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).