Ps. 35.18 (reunion)

“I will / thank you / in the great congregation – I will / praise you / in the mighty crowd.” This verse seemingly is out of place in the flow of the psalm: before and after it the focus is entirely on a plea for deliverance. It would seem, at first glance, that this verse would more appropriately follow at the end of the psalm where “those who delight in my deliverance” are mentioned. The question is why, then, it would be placed here. I think the answer is in the contrast this verse serves to the following verse (and verses). Here, we find David/the anointed, assured that he will, with a great congregation, thank Yhwh for his deliverance and vindication—the king will be delivered by his father, the Enthroned One of heaven (Ps. 2). This will not be merely a time of the son offering ‘thanksgiving’to the father but also of ‘praise’. The following verse sets up the contrast—“Let not / my enemies / rejoice over me / wrongfully – or those who hate me / without cause / maliciously wink the eye.” This is the ‘dark liturgy’ of rejoicing over the fallen king. In a more apocalyptic vein, this is a type of demonic praise (Revelation has at least one of these when the two ‘prophets’ are killed in the city—a great rejoicing erupts). This is confirmed by the fact that the verses following this, focusing on the enemies, all involve not their physical threat to David but their vocal threat: “do no speak of peace” (vs. 20); “they devise deceitful declarations” (vs. 20); “they opened wide their mouths” (vs. 21); “they said…” (vs. 21). Furthermore, as we have seen, the anointed/David has been almost entirely alone throughout the psalm; there has been a continuous undertone that he is being progressively alienated and isolated. Here, however, we find him surrounded by a “great congregation” and a “mighty crowd”. The ‘hiatus’ and gulf we mentioned before has here been closed (the hiatus between Yhwh’s ‘seeing’ and ‘acting’) and, importantly, the result of this closure is the reunification of the anointed with his flock—his deliverance entails his re-admittance into the community (i.e., once the crucifixion of the anointed has been overcome, the anointed is reunited with his flock where, in their midst, he offers praise and thanksgiving to his father…). Third, the contrast serves another purpose: David’s liturgy is one that “will” happen; his enemies’ liturgy is one that he implores Yhwh to “let not” happen. The sense is, as we have seen throughout all of our psalms, that Yhwh will certainly redeem his righteous ones—and yet, that does not in any way alleviate their real need to pray that their enemies not be allowed to rejoice over them. Indeed, these are two sides of the same coin we might say: their assurance of deliverance is grounded precisely in their understanding that they must, always and continuously, intercede with Yhwh. And this is true because they are of the same continuum—his deliverance is not ‘in heaven’ while his desire to see his enemies not rejoice over him is ‘on earth’; rather, they are one and the same: his deliverance is the same thing as Yhwh not letting the enemies rejoice over him.