Ps. 99.1 (holy terror and discontinuity)

Yhwh reigns / let the people tremble
before the Cherubim-Enthroned-One / let the earth quake. 

It is tempting to say that this psalm exhibits a tension between Israel and the nations. One could, in fact, divine the psalm along those lines with the first section, verses 1-5, focusing on the fact that Yhwh is the king of all the nations while the second section, verses 6-9, focuses on Yhwh as the ‘god of Israel. As tempting as that may be, however, I think it obscures a fundamental point and, in fact, potentially distorts the psalm. In other words, I think there is a very strong continuity between the sections and not a discontinuity. The source of the continuity is, ultimately, in what we have remarke on in the previous reflections: that it is highly misleading to think of Israel as simply a ‘nation among the nations’. Rather, Yhwh’s election of her brought her into his realm of absolute mastery (the realm from which he is the Creator King). As such, her election ‘Adam-izes’ her—making of her the real (redeemed) humanity. She is the beginning of all people’s redemption, of all the people’s ‘Adam-izing’. For this reason, there cannot be a strict separation, or absolute barrier, between her and the ‘nations’. This is the source of the ‘continuity’ between Israel and “all the people”. Israel’s election is not ‘a’ beginning; it is ‘the’ beginning of Yhwh’s redeeming kingship over all people. 

This is crucial to grasp as we begin to contemplate the opening section of this psalm. With it in mind, what we see in the opening verses is not Yhwh’s absolute authority over creation that will then, jarringly, be met by Israel’s particularity. Rather, what we see is a focus on the absolute sphere into which Israel is then elected into. In other words, this is the ‘realm’ into which Israel will expand. She will, as Yhwh’s people, be stretched to the boundaries of his authority (just as Adam and Eve were the single ‘image of god’). This is her mission—this ever-expanding movement into Yhwh’s authority. So, the more deeply she plumbs her election, and looks at the face of the one who has elected her, the more she, in turn, turns out toward the nations (as her neighbor/brother); the more she sees herself as “the beginning” (rather than ‘a’ beginning).   

Here, what we see is that this ‘realm’ is terrifying, and is only to be entered in fear: ‘let the people tremble’. In fact, it is of such a tremendous, that the entire earth “quakes”. What we see is that the ‘human’ and the ‘creation’ react to Yhwh in the same fashion—in a type of holy terror and wonder before him that overwhelms, overpowers and, with immediacy, consumes them. The ‘expansion’ of Israel into Yhwh’s sphere of authority will always entail, at every moment, the holly terror of this opening verse. If there is a ‘discontinuity’ in this psalm is not between Israel and the nations but between Israel (and the earth) and her God.