Ps. 92.9 (your enemies)

For lo / your enemies / O Yhwh
for lo / your enemies / will perish
all the evildoers / will scatter. 



These lines, seemingly rather straightforward, conceal a depth. This is the first mention of ‘enemies’. We have seen ‘idiots’ and fools, and we have seen the wicked and evildoers, but we have not yet encountered what appears to be those who are actively arrayed against Yhwh. Importantly, however, these ‘enemies’, in the final line, become ‘all the evildoers’, a phrase that has already appeared in verse 7. Further, as we have already seen, verse 7 is chiastically related to verse 9. Structurally, they mirror each other. And so structurally and linguistically, it appears that these ‘enemies’ are the same as the ‘wicked’ and ‘all the evildoers’. 

But here is the important point. These ‘enemies’ are described as “your enemies”. By contrast, the wicked and the evildoers are not a limited class of people—it is all of the wicked and all of the evildoers. In other words, all evildoers and all wicked people are ‘enemies of Yhwh’. What appears to be a limitation, “your enemies”, is quite the opposite; Yhwh’s authority coincides with ‘all of humanity’. This is absolutely crucial to grasp. Generally speaking, the expression of a person’s ‘will’ or ‘judgment’ is only as expansive as that which he has authority over. It only extends to a particular class or group (I own “this” car, not “cars”; the king has authority over “his” people, not “people”; I have “a son”, not “all sons”; etc…). Here, however, in Yhwh it is the opposite—his ‘possession’ is not limited to a subgroup. Here, Yhwh’s will or judgment actually coincides with the boundary of humanity; or, we might say, his authority and will is the boundary; he is not bounded; he is the boundary. To be wicked, or to be an evildoer, is to be an enemy of Yhwh.

And this psalm portrays why this is the case in two ways. First, the psalmist affirms Yhwh as Creator. And, as Creator, creation itself coincides with his will, because it is an expression of his will. From the ‘exceedingly deep’ (vs. 5), to the height (vs. 8), from morning to night (vs. 2), everything is encompassed by him; he is ‘the surrounding’. Second, Yhwh is the One-On-High. He is not only Creator, but King, Governor and Judge. What this means is that Yhwh is not only Power-As-Creator but he is also Power-As-Moral-Center. His power coincides with his judging authority. Yhwh is not ‘first’ Creator and then, secondarily, judge. Rather, these qualities coincide in him. His presence is one of Creator-Power and Judge-King. 

All of this, however, needs to be properly framed. These ‘enemies’ are, in fact, a subset or group. They are the ‘rebellious’, and they are, themselves, encased or, enframed, by “the righteous in liturgy to Yhwh”, the “ekklesia” (as Chronicles would put it) or, the “church” (as the New Testament would put it). In the end, rebellion is always something (in some fashion) contained within righteousness; it is always penultimate to the ultimate banquet of Yhwh. And this is key—because the ‘boundary-that-is-Yhwh’, is a boundary of extravagant joy and gladness. It (…He) is a nuptial boundary. As the ‘enframing’ of Scripture itself testifies—all of creation and history is enframed by a wedding (Adam and Eve in Genesis, to God and His Bride in Revelation). This is always the ultimate, final, boundary. And it is from this boundary that the ‘inner’ group of rebellion must be observed.