Ps 110 (Seeing the Messiah, Part Two -- Nation of Priests)

If the previous reflection described the people of the Master as the kingdom of Yhwh, then here, in this second reflection, we can describe the Messiah as constituting his people as priests. What is interesting, though, is that the imagery from the first section continues—the imagery of establishment of order through the destruction and suppression of enemies. Why then Melchizadek? Why a priesthood?

We have already referred to the unity that Adam lived in, when he walked in the Garden. He was both a priest, who was to protect the inner sanctuary and “till” it. He was also a king, though, and in that capacity he was to protect it from external threats. Moreover, as king, he would enlarge the Garden such that it would spread across the cosmos—turning all of creation into a Garden Temple by and through his participation within Yhwh’s ongoing act of creation and the taming, shaping and making fruitful of the deep Chaos. All of this, however, shattered when Adam and Eve listened to the Tempter. Their unified roles and king and holy-mother fell into so many pieces. The rest of salvation history is Yhwh’s rebuilding these pieces, step by step, shaping Israel into the Adam-and-Eve-of-Yhwh. Seen as a corporate body, Israel would have a king, would have a temple and would have priests. But these were separate institutions for most part.

Here, the psalmist sees in Melchizadek this bright spot of Adam’s original unity. He was the unified priest-king. And, importantly, he was the priest-king of Salem (which would later be Jerusalem). The resonances with David are deep, both in the Melchizadek scene in Genesis and in this Psalm. The psalmist clearly wants his readers to see the priest-king of this psalm as being a son of David and the inheritor of his perpetual covenant with Yhwh. But, by aligning this with Melchizadek, the psalmist is pointing to something more. There are resonances in the Scriptures of David performing priest like activities, but they are subtle and never made too explicit. In this psalm, however, the priestly function of the king is brought to the center. It is unavoidable. What I believe we see here, then, is something like a second Adam in the future realization of this priest-king. The First-King and the First-Priest are merged together this future Priest-King, this future Second-Adam. And, in this, the face of Christ begins to surface.

This Second Adam’s relationship to Yhwh will be so intertwined that his ‘day’ and Yhwh’s ‘day’ will become the same. In Christ, this “day” becomes absolutely wed together. The same “day” that Christ becomes the Priest-King is the same “day of Yhwh”—the ‘day’ and ‘hour’ of Christ’s crucifixion, and his consequent resurrection and ascension. That entire momentum is the great key that turns the ages, such that, even now, does the New Day begin to dawn. Remarkably, though, in this psalm, the act whereby the Second Adam destroys the kings is his own destruction and death. Revelation (and Paul) all recognize this. Revelation by putting a lamb that was as if slain on the Throne. Paul, by his continuous emphasis on ruling in the Spirit through cruciformity. Hebrews will see Christ’s becoming the High Priest in his Ascension through the Heavens and into the Heavenly Temple; it is then that he will be a forever priest like Melchizadek.

In all of this, we see the way in which, through Christ, he creates a nation of priests. This phrase—‘nation of priests’—is important in the Old Covenant because it is used prior to Sinai to describe Israel. However, after Sinai, when the Levitical priesthood is established, the term largely drops out. In the New Covenant, the term reappears, and is applied to the Church, the Bride. Through Christ, then, the ‘nation of priests’ is re-born, but now through the High Priest in the order of Melichazadek—a priesthood that existed prior to the Levitical priesthood.

Just as in the first part of the psalm, Christ’s Priestly role is apportioned out to his people. Through his Spirit, they are united and participate within his priestly reign. They become re-Adamized, in the Second Adam.

