Ps. 40.11 (transition: gathering and passing on)

“Come / O Yhwh / do not hold back – your mercies / from me – your lovingkindness / and your truth – continually / protect me.” This verse represents the transition of the psalm from praise to petition. Because of its transitional nature it will, in directing the movement into petition, reach back and gather up nearly every theme already traced and move them into this new key (of petition). The first word phrase, “Come O Yhwh” looks back to verse 7 where the king said, “Look, I have come!”. There, the king was indicating his total willingness and readiness (Noah-like) to step into the role Yhwh had chosen for him (Deut. 17.14 and following). Unlike almost every other chosen vessel of Yhwh’s power, this king does not demur at the call; rather, Mary-like, he eagerly steps into his assigned mission, with readiness. This utter openness to Yhwh’s choosing is now made to be the source of his mandate to Yhwh. In other words, “I have come, now you must come.” Perhaps better worded, “I have stepped into the role you assigned for me as deliverer of your flock, now you come forward and shower your power upon me to accomplish that role.” The second portion of the phrase, “do not hold back” refers back to the immediately preceding liturgical litany of the king’s confession of never “withholding” or “hiding” from the great congregation Yhwh’s saving and covenantal power and affection. It is the same dynamic as before: because I have not liturgically/confessionally withheld anything from your flock, now you should not hold back from me that same power. The request is framed with near identical reference back to those specific qualities of Yhwh the king had celebrated: mercies, lovingkindness and truth (vs. 9, 10). Furthermore, this also picks up the theme we stated in our first reflection: liturgy is memory. The king, in his detailing of the saving acts of Yhwh (acts that are particularly suited to the king’s role), must become the memory of Israel. In other words, when in vs. 9-10 he says he “hasn’t withheld” from the great congregation Yhwh’s “lovingkindness, etc…”, undoubtedly he is not saying he simply informs them of these abstract qualities. Rather, his revealing must be in the form of recounting of Yhwh’s deliverance; this became summarized as these abstract qualities. As we can now see more clearly: this is not the mere recounting of past events. For it is through this liturgical memory that the king becomes the vessel of Yhwh’s choosing and thereby becomes the one through whom Yhwh will pour his power. Just as Adam’s role in the garden was to “till the garden” (which is a term used to describe the priestly role of offering liturgy), so too is the king’s role to “till the garden” in liturgical remembrance. This is how the seed of Yhwh’s power enters into the king and, through his active appropriation (this “tilling”; here, liturgical memory), becomes the premise for Yhwh’s active deliverance and the king’s petition. Finally, we must point out that this petition is, here, individual (“…your mercies from me”, “…protect me”). As much as we have stressed the corporate person of the king, we can’t lose sight of the fact that it is the king, in his individuality, that is both the power and the precariousness of Yhwh’s choosing. As we have noted throughout, to ‘touch the king’ is to ‘touch Israel’. Hence, although this petition is one that requests individual protection, it is one that understands that all of Israel is “in the king” (in a similar fashion that all of Israel (and the world) is “in Abraham”). The degree of resonances with Christ are simply too great to detail here, especially as Hebrews understands Christ’s role as the liturgical-and-continuous center of heaven; there is nothing here that can’t and shouldn’t be played out as it pertains to Christ’s individual mission/accomplishment and the spreading of his ‘body’ as he perfectly enacts this liturgical memory and becomes the perfect vessel of Yhwh’s covenantal power and concern through the power of the Spirit.