Ps. 92.1-3 (beginning and end)

It is good / to give thanks / to Yhwh
to praise your name / O Most High
to declare your loyal love / at dawn
and your faithfulness / at night
with zither / and lute
with a song / on the harp. 

There are several things that are worth pondering in these opening lines. The first is a structural/thematic point. The psalm is arranged chiastically, in the following way: 

A: 1-4 (praise), 
   B: 5-7; 
     C: 8; 
        D: 9 (the Name-on-High); 
     C1: 10; 
   B1: 11-12; 
A1: 13-16 (praise). 

So A matches up with A1. When we recognize this we see that the psalm begins and ends with liturgy, with ‘giving thanks’ and ‘declaring praise’ to Yhwh. Further, what we also see, from A1, is that this liturgy takes place in the Temple. There are several sub-points to make as to this observation. First, the psalm begins with the righteous praise to Yhwh, then moves into a meditation on the temporal nature of the wicked (vs. 7, and 9-11), and then ends on the praise of the righteous. This structure mirrors the content of the psalm in two ways: the opening emphasizes that praise is offered ‘at dawn’ and ‘at night’. This act is probably in reference to the ‘tamid’ offering that was made in the morning and evening, every day. This is the offering ‘giving thanks’ to Yhwh. As such, the ‘forever’ praise of the righteous at the beginning and end of the psalm literally mirrors the tamid offering at the beginning and end of every day. It also literally encompasses the temporal nature of the wicked. The verses on the wicked ‘pass away’ while the righteous’ liturgy remains ‘forever’, at the beginning and end (and beyond). 

Further, I was tempted to say that everything ‘begins and ends in liturgy’. That is true to some extent. However, it masks an important point—that this liturgy is entirely responsive to Yhwh. Yhwh’s works are the primal, first ‘call’, and then the people respond with an “it is good” (vs. 1). In other words, the ‘beginning and end’ of liturgy is itself embedded within Yhwh’s original and final act of graciousness toward them. There is always a sense in these psalms that man’s response is always embedded within an ‘ever more’ act of majesty and grace by Yhwh. Man’s response to Yhwh is always, in a way, an act of surprise. It is entirely ‘festive’, prodigal and utterly lavish. Man’s liturgy can never ‘exhaust’ Yhwh’s primal act toward his people. In this regard, it will always be (only) responsive (from the beginning and from the end), even when it stretches into a forever liturgy (vs. 13-15; meaning, even if (or, when) man is brought into Yhwh’s forever, man’s forever will never overtake Yhwh’s). 

Finally, it is key to see that this entire dynamic is, in a way, Yhwh’s name enacted in his people. The liturgy to Yhwh is a liturgy to ‘his name’ (vs. 1). As we said last time, the ‘name’ appears exactly 7 times in the psalm, and at the 'beginning', the 'center' and the 'end'. What is important to note about this is that Yhwh’s ‘name’, Yhwh’s presence, is not simply ‘dynamic’, but thunderously so. When his name is enacted, it causes his people to reach into a forever that shatters the normal boundaries of creation; they ‘flourish’ and they ‘bear fruit even in old age, they will still be green and full of sap’. Whereas the wicked follow a ‘natural pattern’ of decay and destruction, the righteous, in the Temple and ‘in the Name’, become, themselves, a party to the prodigal and festive and life-giving power of the Name. In our verses today it is expressed in the language of 'morning and evening' as the all encompassing reality of praise. This exuberant festival is, itself, an expression of ‘the Presence’, of ‘the Name’. It is a perpetual drama, a perpetual communion, and a perpetual and prodigal act of call-and-response.