Ps 110 (Seeing the Messiah, Part One--The Spirit and Unity)

Seeing the Messiah

  

The Master is the fountainhead. And he is made into the fountain by Yhwh’s oracle to him which places him on a throne next to him so that he, the Master, can participate within Yhwh’s sovereign rule over the cosmos, within Yhwh’s prodigal and life-giving power of the chaos of the nations. He, the Master, is the Field. The one in whom Yhwh will sow his seed so that it

In the book of Revelation, we are transported to the heavenly throne where we see, sitting (somewhere), a lamb as if slain, but a lamb that has the voice of a lion. Around this single throne are twenty four other thrones on which the elders sit. This image of the twenty four elders is likely a reference to the Church, as it rules in heaven. The new Jerusalem has gates bear the name of the twelve tribes and the foundation walls bear the names of the twelve apostles. What is important for our purposes is this image of the one Throne through which, or in which, the twenty four thrones participate. They derive their ruling authority and power in, or through, the Throne. Revelation does this also through the image of the scepter. Christ speaks to the angel of the church of Thyatira and tells them that if they are victorious they will rule with an iron scepter. This ‘scepter’ is in reference to Psalm 2 and the scepter that, importantly, Yhwh grants to his David, very similarly to Psalm 110. What is important is that we see how this One Scepter is now apportioned out to all who are victorious. Like with the Throne, the ‘victorious’ participate within the Scepter.

Psalm 110 begins with image of the single master, sitting ‘enthroned’ next to Yhwh. But, crucially, this divinely powerful act of enthronement is manifested in and through the unifying of the multitude of ‘volunteers’. That is the ‘internal’ way through Yhwh will “make your enemies a stool for your feet.” The master becomes the fountain of unity through which Yhwh will gather together those who will destabilize the nations. They become the ‘scepter of Yhwh’.

So what we see here is a ‘portioning out’ the power of the master and vesting it within the volunteers. And, in so doing, they become a divine army, Yhwh’s scepter, a divinely constituted ruling authority pouring over the earth. This divine empowerment, this divine ‘apportioning out’ of the master’s oracle-power, is the Spirit. The Spirit is what is given from Yhwh and the Master to the volunteers and it is the Spirit, therefore, which makes them into ‘little-Masters’, ‘little-Christs’. It is the Spirit, as the unity between the Master and Yhwh, that divinely unites the ‘volunteers’ beneath the Master. The Spirit does not simply unify, he is Unity. He unifies the volunteers so as to unify the cosmos; he brings everything within the ambit and authority of the Master, who is, himself, unified to Yhwh. It is because of the Spirit that this unity is not competitive. The apportioning out of the Master’s authority to the ‘volunteers’ (or, to the twenty four as in Revelation), is an act of divine, and therefore infinite, power. Nothing competes with Infinity. It can only participate within it and, through that participation, moves infinitely into the Infinite. Further up and further in. This ‘unity’ therefore is not ‘static’. It never ‘arrives’ and then ceases. It always-already is moving not just further up and further in but closer and closer.

Ps 110 (Part Four: The Stream)

There are a lot of similarities between Psalm 2 and this one—the rod or scepter that shatters kings, the ‘wide world over’; the reference to the king’s anger or wrath as a means whereby the nations are made subjects to him and Yhwh; the close connection between Yhwh and his son/king. As we saw, though, psalm 1 and psalm 2 should likely be read together. In psalm 1, we see a reference to Torah as a running stream, and one by which the ‘wise man’ is planted and from which he drinks. By this drinking, his leaves and fruit are made perpetual. Torah imparts to the wise man the perpetuity and stability of Yhwh himself. Here, something similar happens in the concluding verse, which is likely an echo of the Gihon river—the king drinks from this stream, which is understood as being a type of sacramental drinking of Yhwh’s divine power. In a sense, this is what makes the priest-king, the priest-king that he is. It is also intriguing in that this priest-king is perpetual, in the same way that the tree is of Psalm 1. It’s a profound thing—that this priest-king would imbibe Torah, in perhaps a unique way, and in so doing somehow bring it to a completion in his own person by it making him into a perpetual priest-king. This internalizing of the Torah is what enables him to be the king who not only brings peace to the world by his demolition of his and Yhwh’s enemies, but he would also be the ‘wise’ king who could then internally organize this established, liturgical empire. He would not just rule, but rule justly, thereby bringing about Yhwh’s own divine wisdom and ordering. Moreover, as a priest, he would also drink in the Torah proscribed modes of liturgical worship. He would therefore also be able to bring about a holy worship, a pure and perfect and spotless liturgy to Yhwh. In him, righteous and peace and liturgy would unite and spread across the cosmos.

