Ps. 102.16 (the time of Lazarus)

Having regard / for the prayer of the destitute
instead of despising / their prayer 

This psalm opens with a call to Yhwh to “listen to my prayer, let my cry for help reach you. Do not hide your face away from me.” This cry embodies the same dynamic found in today’s verse of ‘having regard’ ‘instead of despising’, the ‘facing’/’turning away’ dynamic. Also, we find in verse another important echo: “you will arise and treat Zion with compassion….for your servants regard its rubble with favor.” Here, Yhwh is ‘having regard’ for their prayer in the same way that they ‘had regard’ for his city, Zion. We are, in this verse, entering the dynamic of prayer that forms the ‘call and response’. And it forms a confirmation of something we said earlier: that the servant’s regard for the rubble of Zion is the precondition of its rebuilding because it functions as a type of implicit petition to Yhwh to rebuild it. Here, it is their ‘favor’ that is now answered by Yhwh’s ‘favor’ in responding to them. As we have said before, this is a particular aspect of Israel’s mission—to be the people that maintain favor for Yhwh’s city in its destroyed form. This is their ‘perpetual cry’ that will “at the right time” be heard and resurrection will occur. They keep time moving forward to the appointed time. And at this point we need to emphasize something we neglected in the previous reflections—the rebuilding of Zion is not merely the reconstruction of Zion; it is the return of Yhwh’s glory and name to his people in his temple. It is his re-tabernacling himself among his people. His ‘incarnating’ himself. This return is not merely the return of the object their profound delight (which it is), but it is the re-establishment of his reign such that justice will now be enacted. This is why, for the first time, the psalm mentions ‘the destitute’. The ‘answer to their prayers’ is the return of Yhwh, their protector and judge, who will ‘work righteousness’ on their behalf and ‘lift them up’ out of their destitution. This is more clearly seen in the following verses where he “releases men under the sentence of death”.   

One wonders here whether the ‘time before redemption’ is the ‘time of Lazarus’. What I mean is this—the psalm clearly shows that the psalmist and Yhwh’s servants are now living in the time of the ruined Zion. They are, moreover, living in a time of extreme sickness (psalmist) and injustice (servants). This time, however, is also a time ‘of favor the rubble’, of looking forward to the “right time” when Yhwh will act with mercy. But the question the psalmist asks, and the question that Lazarus’ sister ask, is “why didn’t you come sooner?” Importantly, this psalm offers two perspectives on this question. On the personal level of the psalmist there is no real answer to this. However, from the perspective of Zion, that the psalmist also cherishes, the ‘time of the rubble’ prepares for ‘the time of glory’. It is, in a sense, Yhwh’s allowing Zion to be a place that is only held in favor ‘by his servants’ so that, when it is rebuilt, its glory will unite all the nations and kings of earth. The further into obscurity and death that Zion descends into, the greater the glory of its rebuilding will be. And, this is what happens, on a smaller scale to Lazarus and why Jesus says he waited to come to him. Lazarus is like a mini-Zion in this regard. He is a mini-resurrection of the ‘rebuilt Christ/Temple’. What we find here, then (and this is, to me very profound) is that the Lazarus event does not so much point to Lazarus as it points to the effect of Christ’s resurrection/rebuilding. What happened on an almost mundane level when Lazarus was ‘resurrected’ will happen at a total level when Christ is resurrected/rebuilt. This dynamic is of Lazarus-to-Jesus is similar to the dynamic in this psalm of psalmist-to-Zion. As such, the individual is never just an individual but must find in its own life and death, its incorporation into the life-and-death of Christ. This is the ‘momentum of Christ’ when he, like an undertow, pulls everything into himself, as Zion ‘pulls the psalmist’ into herself.

Ps. 102.13-14 (Pt. 2; servants and nations)

Then nations / will revere / Yhwh’s name
all the kings of the earth / your glory
when Yhwh / has rebuilt Zion
revealing himself / in his glory
having regard / for the prayer / of the destitute
instead of despising / their prayer. 

