Ps. 78.60 (Land and Liturgy)

He forsook / the tabernacle at Shiloh
the tent / where he dwelt / among humanity. 

In the wilderness, when God becomes enraged with Israel’s rebellion, the flame of his wrath devours their strongest men. That occurs in this portion of Israel-in-the-land, but only after God forsakes the tabernacle at Shiloh. The fact that the tabernacle is forsaken first is absolutely key to understanding this portion of the psalm and, more importantly, the conclusion of the psalm as a whole. Several things need to be said about this. First, the immediately preceding verse described God “repudiating Israel”; however, it does not describe that this repudiation actually looked like. It is here that we find out—for God to ‘repudiate Israel’ is for him to ‘forsake Shiloh’, its liturgical center. What this points to is the fact that the Shiloh-tabernacle was, in a very real sense, the life of the community. For God to forsake Shiloh was for him to repudiate Israel herself. We have already seen this when the entrance to the land was described as being brought to “his holy territory’ and “to the mountain his right hand got”. The mountain is the foundation for the territory because the mountain is the “place where he dwelt among humanity”. As such, it is the Eden-power of the territory.  Without the mountain-sanctuary, the land is robbed of its vitality (and, as we will see, its protection). It is as if the king abandons his kingdom. Second, the territory obtains its holiness from the mountain-sanctuary. As such, the territory becomes the ‘dwelling place’ of Israel. So, God’s ‘dwelling place’ (mountain/tabernacle) creates the ‘dwelling place’ of man (territory). Man, in turn, would ascend to God’s dwelling in order to engage in sacrifice/liturgy. This dynamic of dwelling and ascension is the drama of Israel-in-the-land; she mediates between both realms and this mediation provides the vitality of the land. Liturgy is vitality. Here, however, Israel ascends, but to ‘high places’; not to Shiloh. She attempts to bring vitality to the territory by way of idols and foreign gods. Here we come to see something key: the ‘dwelling of God’ has, as its proper goal, the Land. Liturgy is fulfilled in the Land (or, Liturgy finds its deepest realization in Land). While Israel was in the wilderness, it had the tabernacle. But this was ‘en route’ to the Land. It was what allowed God’s presence to travel with them until they reached the goal. When Israel introduces idolatry, we can now see, they are striking at the very heart of this establishment of Land and Liturgy; the Liturgy has finally reached its destination and it is scorned. They are like Adam returned to the garden…and then (re)turning the serpent.