Ps. 40.16 (reversing them into him)

“They shall exult / and rejoice in you – all they / who seek you – and they / shall continuously say – “Yhwh / is great” – they / who love / your victory.” There is a very fitting manner in which this verse operates within the context of the psalm and within our series of reflections. The only other sections in this psalm that exhibits this type of direct praise of Yhwh are in vs. 2-5 and 9-10. There, however, the praise is always in the first person of the king; it is he that either praises Yhwh for his deliverance or he is the one that recounts how he has not “withheld” his praise of Yhwh from the ‘great congregation’. As we have (tirelessly) argued though, the king can never been separated from his flock. Any blessing that descends upon him, showers down on his (Yhwh’s) people. He is an individual, and it is crucial to realize this, yet he is a representative and mediator as well that embodies (in an almost sacramental manner) the dynamism and relationship between Yhwh and his kingdom. It is, in light of this, that these verses take on (or, flower) in new directions. For here, the ‘song’ has now been placed on the lips of “them”. It has, as it were, passed through the king and is now flowing into the people precisely because the king has been “lifted up” and made victorious by Yhwh over his (and their) enemies; as we saw in verses 14-15 they have been robbed of all glory and shamed and humiliated; indeed, they have been made “desolate”. Now, the “new song” the king sang in verse 2, due to his deliverance, has become the song of “them” as they join into the king’s exodus. It is important to note that this is still the king talking, of course, but the he has now turned to the ‘great congregation’ and identified the virtues in them that predispose them to this victorious praise. They do not “seek” the king; they seek Yhwh. They do not say the king “is great”; they say “Yhwh is great”. And, most importantly within the theology of kingship, it is not the king’s victory that is celebrated, but Yhwh’s. This perspective is one that we saw in the movement from Psalm 2 to Psalm 3. In Psalm 2, when Yhwh speaks to the king, he says it will be the king’s victory. However, in Psalm 3, when David is speaking to Yhwh, he does not for a moment regard his victory as his own. Rather, it is his “father’s”, Yhwh’s. Here, the movement is the same as the king speaks to Yhwh of the people’s praise. The tone is solely focused on “you” (Yhwh), as the king, again, mediates the praise of the people to Yhwh in the same manner as the king does when speaking directly to Yhwh in Psalm 3. One final observation: this verse mirrors in many ways verse 14-15. There, “they” were—ashamed…who sought my life…who “said to me, ‘Aha!’…. Here, “they” –exult…who seek Yhwh…and shall continuously say ‘Yhwh is great’. This formal mirroring points to the reality that the righteous “they” have moved into the glory (the victory) bestowed upon the king by Yhwh; while the wicked “they” have become “desolated”. This highlights everything we have already pointed out in a new way: verses 14-15 are focused on the wicked “they” and their actions toward the king; here, in verse 16, the righteous “they” have moved into the arena of praise, but done so because of the victory granted the king by Yhwh. The king’s victory is the unspoken pivot and the mediation of the people’s praise.