. This is not a job-like fear of Yhwh; rather, these are the words of man who has been redeemed and who speaks to these ‘children’ from within this delivering light. This ‘fear’ then is one that actually calls for them to turn their eyes toward Yhwh, and not one that asks them to turn them away (as appropriate as that is in other contexts).

Ps. 34.9 (tasting Yhwh's goodness)

“Taste / and see / how good / Yhwh is – blessed is the man / who seeks refuge / in him.” From these positions of patient assurance we now arrive at the oddest verse is the psalm (and one of the oddest we have encountered). How are we to account for the ‘tasting’ of Yhwh? There are, I think, two ways of approaching this. First, we have seen throughout that the psalmist is attempting to ‘usher’ the poor into his experience of deliverance. In a very concrete sense he sees his experience as not private but a place that can be inhabited by others (and, hence, can be taught as all wisdom can be passed down). It is a ‘public’ sphere into which others can stand if they are will to be taught by the psalmist. His first directive to his listeners involved their ‘looking at Yhwh and being radiant.’ As we saw, those who were called to looked were the ‘ashamed’, the lowly and the persecuted (those who inhabited the same sphere that the psalmist inhabited prior to his deliverance). The psalmist, however, directs them to be radiant in the present, that even from their position as ‘lowly’ they can, right now, have a radiant face and can see Yhwh. In effect, the psalmist is saying that Yhwh is as fully present to these lowly as, in a way, Moses was to Yhwh (with his radiant face). This was then followed by the revelation that around those who ‘fear Yhwh’ is ‘encamped’ Yhwh’s angel. He is not merely ‘sent’, but rather he is steadfastly ‘encamped’ around them. There is, then, a ‘present’ that the lowly do not perceive; there is an ‘already’ that is occurring.  From these urgings, the present verse makes a good deal more sense. Now, the second directive is issued: “Taste and see how good Yhwh is…”. The psalmist is driving the point home all the way to the point not only of sensory touch, but of actual tasting, perhaps the most intimate sense available. Yhwh’s ‘goodness’—his ability to deliver and redeem—is so real that it can, even more than a ‘shining face’, and even more than his own angel, be ‘tasted’. It is, importantly—food. It can nourish, sustain and be the ‘bread’ of the ashamed. In context this means that Yhwh’s deliverance, his saving power, is something that is so assured to happen than it can, in the present, be tasted. Again, this does not mean that the psalmist is teaching his ‘children’ how to ignore actual deliverance in favor of simply a ‘love of Yhwh’. Rather, he is saying that the concrete deliverance of Yhwh, in the future, is something that can be tasted (and seen) in the present. It will happen. This leads to our second point: how one accomplishes ‘continuous praise’ (v. 1). The image of tasting involves the mouth. As we have seen the mouth has been important since the first verse where the psalmist said he would bless Yhwh “at all times, his praise shall constantly be in my mouth”. We noted that odd phrasing of “in” my mouth. Here, we see its resolution.  The psalmist is urging the ‘lowly’ to have ‘in their mouths’ the goodness of Yhwh in the same manner as Yhwh’s praise will constantly be “in” his mouth. Both of them point to Yhwh’s real presence, in the present, as the assurance of his deliverance in the future. To constantly ‘praise’ Yhwh then is tied to this sense of ‘tasting’ Yhwh’s goodness, now. One final thing to note is the fact that the psalmist ties this ‘tasting’ with ‘seeing’. To taste something is to have an intimate knowledge of the thing. However, without the sense of sight the ‘thing’ remains very inchoate, very difficult to adequately understand. By aligning these two powers, however, the psalmist places Yhwh’s ‘goodness’ both ‘within’ the lowly and allows them to perceive it, to ‘see it’. The eyes have been important (more important, even, than the mouth). They ‘see’ Yhwh and, in turn, their face is made radiant (a visual image). The point, then, seems to be that Yhwh’s goodness is so real that it can be consumed and made a part of the lowly, by eating, and perceived and relied upon through the use of sight.

Ps.34.7-8(the encampmen of Yhwh's angel)

