Ps. 38 16 (confrontation)

“For I said / “Lest my enemies / rejoice.” – They exalted / themselves / over me / when my foot slipped.” If one is not familiar with the mode of expression in the initial line, it would seem obscure at best and misinterpreted at worst. The full implication is something along the lines of: “Deliver me, lest my enemies rejoice over me and your name is scoffed at among my enemies.” The fact that the honor due Yhwh’s name has been left out is important, in the sense that I feel fairly certain the original listeners would have clearly understood what the gist of the line was driving out. Without that understanding, however, the line can appear to be only self-reflective (“Deliver me, lest my enemies rejoice.”). There is an important point in this as it relates to the context of this psalm: deliverance, by way of healing from sickness, redounds not simply to the psalmist, but to Yhwh’s glory as it displays his power over the sickness. In other words, there is always the potentiality that this god is not as powerful as the sickness; that, in one way or another, he cannot overcome the infestation due to the psalmist’s sin. The psalmist, in imploring Yhwh to heal him, is, therefore, asking that Yhwh display not simply a self-serving healing but his authority over the realm of sickness itself. In other words, this act of healing would be a dramatic confrontation between Yhwh and forces opposed to him; it is not merely spectacle but a dramatic encounter (more like a battle than a ‘display’). Likewise, as we have seen the close relationship between the enemies and sickness, when Yhwh displays this power he will also be revealing his authority over the psalmist’s enemies. The important point to catch in this: that in Yhwh’s acts of deliverance, as in healings, he is not merely healing the individual but displaying the authority (the “glory”) of his name over the forces that tend to disrupt his creation. And this is a beautiful thing: because in this we see Yhwh’s authority as one that desires and seeks out the re-creation of his wounded creatures. It is not (merely) in a display of brute power but of healing. And, in that healing, we are witnessing a true revealing of Yhwh (not merely, as I said before, a ‘display’ but a real vision).