Ps. 84.9 (behold the king)

Behold our shield / with favor O God
and look / at the face / of your anointed. 

In a previous reflection we noted how, in the presence of God in the Temple, the ‘observer’ (the pilgrims) became the observed (by God). Within this gaze, petition and dialogue began. The psalmist began his petition with an appeal to God’s hearing (“hear my prayer…give ear”). Now, however, the emphasis shifts to sight: “behold our shield…look at the face…”. This shift is important in the context of this psalm. We need to recall the overall centrality of vision throughout: the dwelling place is beautiful, he yearns for the courts of Yhwh, the psalmist sees the birds who nest ‘near your altars’, a valley turns into an oasis. Further, as noted above, when the pilgrims finally arrive at the Temple, they are described as ‘appearing’ before God in Zion.  We have noted that this emphasis on the visual points in many ways to the objective sacred space of the Temple—it is a place elevated into and shows forth the presence of God. All of this is important, I think, as we contemplate this verse: now, within the Temple, the petition sought is more centrally about God ‘seeing’ the pilgrim’s king (their ‘shield’) and God’s anointed. The thrust of the psalm, up to the entrance into the Temple, has been one of the pilgrim’s observation—the pilgrim’s ‘beholding’. It has been, in other words, what the pilgrim has seen. Now, in the Temple, the greatest blessing is on what God beholds and sees. There is an obvious and important difference between the two. The pilgrim’s observations are rooted in his deep sense of their beauty. It is not, however, in itself transformative. For God, though, his ‘beholding’ is a blessing; it ‘saturates’ and transforms. What is clear in this verse is that the psalmist is not merely asking that God ‘look at’ the king but that his ‘beholding’ be one of ‘favor’ and one that empowers him in his role. 

Perhaps most important, though, is the fact that when God “looks at the face” of the anointed they will, by implication, be standing face-to-face. This is crucial as it is the posture that (it is often said) only Moses was afforded. To stand face-to-face with God is not merely to ‘see god’ but to be firmly and deeply established as the source of unity for his people (it is to be profoundly ‘missioned’). And this deep rooting is premised on a personal encounter and exchange between the observer and God, whose intimacy can only be gestured at (an intimacy that is ultimately a reflection of the Trinitarian gaze). As such, the ‘intermediary’ role of the king is not to be understood as a type of ‘blocking’ of God and his people—rather, the king’s face-to-face encounter actually reveals the intimacy of God. 

The Shield, the anointed. The king is described as ‘our shield’. Importantly, God is, in verse 12, “Sun and Shield”. What we see here is that the king operates as a type of mediator between God and his people—he, as an ‘image of god’, establishes within God’s people God’s own power. This intermediary role is seen in this verse in the fact that the king is ‘possessed’ by both the pilgrims and by God: he is “our shield” and “your anointed”. The king, in a way, resembles the Temple itself (as the place where heaven and earth meet).