Ps. 142 (Out of prison)

Aloud / to Yhwh / I cry

                Aloud / to Yhwh / I plead for aid

I pour out / before him / my worries

                My troubles / before him / I relate

When my spirit faints within

                You are one / who knows my path

I glance to the right / and look

                But nobody takes / any notice of me

Escape is impossible / for me

                Nobody cares about me.

The psalmist begins with his out loud crying to Yhwh, pleading for aid. He tells Yhwh about his worries and his troubles which are making his spirit faint. And yet, while he is unable to find strength or see through his worries and troubles, he knows that Yhwh his path. His darkness—his inability to see a way forward—is deepened by the fact that his spirit is fainting but that “nobody takes any notice” of him. Not only are his troubles and worries making it impossible for him to see a way forward into life, but he also does not have any companions who help him see a way forward. Internally (his own spirit) and externally (companions) he is blind and alone.

That is why his trust in Yhwh is so important—he has nothing in himself or outside of himself—that he can rely on to shepherd him through the darkness. That is why “escape is impossible” except through Yhwh hearing his cries.

I cry to you / Yhwh

                I say / You are my refuge

                My sustenance / in the land / of the living

Listen to my shouting

                Since I am brought / very low

Save me / from my persecutors

                Since they are too strong for me

Bring me / out of prison

                So that I can give thanks / to your name

Around me / the righteous will crowd

                When you treat me / with kindness.

The psalmist’s cry to Yhwh has to be seen within the context of his internal and external isolation. When he claims Yhwh as his “refuge” and “my sustenance in the land of the living” he is saying that Yhwh is his only refuge and source of sustenance. Everywhere else he turns, he finds abandonment. Nothing else “in the land of the living” can or will come to his aid. His shouts, which are utterly ignored by men, have to be heard by Yhwh. Only Yhwh can “save him from my persecutors”. He is, again internally and externally, in prison.

It is key to see that his external abandonment—the fact that when he looks “to the right” “nobody takes notice of him”; “nobody cares about me”—does not turn into a bitterness or a source of cursing. In a way, the psalmist accepts his position of isolation and abandonment; he understands it. This is why he knows that when Yhwh “brings him out of prison” and he is again permitted to “give thanks to your name”, then he will “turn to the right” and he will be surrounded by the righteous. They will crowd around him. And they will do so because he will have become the place of Yhwh’s kindness. He will be a inhabit the light of Yhwh and, for that reason, the righteous will be attracted to him.

When we turn to the gospels we find Christ, as he approaches the crucifixion, moving between two realms—that of his father and that of his disciples and of me. In both, Jesus is being pushed further and further into isolation. On the one hand, he approaches his father and asks that the cup be removed, to which the father responds with a “No”. Jesus then gets up and walks over to his disciples, whom he finds asleep. He asks them if they cannot simply stay awake and watch and pray now that the hour is approaching. This entire movement—of receiving the ‘No’ from the father, to the sleeping disciples—is the movement of Christ’s toward his sacrifice. And that movement is one of ever-deepening isolation and abandonment. That is the form our salvation takes in Christ; each step Christ walks deeper into this abandonment is a stone in the edifice of salvation.

In this psalm, we witness this back and forth of Christ. Up to the point of his crucifixion, he turns to his right, and all have abandoned him. He knows his father to be his refuge, but he also knows that his father’s mission is, now, for him to die. We also witness his resurrection—when he is brought out of prison so he can give thanks to his father’s name. And, we see each Pentecost—when around him the righteous crowd, because in him they see the kindness of God. That is a rather poignant way of describing the resurrection—the kindness of God.

Ps 141 (The earth's furrows)

Yhwh / I am calling you / come to me quickly

                Listen to my cry / when I call you

May my prayer / be accepted / as incense before you

                And uplifted hands / as an evening sacrifice.

The psalmist directly addresses Yhwh, “calling him”. He is in urgent need of aid so he implores Yhwh to “listen to my cry.” This calling and crying out is to be regarded “as incense”, and his “uplifted hands, as an evening sacrifice.” Here, the cultic acts of sacrifice are appealed to in order to “attract” Yhwh’s attention—the psalmist’s interior pleading being regarded as acceptable as incense and sacrifice. That the psalmist likens his cry to “incense and sacrifice” speaks well of them—for the psalmist, he knows that Yhwh favorably regards these sacrifices and incense and that they have formed the basis for Yhwh intervening on behalf of a supplicant. Here, he is “offering” his heart like a sacrifice and incense, and his prayer should rise to Yhwh the same way that the smoke of a sacrifice and incense rise to Yhwh. 

Set a guard / Yhwh / on my mouth

                And watch / over the door of my lips

Do not incline my mind / to evil speaking

                To involvement in deeds of wickedness

                With me / who are evildoers

And may I not / eat of their fancy food

                May the righteous strike me / in kindness / and rebuke me

May the finest oil / not adorn my head

                Surely my prayer / is continually directed / against their evil acts.

