Ps. 37.23-24 ('steps", "the way" and the hiatus)

“A man’s steps / are established / by Yhwh – and he / takes pleasure / in his way. – If he falls / he wont fall / flat on his face –for Yhwh / is holding / his hand.” At first glance this section is odd. In every other section the theme of ‘enduring goods’ has been fairly close to the surface. Likewise, this has found expression through a contrasting with the fleeting nature of the wicked. In other words, in almost every section there has been a dramatic interplay—the teacher has been constantly moving back and forth between the two parties (righteous and wicked) in order to draw the student into the sphere of Yhwh and of enduring goods. The images have seemed consistent in this regard. Here, however, the tone is very different. The focus seems to have softened. Now, there is only “a man” and Yhwh as type of guide and father-figure. The question is how does this relate to the rest of the psalm? (We can take for granted that each section is a type of wisdom saying; that, however, doesn’t explain why this one is where it is and whether or how it works in its context.) The answer, I believe, is found in the two words of “steps” and “way”. Both are used in other places in the psalm.

“Steps”: vs. 30-31 read, “The righteous man’s mouth utters wisdom and his tongue speaks justice. His God’s instruction is in his heart and his footsteps do not slip.” This is an important clue for our verse. Here, we find that the righteous man’s firmness of foot is rooted in the fact that Yhwh’s ‘instruction is in his heart’. We have seen wording similar to this in other psalms and it seems to indicate an active appropriation of a way of life into one’s being (in our previous psalm, the wicked had ‘transgression in the midst of his heart’). Without diving into too much depth on vs. 30-31, what we see is that Yhwh’s instruction and having one’s steps ‘established by Yhwh’ are probably closely related (if not simply different ways of saying the same thing). Furthermore, this image of ‘slipping’ is strikingly similar to the image in our verse of ‘falling, but not on his face’.

“Way”: vs. 5 reads, “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.” As we noted there, ‘way’ is a common designation in wisdom literature to describe a person’s ‘way of life’—the habits and disposition of a person. Vs. 5 indicates that that ‘way’ is something that should be ‘committed to Yhwh’ and, through it, one’s ‘righteousness’ will shine forth. What we saw in commenting on this section was that this ‘righteousness’ was integrally related to the righteous man’s being endowed with Yhwh’s ‘good things’ (the land). In our verse, there is an issue though: does it mean the man takes pleasure in his or Yhwh’s way? Ultimately, the verse should be read both ways. Because the ‘steps’ are already a dialogue with Yhwh one cannot speak simply of the ‘man’s way’ apart from Yhwh.

What are we to make of these two observations? I think the answer lies in recalling what we have said is the ‘goal’ of the psalm as well as the current ‘hiatus’ the student finds himself in. The ‘goal’ is Yhwh’s providing of ‘the land’ in safety and perpetuity. The present, however, is the time of a ‘hiatus’ between Yhwh’s watching over the righteous and his final provision. It is a time marked by ‘trust, patience and being quiet before Yhwh’. It is, I believe, this situation this section speaks to: both the ‘steps’ and the ‘way’ in the other contexts they are found are future oriented and they speak to an enduring presence of Yhwh in the midst of the hiatus. In one, it is rooted in ‘Yhwh’s instruction’ (we might read this as Yhwh’s ‘torah’ as providing the ‘bridge’ and presence of Yhwh, to ‘provision one needs’, as one journeys to ‘the land’). In the other, it is a ‘committing’ of one’s self to Yhwh so that he will reveal that person as righteous in the future. The final verse, of not falling flat on one’s face, is to be seen as another way of emphasizing this ‘patience’ in Yhwh and the fact that he is present throughout; he will provide in ‘times of famine’ and one ‘will not be ashamed’ with Yhwh. What is interesting is that this section, in its original setting, probably meant something quite different. In the context of our psalm, however, it comes to represent another vantage point to see how one lives in the ‘hiatus’ until Yhwh’s final providing.