Ps 110 (Part Three: The Day)

                The Lord / on your right / shatters

                Kings / on his day of anger

                He executes judgment / among the nations

                Heaping up corpses

                Shattering heads

                The wide world over

                He drinks / from the stream / beside the road

                Therefore he holds / his head high

Who is who? The psalm opened with the king being enthroned on Yhwh’s “right”. But here, when the psalmist contemplates the king as a priest, the “Lord” is on the right. The only person “on the right” in this psalm is the king, but are we to see him as now “The Lord”? The “he” of the following verses would indicate it is the king. It is difficult to picture Yhwh as “drinking from the stream” and therefore “lifting his head high”. The middle portion works either way—with either Yhwh shattering the kings’ head or the priest-king.  Or, is the “right” here just metaphorical, a position that Yhwh is often seen in when he protects his chosen ones?

I think the psalm is intentionally fusing the two together—the priest-king and Yhwh. In the first part of the psalm, the oracle is delivered, and then it says “your (king) strong scepter will Yhwh (Lord) extend from Zion, so that you rule your enemies around you.” The scepter is the ‘kings’ but it is Yhwh who “extends it”. The two are seen as “working together” in some fashion. Then, “your people will volunteer on your (king) day of power.” In this second portion of the psalm, the two are fused together—the Lord-and-priest-king shatters “kings” on “his day of anger”. It is both Yhwh and the king who shatter and it is both Yhwh and the king’s “day of anger.”

Doing this analysis is important because of a profound point that emerges. The prophets always look forward to the “day of the Lord”. It is a day when the Age changes. When Yhwh turns the ages from old to new and establishes his justice and Israel. But, here, that “day” is now the day of both Yhwh and his priest-king. It is as if Yhwh, in the king, and the king in Yhwh, turn a great key that turns the ages, like some great clock. Their intimacy is so profound that the psalmist fuses them together in this second portion of the psalm. What was very closely wed in the first part is now “one flesh” in the second. 

This is why, I think, the reference to Melchizadek was made—this is not simply David, although he will come from David. This psalm is looking forward to a future priest-king. One who will be after David because he was before David. One who will fulfill the Davidic covenant of establishing a perpetual kingship, but who will fulfill it as, also, a perpetual priest. Of course, David is not from the tribe of Levi, so this future priest’s authority must arise from a different authority or priesthood. But, crucially, the psalmist looks backward to a time when the priesthood and the kingship was united—in Melchizadek. This future priest-king though will, arguably, exceed his authority, because he will only be “on the pattern of Melchizadek”. The momentum of this psalm, and its unity of Yhwh and the priest-king in their actions and their “day”, is toward a king who will be the glory of Yhwh, his perfect image.

Ps 110 (Part Two: The Oath)

Yhwh / has sworn

An irrevocable oath:

                “You are / a perpetual priest

                On the pattern of Melchizadeck.

The psalm began with an oracle. It now shifts to an oath. The oracle made the master into a vehicle for Yhwh’s sovereign power to cover the earth. Here, it designates the master to be a perpetual priest. The oath speaks to David’s covenant with Yhwh—in that it is irrevocable and because it is perpetual. What we see here, then, is that this psalm allows us to glimpse how the Davidic covenant was to participate in, or echo, Melichizdek, who was the first priest referred to in Scripture and, not surprisingly, the priest-king of Salem, where David would later rule and call Jerusalem. 