When they fall into the hands of the Rock / their judge

                They will hear / my words appreciatively

In nearly every other psalm of petition, the psalmist is asking Yhwh to protect him against the wicked and evil—to protect him against their slander or the traps they have hidden; to protect the king against the nations that are pressing in upon him. The threat is almost always external. And yet here, that same request for protection against an external force is internalized. What the psalmist is “calling upon Yhwh” for, like incense and sacrifice, is that Yhwh would take that same protective, divine power and place it within the psalmist himself. That the external guard that would surround a psalmist from his enemies, would now be set up within the psalmist and protect him from himself. That the same, divine protection that would stand at the border of the Land and repel the nations, would now stand at the “door of my lips”. That the same protection that would withstand evil attacks, would now not incline his “mind to evil speaking.” What the psalmist is petitioning for is that he would not become like the evil, external men in the other psalms that the psalmist’s pray for protection against.

The petition that Yhwh “not incline my mind to evil speaking” and “to involvement in deeds of wickedness” deserves some attention. The Our Father contains a similar petition—“lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”. The implication is clear, although perhaps the precise cause is not. The previous verse speaks about Yhwh setting up a guard on the psalmist’s mouth and for Yhwh to “watch over the door of my lips.” There, the psalmist asks Yhwh to guard against the psalmist’s own actions. In other words, for Yhwh to responsive to the psalmist. In the second verse, though, it appears to reverse that direction, now asking that Yhwh not be responsive but that Yhwh not initiate the inclination to evil speaking and “deeds of wickedness.” It is important to note that these verses are somewhat in parallel—the first verse is about speech, and so is the second. So it is likely that they are actually saying the same thing in parallel fashion. In other words, for the psalmist, his own “inclination” is not understood as that distinct from Yhwh “including his mind to evil speaking”. For the psalmist, if his mind is inclined to evil speech, it is not as if that inclination operates outside of Yhwh’s control. So, for him, if his mind is “inclined to evil” it must also mean that Yhwh has either directed it or permitted it to be directed to evil. In the end, I think we need to let the words stand as they are and pray them both, from both angles. To lessen the second verse to “do not permit my mind to be included to evil speaking” loses much. To do the reverse to the first line and make it into the active does the same.

The psalmist then turns to food, and he asks for protection against his eating “their fancy food”. He does not want the “finest oil to adorn my head.” And, importantly, while he has asked for divine guards against his lips, he now asks that “the righteous strike me in kindness and rebuke me.” The righteous here are carrying out the divine guardianship of Yhwh, through a type of disciplinary action of “striking him”, which is, ultimately, a kindness.

As if by one / who ploughs / and makes furrows in the earth

                Our bones / are strewn / at the mouth of Sheol

Truly to you / Yhwh / Lord / are my eyes directed

                In you I seek refuge / do not expose me to death.

The imagery is of bones being compared to clods of earth that are thrown up by a plough making furrows in the earth. There are “furrows in the earth” but the bones are “strewn at the mouth of Sheol.” Earth – and – Sheol. Harvesting – and – death.

What the psalmist seems to getting at is that the wicked are attempting to “plant a harvest” through their destruction of the righteous. Their planting takes place on ‘earth’, but the effect is one that leaves the righteous “at the mouth of Sheol.” The second line also points to the profanation of the righteous—their bones are not buried, as they should be, but “strewn” at the mouth of Sheol. Everything here points to a deep profanation—of their deaths being compared to “harvest”, to their bones being “strew”, to their lives now approaching the most profane of all places—Sheol and death.

This is why the psalmist turns from this place of profanation to Yhwh—he directs his eyes to Yhwh, now pronouncing the divine Name that establishes life. In Yhwh will he seek refuge. Unlike the wicked, Yhwh will not “expose” him “to death.” The reversal is complete in Yhwh—if the wicked intended to push the righteous into the profane realm of death, then Yhwh will put them into the sphere of holiness and life; if the wicked wanted to strew and expose their bones at Sheol, Yhwh will “not expose” him to death.

Guard me / from the jaws of the traps / they have set for me

                And the snares of evildoers

May the wicked fall one and all / into their own nets

                While I myself escape.

Ps 140 (repairing the torn fabric)

Rescue me / Yhwh / from evil people

                From men of violence / preserve me

Those who put their minds / to evil schemes

                Forever warmongering.

They use their tongues / as incisively as a snake

                Secreted under their lips / is a viper’s venom.

Protect me / Yhwh / from the clutches of the wicked

                From men of violence / preserve me

                Those who scheme / to trip up my feet

The arrogant / hide traps for me

                And the corrupt / spread nets

                Along the path / they set snares for me. SELAH

The psalmist is asking Yhwh for protection and rescue. He is being hunted by evil people. They put their minds to evil schemes, but their weapon is their tongues. Their tongues are like snakes that “secretes venom under their lips”. Likewise, they “spread nets and set snares” for the psalmist.

