Ps. 50.6 (Lord of the covenant)

“Then / the heavens proclaimed / his righteousness – for / God himself / is judge.” We indicated in the previous reflection the dramatic contours of the psalm’s opening. Upon further reflection I would like to slightly modify what we said yesterday. Instead of verse 1 being part of the drama I would rather see it as an introductory verse and summary of the entire psalm, much as the opening of Genesis operates. With that proviso the drama actually begins in verse 2 with God “shining forth from Zion”. He then “comes” with a “devouring fire before him” and a “tempest raging around him.” Upon his arrival, he then summons “the world” (vs. 1), “the heavens above and the earth”, in order to judge and act as witnesses to the covenant. At this point, once the entirety of the created order has been ‘summoned’ and ‘called to attention’ God speaks for the first time in the psalm. His first word is “gather”. His covenant partner is now being ‘summoned’ to congregate. The beginning of the covenantal renewal is beginning. It is at this point that our verse picks up. All of the necessary parties are present. And it is here that we come to see that this covenantal renewal is to take place within a court-room type setting. That fact that the ‘world’ is to operate as ‘witnesses’ may have keyed us into this fact, but it is only here where it becomes fully explicit: “Then the heavens proclaimed his righteousness for God himself is judge.” The first thing to note is that the heavens role in this drama is as a witness. Their ‘proclamation’, therefore, while liturgical in some sense is also to be understood as the ‘testimony of the witness’. God, as a party to the covenant, is here, very summarily, deemed to be ‘righteous’. The witness has been made and there will be no further need to ‘justify’ God’s position within the covenantal boundaries. Furthermore, although he is a party to this covenant, he is also its ‘judge’. There seems to be a dual tension emerging here. On the one had God is a ‘party’ to this covenant but on the other hand he stands as lord and judge of the covenant itself. Indeed, the whole impulse of the covenant is to be found in his coming, his summoning and his righteousness. Everything is at his initiative. It is for this reason that we find, I think, this proclamation by the heavens—it establishes the ‘right’ of God to speak in the following verses and serves to highlight that what is about to be said comes from the God of righteousness.