Why this combining of king and priest? The answer must lie, at least in part, in Adam. With Adam, the image of priest and king are absolutely wed. He is to be a priest to conducts liturgy in the Garden and he is also supposed to be the king who protects the Garden. Adam and Eve were then supposed to have children who would carry forward this mission of brining the Garden to the world, thereby perpetuating Yhwh’s act of taming the chaos and turning it into creation. However, Adam failed and in his failure the roles of priest and king were divided. What was unified in him became splintered and Israel’s history can largely be seen as Yhwh’s attempt to re-unify what Adam broke into pieces—through prophet, priests, kings and Temple. In Melchizadek, though, we see a glimmer of that original creation. He is a priest-king. And he is the priest-king, importantly, of Jerusalem where Zion is located. We know that Yhwh will extend the master-king’s scepter from Zion. Importantly, we also now know that this master-king will also be a priest like Melchizadeck. In other words, the pieces that Adam left in parts are being rebuilt.

And, crucially, they will be rebuilt, not from the Aaronic/Levitical line (the Mosaic), but from David’s line. It is clear that this priest will, perhaps because he is also a king, be superior to the Levitical priesthood. When Yhwh’s reign truly begins to pour over the edge of Israel, when the kingdom becomes empire, it will become, in this priest-king, a liturgical empire. Right liturgy (priest) and right order and justice (king) will be united under this single Priest-King, from which peace (salem; Jeru-salem) will emerge. The Mosaic covenant will be sidelined in favor of the Davidic and, notably, the Abrahamic covenant, because it was Abraham who approached Mechizadek and gave him a tithe. And it was Melchizadek who approached Abraham with “wine and bread”.

Ps. 110 (Part One: The Oracle)

Yhwh’s oracle / to my master:

                “Sit enthroned / on my right

                Until I make / your enemies

                A stool / for your feet.”

Typically, when a prophet speaks, he speaks Yhwh’s words to the people. Jeremiah, Amos or Isaiah would proclaim, “Thus says the Lord…”. The oracle, or prophetic word, proceeds from Yhwh, to the prophet, and then to the people. The “word” is then meant to shape the people, to mold them in some fashion, after Yhwh’s own heart. In a way, the prophet is a type of tool, used to fashion to people. If we compare the oracle to a seed, Israel is the ‘ground’ it is to be planted within and grow to a harvest. The prophet is a type of seed bearer. He is not (in this way) the field.

But, that is not what happens here. Here, Yhwh delivers the oracle to “my master”. He is the goal. The oracle is meant for him. It is meant to shape him in a particular fashion. The oracle is more closely identified with him, in particular. As Yhwh’s king (or, image), he is a type of Adam-of-God. He is the field because he is the source, or origin. He is the field, the one who is going to be impregnated with the seed-oracle.

Given this, the point of the oracle is not surprising. It infuses a tremendous amount of power into the psalmist’s master. This ‘oracle’ is to lift him into Yhwh’s own realm of sovereign power. He is to sit up on a throne at Yhwh’s own right side. And, from him, will flow Yhwh’s ruling power. In a sense, the higher is the king is raised into Yhwh’s realm, the greater will Yhwh’s power flow through him into the king’s realm. Heaven will now flow down to the earth. All ‘enemies’ will become a footstool to the master. We should not miss this tremendous point—this master will be the gateway through which Yhwh’s heavenly power will flow into the earth, refashioning it, bringing justice, restoring order to the Garden of Yhwh. He will be the portal, the Gate, the ladder and the way through which Yhwh will descend.

When Yhwh’s descends through the master, the ‘outworking’ of this will be the king’s “day of power” (v 3). Yhwh will “wield the master’s strong scepter” from Zion. That “day” will be the “day of anger”, when kings will be shattered the “wide world over”. This is heaven being manifest on earth in and through the master.

                Your strong scepter

                Will Yhwh extend / from Zion

                So that you rule / over your enemies around you.