“This poor man called / and Yhwh heard – and delivered him / from his troubles. – Yhwh’s angel / is encamped – around those / who fear him / to rescue them.”  One thing we will notice throughout the psalm is the steady disappearance of the “I”. Because this is a psalm of instruction and wisdom, the psalmist must universalize and make applicable his experience for others. As we have seen, though, this psalmist makes an interesting first move, though, by grounding his instruction in his own personal experience. The “I” is very prevalent in the opening verses and the psalm begins as many psalms of thanksgiving begin. It quickly shifts, though, as the psalmist attempts to show how his experience, his ‘boasting in Yhwh’, is something that anyone can achieve, so long as they adopt the proper posture—which he is now endeavoring to show. And here is the first step: he designates himself as “this poor man”. This has already been hinted at before when he said the “humble shall hear” his tale and shall rejoice in Yhwh. There, we saw that he was already indicating that the ‘low will be made high’. Here, he explicitly identifies himself with the ‘low’ and the ‘humble’. This will continue to sound throughout the psalm—specifically, this position of humility will be the absolutely crucial ‘first step’. The image will shift between the ‘humble’, the ‘poor man’ and the ‘child’. What we see in all of them, though, and this will become more apparent as we reflect on the ‘fear of Yhwh’, is that this ‘first step’ must always be one of total openness, of having one’s ear’s open and ready; one must, in a sense, be potentiality, a fertile ground waiting for the seed. It is from this place of self-opening that the cry must emerge because it is only from this place that it will be heard. This has an interesting implication for what we have taken to be the guiding theme of the psalm: how one comes to bless and praise Yhwh “at all times”. Clearly, the praise of Yhwh, in this psalm, is rooted in Yhwh’s deliverance and not, as we have stressed, in non-worldly spiritual state of resignation. And yet, the firs step toward this very rich understanding of ‘blessing’ is one of total poverty. Later in the psalm those who “do not lack anything” will be contrasted with “young lions” who can’t find food. But, immediately following this will be the assertion that these people who ‘lack nothing’ are, in fact, children themselves (precisely those who ‘lack’ everything and must be provided for). How can one possibly hold these three aspects together at one time: that blessing comes about due to Yhwh’s real deliverance, that the beginning and remaining stance of the individual is one of ‘poverty’, and that this constitutes the praise “at all times”? The temptation seems to be to always abandon one of these qualities in favor of the other two. Meaning, to either assert that Yhwh’s deliverance is only ‘in heaven’, or that poverty may be the first step but it certainly cannot be one that remains, or that praise is mixed in with periods of deep silence. Furthermore, and perhaps the greatest temptation, is to resolve this on a higher more abstract level. For example to say this: that creation is (meaning, rich), only in so far as it stands open (meaning, poor) to Yhwh. Now, this is certainly true and gets very close to what I think the psalmist is getting at. However, it looses a crucial element of this psalm—that Yhwh’s deliverance is one that is real and bodily. It is, in short, one that must be experienced in time and not ‘spiritually’ in a type of abstract and philosophical resolution. That is the way of stoicism. And it will not be able to account for perhaps the most important verse in the psalm: “He watches over all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” I think this is the ‘difficult’ of the psalmist: how can he possibly convey this, grounding it all in his experience, and make it something applicable to others at the same without it becoming merely a ‘principle’? As we have seen, hope (or, perhaps more accurately, assurance) is the guiding thread in all of this. The ‘shining face’ is one that, when it looks upon Yhwh, is assured of the fact that he will act for the one looking at him. This is the ‘bridge’ that is built for the ‘lowly’. We might call it: patient assurance (I hesitate to use the word ‘hope’ because that seems to imply ‘optimism’, which is not at all what I see at work here). Here, as parallel to the ‘shining face’ verse is ‘Yhwh’s angel’, a term probably borrowed from more militaristic stories of Yhwh’s fighting for Israel (as, for example, at Jericho) but now applied to the defense of the righteous man himself. Whatever the source of the image, here it seems to imply that a battle is, in fact, being waged (as can clearly be seen by the ‘lowly’) and that in the midst of that battle is Yhwh’s angel fighting for the ‘humble’. This is Yhwh’s ‘hearing’ of the cry of the humble man—he sends his angel to defend and protect him. So long as the first step is made (of humble poverty), then the dramatic and real battle lines are actually drawn up. The angel is not, moreover, simply ‘sent by Yhwh’. Rather, it is ‘encamped’ and stationed around the lowly (one wonders, conversely, how effective the angels are when those they are sent to protect keep inviting the enemy into its own camp). I believe we are to hear too another reason for the ‘continuous’ praise—the fact that the angel is not merely ‘sent’ but is as ‘encamped’ as the praise is continuous. This sets the context of this ‘praise’ as an entirely dramatic endeavor and not as a state of being that can be ‘obtained’. This continuous praise is not something that could be captured in a ‘snapshot’ and made eternal—it is continuous only by the continuous step-by-step movement of assured patience that Yhwh will deliver. (Can one help but think here of the ‘angel’ that comes to minister to Jesus in the Garden? Can one help but think here of the fact that John sees in Jesus’ lack of ‘broken bones’ the fulfillment of this psalm and yet, that that is achieved precisely in his death? That it was his ‘poverty’ that ‘raised up the lowly’, not in a ‘state of being’ but in his dramatic enactment of this psalm? It seems that we are to see here the fact that Jesus dramatically fulfilled (or, better, enacted) this psalm to its conclusion and, thereby, inaugurated the ‘new covenant’. But that gets ahead of us…).

Ps. 34.5-6 (embodied assurance)

