Ps. 38.9 (why form can matter)

‘O Yhwh / all my desires / are before you – and my groaning / is not hidden /from you.’ At this point the psalmist resumes his prayer to Yhwh but in a very different key than what has come before. The first three verses, although not explicitly said, seemed to be the psalmist’s desire to turn Yhwh’s face away from him due to his wrath and anger. From these verses, the psalmist went into a personal account of how sin is working its way into and through his body in his sickness resulting in the wordless ‘growling’ of his heart. Here, we see the psalmist once again returning his gaze to Yhwh but now he is focused on the presence of Yhwh and not seeking his absence. Furthermore, this brief turn to Yhwh is exactly that—brief. If one were to remove these lines the following verse would be in accord with the previous one and the laundry list of ailments afflicting the psalmist. It seems like this verse would be more appropriate at or around verse 15, the middle or turning point of the psalm. What are we to make of this? Is this a haitus and turn to Yhwh or, perhaps more troubling, is this actually one of the list of ‘ailments’? Initially, there is a formal observation to make—verses 1 and 2 operate as a type of introduction. Verses 3-8 build on each other in an increasing manner, leading to the point of numbness and growling. We then have this verse. Verse 10-14, like verses 2-8, focus on the social sickness he is suffering from, leading up to verses 13/14 wherein the psalmist is, rather than ‘numb’, ‘dumb’. Then in verse 15, we find a very similar call to Yhwh. The point of all of this is that verses 3-8, focusing on the bodily effect of sin, and verses 10-14 focusing primarily on the social, mirror each other by leading up to the psalmist’s incapacity followed by a prayer to Yhwh. Furthermore, verses 16-20 operate in much the same fashion with a concluding prayer to Yhwh in verses 21-22. The reason this is important is because as the psalmist formulates a different angle on his sickness he always concludes that angle in a petition to Yhwh. For that reason the three petitions can be seen as, while perhaps not saying exactly the same thing, they would be seen as aiming at the same goal. With that in mind, the petitions are as follows: that his groans and desires are in front of Yhwh (vs. 9), that he has waited and Yhwh will answer him, (vs. 15) and that Yhwh not ‘abandon him and be his victory’ (vs. 21-22). Why is this important? If this verse was not read in conjunction with these others we might see vs. 9 as simply another item on his ‘list of complaints’ (i.e., that although Yhwh knows of his desires and pain he is doing nothing about it). However, what we see when we understand the form of the psalm is that this assertion that his desires and groaning are before Yhwh, is an implicit call upon Yhwh to move toward him in healing and a conviction that his hope in Yhwh will be fulfilled. For the psalmist, as in so many other places in other psalms, it is the presence of Yhwh that operates as the place of answered prayer. Continuously, the psalmist hopes their prayer ascends to Yhwh and these are almost always in the context of their call for deliverance. This is crucial, once a prayer enters into Yhwh’s presence it becomes ‘ignited’ so to speak. The closer a prayer is to Yhwh, the more likely it is to catch fire and move from potency to actuality (because it is Yhwh who is ‘actuality’). It is there (his ‘presence’) that the ‘hiatus’ we have spoken of before (between Yhwh ‘seeing’ and ‘acting’) is supposed to be united (for Yhwh to ‘hear’ or ‘see’ is for him to act). For the psalmist to assert that his desires and groaning are already in front of Yhwh and in his presence is to assert that Yhwh will do something about it.