Here we see the familiar images of hiddenness that are associated with evil, and it is because evil operates in this hidden fashion that the psalmist looks to Yhwh for protection and rescue. In this stanza evil operates behind the scenes or beneath the surface. However the metaphor is employed, it is partially in the open but its danger is concealed. The psalmist is aware of it; he knows he has enemies. But he cannot anticipate where all of their attacks will come from. More troubling to him is that they may catch him in their “nets and snares” or “trip up his feet.” In other words, he is concerned that he may become enmeshed within their schemes such that he either would become complicit in their schemes or be made to look guilty.

It is with this in mind that we should understand the psalmist’s cry for protection. The psalmist does not want to be hunted and killed by these men, whether that is a physical death or the death of his reputation. More deeply still, perhaps, is that the psalmist does not want to be driven from the “right path” to Yhwh. He wants to remain within Yhwh’s sphere and not be driven out of it, either through fear or through inadvertence. He does not want to be enmeshed with the “wicked” or caught in their “clutches” or subjected to their “venom” or “corruption.” Everything here speaks of an evil, profane, and profaning, darkness. It is, I think, this that frightens him the most and why he looks to Yhwh for protection. Which is not to say that he sees two sources of fear—his own death and being misaligned with Yhwh. They are, in essence, the same, though perhaps distinguishable.

I declare to Yhwh / You are my God

                Listen / Yhwh / to my imploring cry.

Yhwh / Lord / my strong savior

                You have given my head / cover in time of battle

Here, the psalmist refers to his covenantal bond to Yhwh in the short “You are my God”. This bond forms the basis for his request that Yhwh “listen to my imploring cry.” He then moves into the past, when Yhwh has “covered in his head in time of battle.” What Yhwh has done before in recognition of his covenantal bond and obligation, the psalmist asks that he do again—cover his head from the attacks of evil men.

Do not grant / Yhwh / the desires of the wicked

                As for their plots / O God / wrench them away. SELAH

The heads of those / who surround me.

                May the harm done by their lips / overwhelm them

May coals / be dropped / upon them.

                May ill plunge them / into pits / no more to rise

May the slanderers lose their homes / in the land

                As for the men of violence / may evil hunt them / and push them down.

Whereas the psalmist asks Yhwh to “listen to my cries” he implores him to ignore the “desires of the wicked.” He asks that Yhwh leave them vulnerable, without divine aid, protection or endorsement. And to not simply leave them alone but to “wrench away” their plots against the psalmist. This then shifts to evil returning on the wicked. The venom/fire from their mouths, that they hoped to secrete into the psalmist, here “overwhelms them.” That same venom-fire now “drops upon them.” And the destruction they sought to bring upon the psalmist now plunges them into pits. The end of this is dispossession—they lose their homes in the land—and the hunters become the hunted. The evil they sought to wield now turns on them, hunting them and pushing them down.

The men of violence—the warmongers—will now have the violence of evil hunt them down, declare war on them, and push them into the ground.

The imagery here, as Yhwh begins his “undertaking of the cause of the afflicted”, is of evil devouring itself. It is turned upon its own agents—the evil and wicked men—and in destroying them, it destroys itself. This is key—Yhwh’s presence makes evil “suicidal”. When Yhwh stands “far off”, evil is administered by its agents—the wicked and evil men—and it is focused outward onto the righteous and the innocent. However, when Yhwh’s presence is ‘activated’ or, when he draws close, or turns his face toward the afflicted—then evil turns upon its own. This is the ‘beginning of the end’ of evil and wickedness, like a star that previously shined outward now turns upon itself and collapses under its own weight taking all of its ‘light’ with it. It is important to see how this affects the wicked—because they are pulled down along with it. They are now consumed by the evil they believed they were in control over.

I know that Yhwh / will undertake

                The cause of the afflicted

                Securing justice / for the needy

The righteous / will surely give thanks / to your name

                The upright / will abide in your presence.

The psalmist concludes with the psalmist’s certainty that Yhwh will “undertake the cause of the afflicted”. He will secure justice for the needy. There will come a time when the righteous will give thanks for Yhwh’s deliverance, and the upright will “abide in Yhwh’s presence.” These concluding lines bring the psalm together, gathering its various threads, and showing us that the point of the “stitching” has been to repair a torn fabric. And that once that is done there will the most sought after of all blessings—the ability of the upright to abide in Yhwh’s presence. Once justice is established, once Yhwh undertakes the cause of afflicted—then will the earth be made habitable and a place of Yhwh’s presence. This is the great vision of Revelation—at the end, when the earth has been cleansed of the evil and justice has been established—then can heaven descend, then will the cosmos be made into the immaculate bride, then can it sustain the weight of holiness and glory—the Presence of the Lamb.