Ps. 81.4-5 (liturgy and law)

For this / is a decree for Israel
a mandate / of the God of Jacob
that he appointed / as a testimony in Joseph
when he / the God of Jacob / went out / against the land of Egypt. 

The mandate; a lovely thing. The first six lines of the psalm are addressed to Israel, mandating that they enter fully into the festival. Here, the leader provides the basis for the festival and he does so in a manner similar to the opening lines. There, in six lines there were five directives that, in many ways, amounted to the same thing. Here, in four lines, the psalmist says much the same thing three times. The basis of the festival is God’s “decree”, “mandate” and his “appointed testimony”. This repetition is important. What I think we find here is the same exuberance as is contained in the opening lines. This is crucial and points back to something we said yesterday. The fact that this festival originates with God—that it is founded on his ‘decree’, ‘mandate’ and ‘appointment’—makes it a source of profound joy. The festival is more a response to a call than a call that originates with them. This is why the psalmist repeats himself when describing the origins of the festival—the “call” (the ‘decree’, ‘mandate’ and ‘appointment’) is a lovely thing that is fulfilled in their response (the festival itself). What this means is that liturgy does not begin with us but with God. (This is the fundamental difference between a religious ‘service’ and liturgy.) 

Liturgy and law. The festival carries with it the same force of the law. Law is not just ethics; law is liturgy as well (which should not surprise us as a vast amount of the law is concerned with proper liturgical actions). In fact, it may be said that liturgy grounds the commandments. When God originally mandates that Israel be freed from Egypt it is in order that they be able to ‘offer him service’ (which is a liturgical term). Likewise, when they are given the law they are made into a ‘nation of priests’ (liturgical officers). They are ‘made holy’ in the same way that liturgical objects used within the Temple are made holy. Obedience, in this sense, is a type of liturgical act (a ‘becoming’ or enactment of a liturgical object): if law is rooted in liturgy, then obedience is a response in the same way that this festival is a response to God’s ‘mandate’.