Ps. 78.38 (the time of compassion)

But / he is compassionate
he forgave their waywardness / and did not destroy them
frequently turning back / his anger
he did not fully rouse / his wrath. 

We concluded our previous reflection on the dominant note of failure in Israel and God’s killing of the men. We pointed out that the killing was the enactment of the covenant structure, as curse, to Israel’s disobedience and was an attempt to instill faithfulness by way of repentance in Israel. It failed, however, as, precisely in the midst of their greatest punishment they continued to sin and rebel; indeed, they attempted to lie and deceive God. If blessing and curse, life and death, did not work, it seemed as if the only option at that point would be total annihilation. It would be to return Israel to its ‘pre-created’ state, as God returned the world to is pre-created state in the time of Noah. Or, it would necessitate the proposed total destruction of Israel and re-creating them out of Moses, as set out in Exodus. The point is that when the instruction of death has failed there are two alternatives: destruction or mercy. This is the position of this verse. Either God “fully rouses his wrath” and “destroys them” or he is “compassionate” and frequently turns back his anger. God chooses mercy and forgiveness. He withholds the full venting of his wrath. There are many things that could be said about this but for now we can point to these. Deserved. What is clear is that God would be acting justly if he destroyed Israel. The flame of his instructional wrath has gone unheaded. When death fails to instruct there is nothing left to do. For that reason, Israel as a whole, in refusing the instruction of death, has opted for their annihilation in death. The wrath of instruction will become the wrath of destruction. Israel has, without question, chosen this. Destruction. We witness here the fact that destruction is not simply an intensified form of instruction. Rather, it is a ‘wiping out’, a complete end, a true and final failure. It represents the moment of irreversible judgment. For God to ‘fully vent’ his wrath is for him to end the ‘time of patience’ and instruction. It is, in this way, a qualitatively different act than the wrath of instruction. It does not lie along a spectrum. Compassion. In the face of this ‘moment of no return’ God enacts his compassion. In a sense he stays in the ‘time of instruction’, a time that is a ‘riddle’ and fraught with ambiguity. More importantly, though, with the clear sense that destruction is fully deserved, God’s choice to enact his compassion is highly instructive. While we described the moment of destruction as a type of ‘end-point’, what we see here is that it may be more accurate to describe God’s mercy as that ‘end-point’. Or, in a way, the ‘time of destruction’ is actually penultimate to the ‘time of mercy’ because when God is presented with the choice, he chooses mercy and compassion. Israel has made themselves into a pure object of destruction but God does not seek their annihilation. This coheres with an observation we have made many times: that God does have an ultimate aim, a goal toward which he moves and, while it involves judgment, judgment is only penultimate to it. The goal is for creation to enter into his astonishing and prodigal presence. What we see in these verses though is a problem about how to achieve this: Israel would have to pass through a flame that would utterly annihilate them in order to enter his presence. They would be consumed. The only alternative, then, is for God to operate in a ‘time of compassion’. Until there can be fashioned a way through that barrier of fire, Israel will live in this ‘time of compassion’ (which will involve God’s wrath, but not the full venting of his wrath (ie., not their destruction)). This insight points us toward the end. David becomes the one through whom Israel will enter into God’s presence. He will be their ‘representative’/king. And, with him, the Temple of God’s presence will be built. He will be, in a sense, a ‘new Adam’ and the Temple a new ‘Garden’. Prior to him, Israel will experience the constant experience of blessing and profound disruption (whether in water, food, land or sanctuary), but they will learn that this time is one of God’s mercy. Formal. A final note on how the psalmist formally portrays what we have been describing. This verse begins with, “But God is compassionate…”. The immediately preceding use of the word “But…” was the tragic verse 36, where it said, “But they deceived him…”. What we see is that in the face of Israel’s deception to him God refrains from their destruction. We could phrase it thus: God attempted to bring Israel back by way of killing their men. Israel feigned repentance, but instead deceived him. God was then fully justified in destroying all of Israel, but he instead acted compassionately toward them. So whereas the reality of Israel is rebellion and deception, the reality of God toward Israel is compassion and a withholding of his full wrath.