Ps. 78.19 (mocking God)

And they spoke / against God / saying
“Is God able
to prepare a table / in the wilderness?” 

We now move into the actual dialogue between the Israelites and God. It is, in reality, more a monologue demand.  There is a formal observation to make at this point. Verses 12-16 are ten lines, representing the astonishing action by God on behalf of his family. Verses 17-20 are ten lines, representing the astonishing arrogance of Israel in response to God’s wonders. As argued yesterday, we can see better in light of this observation, how these verses operate like a downward spiral into absurdity. At no point do they praise God; at no point do they enter into liturgical offering; at no point do they do anything but complain and ask for more. By countering God’s ten lines with the Israelites ten lines of rebellion, the psalmist is showing how complete, and depraved, their response is to the wonders of God. While God has been nothing but for them, the psalmist is intent on showing how the Israelites are nothing but against God: “But they continued to sin against him…And they spoke against God, saying…”. (vs. 17, 19). It is as if God waged war against Pharaoh only to find those he delivered waging war against him. This ‘war’ is formulated in the mode of “challenge” and “testing”. The first thing to note about their question is that it resonates very deeply with the words of the wicked found in other psalms. One thing we have noticed throughout the psalms is that often the psalmist can question why God seems to forget his people. This questioning often arises because of the taunting of enemies, tauntings aimed directly at questioning the ability of God to save. The psalmists almost never question whether God can save; they are confused more at why he does not. The wicked, on the other hand, ask whether God has the power to save. This is very much what the Israelites now aim at God. In a type of manipulative manner, they ask “Is God able…”. There are two things to note about this. On one level the question, in context, is completely absurd. God has just split a sea in half to deliver them and then made rivers flow in the desert. That much is clear. And, I believe, that much is clear to the Israelites. On a deeper level, what we see here is Israel employing a form of double-speak. They are literally saying one thing but intend something very different. Again, this type of speech is the speech of the wicked. They speak one thing with their mouths but their hearts are full of something else. The Israelites are not questioning whether God is able; what they are doing is taking into their own mouths the ‘taunt of the wicked’ in order to coerce God to perform a further wonder on their behalf. In its deepest sense, they are willfully and consciously mocking God (just as the wicked mock the righteous). There is nothing sincere or pure in their speech. A final observation (one we mentioned yesterday): in verses 12-16 we saw how God’s provision for Israel was not merely providing them what they needed or could use. Rather, it was abundant and prodigal. It entered the realm of the festive. Here, we see the reverse of that as the Israelites mock this prodigal provision of God by asking for a further display of prodigality—“Is God able to prepare a table in the wilderness?” Notice they are not asking for provision, for what is needed. They are asking for abundance. They are saying to God that, regardless of the prodigal abundance you have given us, we want more.