Ps. 50.1 (a day without remainder)

“El / God / Yhwh – has spoken / and summoned / the world – from the rising / of the sun / to its setting.” At the very outset of this psalm we are introduced to speech of God, much as in Genesis. And, as in Genesis, when God speaks things ‘happen’. There, his words actually create. Here, they ‘summon’ the entire world. Furthermore, it is not merely a momentary display of authorial power: rather, his summons is one that gathers the world together for a span of time (“from the rising of the sun to its setting”). The world has, as God’s agent, come immediately to his summons and will hold its attention for as long as necessary for God to complete whatever it is he is about to perform (as we will discover: to (re)create his covenant with Israel). For those who are participating within this liturgical ‘day’, they are injected into this arena of worldly attention; or, rather, they find themselves already surrounded by the summoned world. They are somewhat like actors on a stage, with the world, and God, as their audience. The sense of being ‘seen’ and ‘judged’ will continue throughout the entirety of the psalm and constitutes one of the major themes of this covenantal renewal. Through the call of God, the eyes of the world have turned and focused, intensely and absolutely upon Israel, the congregants, as they begin their liturgy. They are, and will be, the objects of scrutiny. It is a crucial realization: that the creation (or, recreation) of a covenant with God entails, from its outset, this intense sense of scrutiny, of time and creation being turned toward and focused upon those who would (dare to) covenant with God. There is no ‘remainder’ to this day, no mediation. It is God and Israel, standing ‘face to face’. The sense of holy dread will saturate the psalm.