Ps. 92.12-15 (Pt. 1; garden of Yhwh)

The righteous will thrive / like a date-palm;
grow / like a cedar / in Lebanon.
Planted / in the house of Yhwh
they will flourish / in the courts of our God
They will still bear fruit / in old age
they will still be green / and full of sap
declaring that Yhwh / is upright
my Rock / in whom there is no wrong-doing. 

The king is the Temple builder. The king is also the warrior-protector of his, and Yhwh’s, people. In the garden, this Adam, was assigned these roles. He was both a liturgical person (a priest) and a king (protector). In David and Solomon, these roles are re-ignited. David-Solomon become the protector-conqueror and Temple-builder. Their ‘house’ was erected in covenant simultaneously with the ‘house’ of Yhwh. They both rise (and, fall) together. One serves the other. And, importantly, the king represents his people; he encompasses them. He, Adam-like, “is” his people before Yhwh. If he is ‘struck’, his flock is scattered. If he is blessed, his people flourish. This may seem far afield. However, this emergence of the ‘flourishing righteous’ and the Temple needs to be understood as following the conquering wild-ox of Yhwh. The wicked must be subdued, scattered and ‘destroyed forever’. The ‘weeds’ must be uprooted. The Land must be prepared, cleansed and pacified. Then, in this aftermath of shalom, the righteous can flourish, and liturgy can begin. There is here, the other ‘creation story’ of a battle, of a subduing of the forces of chaos. This is ‘Eden after Eden’, the drama of creation outside the gates. Out here, when Eden is reestablished in the Temple, it will be by way of war (of the ‘taking of Zion’ and Jerusalem). 

What we might see then, in this psalm, is a type of ‘salvation history’. The first section of the psalm never mentions the Temple but only creation. The second part involves the ‘introduction of the wicked’. And now, in the third and final section, the wicked are destroyed and the Temple erected; Eden is restored. There is an important observation here—here, where ‘creation’ involves battle, the establishment of the righteous will carry with it ‘echoes’ of the destruction of the wicked. What I mean is this—the psalm is very intent on drawing out parallels and contrasts between the righteous and the wicked. They are both portrayed as ‘vegetation’; they both ‘thrive’. One, however, follows the ‘natural course’ of destruction (grass withering in the sun) while the other dramatically exceeds that same course (fruit in old age). Further, they both are ‘positioned’ within creation. One, however, cannot appreciate, in a type of failure of aesthetic intuition, the liturgy-inspiring awe of creation (vs. 6), while the other ‘begins and ends ‘his day in praise to Yhwh (vs. 2).  In addition, they are both ‘composed as a group’. However, one ‘scatters’ and perishes, losing its integrity and ‘one-ness’, while the other is entirely unified, consistent and perpetual. This ‘echo’ between the two is what, I think, will later be described as the ‘rain’ that falls on the wicked and righteous alike, or, the need to not pull up the weeds prior to the final harvest for fear of uprooting the healthy plants. For our purposes, what we witness in these lines is the creation-as-cleansing, or creation-as-battle. In other words, the righteous are, truly, ‘created’ (finally), in and through the conquering work of Yhwh’s king. He, in a sense, gives birth to them. And, this ‘act of creation’ as to the righteous people coincides with the establishment of the Temple. 

It is at this point that the dynamic between creation-and-Temple becomes so profound and mysterious. To explore this may take some time. Creation clearly models the construction of the tabernacle by Moses and the Temple by David-Solomon. We have already explored this. In other words, when the Temple-tabernacle is erected, Eden has, in a very real and profound manner, been ‘rebuilt’, or ‘created’. What we need to see now, though, is the drama from ‘creation to Temple’. Creation yearns for the Temple. It is waits ‘in joyful expectation’ for the revelation of the Temple. And, it does so, because in the Temple Creation ‘comes home’; it is again the stage upon which its Creator can ‘walk about in the noonday’. As such, the erection of the Temple and the Davidic covenant, are the birth pangs not only of creation but of mankind. Perhaps it is not that there is Creation then Temple, but that they coincide, creation ‘moves forward’ into the Temple and the Temple ‘moves back’ into Creation. And when this happens, “David-Solomon” as the king-representative of Yhwh’s peole, become the New Adam and, as such, Adam and Man coincide. 

And, here, we come to the most shocking observation of the psalm—the “garden of the Temple”, the “Eden”, are the righteous ones. The righteous are the ‘garden of Yhwh’s delight’. They are entirely portrayed as the vegetation of the ‘new Urth’. They are date-palms and cedars of Lebanon (which were used to construct the Temple); they are ‘planted in the house of Yhwh’; they flourish; even old, they bear fruit; they are ‘green and full of sap’. The Temple is the ‘Branch’, and they are its ‘vines’. 

Now, if what we have said is true—that Creation and Temple merge in some mysterious fashion—then we come to a very deep realization: these final lines display the true nature of creation as utterly and totally empowered by an utterly and totally excessive vitality. In other words, the ‘wild ox’ power deployed in the king, is now seen to be deployed in all of the righteous; that which was granted David has been ‘democratized’ to all the people; they are (better described) a ‘nation of priests’. They have become the wild and uncontainable, lavish and prodigal, festive and unbounded, power and joy of Yhwh.