Ps 9 undying hope

I will praise / Yhwh / with all my heart

                I will recount / all your wonderful works

I will rejoice / and I will exult in you;

                I will sing the praise / of your name / O Most High

The psalmist begins with his own call to praise. His “all” is going to mirror Yhwh’s “all”—his heart for Yhwh’s works. There is here a deep sense of awe; a sense that the pslamist’s entire being is being called into this praise. He is throwing himself toward Yhwh—he praises with all his heart; he recounts wonderful works; he rejoices; he exults; he sings praise of the Name. This is the response to glory—to the manifestation of divine beauty—and the outpouring that such a response entails. In the presence of glory, the person is turned inside out, the person is in ecstasy, outside of themselves; they want to give more than their entirety, which is the nature of ecstasy.

What is notable here is that this revelation of divine glory, this ecstasy, is rooted in Yhwh’s “wonderful works”. These are the object of ecstasy and draw the psalmist out of himself. They are the revelations of divine glory. Because in these ‘works’ the psalmist witnesses the Name, and from within these works—from the joy that these works evoke—the psalmist’s enters the praise-of-the-Name.

When my enemies turn back

                They shall be thrown down / and shall perish before you

For you have undertaken my judgment / and my cause

                You have sat upon the throne / judging righteously

You have rebuked the nations / you have made the wicked perish

                You have wiped out / their name forever and ever

The enemy are finished / perpetual ruins

                And you have uprooted cities / their memory has perished

The psalmist began the psalm saying he would praise Yhwh’s “wonderful works”. Yet here, after the introduction, the psalmist immediately turns toward the future, where he sees not just his enemies failure but their utter destruction. They will be “thrown down” and “perish”. And this will occur “before you”—Yhwh himself is going to fight the psalmist’s fight against his enemies. Yhwh himself will take up the pslamist’s cause.

This certainty as to the future, though, is grounded in the past. The psalmist knows his enemies will be destroyed and will perish because in the past Yhwh has “rebuked the nations and made them perish”. By using the same word—“perish”—the psalmist is showing that his certain future will mirror Yhwh’s past actions. And in  this we see how Yhwh’s past “works of wonder” are not praised as some static act done in the past. Rather, the past acts are prophetic, pointing forward to what Yhwh will do, again, in the future. That is, ultimately, the basis for the use of the same word, perish. It is not merely a literary technique, but a literary technique grounded in a theological conviction that Yhwh-of-the-past is Yhwh-of-the-future—he was, is, and will be.

This is ultimately grounded not simply in Yhwh’s ever-living, or undying nature, but in Yhwh’s ‘character’ or his ‘Name’, or ‘who he is’. There is what we might call a moral dimension to this. The acts in the past are not simply expressions of power, but expressions of righteous judgment. When Yhwh acts, his acts are ‘good’.  And it is because they are “good” that one can look with hope to the future. If Yhwh’s acts were simply expressions of power then there could be no continuity between them. They would not, in other words, be prophetic. However, because Yhwh’s acts are always-already good, then a judgment in the past means that when a time comes that things have devolved to the level they did in the past, Yhwh will act in the same way to right the wrong.

The terror of the past. When the psalmist turns his gaze to the past, he narrows his focus down to a particular time—the exodus and invasion of the Land. During that time, several nations rebelled against Israel and they were not simply routed for their actions, but they were utterly annihilated. They died. Their very names were ‘wiped out’ forever and ever. In other words, no remnant remained. They fell into oblivion. A question is why this moment, why this utter destruction? Why does the psalmist look here rather than to other moments.

I think the answer is rooted, in fact, not in the past but in the future. Later in the psalm, the psalmist will say that the “hope of the afflicted will not perish forever”. What we see here is that the psalmist is showing the basis for a permanent hope, an assured hope. Just as total and absolute was the destruction in the past is the hope for the future judgment. Yhwh’s total and definitive act in the past, in judgment, is the reason why their hope is, in fact, immortal. It cannot be destroyed because it is rooted in the undying and righteous Yhwh. There is, then, a very close relationship between judgment and hope, the one forming a basis, or even mirror, of the other. For those who live between the two poles—between times of judgment in the past and judgment in the future—they live in the ‘time of hope’, but not hope as in optimism, but a hope that is assured. As dead as those nations are is as alive as their hope—total and absolute.

