Ps. 97.8 (Zion hears)

Zion heard / and rejoiced
the daughters of Judah / were jubilant
because of your judgments / O Yhwh.  

 Zion serves as a counterpoint to “those who serve images, and who boast in mere idols.” We have already pointed out how Yhwh’s presence enacts a type of reversal on earth: land, which unlike water is typically stable, ‘writhes before him’; mountains, which are rock and solid, ‘melt before him like wax’. Here, the idol-servers are put to shame while the Zion ‘rejoices’ and her daughter cities are jubilant. This dynamic is reminiscent of ‘the last shall be first’. Standing as the event that inaugurates this Zion praise is the iconoclastic shaming of verse 7 and the subsequent reorientation of all worship to Yhwh.  The point is not to ‘tear down the idols’ and simply leave a vacant space. Rather, Yhwh gathers to himself all glory and becomes the (only, because absolute) center of all worship. From this center-of-worship, the proclamation goes out that the world, and the gods, have ‘bowed down’ to Yhwh; the world is united, because the world is united in worship to Yhwh. That reality is what engenders Zion’s rejoicing, and her daughter city’s praises. The ‘judgment of Yhwh’ has been established; the ‘kingdom of God’ has come. 

There is a profound point in all of this—what Zion yearns for and what she responds to in joy is the reunion of not just the world (‘all the peoples’) but also the ‘bowing down’ of all the gods. The entire realm, from earth to heaven, is her joy. She is truly ‘catholic’ (universal) in this regard. And, deeper still, this catholic joy of hers coincides with the catholic reign of Yhwh. Her desire and joy is engendered by Yhwh’s desire and joy; it stretches to his boundaries as well, and does not end at her borders. 

One final note: in a previous verse Yhwh’s appearing “melts like wax” the mountains. However, what we see here is that there is one mountain that did not ‘melt’—Zion. In many other prophecies Zion is described as being ‘lifted up high above all other mountains.’ Literally, Zion is not the highest of mountains. Yet, what we see here is, again, a type of ‘last shall be first’ enactment within the presence of Yhwh. His ‘home’ takes utter precedence over all the other ‘homes of the gods’ (other mountains). Just as the other mountains ‘melt like wax’ so too do all the other gods “bow down before Yhwh”. This is not ‘mere geography. Or, we might say that this is theological-geography. The created realm has its roots in the divine.