Ps. 78.69 (building Zion)

He built his sanctuary / like the heights
like the earth / that he established forever. 

Zion, Creation and Liturgy. Here we come to verse of Zion and her building. And, we come to the verse that most clearly shows us that the building of Zion is a form of (re)creation; God is making a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ (as Zion represents that place where heaven and earth coincide as God’s dwelling). And this new creation takes on the form of liturgical dwelling. At this point we should point out, however briefly, the fact that the Genesis account of creation and the building of the temple, particularly in Chronicles but also in Exodus (as to the tabernacle), are largely patterned on each other (it matters not for our purposes which supposedly came first). When Moses constructs the tabernacle, it is clearly referring back to Genesis (he gives seven commands and concludes its construction with “It is finished…”). The tabernacle includes within its construction the ‘minerals’ of Eden and its tapestries are meant to model the creation story itself. It seems clear, at least to me, that the more Israel reflected on the tabernacle, the more it came to see creation and the more they reflected on creation the more they came to see the tabernacle. Here, that same emphasis is found when Zion is built “like the heights, like the earth he established forever.” The liturgical dwelling place of God models creation itself. Likewise, in Chronicles the construction of the Temple reaches its completion at the conclusion of many ‘sevens’. On the seventh year, of the seventh month, on the seventh day, etc… The point being, of course, that this is a type of Divine Sabbath completion—that in the Temple creation itself has reached its Sabbath. What is important to note, especially in the context of this psalm, is that Zion is, simultaneously the new earth as new liturgical creation. And this comes in direct contrast to his abandoning of the sanctuary at Shiloh. By tying these two together the psalmist is emphasizing the fact that Zion is not just ‘new creation’, as we see in these lines, but also the liturgical center of the Land, now with its roots being established as deep as creation itself. He built it. One final note to make here is that these concluding lines of the ‘awakened sleeper’ are centered, completely, on God as the actor. Up until the final verse, every action is taken by God and every party is passively receptive to him. Here, Zion is not constructed by Solomon. Like creation itself, God builds Zion. It is a divinely constructed edifice. This, in turn, sheds light backward to his ‘election’ of Zion and Judah and forward to his choice of David. As with Zion, David’s being ‘brought from the sheepfold’ and made king, is an act performed with as much divine initiative and power as Zion (and creation itself). This is why David here becomes something like a new Adam with the new Eden of Zion.