Ps. 81 (reflection: the sermon)

The sermon. We have already noted the shift that takes place between God speaking about Israel in the third person and his speaking direction to Israel as “you”. We saw that, within this liturgical festival, the past became present—that which was addressed to Israel in the past was being addressed to Israel in the present and that which happened to Israel in the past was considered as having happened to Israel in the present. Here, I want to reflect on how the psalm employs this change in address in another way. Verse 6 speaks of Israel in the third person. From verse 7 through 10 the address is aimed directly at Israel as second person (“you”). The psalm then shifts, in verse 11, back to Israel-in-the-third-person. And then, in the very concluding word of the psalm, Israel is again addressed in the second person. Now, in verse 7 we have a brief recounting of God’s answering Israel’s call which then leads into the commands issued at Meribah. In these verses, in every single line, Israel is directly addressed as “you”. In other words, the commands are utterly present. There is no distance of third-person narration. The commands given to Israel in the past have lost nothing of their immediacy and are just as present today as they were then. It is as if God was again ‘speaking from the flame’ those primal commands. However, in verse 11 the commands end and Israel’s history (and failure) begins. At that point Israel is again addressed in the third person (Israel becomes “they” rather than “you”). Verse 13 through 15 maintain this third person address, now speaking about the blessings that would be bestowed on Israel if they would only ‘hear’ Yhwh. There is, I think, something important to detect in the form we have traced. It is not (only) that God’s commands are eternal. That is true but it is not the focus or the point. Rather, it is that God’s commands represent the perpetually accessible manner by which one accesses God’s profoundly powerful blessing. In other words it is not just obedience that God is looking for when he so forcefully addresses Israel as “you”. It is, rather, the sphere of blessing that he wants Israel to enter into. We saw this yesterday in the aching imploring of God to Israel, “O Israel if only you would hear me!” Later this same sense of God’s deep desire to bless Israel is found when he says that if “Israel would walk in my ways, straightaway I would subdue their enemies…their time would be over forever.” This is why God turns to address Israel directly as “you” in the commands—and why their failure to respond is narrated in the third person (at some distance). Israel needs to be reminded of its failure, but more importantly it needs to be reminded of God’s intense readiness to bless them, to bestow his power on them. One final point along these lines: God’s desire is portrayed as powerfully ready to move on Israel’s behalf. That which separates them from this movement is as nothing (“if only you would listen”). However, Israel’s rebellion is of a different, opposing order. While God’s response would be immediate and total, Israel’s rebellion was drawn out and continuous (“I let them go in the stubbornness of their hearts”). While God’s blessing is ever-present, his ‘letting go’ takes persistence. This, again, is why this portion of the psalm is narrated in third-person. It is not the focus, although it needs to be present.