These verses represent the crux of the psalm, the turn from sickness to healing, from shame to honor and glory. We need to highlight several things in this regard. The first is the relationship between Yhwh’s servants and the nations and kings of the earth. As we saw in the previous reflection, the servants perceive in the ‘rubble of Zion’ the sure hope of its rebuilding and Yhwh’s return. They ‘favor’ Zion, in its destruction, when no other person (nation or king) would. For their understanding of Yhwh leads them to the sure belief that Zion will be rebuilt. They do not love Zion’s rubble because they ‘love brokenness in itself’. They love the rubble because they are utterly convinced that Yhwh will not forever forget the things which are is. The ‘nations’ and ‘kings of the earth’ on the other hand will only revere Zion (and Yhwh) once it is rebuilt. For them, Zion-as-rubble is Zion-as-purely-abandoned-and-destroyed. They see nothing in its rubble. As such, in ‘the time of Zion’s destruction” there are two ‘realities’ so to speak. For the servants, they reside in the ‘sure hope of glory’; for the nations, they look forward to this glory (in some sense) as well but for them they are ‘far from Yhwh’ and are “without hope”. We might say the servants have a deep sense of resurrection, while the nations do not. This is a first insight. A second is that the psalmist describes the nations as also consisting of “kings of the earth”. In other psalms this designation is somewhat negative. They are ‘earthly (as opposed to divine) kings’. And in many they are subject to judgment because of their rebellion against Yhwh. Here, however, when they make their first appearance, they are portrayed in an almost wholly positive light. Even though they were likely the cause of Zion’s destruction, they are here first seen giving reverence to Yhwh upon its being rebuilt. They are, in other words, in the same position as Yhwh’s servants. They have moved “into the same time” as the servants: the “time of glory”. The servants and the nations. This begins to open up a very profound insight as to how the servants and the nations relate to each other. We need to recall that it is the ‘favor of Zion’s rubble’ that is the precondition of Yhwh’s rebuilding and re-inhabiting of Zion. Their reverence was a petition that was answered by Yhwh. As such, we might say, that is their ‘mission’ to the nations. They ‘maintain the prayer’ that will, ‘when the time is right’, be what Yhwh ‘answers to’. In other words, without them, there would be no action at the ‘right time’ (perhaps, no ‘right time’ at all). This is not merely important; it is (one of) the absolutely central and most important mission(s) possible. The servants “keep alive” the very possibility of redemption and resurrection (by seeing (favoring) in the rubble of Zion, its rebuilding).

Ps. 102.15-16 (rebuilding and uniting)

Then the nations / will revere Yhwh’s name
all the kings on earth your glory
when Yhwh / has rebuilt Zion
revealing himself / in his glory. 

What I want to focus on in this reflection is the fact that Zion’s rebuilding coincides with the “the nations” and “kings of the earth” revering Yhwh’s name; later, it will be described as their “meeting together to worship Yhwh.” The image of Zion as ‘ground zero’ for the nation’s worship is not uncommon; what I find fascinating here is the coincidence of its rebuilding and the nation’s worship of Yhwh. This psalm has been centered on the image of healing. For the psalmist, it is from his disease and social isolation; for Zion, it is its rebuilding. In both, the healing that takes place is not purely related to ‘the thing itself’. Rather, when Yhwh heals it he imbues the thing healed with manifest glory, which is a social image of authority and beauty. It ‘shines’. It is, in other words, public. For the psalmist, his healing will reintroduce him into community. For Zion, its rebuilding will be the event through which Yhwh will reveal to the nations his own glory. It will become not merely the city of Yhwh’s servants but of all nations, including the usually described haters-of-Zion—the ‘kings of the earth’. And it is this ‘revelation of Yhwh’s glory’ that will not merely unite the nations, but unite them in praise to Yhwh’s name. Glory and liturgy are wed here. Man responds to divine glory in praise and liturgical worship. The nations, perhaps at its deepest level, can only be united in this moment of divine revelation of glory. We might say—Zion’s healing creates a total or absolute moment, a moment that reaches to the utmost stretches of creation and humanity. Humanity’s ability to worship Yhwh is utterly wed to Zion. This is captured in another psalm, although it does not contemplate Zion’s rebuilding, when it refers to Zion as the “mother of all the nations”. Zion is the ‘woman’ in whom and through whom all the nations will be united in worship of Yhwh. She is, in New Testament imagery, Mary, the ‘mother of all the faithful’. 

And this connection reveals to us a deeper significance: in John, Jesus, on looking at the Temple, claims that if “you tear it down” then ‘in three days I will rebuild it.’ What is clear in John is that the ‘tearing down of the Temple’ and its ‘rebuilding’ refers to the ‘hour’ that he will be lifted up at which time “all people will be gathered to him”. It is, then, of incredible significance that, at the foot of the cross (at his ‘lifting up’) that he transfers the ‘beloved disciple’ into his position as a son of Mary. This is the ‘first step’ of his unifying all people, as it is also the beginning of the ‘rebuilding of the Temple (of his body)’. All ‘beloved disciples’ are made into ‘sons of Mary’ by and through the raising up of Jesus on the cross. And this, as in John and as in this psalm, is the ‘hour of glory’. In John, both the ‘rubble’ of the Temple being torn down and its rebuilding, are coincidental at that ‘hour’. The Cross is, in a sense, the first movement of the son “back to the Father” and, as such, is the first movement of resurrection/rebuilding

Ps. 102.13 (favor its rubble)

For your servants / value its stones
and its rubble / they regard with favor. 

