Ps. 35.26-28 (shame and humiliation; peace and stability)

“They shall be both / ashamed and humiliated – they who rejoiced / in my misfortune; - they shall wear / shame and ignominy – they who / make themselves mighty / at my expense.” This verse is very close to vs. 4 (“They shall be humiliated and put to shame, the ones who seek my life; they shall be turned back and ashamed, the ones who devise my downfall.”). In its context, however, there is an added depth to it. As we saw, the last action performed by these men was the “opening wide” of their mouths “against” David. Here, the mouths are shut in ‘shame and humiliation’. The punishment of ‘shame and humiliation’ likewise is of greater meaning here precisely because this is what these men have been attempted to subject David to (“profanities of derisive mockery”). They have been attempting to sap David of all his honor. Here, their attempts will boomerang back onto their own heads. (It is a disturbing image of hell: people wearing garments of ‘shame and humiliation’ that they had attempted to cloth others in). Along these same lines—whereas before their attacks were issued to the ‘quiet ones’ of the land, now those same people erupt in praise. “They shall / shout out / and rejoice – they who delight / in my vindication.” The dark liturgy of praise enacted by the enemies (vs. 19, 24, 26) has now been silenced in favor of the ‘shouting’ of those who look to and find their support in David. The concluding lines emphasize that the ‘victory’ obtained by David, through Yhwh, is abiding. For the first time in the psalm, something like stability emerges: “And they shall / say continuously – May Yhwh / be magnified – He who delights / in his servant’s peace.”  Here, the hiatus is closed with the result that ‘peace’ follows; this term is important as it points back to vs. 20 where David’s enemies are said to “not speak of peace”. Yhwh has, in effect, sealed the breach caused by these men. And he has done so because this ‘peace’ is not merely absence of strife; it is an object of Yhwh’s “delight”. It is a thing of beauty; a good in and of itself and is not dependent, therefore, on an enemy’s attack as a contrast to itself. We might say that this ‘peace’ is something like creation itself when Yhwh looked upon it and “saw that it was good”.  Another important aspect to this is that this peace is one that comes through the anointed—it is his ‘servant’s peace’ that delights Yhwh—and this because when the king is established in peace so too is his kingdom.  (We might say that the Father delights in the peace of the Son, after the victory of the resurrection obtained by him, not simply because of the effect on him in isolation but because through him the ‘hiatus’ is sealed and peace for his kingdom is accomplished.) “Then / my tongue / shall proclaim / your righteousness – nothing but your praise / all day long.” This dynamic of first “them” and then “me” (David) is the same as in verses 20-21 where the enemies first attacked the ‘quiet ones’ and then ‘me’. By reversing the order, we see how Yhwh’s victory for his anointed is something that heals his entire flock as well as the ‘head’.