Ps. 45 (interlude: brought into an everlasting realm)

In one of our previous reflections regarding the nature of “when goods are good” we concluded that “goods are good” when given by Yhwh. If they are not they are subject to the natural vanity of possession and dispossession. When Yhwh gives something, however, he gives it in security and perpetuity. In other words, a good can only be enjoyed as such when it is not in danger of being taken and when it can be passed down ‘from generation to generation’. From our reflections yesterday it has occurred to me that this, I believe, is how a covenant with God operates. It takes natural good and places it into the realm of the ‘everlasting God’ whereby it is enlivened and ‘made permanent’. Likewise, because it is brought under the oath of God it is brought under his protection (and, therefore, experiences the ‘safety’ necessary for goods). Abraham, himself, operates in much this way: once he enters into covenant with God he enters into and is given God’s glory (his authoritarian protection), and his descendants are to be made ‘perpetual’ (a blessing to all nations; as many as the sands on the seashore). What we see, then, is that Abraham himself has become a ‘good’. Likewise, the land itself is a ‘good’. It is something that, ideally, becomes the place wherein God removes all enemies and is something that when given (‘my lot’) is something that can be passed down from generation to generation. All of these carry in them the oath of God (the covenant) of God whereby they are lifted into his everlasting realm and made permanent. This could be furthered in many different ways: the Levitical priesthood, the Temple itself, etc… The point: here in this psalm what we come to realize is that the Davidic king is much the same. The covenant made with David placed him within this same realm and made him, and his ‘house’, the safe and perpetual emblem of God’s reign. Psalm 2 seems to show this fairly clearly with the bringing of the king into God’s realm by way of adoption (or, by way of covenant or, by oath). Within that realm what is natural is lifted up into God’s realm by way of an oath by God and, thereby, made permanent (“everlasting”). A further point, I think, is this—that every Davidic king following David, as his child, receives his appointment by and through his father David (not his immediately preceding father, per se). For it was to David that the oath was made and it is therefore through this covenant that each of his descendants shares in this ‘everlasting’ rule. Just as we are all children ‘of Abraham’. In a sense, to have the faith of Abraham is to, through Abraham, join his family and become one of his children. In much the same way it is with the Davidic kings; it is through David that they find their origin because he was the one through whom the “house” was made everlasting.  A final point, and this will become absolutely key in our psalm---to be the recipient of God’s oath is to become massively fruitful. This is the “perpetuity” of the good. How this manifests itself is manifold. As it pertains to Abraham and as it pertains to David—it is through offspring whereby the original oath is, like a river, broadened out into the children (in Abraham: faith; in David: kingly authority). Of course, as with Adam, this requires and necessitates an Eve; in other words, a bride and ‘mother of all the living…’.