Just as the “enemies” are the master’s, and they will be made a footstool for “his feet”, so too now is it the master’s “scepter” that Yhwh will extend from Zion. Something similar to this happened with Abraham. From Adam to Abraham, the men and women were fruitful and they multiplied. That momentum continued until Abraham’s and Sarah’s old, frail and, essentially, ‘dead’ bodies. But then came the covenant power of Yhwh. When Yhwh covenanted with Abraham he said that he, Yhwh, would make him fruitful and multiply. The extraordinary power of Abraham that would now be unleashed upon the world, through his children, would be seen, fundamentally, as Yhwh’s children. This is resurrection, covenantal power.

Now, in Abraham, that power took the form of prodigal, life-giving power extending into the ‘family of Yhwh’. Here, the master is the priest-king of Yhwh and, thus, the covenant power will take a different shape. It will be the power granted to every king—to rid the land of enemies, protect its boundaries, and to establish shalom and justice within its borders. Yhwh himself will extend this scepter, but He will do so in order to establish the master, so he “can rule over your enemies around you.” That this ruling authority will extend from Zion is significant. Zion is always ground-zero for Yhwh’s reign and ruling authority over the earth. The prophets will continuously return to Zion as the source and beginning of the Day. Zion will, in this way, zion-ize the entire earth. The Master is the Master in Zion. When his rule extends beyond the borders to the ‘enemies around you’, Yhwh is beginning to establish not just the kingdom of Israel, but his empire. The cosmos is now in his sights. And this cosmos-wide rule will begin in Zion, through this master priest-king. In other words, it is not simply that Zion will be ground-zero—so too will the master priest-king, because it is through him that Zion will spread.

                Your people / will volunteer

                On your day of power

                On the holy mountains

                From the womb of dawn

                You will have / the dew of your youth.

The previous passage dealt with the external threat to the master, and how Yhwh will address it. Here, we look at the internal threat to the master—his own people. Throughout the Scriptures, the people of the king are rarely unified. There is always dissension. At its origin, that dissension resulted in a civil war that split the kingdom in half. It did not end there, but continued through the centuries. The prophets would look forward to a time when the twelve tribes would be united again. Shalom, peace and justice is not something that needs to happen ‘out there’ in the world of the nations. It also needs to happen internally, within the tribes (the sons of Abraham).

Yhwh’s oracle-power, this heaven-power, is now seen from the vantage of inside of Israel. The “Day of Power” will not just be one enforced on the nations; it will be one that also manifests itself in an active and desired unity from within the master’s people. The master’s people will actively organize and mobilize themselves behind the master. This is, it must be understood, the people’s participating within Yhwh’s momentum of establishing the master’s reign. In other words, there is a divine power being manifest in and through not just a unification that is imposed on them, but one that they actively participate in.

This heavenly unity, will be deepened when, on the holy mountains, an army will emerge as if from the dawn itself. On the one hand, this image is so poignant that one hesitates to try and explicate it. But a few things need to be said. The ‘dawn’ was often understood, as we have seen in other psalms, as the time when Yhwh acted. Here, this is heightened by the fact that the psalm looks toward a particular day and not just a dawn in general. Here, they look forward to the “day of power” and priest-king’s “day of anger”. This will be a day when Zion will spread. It is this day in particular, that will be the womb of dawn from which this ‘dew of your youth’ will come to the master. Again, we must see here the ‘mists’ from which the dew arrives as being the ‘mist of heaven’ as it descends through the Master and begins to spread Yhwh’s sovereign control over the earth. It will bring to the Master’s aid these ‘volunteers’ who become an irresistible force; that is what the ‘dew of your youth’ refers to. It is a prodigally given army, unitified behind the Master, that will not be able to be conqured by the enemies. The day will spread from Zion, through these ‘youth’, to cover the earth.

Ps. 109 (Conclusion: Seeing the Messiah)

Seeing the Messiah

The deeper one peers into this psalm the more does the face of Christ begin to emerge. On some level, this happens during the course of these reflections. They feel as if their various lines all start bending towards a common horizon. For me, this occurs through the act of writing and reflection. The psalm is rather mute in my hands before that.

