Ps. 66.8-9 (praise among the living)

Bless our God / o peoples
and let / the voicing of his praise / be heard.
He is the one / who keeps us / among the living
who has not / let our feet slip. 

It is worth recalling that Sheol is the land from which no praise of God can be had. Indeed, even his name is forgotten there. In many other psalms the one who asks to be redeemed from Sheol attempts to move God into action by reminding him that “only the living praise you”. Sheol is the land of those “who slip”, who die suddenly, die in angst and not at peace, in sickness or war; it is for those who are “cut off”. When one is given a vision (or, transported) of heaven, by contrast, it is, entirely, liturgical and full of praise. The point that we have made in the past is that “life” and “the living” is the sphere of praise. It is, in some way, the act of praise itself. Here, the recurring image of “feet” is important. Previously, it referred to the feet that walked through the parting of the ‘sea’. Here, it refers to the feet that are walking among the living. In both, what we find is that “He is the one who keeps us among the living.” In this way, the Exodus itself became an act whereby God did not let his people’s feet “slip into Sheol”. And, most importantly, the purpose of the Exodus was not freedom but liturgy. When Moses first confronts Pharaoh he asks that his people be allowed to leave not permanently, but only so that they may engage in liturgy to God. And we find this to be the case—Sinai is (one of) the supreme liturgical event(s). All of this points to the fact that, as we see here, the resurrection power of God’s redemption is one that is aimed at this public “voicing of his praise”. To be redeemed by God (to have one’s feet kept “from slipping”) is to be planted in the soil and ground of liturgy