Ps. 76.2-3 (the coming to be)

.  His lair / came to be / in Salem
and his den / on Zion
There / he shattered / the fiery arrow
the shield / the sword / and the battle weapons. 

From the “Renowned One” in Judah we now move back in time and come to see the drama of God as he moved toward this land he dwells in. The first description is telling—the Temple is his ‘lair’. It is a fascinating image for several reasons. First, God is portrayed as that of a lion. More in focus, however, is his ‘lair’ and his ‘den’. In fact, the word ‘lion’ never appears in this psalm, which makes clear that the Temple itself as the ‘home of the lion’ is what is in view. This ties into the first verses emphasis that God is localized in Judah. It is the incredible concentration of his presence in the Temple that makes it, the Temple, the central image. This presence is what turns the Temple into a “lair” and a “den”, the place where the strongest of animals resides and dwells. In this way, we see how the psalmist is playing off of the image of the Temple as the ‘house of God’ by referring to it as the house of a lion—den and lair. By doing so he is pointing to the fact that the Temple is not merely a ‘dwelling’ but a place of extreme danger and power. Further, this den ‘came to be’ in Salem. This active sense of ‘coming to be’ is worth reflecting on as it points to the ‘taking of Zion’ by David—it was in that military conquest of Salem that God’s den ‘came to be’. This points in two directions. The first is that the ‘heavenly Temple’ that Moses saw on Sinai is now finding its home in Salem and on Zion. In this way the ‘lair of heaven’ is now ‘coming to be’ the ‘lair of Zion’: heaven’s authorial power and danger are not coming to reside on earth in a profoundly disturbing manner. Second, this ‘coming to be’, as indicated, is one accomplished by and through God’s son—David (Ps. 2). Through David, and the power of the Davidic covenant, the ‘lair of heaven’ approaches earth and makes its home. The kingdom of man is, in David, the ‘kingdom of God’. And, just as his ‘den’ will be on Zion, so too will he make David’s home ‘in Salem’. God dwells in both—the Davidic covenant and the Temple. His power undergirds and infuses both. Temple and kingdom—they had their genesis together and they circle around each other throughout the entirety of history. It is in this relationship that the next verse speaks of this ‘taking of Zion’ as a type of military conquest—a shattering. When God’s kingdom breaks into the world, through David, the military powers of the kingdoms of the earth are shattered. This points us toward something important and will resonate throughout the rest of the psalm—the utter subjugation of the earth in the face of God’s inbreaking presence. We will note more of this in the following verses, but for now what we should draw our attention to is the fact that God’s presence does “shatter” but its effect is not simply an assertion of power but the destruction of particular implements: the implements of war. The “enemy” is never mentioned, nor “the wicked”. The only things shattered are “the fiery arrow, the shield and battle”. When God’s ‘den’ is established war ceases, and peace begins. In this way the ‘coming to be’ of Zion is the ‘coming to be’ of the end of war, the ‘coming to be’ of shalom.