“I have sought Yhwh / and he has answered me – and he has delivered me / from all my terrors. – Look at him / and be radiant – and let not / your faces / be ashamed.” Here we begin to see why the psalmist ‘boasts’ in Yhwh and, likewise, how this ‘boasting’ is shared/transferred to others. The movement begins with a seeking. This wording is interesting in that usually Yhwh ‘answers’ a ‘calling out’ and not a ‘seeking’. One would expect the line to read either “I called out to Yhwh and he heard/answered me” or “I have sought Yhwh and he revealed himself to me.” The fist example is what occurs in vs. 7 (“This poor man called and Yhwh heard and delivered him from trouble.”).  Here, though we have a ‘seeking’ that is met by an ‘answer’ (which seems verbal). This ‘answer’ though is deliverance from terror. It seems important (to me at least) that the psalmist sees his deliverance as an ‘answer’, an almost verbal expression of acknowledgment and a perfect meeting of the ‘question’/seeking. I wonder how much of this is not also something that finds its coherence in the fact that the psalmist is addressing others—that he is essentially assuming their ‘questioning’ stance and their desire for an ‘answer’ and modeling his experience on that. The fact that Yhwh ‘answers’ sounds rather ‘didactic’ in that regard, and could be a form of ‘wisdom’ teaching that is being employed to show others how to interpret deliverance. From this experiential component the psalmist now gives a directive: “Look at him and be radiant, and let not your faces be ashamed.” Here we are beginning to understand how one continuously praises Yhwh. One aspect is to “look at him”. We must keep in mind that this psalmist is speaking to others, and offering encouragement. It therefore seems probable that the danger is that they would not “look at Yhwh”, that their eyes (hope) would stray either into despair (silence) or to other gods. By prefacing this directive, however, with his own experience of deliverance, he offers to them a ‘bridge’ so to speak, something that they can walk across. His experience of deliverance is to ground them and turn their eyes toward Yhwh. In so doing they will become ‘radiant’. This image is interesting for several reasons. First, the act of ‘looking at Yhwh’ leads to this ‘radiance’. I cannot help but think of Moses as he ‘spoke with Yhwh face to face’ and his face ‘became radiant’. Here, this radiance is matched by a face that is ‘not ashamed’. The psalmist seems then to be saying that one’s face can, now, be radiant even though the deliverance has not yet come about. And this must be added: this is not an exhortation to simply love Yhwh for Yhwh’s own sake in contrast to one’s present life. Rather, this ‘radiant face’ is one that glows due to one’s confidence that Yhwh is the god of the living, and that his intention for his people is there welfare and their ability to live long. It is an entirely ‘earthly’ blessing and deliverance that is the source of the hope that causes the face’s ‘shining’. The reason there is no ‘shame’ on the face is not because of a stoic indifference to earthly castigations; it is, rather, that the shame will be removed. This is crucial in understanding ‘continuous praise’—this is a praise that is entirely creaturely; that is one that looks for Yhwh’s real and full deliverance; that actually risks this assurance that Yhwh delivers those who fear him; that, in essence, Yhwh is actually the sovereign of history.  One temptation that prevents continuous praise is to retreat away from this perspective and toward the silence of stoicism, that one’s earthly being is not the real source of blessing but rather one’s soul or one’s life ‘after death’. This would, it seems to me, avoid the risk the psalmist takes in this psalm in “looking to Yhwh” and, likewise, turn down the volume on the praise that is being called for. This is not an intellectual or spiritual purification. This is a fully embodied assurance of deliverance. This will, of course, lead to tensions, but this fact itself, must not be let go of. It seems, then, that this ‘radiant face’ is the face of one who, in confidence, is sure of Yhwh’s deliverance

Ps.34.3-4 (boasting in Yhwh, praise and wisdom)

“My soul / makes its boast / in Yhwh – the humble / shall hear / and shall rejoice. – Magnify Yhwh / with me – and together / let us / exult his name.” ‘Boasting’ is something common the psalms. It is not, however, an activity that is condemned per se. The issue always revolves around what the boast is being made in. In some contexts, however, an entirely negative connotation of boasting seems apparent. What is clear, though, on closer inspection is that ‘boasters’, in those contexts, are often synonymous with ‘idolaters’. And so, again, the issue is what fills in the blank to “my boast is in ___.” In effect, the individual is saying, the source of my strength/power is in ___. In the previous psalm the ‘kings’ and ‘warriors’ found their ‘strength’ in chariots and their own strength. By contrast, Israel’s was in Yhwh. The same idea is prevalent here: the boast is “in Yhwh”. So what do we mean by ‘boasting’ and how does this relate to our previous reflections on praise and blessing? To ‘boast’ in something, as we have said, is to acknowledge where one’s authority/power comes from. Typically, we think of this as one boasting in one’s own power (hence, its close resemblance to arrogance). To bracket that form, though, we see that boasting is a form of praise (negatively, it is self-praise) specifically related to authority/power. For the psalmist, his ‘boast’ is in Yhwh—Yhwh is that source of power/authority that has acted on his behalf. And for that, the psalmist intimately ties himself to Yhwh through his ‘boasting’—he is, in a sense, making himself vulnerable by doing so as his ‘strength/authority’ reside in something other than himself. His boast is, in a word, relational (we might say, covenantal). “The humble shall hear and rejoice”: what has not been made clear is why he would boast in Yhwh. The beginning of an answer can be found here. When the psalmist boasts, others are lead to praise and, specifically, to rejoicing. Those others are “the humble”. Without looking too far ahead, we can note here that ‘boasting’ as it relates to ‘the humble’ is the same as the ‘high’ and the ‘low’. Therefore, the fact that the ‘low’ would ‘rejoice’ at his boasting would indicate that they too might be ‘made high’ in Yhwh, that they too will have reason to ‘boast in Yhwh’. In effect, this ‘boasting’ is an invitation to the humble to enter into the sphere of Yhwh’s authority and power and to, therein, find deliverance and protection. Clearly, the psalmist has experienced it and, in his boasting, is making his experience the doorway through which other ‘humble’ men should pass. What we will come to see is that much of the remainder of the psalm is aimed at showing how, precisely, he came to his deliverance in Yhwh and how others might follow that example (how others might ‘walk through the same doorway’). This is called “wisdom”, the passing down of experience to other generations or those in similar situations. This is why this opening of the psalm concludes with words of exhortation: “Magnify Yhwh with me, and together let us exult in him.” The psalmist is preparing to reveal the wisdom that enables one to ‘constantly praise Yhwh’ and to be buoyed by Yhwh’s power and authority

