Ps. 69.11-13 (the drunkard's songs)

Those who sit in the gate / talk about me
and the drunkard’s songs / are about me.
But I / my prayer / is to you
O Yhwh / for a time of favor
O God / in your great loyal-love
answer me / with sure salvation.

One of the most troubling aspects of these verses, and those that precede them is the fact that the psalmist is only spoken ‘about’ and not ‘to’. In this manner he has become completely objectified by his community. His identity to them is a mere thing, an object that can be transferred between themselves (either in the gate or the drunkard song), while he, in his person, is entirely ignored. In essence, he has, to them, lost any connection with his reputation. And this severing of one’s reputation from the person is what happens, generally, only upon death; it is when someone dies that they are no longer addressed but only spoken about. The psalmist, like a dead person, has no power or authority to inform or defend what is being bandied about. He is utterly powerless. The resonance with the opening lines should be clear: “Save me, O God, the water is already up to my neck…”. Further, this stripping of the psalmist has taken place among the high (those who sit in the gate) and the low (drunkards). This ‘totalizing’ of his idiocy points to its completely common acceptance among all. He has become completely invisible. Likewise, the ‘stripping of the psalmist’ takes place by and through derision, shame and humiliation. It is the publicity of it that annihilates him. The reference to the drunkard’s song is deeply moving. Even among the senseless the psalmist is nothing but a mockery and buffoon. To become enshrined in drunken verse is, among the absurdities of life, one of the most degrading and shameful. It is from this point of social despair that the prayer emerges. Although the psalmist is entirely spoken “about”, he speaks “to God”. Although he knows of his invisibility and death to the community, he also knows that he has not become invisible to God. To God, he still has a voice, a presence and an “I”. Importantly, he appeals to the power of the divine name. And what he asks for is “a time of favor”. This signals the reversal of the mockery and shame he has been experiencing. And, it is clear that what this means is vindication. He wants his ‘presence’ to infuse his reputation once more whereby he will be enabled to defend himself and, again, have his “I” in the presence of the community. In short, he wants the authority of his own name back by and through a clear act of vindication by God. This public act of vindication will show everyone that God’s power, his “loyal-love”, is in fact on the psalmist’s side. And, it will upend everything. The least will be made the first. Query: in withdrawing his hand from his servant and allowing him to descend to the degradation of the ‘drunkard’s song’, does this not subject everything to judgment such that, at the ‘time of favor’, the power of God’s redemption will be seen as total and authoritative? What I mean is this: assume that God’s salvation is one that always seeks to be publicly displayed (not privately informed), so as to unite the entirety of the community. If that is the case, the complete reversal of God’s salvation would be the shame, humiliation and reproach of his holy one(s). However, in the vindication of these ‘low ones’, the publicity of God’s salvation would be as public as possible. By subjecting everyone to judgment, God accomplishes the pre-amble to his fully public display of deliverance.  When publicity is made central it alters the phrase, “God’s power is perfected in weakness” because this does not mean ‘privately, individually and/or invisibly’. Rather, it means that the righteous one’s suffering of humiliation and shame and degradation are the means whereby the great reversal will be accomplished such that God’s power is made manifest. Clearly, this can’t be taken as an absolute in every circumstance, but it does go some way to re-orienting “shame and degradation”.