Ps. 95.7c (the present and Today)

Oh that today / you would hear his message. 

We noticed in the previous reflection how, when the psalmist turns to Yhwh’s people, the imagery of ‘creation’ becomes incorporated into the sphere of covenant, that realm of faithfulness. In this realm, Yhwh is man’s, and man responds to Yhwh. It is a space of communion, of exchange. It is a realm, more in keeping with the psalm, of ‘shepherding’, of feeding and protection. Importantly, the psalmist sets up this ‘shepherding’ imagery before he moves into Yhwh’s speech and his desire that his people listen to him. It is important because the “message” Yhwh is about to deliver is an expression of ‘shepherding-care’ for his people. In other words, Yhwh’s ‘message’ is life-giving, in the same way that a shepherd’s concern and care for his flock is life-giving. It does not come upon his people as some externally imposed edict, but, rather, is an expression of ‘his heart’, as it were. We need to further deepen this reflection with the fact that this line appears directly in the middle of the psalm; it is, as such, the ‘hinge’ that makes the first and second part work together. What we see, then, is that the first half revealed the ‘heart’ of the people, as they desired an ever-more intimate association with Yhwh the closer they journeyed to his Presence in the Temple. Their ‘heart’ now swings on this hinge to the second half of the psalm where Yhwh’s desire and heart will be revealed. 

We will contemplate more in the following verses the fact that the people’s ‘fall’ is narrated in this section, rather than in the first, but what we can highlight here is that man’s “liturgy to Yhwh” (the first half) is sealed off from him, if he is rebellious. It is ‘sworn-closed’ (vs. 11), like some ‘flaming, cherubic sword’. In other words, it is not that you simply get an ‘empty liturgy’. Rather, you literally get exiled from its concrete possibility; you become ‘anathema’, unable to partake of the Real Presence. The Today. Within the realm of covenant, time becomes faithfulness or rebellion, blessing or curse, sacred or profane, Presence or exile. It is, as such, more qualitative than quantitative and, accordingly, is not simply a measure of ‘how much’. The ‘time of faithfulness’, the ‘sacred time’, is not a past and a future; it is a perpetual present, a perpetual “today”. The ‘time of rebellion’, by contrast, is an elongated, lost time of futility and frustration; it is a time of ‘forty years’, and is a ‘that day’.  This is important—the ‘time of rebellion’ is not ‘today’, even though it may be the present. In other words, without access to the Presence in the Temple, the present is not ‘Today’. With the Presence, the present enters into (is elevated into) sacred time, a time that experiences no ‘past’, in the sense of loss, but, rather, an ‘always-already’ of every sacred moment. (Sinai enters Zion, and the Voice speaks from the flame…).

Ps. 95.7 (reconfiguring possession)

For he / is our God
and we / are the people of his pastur
the flock / under his care. 

This verse is central to the psalm because it is pivotal. It transitions the psalm from the first section of praise to the second section of admonition. The psalmist does this in an expert fashion, through a shift of imagery and a shift of emphasis. As we have seen, the first section has focused almost exclusively on Yhwh’s role as Creator, from the depths, to the heights, to man. All of this is Yhwh’s, because he has fashioned it. The ‘ownership’, importantly, is Yhwh’s. Here, that emphasis of ‘possession’ shifts, though, from creation to covenant, and in that shift, now man role as ‘possessor’ emerges: “For he is our God..”. This is key. This verse clearly refers to the language of covenant creation between Yhwh and Israel, “For you will be my people, and I will be your God.” . In other words, we are now moving into the creation of Israel by way of covenant election. Within this realm of ‘creation’ we move into the realm of faithfulness, that realm wherein obedience and trust emerge and, hence, ‘commandments’. This type of ‘ownership’ is ownership-as-faithfulness. This is why this verse gathers up the images of ‘creation’ and now moves it into the realm of ‘faithfulness’ (by way of covenant). 

This provides the basis for the shift in imagery to that of Shepherd and flock. And this is really very important for what follows. Yhwh is not often referred to as a Shepherd but a time that he is, is in the context of the Exodus when he, like a Shepherd, led Israel from Egypt to “his pasture”, the Land. This ‘exodus’ was also, importantly, when the covenant was forged. Here, what we see is that Israel remains a flock “led by Yhwh” but they are ‘grazing in his pasture’; they are in the Land, unlike their fathers who never obtained it but were frustrated for forty years and sworn into a permanent exile from it. So, what we see here, is that the psalmist has 1) reconfigured the idea of ‘possession’ around covenant and 2) is now affirming to the people that they, unlike their fathers, are dwelling in Yhwh’s pasture. What this sets up is the following section where: 1) covenant disobedience will lead to 2) exile

Ps. 95.6 (man in Yhwh)

Enter / let us prostrate ourselves / and kneel
let us kneel / before Yhwh / our maker. 