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Ps. 34.1 (the wisdom of praise)

“I will bless Yhwh / at all times – his praise / shall constantly be / in my mouth.” Although we have not explicitly said so, the opening is always important and, often, pregnant with meaning. That is certainly the case here. This opening line appears innocuous enough; however, in the context of the entire psalm it takes to itself a weight that makes it, in effect, a summary or distillation of the entire poem. The first thing to notice is ‘blessing’ and ‘praise’. I am struck more and more by the idea that, in the psalms at least, man’s proper mode of being is praise. One could almost say that everything is in service of this end or, that everything is actually grounded in this activity. The great exodus was initiated not, primarily, as Israel’s entering into covenant with Yhwh. Rather, Yhwh sought out Israel so that they “might worship and sacrifice to me”. The goal was worship and liturgy. When Israel came to the mountain they entered into covenant and were provided the law, but what we see in this dynamic is that Yhwh’s desire for Israel to worship him is the driving impulse behind their deliverance. In a very real sense, praise grounds the covenant and law; it is ‘prior’ in its being more fundamental. Likewise, whenever one is ‘taken to heaven’ one is immediately brought within a sphere of liturgical praise: heaven is the glorification of Yhwh. Sheol, by contrast, is marked by silence and is specifically designated as a place where Yhwh cannot be offered praise; indeed, Yhwh’s name itself is not (cannot?) in Sheol. The earth, also, and the heavens, ‘overflow’ with praise of Yhwh. Man’s foundation, it would seem, along with the entire created order, is liturgical. And that, along those lines, man’s ‘exodus’ and deliverance (especially in the psalms dealing with death) is always to bring him back into this proper sphere of liturgical being. Important to note, however, is that man often falls silent. As we saw in the deep mediation on the effect of sin—silence can and does invade the human realm. In the face of death and especially in the face of persecution, man is tempted to abandon the first commandment and retreat not so much to other ‘vain idols’ but into silence, to see himself as ultimately, made for silence and so to find his home there, rather than in Yhwh. One could effectively argue, I think, that the primal rebellion against Yhwh is one not so much of active resistance or attack but of withdrawal, retreat and silence (as Adam’s initial impulse was to ‘hide himself’); notice how the greatest temptation of so many of Israel’s prophets is to “not speak” (from Jeremiah to Job to Jonah). The prowling lion of sin is, in this perspective, attempting to devour the righteous precisely by snuffing out their voices, of eclipsing their ability (and desire?) to offer praise and blessing. Man’s redemption, therefore, is to become praise (which does not mean that he does not lament). It is to be a being that fills his time with ‘blessing’. In the words of this opening it is to “bless Yhwh at all times” and to have “his praise constantly in my mouth”. As we will see, though (and, as we have just described), this constancy is something difficult to come by, especially in the face of danger. It is something that requires, in this psalm, “wisdom”, sitting at the feet of one who has learned, through life’s trials, how to obtain this vigilant praise. It requires, in the words of the psalm, becoming “a child”One final comment: note how the praise is said to be “in my mouth”. There is the sense here of praise as something that literally ‘fills’ his mouth, something almost objectively different from him, something almost like food itself. The psalmist is, in a very real sense, “taken over” by praise. And, to flag it for a future verse: this image of praise and the ‘mouth’ is crucial as it will appear again in one of the psalms most memorable line

Ps. 33.16-19 (always already prior)

