“They are refreshed / from the
rich provision / of your house – and you make them / drink / from the river /
of your delights. – For / with you / is the fountain / of life – and in your
light / we shall see light.” This is, arguably, the central passage of the
psalm. As we have seen in our analysis of this hymn, the previous verses seemed
to be leading up to the Temple.
First, we saw how Yhwh’s activity is manifested, or ‘housed’, in al of creation
(heaven – sky – earth – deep). Then, Yhwh’s deliverance was enacted for all
living things (man and beast alike). Finally, at the pinnacle (or, focus) we
found man and the Temple.
Here, in these verses, we now watch what occurs within the Temple itself. Here is the drama. Along these
lines I would like to look at two aspects of this verse: the ‘house’ and
sustenance; the light and the fountain.
Yhwh’s house: The first question
would be who are “they”. As we have argued in our previous reflection, it is
likely those men who come to Yhwh’s temple and find refuge underneath ‘his
wings’. While in that verse ‘refuge’ was central, here ‘provision’ moves to the
fore. Not only is the Temple
a place of safety, it is also an object of delight and provision.
Interestingly, we note, however, that the ‘provisions’ of Yhwh’s house are
sacrifices brought to the Temple. And yet they
are regarded as, in a way, part of the ‘store-houses’ of the Temple, as
originating from the Temple and not as things owned, first, by man and then
brought to the Temple. This is a rather profound point: when sacrifices are
brought to the Temple one is not understood to
be bringing what is one’s own but, in a very real way, what the Temple has
given/provided. To bring sacrifices is, from this perspective, a type of
returning, an offering over to Yhwh what is his. The Temple is what vivifies the earth, what
produces its abundance, its ‘rich provision’. This is astonishing, but is in
line with what we have already seen: the Temple
is, in some way, the principle of creation, that which connects earth to the
power of heaven and brings the power of heaven (as seen in the harvests and in
the cattle) into the earth. (Can we catch a glimpse, then, of the effect the
destruction of the Temple
would have meant to the Jews? It would have been the withering and darkening of
creation…). Second, when sacrifices were brought to the Temple they were cooked and distributed
(unless it was a whole burnt offering). A ‘meal’ was enjoyed in the presence of
Yhwh, with Yhwh acting as the host; he was, from his ‘rich provision’, now
giving to the participants, the fruits they brought to him. Hence, at this
gathering, they are ‘refreshed’ in much the same way that Abraham provided
sustenance to the ‘angels’ outside of Sodom.
It is an act of Yhwh’s hospitality. Can we speculate further? If what we have
said is true (that in bringing to Yhwh’s house what is already its own) then it
would mean that the creation itself is a type of temple. We know this from
Genesis already. Second, if we chart out the movement it looks something like
this: creation à given over to man
to ‘cultivate’ à creation returned
to Yhwh in the Temple
as sacrifice à returned to man with
Yhwh acting as host. This final movement is manifestly liturgical. It mimics
the act of creation in the sense that Yhwh is, once again, handing over
creation to man, except for this important element: man has participated within the act by and through sacrifice. We
might summarize it this way: in creation Yhwh provides space for man to return
to Yhwh what is his (Yhwh’s) and, in so doing, Yhwh gives creation back to man
but, now, as the host of the meal. What
we see here is that there is an elevation in each transaction (man: creature to
cultivator to guest; Yhwh: Creator to Host), at the pinnacle of which stands
Yhwh as host and man as guest/invitee. (A rather interesting image given the
‘meals’ that Jesus both called for and in which he gave himself…).
The
fountain and the light: when one pays attention to the order of the words when the
psalmist speaks of the fountain and the light, something interesting emerges. “For
with you – is the fountain of life; in your light – we see light.” In both of
these lines we see a qualification “with you…your light”. Generally speaking
such a qualification of ownership would inherently limit what follows. As in, “in
your light we see a light” or “for with you is a fountain of life.” This is what occurs in Proverbs 13.14, “the
wise man is a fountain of life.” “Yours”
almost always implies a limited form of ownership against someone else (your
ego, your spirit, your family—all of these are, by definition, a limitation). Here,
by contrast, life and light itself are “with” or “possessed” by Yhwh and yet
not limited thereby. Furthermore, there seems to be a distinction between Yhwh
and “life” and “light”. They are either ‘owned’ or ‘with’ him. The Gospel of
John will eventually say something very similar: “In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God and
the Word was God (coincidentally, it
will go on to describe the Word made flesh as both “light” and a “fountain of
life”)”. Lady Wisdom, in Proverbs 8 will also be described in similar ways as
being with God from the beginning and as dancing before his throne. There is
some sense, here, that life and light (wisdom?), are Yhwh and yet also
something that is ‘with him’. As appealing as such meditations can go, I want
to turn back to how this perception also applies to what we said about the
Temple itself above---the Temple is Yhwh’s ‘home’ within creation and yet is
itself the principle and source of creation. In this dynamic we see the Temple
working in much the same way that ‘life’ and ‘light’ operate: although Yhwh can
be ‘in creation’, his condescension only reveals more greatly how he is the
source of all creation (the more one contemplates the Temple, the more one
realizes that Yhwh’s home is itself the source of our ‘home’ (creation itself);
the more one contemplates ‘light’, the more one comes to see that one is
dwelling in Yhwh’s light; the more on contemplates ‘life’, the more one comes
to see that one is dwelling in Yhwh’s ‘fountain of life’). And, most
importantly: the more Yhwh condescends to ‘dwell’ with man, the more ‘potent’
that particular dwelling becomes. Temple---becomes
source of creation; life—is a reflection/participation within Yhwh’s fountain
of life; light—is Yhwh’s light. The movement is not toward the more abstract
(from Yhwh’s light to ‘light itself’) but the other way around (from ‘light
itself’ to Yhwh’s light; from creation to Temple).
How
does this contrast with the wicked? As we saw in our reflections on the wicked
fool, he is utterly turned in on himself. He is an enigma even within and to
his own spirit (he can’t even find his own iniquity). Because he has been cut
off (or, cut himself off) from the ‘fear of God’, the only thing that stands in
front of him is—himself (he flatters himself “too much in his own eyes”). On
his bed he “devises wickedness”. The point, as we saw, is that he is a
self-destructive hole in creation. Everything sinks into him and his chaotic
desire to destroy. Here, by contrast, the more one comes to see the outpouring of Yhwh the more one comes to
see Yhwh. It is the precise opposite of wickedness. Whereas wickedness and
folly draw into itself in order to consume and destroy, Yhwh pours outward (all
of the images of water and light are of an abundant flowing forth from Yhwh) in
creative giving. The wicked keeps everything to himself (including his own ‘ego’);
Yhwh condescends and thereby reveals more and more how overflowing he is (how “potent”
he is). Furthermore, what is given to the wicked is consumed; what is given to
the Temple is ‘given
back as rich provisions’. In this regard, too, the wicked is not only against
wisdom, but against the mode of Temple
offering itself (he is an anti-sacrifice).
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