Ps. 86.13 (liturgy and the place of remainder)

I promise to thank you / O Lord, my God
with all my heart
and glorify your name forever
because of / your great loyal-love for me
in that you will / deliver me from Sheol’s lowest part. 

There are several things to note in these verses. The first is regarding the ‘all-thankful-heart’. We already noted in the previous reflection on how the nations and the heart are ‘united’ around Yhwh’s name. The first, by way of a sign, the second by way of “Yhwh’s way”. Here, there is another play on the nations-and-the-heart. When the nations congregate in liturgy, all of them ‘glorify your name’. There is no remainder. The psalmist has a vision of an entire world-wide assembly offering liturgy to God. Here, that totalizing and absolute devotion is made present ‘in the hear’. Just as the nations ‘arrived’ so too now does the heart, in its totality, ‘arrive’ (pour itself out) to Yhwh. And, just as the nation’s ‘arrival’ found expression in “glory to the name” so too does the heart’s totality find expression in ‘glory to the name’. The nations and the heart are like some ‘whole burnt’ offering, to the glory of the name. 

Second, there is a few dynamics at work in these verses that we have seen before—that deliverance by Yhwh places one within the realm of liturgical ‘thanksgiving’ while Sheol, by contrast, is a place of liturgical silence. Another dynamic is found in the ‘forever’ of thanksgiving and the ‘lowest part of Sheol’. It is interesting that one involves time—‘forever’—while the other involves location—‘lowest part…’. I think, in part, what we see here is that ‘forever’, in the sense of perpetual and enduring time, is often matched with the presence of God. Sheol, by contrast, is more of a ‘never’ time than a ‘forever’ time; it is empty, while God’s presence is full. Further, Sheol is always depicted as a pit, a place of descent and darkness. Putting these together we get a picture of deliverance that involves a ‘forever liturgy to God’ (in life, in the Temple perhaps) in contrast to the ‘silence of deep-Sheol’. We might further say that if the vision here of the unified nations and unified heart is one of total outpouring to Yhwh, without remainder, then Sheol is the place of perpetual division and injustice. Sheol is the ‘place of remainder’, that which is not incorporated into liturgy to God’s name. Right now, the psalmist stands between these two poles, but sure that Yhwh will hear his petition and his ‘loyal-love’ for him will lift him out of Sheol and into the realm of ‘forever thanksgiving’.