“The king / is not saved / by a great army – the warrior / is not delivered / by great strength. – The horse / is hopeless / for victory – and by its strength / it cannot deliver. – Lo / Yhwh’s eye / is upon / those that fear him – upon those / that depend / on his lovingkindness – to rescue / their soul / from death –and to keep them / alive in famine.” What an interesting contrast—we descended from heaven to the depths of man’s heart and now we seemingly are jolted back into the realm of national endeavors. Is there a logic to this? The Song of the Sea, as well as allusions to songs contained in Judges, are again evident. This experience of deliverance, though, as we have seen, is more universalized in this psalm: as with the ‘creation’perspective of this psalm, this is not merely the Pharaoh but any king or warrior who trusts in his own strength. The pressure exerted by Yhwh over all of creation by his glance is so total that he has become the only source of victory and ultimate strength; his plans, alone, are those that survive throughout time. But again, what is the logic in this shift back to national stratagems? The answer, I think is two fold. First, we have seen how, overarching much of this psalm are allusions to the Song of the Sea—therefore, the national perspective, has been central throughout. Furthermore, this‘national’ perspective has been closely wed to the idea of national ‘plans’. As we have seen, these ‘national’ plans are met by the God who creates by his word and maintains his own plans. In essence, we see that the psalm has embodied this ‘collision’ between earthly power with the Creator god, Yhwh, and has placed him sovereignly over all by emphasizing the fact he is the one who has created even the heart of man that initiates the stratagems. Notice: Yhwh is the only one who creates; man and Yhwh have ‘plans’. There is a logic then: when Yhwh is understood to be the fashioner of hearts, and those hearts include the ‘hearts of kings’, then it seems as if the ‘heart-maker’ verse was in service more of this national perspective than we first realized. The point is that Yhwh’s creative hands are prior to every king’s motivations; and therefore, Yhwh can act to save those who are his own in a way that is truly profound because it is utterly total—even the ‘kings’, ‘warriors’ and ‘horses’ that array themselves against Yhwh are already conquered by the fact that Yhwh’s eyes and hands were prior to any of their plans or schemes. This leads to the second ‘logic’, and that is the image of the ‘gaze’ or ‘eye of Yhwh’. Before, Yhwh’s eye was upon “all the sons of mankind” and “all the inhabitants of earth”. Here, it is only upon those that fear him, those that “depend on his lovingkindness”. The verse dealing with the ‘fashioning of hearts’ finds, as we saw, a close relationship between this ‘fashioning’ and Yhwh’s ability to“discern all they do”. Here, with the re-emergence of the ‘eye’, we see confirmation of what we said in our first point: that the verse relating to the creation of the heart is in service of this ability of Yhwh to overthrow every power aligned against him. This ‘gaze’, then, and the ‘discernment’ in verse 15, is what ties all of this together and shows that this has been the thrust of the psalm all along: to show that earthly power is pre-empted by Yhwh from nearly every direction in favor of his ‘plan’. And, as we saw, his ‘plan’ are those he has elected, namely, Israel (those that depend on his lovingkindness; those he saves from death and famine).

A second, related, point to be made: these verses emphasize the fact that the king, warrior and horse are not ‘delivered’. It does not say that the king “does not conquer by a great army” but the king “is not delivered by a great army.” Likewise with the warrior (“the warrior is not delivered by great strength”). The focus is clearly on deliverance. What are these men retreating from? Is it “Yhwh’s plan”? The answer, I think, is in the following verse: death and famine. These are forces manifestly greater than any king, warrior or king. They can bring entire nations to their knees. However, for those who have Yhwh’s eye ‘upon them’,lovingkindness surrounds them. This is important as the opening of the psalm indicated that the entire earth was fully of Yhwh’s lovingkindness: here, although the earth may be full of it, only those who stand within covenantal solidarity with Yhwh benefit from its protective embrace. Why this is the case is because the focus of the verse is not on these men but on those Yhwh has his eye upon: it is those who are ‘delivered’ from death and famine (enemies greater than any king/warrior/horse).

Ps. 33.20-22 (conclusion)

“We long / for Yhwh; - he is our strength / and our shield. – For in him / our heart rejoices – for in his / holy name / we have trusted. – May your lovingkindness / be upon us / O Yhwh – as we / have depended / on you.” At the conclusion of the psalm we have come to a rather different place than when we began. At first, the psalm gives the appearance of being a hymn to creation as Yhwh’s creative will begins in the heavens and steadily descends to fashion the heart of man himself. However, as we saw, as that descent was made we came to realize that the creation imagery was also in service of another goal: that of Yhwh’s covenantal protection of his people. Towards the end of the psalm the focus had shifted almost entirely to this national/protective perspective. Indeed, so much so that Yhwh’s creative powers in fashioning man’s heart was understood to be Yhwh’s preemptive power over all nations that rebel against his plans and the schemes of his heart. And yet, this transformation is something theologically advanced by the psalm: the creative ‘word’ of Yhwh carries within it the ‘plan’ of Yhwh with such power that as it is realized over time it comes into battle and conflict with ‘the nations’. And so we see that ‘creation’ and ‘history’ mutually in-form one another. It is not the case that one must first start with ‘creation’ and then proceed to Yhwh’s sovereign control over history; nor is it the other way around. They build each other (sometimes in subterranean and secret ways and sometimes quite explicitly). Arguably, as we have said in the past, the real ‘source’ of both is the name of Yhwh itself: it both stands in relation to Israel as a ‘name among names’ and yet it rebuffs every attempt to place it in the category of identifiable names; and, furthermore, the name itself was given for the purposes of deliverance and for the ‘creation’ of the nation of Israel (its being given itself embodied both this ‘creative’ and ‘historical/sovereign’ aspect of the psalm). In these concluding lines we see all of these various strands come together in a very tight way: “out strength and our shield” (picking up on the national redemptive aspect); “for in him our heart rejoices” (picking up on the fact that the ‘heart’ is what is fashioned directly by Yhwh as well as the opening of the psalm that calls for exultation and praise); “in his holy name we have trusted” (adopting the language of covenantal trust and picking up on Yhwh’s “eye” and “blessed is the nation whose God is Yhwh); “may your lovingkindness be upon us” (the psalm began with a praise to Yhwh’s ‘lovingkindness’ filling the earth; it then progressed to focus this lovingkindness upon on those who “depend on Yhwh” perfectly embodying this ‘creative/redemptive’ dynamic); “as we have depended on you” (again, the sense that Yhwh’s creative power is one put in service of his covenantal obligations to those he has elected).