I want to focus on a few things in these verses. The first, is the fact that it is here where the people “enter”. This word is key, both thematically and dramatically. This is the ‘goal’, the point to which the entire psalm and the people have been moving. We should keep in mind that this is describing the entrance into a physical place; it is not a metaphor. They are entering into the sacred presence of Yhwh, in the Temple. This reality (as we have said before) “has an address”, a specific location. Here, ‘space’ is sacred, as elevated into the divine realm, by the presence of Yhwh. This is where, literally, and unlike any other location, ‘heaven and earth’ meet. Here, ‘theology and geography’ as so intertwined as to be inseparable. The full weight of this reality needs to be grasped—the people are, literally, entering into the sacred presence of Yhwh. They are entering into the presence of the One whom they just acclaimed was not only the sovereign over creation, but the Creator of the entire spectrum of creation. It is from him and through him that everything that is, is. His Presence, then, must stand far and above every ex-pression, and enactment, of both creaturely and divine glory. And now, they are entering this Presence. 

A second insight is that this Presence-of-Yhwh is open to them. The Temple itself, and Yhwh’s presence within it, is deeply significant simply by the fact that it exists as a place of communion between Yhwh and his people. It is a place of (communal) sacrifice, festivity and liturgy. It is a place not simply to be approached, but ‘to-be-entered’. Yhwh’s presence is not an object to be observed (i.e., only approached) but a Face (to be entered). His presence as Beauty is not merely attractive (like an object unaware of its observer); His presence as Beauty is an invitation, a calling, a desire on his part for communion with his ‘observers’. In other words, he is a Lover looking for his Beloved. And the Temple-with-its-Doors is the expression of this. 

Which leads to the third point, and how these verses tie into the rest of the psalm, specifically the second half. In the second half, the focus is on how to avoid being ‘like our fathers’ who tested Yhwh and were, consequently, sworn-exiled from Yhwh’s rest. In other words, they could not ‘enter’, as they people are now doing. This realty—that Yhwh’s presence can be ‘closed’, much like Eden was ‘sworn-closed’ with/by the Cherubim—is part and parcel to Yhwh-as-Lover and not Yhwh-as-Object. His Temple as a call-to-communion carries with it the potential of exile, frustration and ‘wandering’. The fact that Yhwh’s presence now ‘has an address’ also means that one could be prevented from obtaining it. The burning heart of all of this is the same as in the Garden—the moral command and obedience to Him. In other words, creation itself is good; that which causes exile (that which wicked) is moral. Which is why, upon ‘entering’ the Temple, what is at focus is obedience and reverence. 

Time and exile. I don’t want to spend too much on this as it will be more appropriately reflected on in regard to verse 8 and following, but we need to note that in the Temple ‘time’ itself becomes sacred. In the Temple, there is ‘today’. Outside the temple, and, particularly, in exile, the people ‘wander like their fathers’ in futility for forty years. This contrast between the ‘today’ and ‘that day’ and the ‘forty years’ is important. Temple-time is of a fundamentally different order than time-in-wandering. It is sacred time; it is elevated time; it is, more to the point, ‘time-in-communion’. In the Temple, both time and space are made sacred by the Presence; simultaneously, heaven comes to earth and earth is raised to heaven. 

Prostration and kneeling. Within this sacred Temple-sphere, where time and space are made sacred, man must bodily acknowledge the tremendum (the overpowering heaviness that accompanies the sacred) he now encounters. Man’s body, too, must conform to the sacred. And, it does so through prostration and kneeling. These acts are not uncommon—they are what Moses does, and what the prophets do (and, what the disciples do) when Yhwh appears. When the sacred-Presence is made manifest, man falls and is overwhelmed. Importantly, however, here it is commanded. This is not inconsequential, as it begins to hint at the commands/warning of the second section of the psalm. There, the fathers who question the presence of Yhwh in their midst, confront Yhwh and challenge/test him. Their attitude is utterly opposed to ‘prostration and kneeling’. They see the ‘form of God as something to grasped’. Here, we must orient all of the above reflections: prostration and kneeling is man-in-the-Temple. It is man physically responding to Yhwh’s presence in deep reverence. By contrast, man-in-wandering is man setting his face against Yhwh in challenge and in testing.  

Ps. 95.4-5 (geographic theology)

The depths of the earth / are in his hands 
and the mountain peaks / are his
the sea is his / he made it
and his hands formed / the dry land. 

