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.