Ps. 33.15 (the fashioner of hearts)

“He is the one / who fashions their hearts / individually – he is the one / who discerns / all they do.” We have finally come to the conclusion of Yhwh’s creation: the heart of man. From he heavens we have now descended, past the ‘gaze’, and into the most intimate and controlling aspect of man. Even here, at this most central and particular, Yhwh is present, fashioning man. He does not fashion a ‘universal’ heart. Rather, each person’s heart is under the direct power of Yhwh’s hands. This ‘fashioning’ is certainly to make us recall the ‘fashioning’ of Adam in the garden, the fact that Yhwh ‘stoops down’ and, with his ‘hands’, and like a potter, shapes man into an image of himself. Here, though, we link up with the previous verse on the ‘gaze’ and come to see that to ‘fashion’ man’s heart is to subject man to Yhwh’s discernment. Just as the word is not spoken by Yhwh and then lost to him, but rather it carries with, as if pregnant, Yhwh’s power plans and schemes, so too does man’s heart carry with it the ‘discernment of Yhwh’. It is because he fashioned the seat of their wills and intellect that he comes to see how their words, like his and unlike his, are either ‘right’ and ‘true’ or are ‘false’. Yhwh’s eye is prior to every act, and every act carries with it the discernment of Yhwh. As the psalm has been steadily emphasizing, and now finds its ultimate conclusion, nothing is hidden from him. His power extends from the hosts of heaven to the center of man, and this power is intimately tied to his the fact that he is the speaker of the creative word, that he is has the ‘breath of life’, that his ‘plans and schemes’ survive, and that he ‘fashions’. All of these, ultimately, are of the same quilt—to fail to see their mutual connections is to fail to see the form. To isolate one without realizing its dependence on the other is to misshape the entirety. Finally, to say “he is the one who discerns all they do” in the context of the psalm would indicate that he is the only one who discerns all they do. Everything we have spoken about regarding the word, the breathe, the plans and schemes, and the gaze—all of these are entirely unique operations of Yhwh. For that reason, for him to ‘discern’ the heart of man is something exclusively within his power. He alone is the one present in everyone’s heart through his discerning gaze and fashioning hands. It is important to note that these actions by Yhwh are never delegated actions, they are never mediated by another. Rather, they come directly from him. He may ‘bring them to light’ and reveal them, but these powers are his, and his alone. In this way he is of an entirely different order than the rest of creation.

Ps. 33.13-14 (the dominion of Yhwh's gaze)

“Yhwh has looked / from heaven; - he has seen / all the sons of mankind. – He has gazed / from his established throne – at all the inhabitants / of the earth.” ” Yhwh has spoken his word, breathed his breath, gathered the waters, frustrated the plans of nations and now he “looks and gazes from his established throne in heaven”. As with his ‘word’, though, this gaze is not a passive activity; it accomplishes and effectuates an aspect of Yhwh’s reign as king. Without looking ahead we can gather this simply from the fact that, for a king to ‘gaze upon’ his subjects is not to simply ‘look’ at them in abstracted observation. Rather, his gaze is the gaze of justice, of making sure his kingdom is ‘well ordered’. Just as Yhwh’s ‘plan’ emerges from his word, so too does justice/judgment emerge from a king’s gaze. Notice too that this ‘gaze’ is as total as the ‘word’; meaning, just as everything finds it source in Yhwh’s word, so too is everything seen by Yhwh’s gaze: “all the sons of mankind”, “all the inhabitants of the earth”. Notice too that we are now zeroing in on more particular parties. The psalm has progressed thus: heavens, earth, nations, ‘sons of mankind’. What this accomplishes is the sense of the complete sovereignty of Yhwh. Not only is everything made by his word. And not only do entire nations have to submit to his heart’s plan and schemes. Now, every individual stands underneath the ‘gaze’ of Yhwh. By becoming more particular the psalm is allowing us to see how complete Yhwh’s control actually is. Although Yhwh elects Israel, his gaze and kingship is universal. Lastly, the designation “inhabitants of earth” is interesting—standing in contrast to the enthroned King of heaven this term draws a picture of how small man is under the throne of Yhwh. The contrast between the ‘Enthroned One’ in ‘heaven’ and the ‘sons of man’ and ‘inhabitants of earth’ is stark as conjures up an image similar to that encountered in the story of Babel when Yhwh ‘looks down from heaven’: there is a latent sense here of Yhwh’s gaze as almost mockingly superior to the workings of man. That it utterly penetrating and total and that man is perhaps (very) unaware of the dominion exerted over him by such a gaze.