In part 1, we saw how the curses came from a why-less place. They were disembodied mouths, which portrayed their grotesque and partial reality. The curses were traditional curses, for the most part. They were even insightful. They blamed the psalmist for not blessing the poor and cursing the lowly. They accused him of essentially creating chaos and death in the community and through his relationships with others. Therefore, they said, let his community be destroyed, let his children be fatherless and penniless. Let his parents’ sins live perpetually before Yhwh so that his entire family line will be destroyed in a perpetual and enduring curse. This ‘curse’ is not itself wicked. The righteous often pray it. What is wicked, is that it is a lie. It mimics righteousness. This is the ‘grotesque’ and partial nature of their curses—partial in that they do resemble ‘righteous’ curses. Those who prey on the downtrodden would deserve this (and many psalms request it). The voice of serpent speaks so clearly through this. Taking what is valid, what is generally harnessed for righteousness, but then turning it effectively into its opposite. Recall, the effect of the serpent’s words were a curse upon the serpent, upon the world, and upon Adam and Eve. More deeply still is the fact that these words, beginning with the serpent, flowed directly into Christ’s trial (and beyond, into the life of Church and Spirit). The serpent’s words didn’t stop after he uttered them. God warned Cain that “sin lies at the door and its desire was for him.” The river flows. This psalm capture one of its eddies.

It is for this reason, I think, why it is so difficult to pin down exactly what charge precipitated Christ’s death—was it his claim to be the Messiah, his cleansing of the Temple, his claim to be king in contrast to Ceaser? Did he even claim these things? The more we peer into the darkness surrounding his trial the less certain we become. It should be this way. As in this psalm, and as with the serpent in the garden, evil and lies cannot be directly seen. They mimic the why-lessness of God’s grace. This why, I think, the psalmist’s gaze remains fixed on Yhwh and not on ‘sourcing’ the evil and lies.  

The trial—so much of what was testified against Christ was this mixture of utter nonsense but also the ‘ring’ of truth. The healing on the Sabbath, the cleansing of the Temple, the claim to be the Messiah and King—all disembodied mouths, and hired witnesses, surrounding Christ at every turn, encasing him within their accusations. And their accusations do “seep into him like oil”, they cloth him and “surround him like a belt”. They begin a process that appears, and in some sense is, a curse—his physical frailty, the abandonment of his closest disciples, the betrayal, his tortured prayers for deliverance and obedience, his eventual hanging upon a tree.

What this psalm casts a light on is that the trial, the deprivations, the ‘becoming a curse’, is all in service of the trial. In other words, as the Messiah is more and more consumed by the trial, as he more and more wears the clothes of the curse(s), the more is he, in fact, overcoming. Jesus himself is the trial, so to speak. And when he is judged as needing death, and when he dies, the verdict is rendered but not against him, but for him. As in this psalm, a party is covered in shame, a party is declared guilty—the world, sin, flesh, the devil. All of that dies in Christ and is, thereby, clothed with shame. The age of flesh, the ‘elements’, the archons, is disgraced. So much goes down into the Pit with him. As with this psalm, Paul will speak about how the wise are “confused” by the Messiah; how he is a ‘stumbling-block’; how is redemption and his being declared innocent utterly turns the world on its head.

And why? The gospel of John emphasizes that the Messiah’s “witness” is the Father. He glorifies him. He testifies on his behalf. He “stands on his right”. His entire life was a trial in which the Father, at every step, was his advocate, his witness, and his glory. He didn’t need anyone else to testify on his behalf. The ‘deeper’ trial being waged in Christ’s life and flesh, was a trial against this world, this age, the elements, the satan, and sin and death itself. Every ‘sign’ was a sign of the Father’s witness—including the fulfillment of all signs, the Resurrection.

The Resurrection—the public event of exposing the justified and glorified body of Christ. The psalmist and Christ, their bodies themselves become the revelation of Yhwh’s ‘handiwork’. Their redeemed bodies become the publicity of Yhwh, the glorification of Yhwh and his covenant partner. They display, and are, the verdict—the explosive sign of the Father. In a sense, they are the appeal from the earthly trial court, where the verdict is overturned. Where the age of infancy under Torah is declared over, and the children can now come into their inheritance, through and in the Messiah.