Memory, name and destruction. To wipe out a people’s ‘name’ implies a total destruction of the people, including their posterity. They will never rise again because they have been utterly destroyed. To wipe out their memory implies their loss within the surrounding peoples. It is a more total and devastating destruction than even the destruction of the ‘name’ because now even their presence within the memory of others is gone—erased, never to be re-born. They are as if they had never been.

Later, the psalmist will use these three images in reverse—he will speak of Yhwh’s “name” of his “remembering “ and of his “reigning forever”. For the wicked, their name is “wiped out forever and ever”. Their ‘name’ does not protect them from Yhwh’s judgment. Moreover, it can be looked for but not be found because it is gone. For Yhwh, by contrast, his “name” is a refuge and it can be continuously sought and found. For the wicked, they will exist no longer, even in memory. For Yhwh, his Name is eternal and abiding. It can always be “known” and dwells beyond the power of death and destruction. More deeply still, though, is that to “forget God” is to court Sheol itself. For the nations, to be forgotten causes no damage because their names do not carry life nor any power at all. Yhwh’s “name” however is life and power—to forget his name, then, is not a neutral act; it is to turn away from life itself and therefore to turn to Sheol. Lastly, the nations reigned for a time but were then utterly destroyed. Their authority was not abiding and perpetual. Yhwh, on the other hand, “reigns forever” and he establishes his own “throne of judgment”. His judgment, contrary to the nations, is worldwide. He adjudicates all peoples.

Behold / Yhwh shall reign forever

                He has established his throne of judgment

And he shall judge the world / with righteousness

                He shall adjudicate / the peoples with equity

From the destruction of the nations the psalmist turns to Yhwh’s reigning in his divine throne room. Whereas he has “uprooted” entire cities, he has “established his throne”. The contrast is intentional. The nations are on earth, and Yhwh, like a divine gardener, can ‘uproot’ their cities from their soil. By contrast, Yhwh ‘establishes’—he builds or ‘plants’—his throne room in heaven. He tears down and he builds up.

Yhwh’s heaven-throne is total—it establishes Yhwh’s judgment over the entire world. What the psalmist sees here is that Yhwh’s act of judgment on his part is part of Yhwh’s judgment of the entire world. Yhwh’s authority is not localized, even though it will work locally for the psalmist. This reality serves a deeper purpose—Yhwh’s utter and total authority over the world reveals that when he acts on behalf of the psalmist, this entire, sovereign control is now being exercised on his behalf. This, again, is one reason why his hope is not optimism but assurance. Moreover, because the scope of Yhwh’s authority is absolute and total, the psalmist’s enemies cannot hide from Yhwh. His authority coincides with and extends beyond the earth’s boundary.

When Yhwh judges the world and the peoples he does so with righteousness and equity. This is key because it shows that the absolute destruction of the wicked was only done in service of righteousness and equity. It was a division of sorts, of separating out the wicked from the righteous, so that that which is good could be cleansed. It was not simply an act of destruction, per se, but in service to goodness. It was, as we have seen many times before, penultimate. This also shows that when he acts in the future, it will also be a simultaneous act of destruction and protection/healing. We saw this dynamic, for example, in a very dramatic way in the exodus when Israel was given ‘refuge’ directly within the midst of the plagues.  

And Yhwh shall be a refuge / for the oppressed

                And refuge for times of trouble

And the ones who know your name / shall trust in you

                For you have not forsaken those who seek you / O Yhwh

When Yhwh worked his wonders in Egypt, the wonders did not simply consist in the plagues that beset the Egyptians. There was, in a very real sense, an even greater wonder which is that the Israelites consistently inhabited a safe ‘zone’ within the plagues. This protection culminated in the Passover, when the Israelites sacrificed the Passover lamb and painted its blood on the lintel to their doors thereby warding off the angel of death. It is important to emphasize that this was, in its own way, the most amazing aspect of the wonders—because, as we have seen time and again, punishment is always penultimate to deliverance and re-incorporation and blessing. The Israelites were not simply being protected for their own good—Yhwh’s securing for them a refuge in the midst of the plagues was to be a sign, a ‘lamp to the nation’, that Israel stood within the protective embrace of Yhwh, that it, in fact, was a theophany of Yhwh’s protection. They were protected, in other words, for Egypt as much for themselves. Their refuge in Yhwh was not a secret and it was not be hidden.