Ps. 33.10-12 (the word as harbinger)

“Yhwh frustrates / the plans / of the nations – he restrains / the schemes / of the peoples. – Yhwh’s plan / shall stand / forever – the schemes / of his heart / for generation to generation. – Blessed is the nation / whose God / is Yhwh – the people / he has chosen / for his own possession.” In light of what we have already said this transition could in fact not be seen as a transition at all but rather as working out or deepening. This should not blind us to the fact, though, of use of the verbs “frustrate” and “restrain”. For the first time in the psalm Yhwh is explicitly described as acting against something. Prior to this everything has progressed with a seeming ease (although the undertones have certainly been those of exodus liberation). Yhwh speaks, it happens. There are no intermediaries and no competitors. Here, by contrast Yhwh must ‘frustrate’ and ‘restrain’. To ‘frustrate’ a plan implies creating disunity or confusion, of introducing elements of disruption. The story of Babel seems to be a good example of this—frustration through the introduction of multiple languages. Likewise, in contrast to the nation’s ‘plans’, Yhwh’s ‘stand’ forever—this ‘standing’ could be a reference to the abandonment of the Tower. To ‘restrain’, by contrast, implies the holding back; making the scheme impossible to achieve. This is not the creation of disunity, but making the fulfillment impossible to achieve. The drowning of Pharaoh’s army could be an example of this, and the placing of a river between them and the Israelites. Admittedly, Babel could also be an example. In contrast to these plans and schemes, Yhwh’s ‘stand forever’ and go ‘from generation to generation’.  It is at this point that we can make to two observations as to how these verse deepen our understanding of Yhwh’s word. First, why would the verse have begun with Yhwh’s frustration and not with Yhwh’s ‘standing’ plan? Following on the heals of the previous verse, I think it likely that, with the reference to land “standing forth”, we are to hear of Yhwh’s ‘frustration’ of Pharoah’s plan to overtake Israel by making the river bed “stand forth” for the Israelites. This also points to Yhwh’s ‘plan’ itself ‘standing forth’ in solidity as against Pharaoh’s.  By placing the ‘nations’ between these two poles within the psalm it shows that they are utterly powerless to overcome Yhwh’s word/plan. The second point: the previous section of the psalm was very much hymn to the word. Here, the word changes to Yhwh’s ‘plan’ or ‘scheme’. This is a rather remarkable confirmation of our reflections: that Yhwh speaks a word that, in its power, remains and is an ongoing ‘plan’ of Yhwh. This is crucial it seems to me: that it is possible to distinguish between the two (word and plan) but to never oppose them. They are simply different aspects. Again, when Isaiah says that Yhwh’s “word goes forth” and will not return to him “void” he could be saying the same thing: his ‘word’ goes forth and it accomplishes Yhwh’s ‘plan’. Yhwh’s word is, in a sense, pregnant with his plans (this is, to me fascinating, in light of Yhwh’s ‘word’ ‘becoming flesh’…). Creation, then, is a harbinger of Yhwh’s plan (this may be, to me at least, the most succinct way of stating our previous reflections). A comment on “plan”: although implicit in previous reflections the fact that Yhwh’s word is so closely aligned with his “plan” indicates that that which is created by his word carries within it a ‘logic’ or ‘form’; it is pushing toward a goal; the word, is in a sense, a story, with creation being ‘the beginning’. Another interesting aspect to this is the emphasis on Yhwh’s heart and his ‘schemes’. We saw something similar in relation to understanding why Yhwh’s word is ‘right’: it is an accurate representation of Yhwh’s heart. Here, the ‘scheme’ functions in much the same way: as the accurate expression of Yhwh’s heart. It is therefore, important to note, again, that Yhwh’s heart is one that loves “justice” and “righteousness”. The final line seems like a conclusion: as if saying that a nation that stands on the side of Yhwh, whose plans cannot be shaken, is blessed. However, there is something else here—with all of the connotations that have gone before with the Song of the Sea, the exodus, and creation, something rather shocking occurs here: Israel itself is Yhwh’s creative plan. In being ‘elected’ it has been taken up ‘into Yhwh’s heart’ and made to be his active word to the world. Israel is Yhwh’s scheme ‘from generation to generation’. She is the nation that was both ‘created’ in the Reed Sea and ‘elected’ at Mount Sinai. Like Abraham, the world is to find ‘blessing’ or ‘curse’ in her as she moves, like Yhwh’s flaming pillar, through the world toward a goal she herself does not know.

Ps. 33.8-9 (the word's genesis)

“Let all the earth / fear Yhwh; - let all the world’s inhabitants / be in awe of him.” Again we are very much within the language of the Song of the Sea. This ‘fear and awe’ is something that the exodus through the Reed Sea inspires within the world around the Israelites (Ex.15:14-15). Here, the psalm is steadily revealing greater depths than originally contemplated (as we saw in our last post). Creation and Yhwh’s ongoing and sovereign control over history are so intertwined as to almost impossible to separate. This can be seen as well in this fact: here, the verse speaks of “the earth” and “the world’s inhabitants”. This dynamic is identical to the “the heavens” that were created by Yhwh’s word and “their hosts” that were created by his ‘breath’. In the creation of the heavens, we did not detect this ‘exodus’ understanding—here, though, it is very much at the forefront but still very much resonating with images of creation. As I have said before, what I think happens is that the two stories (the Exodus and Creation) are very much in dialogue with each other. They (in)form the other. The reason being that Yhwh’s creative word is not something spoken and then lost, but spoken and ongoing in its subservience to Yhwh. As Isaiah will say (paraphrasing), “Yhwh’s word does not ‘return to him void but produces a harvest.” So Yhwh’s original creative word that initiates creation itself is something that also persists in its (re)creative power—from Creation to the Exodus (to Isaiah and, eventually, to the Resurrection itself and into the Bride). The following verse is, in this light, illuminating: “For he spoke / and it was – he commanded / and it stood forth.” This is rather fascinating in light of what we have said: in isolation the verse looks like something from Genesis, perhaps referring to the separation of the water from the land (the land ‘standing forth’). In context, it seems as if it could also be referring the land that ‘stood forth’ after Yhwh separated the waters of the Reed Sea; this would make sense, especially following the verse on “fear and awe” (how would the world stand in ‘fear and awe’ if we are speaking only of creation?). Clearly, we are not in either ‘realm’ but in both. This verse, in contexts, witnesses to what we have been delineating: that creation and (re)creation/redemption are dialogue partners; that Yhwh’s word is not something that merely establishes but retains, in its ‘truth’ and ‘rightness’, Yhwh’s power; Yhwh’s word doesn’t ‘die’ when it leaves his mouth—rather, that is just its beginning (it’s, shall we say, genesis).

