Ps. 44.9 (an emerging darkness)

“But now / you have / spurned and / humiliated us – and do not / go forth / with our armies.” This is the first moment in the psalm where the present comes fully into focus. And the note struck is incredibly jarring. It is, in fact, in this transition where we come to re-read the entire opening in a much darker manner than would be immediately obvious on the first reading. Here we come to see how off-track the present is, especially in contrast to the past. There are several things to note. First, whereas God’s action on Israel’s behalf in the first section has been entirely beneficial and active. Here, something rather deceptive emerges. Whereas Israel’s misfortune is attributed to God’s ‘spurning and humiliating’, it is clear that, in fact, God is doing nothing on their behalf. (As we will see, this is a seeming ‘dark side’ of their covenant with God.) In other words, as we have seen in nearly every other psalm regarding God’s judgment/wrath, causality is a very tricky thing to determine. One detects this in the structure of this verse—the first half appears to be an activity by God (“spurned and humiliated us”); however, the second half indicates an utter passivity on God’s part (“do not go forth with our armies”). It is clear from the following verses that it is precisely the absence of God that is so threatening Israel. Which leads to our second point—this section will come to represent the flip-side of the opening verses (the ‘dark-side’ of the covenant). In other words, as absolute as the psalmist was in focusing on God’s activity (to the exclusion of man) in the first section (vs. 2-3) will he be in emphasizing God’s complicity with their downfall in the current section and remainder. As absent as man’s involvement was in verses 2-3 will man likewise be absent in these verses. That said—we must not forget that we are not here reading theological propositions. Rather, just as the past was framed in the way it was in order to highlight the pressing need (the ‘petition’) for God’s activity in the present, so too is the starkness of God’s complicity in the present framed in such a way as to ignite God’s desire to come to Israel’s behalf. This is not a neutral description but a rhetorical tour-de-force aimed at God’s heart. A rift within the unified covenantal relationship has occurred. And, within that rift, these words emerge—with the purpose of healing that chasm. This is why it would be dangerous to abstract this goal from the words employed in order to build a theological proposition. These are dramatic words, not philosophical words. These words emerge not from a certainty as to God’s motive but from an utter perplexity at it. What can be said, however, is that the king and Israel clearly understand their ‘life-blood’ to be the presence of God, and to withdraw it is to subject them to the horrors that will follow (robbery, murder, enslavement and shame); it is as if God’s presence is the only force keeping at bay the pressing force of chaos. Indeed, a hidden/underlying theme of this psalm is the fact that God ‘transplanted’ them to this land and has, seemingly, abandoned them to residing/resident forces, in almost some cruel joke. Of course, the psalmist nowhere contemplates God engaging in such an absurdity; however, he cannot fathom why God has abandoned them.