Ps. 39.4 (Yhwh, eplain to me...) Part 2

“O Yhwh / explain to me / my end – and the meaning / of the measure / of my days. 0 I would like to know / how transitory / I am.” In our previous reflection we spent more time focusing on the form of the psalm as it transitioned into this prayer to Yhwh. Here, I would like to focus more on the words. One of the most interesting points is that the psalmist is seeking an answer to a question: “explain to me the meaning…I would like to know…”. This is, in the 38 psalms we have studied thus far, unique. We have seen petitions to Yhwh, praise of him and consternation. But we have, I do not believe, ever seen a psalmist pose a question to Yhwh in this manner. This is what led us yesterday to note the almost philosophic distance between the intensely personal first three verses and this fourth verse, and we noted several reasons why this is the case. However, that should not blunt this insight. There have been several other psalms, particularly psalm 37, that focused on much the same subject matter. And, in that psalm, as here, ‘wisdom’ was to become the answer to the wicked’s ascendancy. However, there, the focus was on deliverance and in cultivating patience. Here, by contrast, the the psalmist is looking for a present answer—in an odd way, by posing the question in this manner, he is not looking for a change to his situation as much as an insight into it that would calm his raging heart. It is, it seems to me, a fundamentally different approach to the problem of the wicked. As we will see, there are many more similarities between the two psalms. Also important to note is this: that in this initial prayer to Yhwh the psalmist is, for now, still looking for an entirely personal answer “explain to me my end and the meaning of the measure of my days. I would like to know how transitory I am.” This focus will shift to all of mankind, but that shift in focus will find its impetus here: in this entirely personal seeking for an answer as to the psalmist’s individual life. The second thing to note is that the explanation sought is in regard to the psalmist’s death—“explain to me my end…the measure of my days…”. It is not so much his life that has become the question mark, as his death. Clearly, the psalmist views his ‘end’, like the end of some poorly written novel. It simply does not make sense. As he goes on to describe, to him it is absurd. He then fills out this question with a phrase that is central to the psalm: “I would like to know how transitory I am…”. There is much that needs to be said about this. First, this comes as a development of his question regarding his own death. It is the ‘cutting off of death’ that casts this massive (and consuming) shadow over the entirety of his very existence. Death seems to undercut life. Along these lines, the use of the word ‘transitory’ is important. It seems to refer to a lack of substance, something not solid and firm. Death makes life shadowy (as the psalmist will say later, “vaporous”). This will lead to the very shocking statement later of “man walks about merely an image.” One could not get further away from the Genesis account of man being made “in the image of God.” In Genesis, this is the pinnacle of creation. Here, to be an ‘image’ is to be more like a shadow. The presence of the wicked and of the absurdity of life in the face of the wicked has created in this psalmist a sense that all of life is futility, transitory and vaporous. And yet: the question itself, posed in such a fervent anger, belies this. In fact, the one thing of complete substance in this psalm is the fact that the psalmist, in the face of Yhwh, rages against this futility. It is this pounding question that reveals it is not merely a question. It is an assertion. If everything was merely vapor, there would be no flame of anger. Lastly, and this is I believe of fundamental import—all of this is said as a question posed to Yhwh. It is not, as with philosophical ruminations, a monologue. The psalmist knows that any answer to be had, any relief, will come from Yhwh (and, as we will see at the end: from Yhwh ‘turning away’). This is why we must keep in mind that the psalmist’s flame is premised on the deeper dialogue between Yhwh and the psalmist. In other words, it is the space opened up between the psalmist and Yhwh that provides the oxygen for the psalmists fire (and, the greater the distance, the greater the fire).