These are significant lines in the context of the psalm, although at first glance they may seem saccharine. I would first back up and quote briefly from Psalm 48: “Walk around Zion, and go all the way around it; count its towers. Consider its fortress, traverse its citadels, so that you may describe it to the next generation. For this is God, our God, eternal and everlasting; he will guide us eternally.” What we see here is a loving, almost lavish, attention to Zion. The focus on its details—on ‘counting its towers’—and the command to ‘commit it to memory’, are the words of a people in the presence of a consuming beauty. This is the radiance of Zion established. By contrast, in our psalm Zion is apparently “in rubble”. And yet, Yhwh’s servants still regard Zion with the same devotion as those in Psalm 48. In fact, we might venture to say that their regarding of Zion’s rubble “with favor” reveals a love of Zion that is even more profound than that in Psalm 48. Moreover, in the context of the psalm, these lines resonate very deeply. Recall that the psalmist’s plight is one of essentially be the ‘rubble’ of a man. His degradation and the collapse of Zion are closely paralleled in many ways. For him, however, his situation only results in social alienation and loneliness.  No one ‘favors him’. I think what we see here is that the psalmist’s sickness and deterioration are manifestations of Yhwh’s abandonment. Curiously, the destruction of Zion was often seen, also, as Yhwh’s abandonment; of the ‘removal’ of his glory and his allowing it to be overrun. And yet, for Zion, even in the wake of Yhwh’s abandonment, it’s rubble is ‘favored’. This remaining love for Zion is clear also in the book of Lamentations. For Israel and Yhwh’s ‘servants’, in other words, Yhwh’s abandonment of Zion and/or the Temple does not result in their abandonment of Zion and/or the Temple. They continue to properly desire Yhwh’s re-inhabitance of both. In other words, they approach Yhwh’s abandonment as an expression of his ‘wrath’ that is always in service of his healing redemption. This is why they never lose sight of his return and why they can regard its ‘rubble’ with favor. This seems to me to be tremendously important—that devotion to the ‘rubble’ of Yhwh is the precondition to its redemption and is an act very worthy of admiration and piety. It is a profound statement of their certainty in Yhwh’s power to redeem. In a sense, the closer they get to ‘the rubble’ the closer Yhwh gets to initiating his ‘rising’ to Zion in mercy. And it is here where we need to point out the use of the word “favor”. The immediately preceding verse describes Yhwh’s action toward Zion as “showing her favor”. Here, Yhwh’s servants do the exact same thing; they “regard Zion with favor”. Their devotion to Zion is an implicit petition to which Yhwh now responds. It is an abiding and underlying prayer that forms the basis for Yhwh’s now ‘arising’ to redeem Zion.

Ps. 102.12 (it is time)

You will arise / and treat Zion / with compassion
because it is time / to show her favor. 

One of the most common elements of complaint psalms is the request that Yhwh “arise”. In many it appears to be reminiscent of the arc ‘arising’ and journeying with Israel into battle. In others, it seems to be simply a request for Yhwh to deliver. In both, however, what we find is that his ‘rising’ is the beginning of action by Yhwh to come to his people’s aid; it is his ‘outward’ movement, his ‘being for’ his people. In the context of this psalm, it signals the shift from his sitting “enthroned forever” to his “rising”. What we find, in this ‘movement’, is not a ‘diminution of Yhwh’, as if he were weak because he is responsive. Rather, what we find is that that terrible, divine power, the ‘forever enthronement of Yhwh’, is now going to be put at the service of Zion; it will now “arise” and move toward her in an act of tremendous compassion. And this ‘rising’ is a temporal moment; it happens; it begins; it takes place in the midst of time. This is why it is so key to hear the psalmist’s claim that that Yhwh will arise because it is time. For the psalmist the ‘time’ of Yhwh’s rising has arrived. The ‘beginning’, the moment, of Yhwh’s redemption has met a certain threshold and will now take place. It is the point in time when redemption will occur, when what is essentially unjust will be made just, when the ‘crooked will be made straight’. 

In tandem with the above insight into the ‘movement of Yhwh’, and in looking forward in the psalm, what we are going to see here is the establishment of Yhwh’s ‘throne power’ on earth in the rebuilt Zion. This is “thy kingdom come” in act of overwhelming redemption and glory. Once this occurs, the ‘arising of Yhwh’ will return to a ‘seated forever throne’, but now the glory that currently surrounds the heavenly throne will be established on earth, in Zion, and manifest to the earth. There is an additional insight to be gained from this and that is contained in the word “show”; “because it is time to show her favor”. This description implies a type of visual act of redemption. Importantly, what we find in the remaining portion of the psalm is a focus on the visual element of Yhwh’s action in rebuilding Zion and its consequent manifestation to the world. At that time the ‘kings of earth’ will revere Yhwh’s glory and Yhwh will ‘reveal himself in his glory’. In other words, Yhwh’s will ‘show favor’ to Zion by rebuilding her and then ‘showing himself’ to the world. Zion’s redemption, then, takes place ‘in public’. She is not rebuilt and redeemed ‘for herself’ alone but to be beautiful ‘emblem’ of Yhwh’s glory to the surrounding nations and people. In other words, she is redeemed as much ‘for herself’ as ‘for the world’. And it is this fully public nature of her redemption that binds everyone together around Yhwh’s redemption and glory. The ‘conclusion’ of Zion’s redemption is “when peoples are met together, kingdoms to worship Yhwh” (vs. 22).