And now the ‘advocacy’ of the Father becomes the Advocate of the Holy Spirit, who is sent by the Anointed into his Body, to now ‘stand at their right hand’, to enable them to live in the new age, while witnessing to the old.

Ps. 109 (Blessing and Publicity)

When the psalmist turns to Yhwh and pleads for help, the basis for his redemption is so that Yhwh will “will be made known”. This is public, this is “out in the open”, this is for every eye to see, this is display. And the display will be the psalmist himself. He will be seen, portrayed and displayed as Yhwh’s “handiwork”. Even those who have attempted to coax Yhwh to their side and curse the psalmist will have no doubt that the act of redemption will be Yhwh’s, that “you yourself [Yhwh] have done it.”

This very public act, this display, will continue not with the accuser’s redemption, of course, but with their being “covered with disgrace and clothed with confusion.” Note how the psalmist is using the accusers words against them. They sought to have curses “seep into the psalmist like water” and, importantly, for the curses to be worn like clothing, like a belt, around him. The psalmist here takes these images of clothing and closeness and turns them on the accusers. Now they will be covered; they will be clothed. Again, this is all public. If the psalmist will be displayed as Yhwh’s “handiwork”, the accusers will be displayed as disgraced and shamed. This is the great reversal, the ‘standing of the world on its head’.

This focus on the public, on the display is important to grasp when we look at how Yhwh redeems the psalmist. At the beginning, the wicked sought to have a “wicked person testify against him”; they wanted an “accuser to stand on his right” (6). During a trial to “stand on the right” is where both an accuser stands and a witness for the defense (here, the psalmist). At the end of the psalm, the psalmist looks forward to the conclusion of the trial, and for thanking Yhwh himself for “standing on the right of the needy person, ready to save him from those who put him on trial.” In other words, Yhwh will be the psalmist’s witness. He will stand on his “right hand” and ‘testify’ for him. CRUCIALLY---Yhwh’s defense testimony is, at least in part, the psalmist’s physical redemption from suffering. This is where all this publicity, this display, comes into focus. Yhwh, who is  the ‘judge’ of this case, will also stand on the side of the suffering psalmist, Yhwh’s covenant partner. As such, his ‘verdict’ and his ‘testimony’—his ‘judgment’ and his ‘witness’—will coincide. It will be the psalmist’s redemption.

Once this occurs, the covenant partners—Yhwh and the psalmist—will both have their reputations, their public faces, redeemed, or glorified, in the sight of everyone. The psalmist will be, himself, the embodiment, expression, and act, of Yhwh’s loyal-love and faithfulness. This will redound to Yhwh’s glory—with the psalmist himself engaging in a thanksgiving offering, and “praise among the assembly” (30).

Ps. 109 (Part One--Evil and the becoming of a curse)

There are many psalms dealing with a psalmist who is unjustly attacked, either through some type of court proceeding or through violence. Typically, there is a reason given for the attack. The attackers are envious of the psalmist; they want to take down the king; they want his wealth. But sometimes, as here, there is no reason given in the psalm. The accusers, or at least the accusations themselves, do not appear to have any justification. Like the serpent in the Garden, they simply appear from some why-less place, and attack the psalmist from the darkness. They are, as some psalmists describe them, like a snake in the grass. Because there is no discernable reason for their attack, they cannot be avoided or anticipated. All that the psalmist can do, as the psalmist does here, is implore Yhwh for help and rescue.

