Ps. 36.7 (the shadow of wings)

“You deliver / both man and beast / O Yhwh; - how precious / is your lovingkindness / O God – that human beings / find refuge / in the shadow / of your wings.” As with our last reflection I want to divide up the following in separate mediations: the contrasting of ‘deliverance’ with the wicked; why ‘man and beast’ are delivered but only ‘man’ finds refuge; and the difference between what the wicked and the righteous find as ‘precious’.

Deliverance: we mentioned last time how the current hymn stands on its own and yet, when placed within the context of the wicked man, takes on added dimensions. Here, with the idea of ‘deliverance’, new hues are cast that otherwise would have remained hidden. The idea of deliverance has been present in nearly every psalm we have looked at; it is the single most common thread weaving itself throughout them all. In this way we could say that it is the defining mark of Yhwh that these psalmist are attempting to either ignite or praise—and this from the personal and very individual laments to those of the king. From the top to the bottom, ‘deliverance’ has been the clarion call. And it is something that is uniquely Yhwh’s to perform. Of the many things we have noted about the idea is the fact that ‘deliverance’ is both an act of redemption and judgment; it redeems the righteous by judging the wicked (we never find these two movements separated). Furthermore, ‘deliverance’ can also be compared to or described as a form of healing—of restoration to the proper mode of being. And this ‘proper mode of being’ is not merely ‘health’ but ‘praise’. In other words, deliverance is often initiated by Yhwh in order to place his people back within a living and joyful state of praise to him; deliverance is for liturgy (as in the Exodus: the purpose was not merely their ‘freedom’ but so that they would ‘come and worship me’). When we cast our glance back toward the wicked, something entirely opposed to deliverance emerges. I hesitate to even say ‘opposite’ because that sounds like a contrasting color (like black and white). Rather, the wicked’s ‘heart’ works against deliverance. As we saw, it is an agent of transgression and chaos. It seeks out and devices wickedness. Perhaps most importantly: Yhwh’s act of deliverance is much like his act of creation. It is movement of love outside of himself for his own and for their goodness. Yhwh, as will be said explicitly in a later verse: is light in himself and provides room in that light for others (“in your light we see light itself”; vs. 9). The wicked embodies the contrary, in two movements: as to those around him he “devices wickedness”, as to himself, he is blind to the depths of his own depravity (“he cannot find his iniquity and hate it”). So, both internally and externally, he represents a consuming darkness (he is not only a black hole to his ‘neighbor’ but one to himself as well).

Precious: something we emphasized in verse 1-4 is that the fool/wicked man works directly opposite to the wise man. What we meant was that whereas the wise man both loves the right things (Yhwh’s instruction for example) and hates the wrong things (company of the wicked), the wicked man loves the wrong things (his own self: he flatters himself too much) and doesn’t hate the wrong things (he can’t ‘find his iniquity and hate it’; he does avoid what is wrong). Here, we find the psalmist engaging in wise love of Yhwh’s (God’s) lovingkindness. Just as he gave voice to the totality of Yhwh’s concern within creation, and to the totality of his concern to all living things: so, now, does this become, for him, a ‘precious thing’, an object of love and delight. For the wicked, he found nothing delightful but himself; for him, everything began and ended within himself and was not open to these covenantal modes of relationship and reception. The psalmist, by contrast, finds his delight not in himself but in Yhwh’s benevolence (and, not just to him but to all of the created order).

Man and beast: One thing we noted in our reflection on verse 5 is the fact that the geography is total (heaven, sky, earth, deep). Yhwh’s benevolence and activity are present everywhere (whereas the wicked is not even present to himself fully). Here, a similar image is deployed when focusing specifically on Yhwh’s deliverance. “Man and beast” represent, in the totality of the living realm. Therefore, while Yhwh’s activity is present everywhere in creation, so too is his deliverance manifested everywhere in the living order. For the psalmist, everywhere he looks he is met and encompassed by Yhwh’s loving concern for his creation and his creatures. The question, then, is why is it that only ‘man’ finds ‘refuge underneath his wings’? The answer is rather straightforward: the Temple, where the cherubim’s wings overstretch the arc of the covenant, is ‘man’s refuge’. The psalm then moves from the general deliverance enacted by the very act of creation to the particular form of deliverance given to man in the Temple, where Yhwh and man commune most intimately (indeed, where his Name dwells). The psalm has, therefore, been moving into an ever tighter circle: all of creation à living things à man/Temple. The Temple, scene from this perspective then, operates much like man does in creation: as the pinnacle and goal.