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