Ps. 37.5-6(exposure to light)

“Commit your way / to Yhwh – and trust / in him / and he will do it. – And he will make / your righteousness / come forth / as a light – and your justice / like the midday sun.” If, as we have argued in the previous reflection, that the psalm is exploring the nature of ‘good things’ then here we find a confirmation of that with a deepening. This section begins in much the same way as the previous: “Trust in Yhwh and do good” is now “Commit your way to Yhwh and trust in him”. They seem to be saying much the same thing, imploring the student to proceed along ‘the way’, trusting and committing to Yhwh that their ‘way’ will end in Yhwh’s closing the gap between ‘the wrong people having the right things’ (i.e., that at the end of ‘the way’ Yhwh will provide them to the righteous). This is found by the affirmation “trust in him and he will do it.” At this point, though, the image shifts (and here is the deepening) to that of emerging light. To pause for a moment: if the light will ‘emerge’ at the end of ‘the way’ then the student is currently in darkness. This is another way of describing the ‘hiatus’ or ‘gap’: the fact that the goods of the world are currently in the possession of the wicked. There is something more important though: it would seem that to become light is to become noticed publicly. It is, in this way, to obtain the good of ‘renown’, ‘recognition’ and ‘glory’. It goes without saying perhaps that being ‘in dark’, from this perspective, is to be insignificant, unnoticed, disregarded and despised. Or, we might say it another way, “that which is lowly will be made high”. We must recognize, though, that it is “righteousness” and “justice” that are emerging into public light. As we saw in our first reflection, it is these things that will “cause the grass (of the wicked) to wither” and “die quickly”. There will be, as we always see, a double movement of judgment and redemption (the wicked will wither while the righteous will ascend and burn brightly). Furthermore, it is clear that this ‘light’ of “righteousness” and “justice” is currently lit, but not seen; it is hidden. As with ‘goods’ it will take Yhwh to “make them come forth as light like the midday sun”. All of these ideas can be summarized in this way: the student is dwelling in darkness of shame and insignificance and is tempted to make a grasp at the glory (the ‘goods’) the wicked posses. The teacher, on the other hand, is telling him that their glory is passing and short-lived and that the only way to truly obtain such glory is to ‘trust in Yhwh’. Only by doing so will one “dwell in the land” in safety and perpetuity, for only Yhwh can give goods in this manner (all other attempts to grasp them will be subject to vanity). Further, by ‘trusting in Yhwh’ one carries a hidden flame (“righteousness” and “justice”), one that will, through Yhwh, be brought out into full public view at which time the ‘wealth of nations’ will pour in, darkness will be banished, the gap closed and the wicked will be judged by that light (they will “wither” and “die quickly” because of its heat).