Why is this important for our psalm—because when Yhwh sits upon his heaven throne and judges the entire cosmos, the act of judgment is manifested, or enacted, not simply through the overthrow of the wicked but, even more deeply, through his being a refuge for the oppressed in times of trouble. That for those who “who his name and trust in him”, they will inhabit this sphere of Yhwh-protection and refuge. They will manifest, in other words, Yhwh’s protective judgment, just as Israel manifested Yhwh’s protective judgment in Egypt.

Sing praises to Yhwh / the Enthroned of Zion

                Declare his deeds / among the peoples

For the Avenger of Blood / has remembered them

                He has not forgotten / the cry of the afflicted

The psalmist returns again to the call the praise, the same call that opened the psalm. Except here Yhwh’s identity has been more fully revealed. He is the “enthroned one of Zion”. Whereas before his throne was established in the heavens and revealed him to be the judge of the entire world, what we learn now is that his throne is more localized so to speak. Zion is where his throne sits. It is from Zion that his reign emerges and from Zion that his judgment (both his destructive and protective judgment) will emanate. And, as such, it is from Zion that the “declaration of his deeds” will be learned. All Yhwh-declaration will go forth from Zion. The beneficiaries of these declarations are “the peoples”.

And the substance of the praises is that this Enthroned one of Zion is also the Avenger of Blood. As exalted as he is, sitting on his regal and heavenly throne, he ex-presses his power most fully when he avenges the blood of the afflicted, when he hears their cry. And, in his hearing, their cry becomes the substance of praise because he comes to their deliverance. While the nations that stood against his people have been forgotten, Yhwh will not forget the cry of the afflicted. Yhwh will always already be there, ready to ‘activate’ his judgment over the world.

Be gracious to me / O Yhwh / look upon my affliction from those who hate me

                My guardian / from the gates of death

That I may recount all your praise / in the gates of the daughter of Zion

                I will rejoice / in your deliverance

Having recounted Yhwh’s history of protective judgment, and his concern for the afflicted, the psalmist asks Yhwh to act the same toward him. He asks Yhwh to be his guardian, and protect him from passing through the ‘gates of death’. For him, Yhwh’s gaze is redemptive life—it both casts down the enemy but also invigorates the afflicted with life. It robs this ‘city of death’ of its citizen and instead makes him again a citizen of “daughter Zion”.

The recurrence of Zion is key. Yhwh was previously described as the Enthroned of Zion. Now, when he redeems the afflicted, he makes them into citizens of Zion. We see the King and his subjects—we see, in other words, the kingdom of God and heaven. And its citizens consist of the afflicted who have been rescued by Yhwh from the gates of death so that they can sing Yhwh’s praises in the gates of Zion. Which sounds a lot like the church. 

Nations have sunk / into the pit they have made

                Their foot was caught / in the net which they hid

Yhwh has revealed himself / he has executed judgment

                By the action of hands / striking down the wicked

                HIGGAION. SELAH.

The psalmist here captures one of the most important dynamics of Yhwh’s judgment—that when Yhwh’s reveals himself and executes judgment it consists largely of the wicked being consumed by their own machinations. We see this repeatedly—that during the time before Yhwh executes judgment, when the wicked are in the ascendant, their plots seem to be working and moving toward fulfilment. The psalmist then prays for Yhwh to “hear him” and, when Yhwh does and manifests himself, Yhwh’s presence itself causes the wicked not only to fail in achieving its end, but, in fact, it turns on the ones who perpetrate it. The actors become acted upon. The evil they cast out into the world now boomerangs back onto themselves. They fall into the pit they dug; they become ensnared in the traps they hid. Just as they attempted to betray the righteous, now do they betray themselves. We have commented before on how Yhwh’s presence here does not simply operate as punishment but, rather, by turning the evil back on its perpetrators, the evil destroys the root it sprang from. It cuts off the source of its own life. Yhwh’s presence is not so much the punishment of the wicked as the eradication of wickedness itself.

The wicked shall return / to Sheol

                All nations that forget God

For the poor will not always / be forgotten

                Nor will the hope of the afflicted / perish forever

The psalmist says the wicked shall return to Sheol, indicating that their true home—where they came from—was this kingdom of death. That is where their true citizenry is, although they now plague the earth. And this realm, this kingdom, as we saw in Psalm 6, is the realm of forgetfulness of God—that, and death, are Sheol’s dominate identities. 

When they fall into the pit they dug, their ultimate destination will be the pit of Sheol.

