Ps. 40.4 (the duality of wisdom)

“Blessed / is the man / who made Yhwh / his trust – and has not turned / to the defiant / the fabricatos of falsehoods.” This verse represents a type of conclusion to the first section of the psalm. And we see that in a few ways: first, it mirrors the first verse with ‘the man’ trusting (waiting patiently) on Yhwh. Here, the personal sense of “I” has been removed and made into a type of principal for living, a ‘wisdom-saying’. Deliverance by Yhwh is not an experienced to be had only by the king. And second, in the first verse we saw how the king’s patient waiting led to Yhwh “turning toward” him. Here, the king does not turn to the defiant. By alluding to his lack of turning he is pointing to his utter allegiance to Yhwh and how that allegiance should, in turn, lead to Yhwh’s turning toward him. By concluding this portion of the psalm in this manner, we see how “trust in Yhwh” is the ‘beginning and end’ to the overflowing acts of deliverance by Yhwh. Further, this term ‘blessed’, as we saw in Psalm 1, indicates a type of right and abundant living (it has been translated as ‘happiness’ but that does not seem to chart the depth of the term). It is the sense of Yhwh’s providential care and the fact that one sees in one’s deliverance and abundance, Yhwh’s love for the individual (king or otherwise). The final remarks are directed to the ‘defiant and fabricators of falsehoods’. The first thing to note is that it is often in these ‘blessed’ statements (or wisdom statements) that a contrast is made, that one’s blessedness does not simply consist in doing one thing, but also in avoiding doing something else. In this way we see that life is a dramatic event, one that continuously requires the choosing-and-rejecting of wisdom and folly. There is rarely (if ever) a neutral ground from which Yhwh is simply chosen without the simultaneous rejecting of another. Here, the rejected ones are, as is typical, liars. This term is used so often that it is almost commonplace. That should not, however, blind us to the fact that the evildoers to be avoided here are those engaged in deceit, not merely ‘wickedness’. As a counterpoint to Yhwh, whose ‘truth’ will later be heralded, these men represent perversion of right order; one wonders if they are idolaters. And they represent a possible temptation in times of trouble, as people who could, potentially, have pulled the king ‘out of the pit of destruction’. The king, however, refused their help and, instead, ‘waited patiently’ on Yhwh. Again, we see how man is beset by choices, and, in particular, here, the king. It is for that reason that Israel sought a ‘wise king’, one who could lead them and make the right choices in the given moment. As the representative of the people, the king had to be “without sin” because he bore within him the entire nation. And it would take such a wise man to be able to tell exactly when and who the liar was and is.