Ps. 33.7 (creation ever-new)

“He gathers together / the waters of the sea – he puts the deep waters / in his storehouses.” There seem to be at least two things at work here. First, as a development of the hymn to Yhwh as Creator we stand, perhaps, at the second day of creation, where Yhwh divided the waters. Alternatively, this is similar to Yhwh’s separating the land from the water. The second point is this: this is an almost direct quotation of the Song of the Sea, that ‘exultation’ that Moses and the Israelites sang immediately after the sinking of Pharaoh’s army. This Song will continue to resonate throughout the rest of the hymn. In fact, it may have already been signaled by the call to ‘exult’ in Yhwh—the Song likewise begins with Moses ‘exulting’ in Yhwh. These two strands, however, come together in the fact that Israel, as a nation was born/created, at this point of deliverance. Just as the waters ‘congeal’ and are separated (as in the Genesis creation) so too are they, in the exodus, divided. Creation is full of ‘new creations’. To employ this language, then, is quite natural. And, as we have seen, creation itself is “full of Yhwh’s lovingkindness.” And now a light is cast back over the psalm: are we to now detect throughout the fact that this is not merely a hymn to ‘creation’ but a hymn to the power of Yhwh to make new ‘creations’ in the midst of forces opposed to him? Is this why it is emphasized that Yhwh’s works/words are ‘right’ and ‘true’ and why he loves ‘justice and righteousness’, implying that there are (many) who do not? If that is the case then I think we see something different within the nature of creation itself: in the face of forces opposed to Yhwh, creation works for him. Or, better: that creation is always-already as responsive to Yhwh as it was when it was originally spoken into existence. That creation is not a word spoken and then lost by Yhwh; it remains an ever-spoken word and expression of Yhwh’s will (it remains and is “right” and “true”). This is why the full import of ‘creation’ could have emerged long after the telling of the exodus story—that this act of deliverance by Yhwh shed light on the nature of creation itself (on the fact that this god, Yhwh, was also the creator god).

Ps. 32.6 (the creaion of heaven)

“By Yhwh’s word / the heavens were made – and by the breath / of his mouth / all their host”. The ground has been lain, both figuratively and literally. Figuratively: until now the ‘word’ has only bee described abstractly (as ‘right’). Literally: the directly preceding line involved the earth being ‘full of Yhwh’s lovingkindness’. In a single line, what has come before is now merging into a single activity: the word has now become the work. In the first half, the heavens come into being by being spoken into being directly by Yhwh. There are no intermediary figures; there is no preexisting ‘stuff’ (there are no ‘waters of chaos’). There is no consultation. There is Yhwh, his spoken word—and the heavens. These ‘heavens’ then are “right” and, as a work, are “true”. But they are so, because they accurately reflect Yhwh’s heart—his love of righteousness and justice. And now we come to the wonderful description of the “hosts of heaven” being given life by the breath of Yhwh. Genesis makes a similar move when it describes the creation of Adam. Although he emerges from the ‘word’ as a created thing, his life comes from his being breathed into (into his nostrils Yhwh breathed and he became a breathing being). This dynamic makes intuitive sense: a ‘word’ as formed noise is analogous to creation while living things are distinguished by their inhaling and exhaling (their breath). The fact that particular forms of life spring as immediately from Yhwh’s breath as from his word is important—they have, within them, Yhwh’s own life. In Genesis, only man is granted such astonishing intimacy (the animals receive their life from the word). Here, the ‘hosts of heaven’ (his court, his angels and messengers, his cherubim), are likewise afforded the breath of Yhwh. Are we to hear a distinction though? Whereas man is both ‘word’ and ‘breath’, the ‘heavenly host’ is created directly by the ‘breath’ (and share the same ‘immateriality’ as Yhwh?). They too, therefore, are “the righteous” and “upright ones”. One final note regarding language employed by the psalm: there is the sense of totality present throughout, from his word being ‘right’, his works being ‘truth’, the earth being ‘full of his lovingkindness’ and ‘all of the hosts’ receiving life by his breath. All of being finds its origin in Yhwh, and Yhwh directly. There are no other ‘gods’ with which Yhwh has to vie for control and there is no other source of power (or truth, or justice, or lovingkindness) than in Yhwh. The ‘hosts of heaven’ are not so many gods but servants of Yhwh.