The concluding two lines are some of the most important in the psalm because they sum up the themes. First, the focus on the ‘poor’, or ‘afflicted’. We have seen this already—they these afflicted ones are, in a sense, those of the present. The present is also the time of “being forgotten”. Importantly, though, the affliction of Yhwh’s people is also a sign of hope, a sign that the present will be judged and reversed. It points forward to the time of Yhwh’s ‘remembering’. This is why their hope will not “perish forever”.

Arise / O Yhwh / Don’t let humans prevail

                Let the nations be judged / before you

Put fear in them / O Yhwh

                Let the  nations know / they are only human. / SELAH.

The psalm concludes with the psalmist pleading that Yhwh “Arise”. The present time is one of human accomplishment, of human attainment. It is, in the words of Paul, the time of the flesh. It is, moreover, a time of deception—those who are in the ascendancy (the wicked), believe they are more than human, more than flesh. They believe their power is one that exceeds the human and stretches into the divine blessing. But when Yhwh ‘arises’, he will reveal himself to be the source of all divine power. He will be the one and only judge in the heavens. And, at that point, the lie the nations have lived within, will be revealed, and they will come to see that the source of their power is not divine, but only flesh. And it has worked, only because the present is a time of Yhwh’s waiting, of his patience and the time that prepares for the afflicted to become a revelation of Yhwh’s protective judgment.

Ps 8 -- the Philippian hymn

O Yhwh / our governor

                How majestic your name is / in all the earth

                I will worship your majesty / above the heavens

The psalm opens with a praise of the majesty of Yhwh’s “name” both “in all the earth” and “above the heavens”. Here, we see how the manifestation of Yhwh’s majesty is a manifestation of the “name”, and vice versa, the manifestation of the ‘name’ is a manifestation of his majesty. And this permeates the earth and, more importantly, it is and object of praise “above the heavens”—the seat of ultimate divine presence. It is both “in the earth” and “above the heavens”. This name-manifestation will serve as the center of the psalm.

From the mouths / of babes and sucklings

                You have established strength / on account of your enemies

                To put at rest / both foe and avenger

The psalmist then moves into the body of the psalm, and he begins in a seemingly strange place. The psalm began with an almost epic vantage of Yhwh’s name permeating not only the earth but being an object of praise “above the heavens” themselves. This is staggering in its portrayal of Yhwh’s name-majesty. But here, from the height, the psalm begins with the lowest—Yhwh’s name-strength is established “from the mouths of babes and sucklings”. And it is from this source of seeming vulnerability and weakness that Yhwh establishes his strength to “put at rest both foe and avenger.”

The visible display of Yhwh’s majesty “in all the earth” and “above the heavens” is now portrayed as being established by “babes and sucklings”. We will see later a similar “establishment through the weak”. What we can tentatively say here, though, is that the display of Yhwh’s name-majesty is not hindered by weakness but, instead, is amplified by it. Or, we might say, it finds a ready vessel to display itself. I believe the psalmist here is being intentional when he puts these two things together, things which generally are understood as being far apart. We have seen in other psalms how Yhwh’s creative power puts him outside the spectrum of creation—outside the spectrum spanning from the most majestic (the angels) to the least (rocks). And by being outside this spectrum, Yhwh can ‘touch’ each part of it equally. Or, here, he can equally manifest himself in each part. He is not constrained by the spectrum of power, because he created it. This serves a crucial point—the ‘highest’ display of power along the spectrum is not, itself, the greatest display of Yhwh’s power. Again, Yhwh is not bound by the spectrum. The ‘lowest’ can form as equal an expression of Yhwh’s majesty as the highest, and, in some cases, perhaps more.

This, of course, radically changes how we understand divine power and majesty. It can, for example, shine as much through a slaughtered lamb as it can through a roaring lion. It can shine as much through a son of man with eyes of fire as a baby in a feeding trough.

Here, the name-presence permeates the cosmos and extends beyond it. It’s establishment for purposes of thwarting Yhwh’s enemies, though, is in the weakness of babes and sucklings. This is important—when it comes to displaying Yhwh’s authority against his enemies, he does so through those on the ‘bottom’ of the spectrum. On some level this be a type of parable, a display of Yhwh’s authority that is meant to confuse in order to reorient his people around him. In other words, it is meant to forcefully display what his “name” really is. And, in part, it is this—that even in the weakest, Yhwh’s authority is greater than those at the ‘top’ of the spectrum. That not only does Yhwh not shun those on the bottom of the spectrum, but, in fact, makes his home there; he ‘tabernacles’ there. And this is a great mercy for the world—because it is an evident and clear sign of Yhwh and his absolute reign over the entire Cosmos. Because if his authority can be displayed over the strongest, precisely through the weakest, then, again, he is shown as the One who stands outside the entire spectrum of authority and power. It is a lighthouse to the world that “here” is (the) God.

