Ps. 65.2-4 (revelation of the sons of God)

O Hearer / of Prayer
unto you / all flesh may come!
When sinful deeds / overwhelm us
pardon / our rebellious acts.
How blest is the one / whom you chose / and bring near
the one who dwells you’re your courts.
May we be sated / with the goodness / of your house / your holy temple. I

n light of yesterday’s principle (that the psalm is most beneficially placed in its context when read from the end to the beginning), we can some very tentative, but provocative, insights into these verses. First, this section is clearly concerned with the removal (or cleansing) sin and the consequent ‘blessedness’ that results from it due to dwelling in the Temple. This movement from alienation from God to ‘dwelling’ with God embodies the same dynamic that will be encountered later in the call for a blessing on the land—the land will move from a state of nakedness (infertility) to that of being ‘clothed’ with life (flocks and agricultural). The whole objective of the psalm is to aim at this goal: to coax God to ‘visit’ the land. With that mind, what we see is something very reminiscent of the garden of Eden: that man’s sinfulness has an effect upon the land (there, in cursing; here, in (likewise) infertility). And, in order for the land to be prepared for God’s ‘visitation’, man must have his sins removed. There are two further points to this: now, the removal of sin occurs in the Temple (a type of new Eden). It is there that “all flesh” must come to have its sins removed. Likewise, just as ‘total’ as “the land is” are those who come to the Temple for removal of their sin: “all flesh”. There is an absolute or total vision to this. We are not to see here merely Israel, but the entire world coming to Zion in order to have their sins removed…in order to have the entire earth be cleansed and ready for God’s visitation. This is truly “Adamic” (human) in scope. This is absolutely crucial when these two insights are combined: Zion is not merely the ‘center’ or ‘navel’ of the world; it is not only the well-spring or foundation for all vitality that the world experiences; Zion is the central place for all humanity to come in order to have its sinfulness removed so that the world can be “put to right” and experience its release from the bondage of curse. (There is, in this, almost something latently tragic about the Temple/Zion…). There is more: when the removal of sin takes place, the psalm immediately shifts to ‘dwelling in the Temple’ but it prefaces it with “those whom you chose and bring near”. This phrase is priestly; those whom God “chooses and brings near” are priests, and it is they who “dwell” in the Temple. And yet, in this psalm, that ‘priesthood’ has been expanded to “all flesh”. Perhaps what we are to see is this: the original call to Israel was to be a “nation of priests”. They were to be the elder-brothers/priests to the entire world; they were to be the mediators for the nations. It was only after the disaster with the ‘golden bull’ that a priesthood was put in place that isolated a sub-group of Israel and gave them this blessing. Here, though, there is, in this prayer for world-wide blessing, a sense that all of mankind will come to enjoy in this priesthood. All will “be called and brought near” and all will “dwell in God’s house”. When that occurs, the entire earth will be, in the words of Paul, “released from its bondage” and cease its groaning in expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. And, again, all of this must (must) take place in and through the Temple (or, the new Temple…).