On the ‘level one’ reading, we see here Yhwh the ‘Great King’ as Yhwh the Creator, the Sovereign. The scope of his authority is not just vast; it is total. It spans the entire created realm, from the ‘depths’ to the ‘heights’, from the ‘water’ to the ‘land’. There is, I think, in this totality a parallelism as well. The ‘depths of the earth’ are dark, and the realm of the dead. This parallels the ‘sea’ as the force of chaos that is constantly threatening to overcome the land (and, the ‘warring nations’ are often portrayed as ‘breakers’ and ‘waters’). Likewise, the ‘mountain peaks’ are typically the realm of the divine, where the gods would meet with men and establish their ‘homes’ or sanctuaries. This ‘positive realm’ is matched by the ‘dry land’ that exhibits the ‘form(ing)’ of Yhwh’s hands in contrast to the formless/chaotic waters. The point to all of this is that geography is theological. The psalmist is not merely describing Yhwh sovereignty over a material cosmos, but over the entire created realm that stretches deed into the forces of chaos and disorder and up into its height of the divine and form, shape and beauty (it is qualitative as much as quantitative; or, more so). This entire spectrum—this real totality—is the ‘kingdom’ over which Yhwh stands as the Great King. 

Which begins pointing to the second level. As we saw, the first part of the psalm needs to be read in light of the second, where the psalmist gives a very particular historical account of Israel’s failure to heed her king. The consequence of that failure is a type of futile wandering away from his Presence—that Presence being the Temple-in-the-Land. We know, furthermore, that this psalm is a Temple-psalm; one that was sung as the people progressively moved closer to the Temple and its most holy center. The people-in-the-Temple are a people-at-home, a people who are not wandering. This insight is deepened by the fact that the Temple itself is a type of creation (or, creation is a type of Temple), with the ‘holy of holies’ being Eden. Genesis, Exodus and Chronicles make this very clear, as creation constantly echoes in the Temple-establishment stories. In the Temple, Eden was ‘reborn’ as a place where man and Yhwh could ‘walk together’. It is the Temple that provides the interpretation to these verses at this second level. When one ‘hears Yhwh’, and does not ‘harden the heart’, one can approach his Presence in the ‘new creation’/Temple over which he has utter sovereignty over. Here, in contrast to the disobedient father’s hearts, there is no rebellion, testing or disobedience. Rather, everything expresses Yhwh’s mastery, the ‘shaping of his hands’. 

Conversely, there is an implicit warning—if you ‘harden your hearts’ you will suffer exile and, Adam-like, be cast (again) out of the Garden/Temple, with a sworn flaming-sword blocking reentry.

Ps. 95.3 (the great-god-king)

For Yhwh / is the Great God
the Great King / over all the gods. 

This verse is a type of liturgy-to-the-First-Commandment. In other words, the opening verses served as a call to liturgy, to ‘approaching-Yhwh’ in his Temple. They were verse full of the prodigal and festive joy of Yhwh’s people as travelled (literally) closer and closer to him. Here, that ‘joy’ is rooted, or flows from, this primal declaration about Yhwh’s supremacy over all gods. Here, the divine glory that is manifest in ‘other gods’ is (incredibly) surpassed by Yhwh, who ‘reigns’ as the Great-God-King over them all. Here, the command ‘that you shall have no other god beside(s) me,’ is, rather, an acclamation, a shout, a celebration and a song. This is the ‘command written on the heart’, so to speak; when the ‘command becomes liturgy’ (or, honey; Psalm 119 is a perfect expression of Torah-to-liturgy). 

This ‘competitive’ or ‘jealous’ focus on Yhwh is key to understanding in this psalm, as it is likely that it is the ‘other gods’ that threaten to remove the people from the ‘today’ that is open to them and place them in the ‘that day’ that their fathers inhabited. However, the nature of this ‘competiveness’ and ‘jealousy’ is different than we might otherwise think. It is not the case that there is a limited amount of divine glory, and that Yhwh simply ‘has the most’. The following verses will make clear that creation, from the depths to the height, and mankind, are Yhwh’s. ‘Creation’ here embraces the divine realm, as well as the physical order; the ‘mountain tops’ are typically places of divine habitation; Yhwh does not compete for these—he made them. As such, Yhwh does not govern merely a portion of creation (as he would if divine glory were ‘apportioned’). Rather, Yhwh’s Great-Kingship is established by his being the source of creation and divine authority (not being a ‘participant’ within it, as the other gods would). As such, what we see is that Yhwh does have to compete for his people’s hearts, but he does not have to compete with the other gods as if he were but a ‘god among gods’. And, it is precisely this reality that the psalmist and the people are exemplifying—unlike their fathers, who turned from Yhwh and believed his presence/power to be limited, their hearts are attuned to Yhwh’s ‘Great-Kingship’. They have ‘consumed’ the First Commandment, and now live-it-in-liturgy. As such, they live in the ‘today’ that is, in fact, the only day there is.