It is, I think, important to pause over this because it delves into an important aspect of how evil is portrayed in this psalm. The attacks come “without reason” (3). I think this lack of reason, this lack of form or shape, is why the psalmist finds them to be, fundamentally, a lie. These are “deceitful mouths” (2) that have opened against the psalmist. They are “lying tongues” (2). One has the picture here of gruesome, almost absurd, images of gaping maws, of disembodied or largely extended (and distended) mouths and tongues, surrounding the psalmist. He is—surrounded by words, by lies, by deceit. The image is crucial and poignant. The fact that these evil men are portrayed as mouths and tongues points to the grotesque, misshapen, and inherently absurd nature of their accusations. It is a disturbing, dramatic image.

The disturbing nature of the image mirrors, or is a reflection of, the words spoken. The curses are of a profound, all-encompassing destruction—the lies seek the destruction of his very life; they want his children to be childless; his wife to be a widow; to leave his entire family penniless and without aid or consolation of any kind; and for all of his assets to be exacted. This is the destruction and death. But, there is something they do want to live on, to abide in perpetuity—they want his parent’s sins to stand in Yhwh’s presence forever. This ‘abiding presence’ of sin is important to note because whatever is in Yhwh’s presence participates in Yhwh’s own Forever. Yhwh’s presence causes things to endure beyond what they could on their own. Outside of Yhwh’s presence, everything is vanity and everything decays. What we see here is the complete and shocking reversal of what is usually prayed for. Typically, a psalmist asks for goodness to be in Yhwh’s presence. Here, the accusers ask for Yhwh’s presence to ignite a perpetual dark-flame. This is the opposite of resurrection power—it will cause the ongoing and perpetual destruction of the psalmist and all of his family line. They will never escape from this because it will be perpetually remembered and enacted by Yhwh.

There is another image that is worth pausing over—and that is the concluding curses. There, the wicked engage in a type of cursing that is very close to other types that we see in the psalms. The wicked state, “He loved cursing, may he experience it / He did not like to bless / may it keep its distance from him. / He made cursing his habit / may it seep into him like water / into his bones like oil. / May it be like the clothing he wears, / as tight as the belt he always has around him.” Here we find the familiar logic of punishment—it works in reversals; it ‘boomerangs’ back upon the person. If the psalmist kept blessing away from his mouth, then blessing should be kept from him. Conversely, if he was familiar with curses, then curses should become familiar and close to him. That logic is familiar, the imagery is not. He wants the curses to “seep into him like water, into his bones like oil”, to be kept close to him “like his belt.” And it plays an important point in the psalm. Later, the psalmist describes himself as being so thin from fasting that his “knees cannot support me” (24). He is becoming a wraith through religious deprivation, probably in an attempt to gain Yhwh’s favor. He appears to be a physical emblem of shame. It would not be surprising if other saw him as carrying within him the curse that the wicked have levelled at him—that Yhwh’s curses are “seeping into him like water, in his bones like oil”. For the psalmist, though, when Yhwh acts, he will counter all of this. Yhwh’s deliverance will be manifest. He himself will be Yhwh’s “handiwork” (27). This deliverance will “confound” the wicked but “gladden” the psalmist. Here is the important point—the result of the trial will be manifest through the psalmist’s body. Either he will be a curse, with the curses seeping into him. Or he will be a blessing, able to show forth the healing and prodigal work of Yhwh in his body.

One final thing to note about the curses levelled at the psalmist—how are we to understand them? Are these curses simply statements that are to be made at the psalmist’s trial or does the wicked person believe them to be effective (meaning, to reach into the divine realm)? If we say the wicked believe them to be effective, then the wicked believe that they have the ability to manipulate Yhwh. It strikes me that the wicked believe they will ‘work’. There is something deeply significant about this. In this psalm, the wicked “mouths” believe that they can either convince Yhwh himself that the psalmist is wicked or that Yhwh is indifferent to the fact that their words are not true. The first option, if true, would be terrifying in that the wicked would be able to harness the power of heaven to their own wills. The second is no less terrifying in that Yhwh himself is not concerned about truth. Either way, Yhwh would appear to be one of the many ‘gods’ of other pantheons, either able to be manipulated or one who exhibits all-too-human traits of vanity and power (as if he were some Baal, Zeus or Osiris).