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.