When I see your heavens / the work of your fingers

                The moon and the stars / which you have established

What is man / that you are mindful of him

                And the son of man / that you attend to him

But you have made him / little less than god

                And you will crown him / with glory and honor

You will make him / master over the work of your hands

                You have set everything / beneath his feet

All sheep and cattle

                And even the beasts of the field

Birds of the air / and fishes of the sea

                Whatever passes through the pathways of the seas

The psalmist here, in a sense, recapitulates everything from the vantage of the “son of man”.

Above, the psalmist says the name-majesty permeates the cosmos and he worships that majesty above the heavens. Here, that name-majesty is “the heavens, the work of your fingers”, the “moon and the stars which you have established.”

Above, the psalmist transitions from this grand, epic scope to the intimate establishment of Yhwh’s name in the weak, babes and sucklings. Here, the psalmist shifts from the heavens to the small “son of man”.

Above, the “mouths of babes and sucklings” establish Yhwh’s majestic authority over his enemies. Here, seemingly insignificant ‘son of man’ is “made little less than a god” and “crowned with glory and honor.”

Above, the “mouths of babes and sucklings” put at rest “both foe and avenger”. Here, the “son of man” is made master over the work or your hands” and “everything is set beneath his feet.” There, the creative, and generative, power that stills the chaos and brings order—like creation itself bringing order from chaos—comes now not from the ‘word of God’ but the ‘mouths of babes and sucklings’. They speak Yhwh’s authority out over the Cosmos and bring with it peace and healing. Here, the ‘son of man’ is likewise placed in that same position and, Adam-like, everything is put beneath his authority and control. There, the ‘word’ is placed in the mouth. Here, the activity and power is placed within the son of man’s control. In both, they are meant to participate in and enact Yhwh’s reigning authority and majesty within the Cosmos.

To continue on the reflection above regarding the ‘babes and sucklings’, we see here that man himself, when seen within the context of the overwhelming work of Yhwh’s hands in the heavens, is as weak and insignificant as ‘babes and sucklings’. And yet, just as the name-majesty has been placed within their mouths and become a bulwark against Yhwh’s enemies, so too has Yhwh ‘crowned’ man with glory and majesty. Just as the babes and sucklings became a theophany of Yhwh’s majesty, so now too is man himself, with the glory he has been given, a theophany of Yhwh. It is insignificant man’s mastery over the domain of the earth that is a clear theophany of Yhwh’s “mindfulness of man”—nothing as small as man could exercise such mastery unless Yhwh himself bestowed upon him such power and authority, “setting everything beneath his feet”. Again, it is Yhwh’s movement to the lowest on the spectrum, bestowing on it authority over the greatest, that reveals that Yhwh stands outside the spectrum. This is the ‘wonder of Yhwh’ that stands at the heart of this psalm—that Yhwh’s choice of the weakest reveals an authority that utterly dwarfs the authority of any along the spectrum of the Cosmos. It is something utterly different, utterly beyond what the Cosmos is capable. And so when it is revealed, it will have to determine, in a way, its own shape and contour; its own form. Because nothing ‘within the spectrum’ will be able to provide a completely accurate analogy to Yhwh’s authority.

Where the wonder: the psalmist express wonder when he sees Yhwh’s name permeating the Cosmos, and when he worships Yhwh’s majesty above the heavens. He is struck with wonder at Yhwh’s construction of the heavens, the ‘work of his fingers’. And yet, for the psalmist, there is an even greater source of wonder—Yhwh’s choice to “raise the lowly” by placing his name on the lips of babes and sucklings and by his regard for man and making him “little less than god”. It is this stooping down that most fully reveals Yhwh’s majesty. We might say that it reveals Yhwh’s majesty to a greater extent than the Cosmos itself—that Yhwh’s lifting up of man and his preference for the weak is the greatest theophany; that we ‘see’ more of who Yhwh is, in his stooping down. And for all the reasons we said above—that by choosing the lowly, Yhwh is, in fact, showing himself/revealing himself to be beyond the spectrum of the Cosmos.

But there is more to it than this. It is not simply that Yhwh is attempting to show his glory and majesty, although it certainly does reveal that. It is man that becomes the vehicle or object of this revelation. Man becomes and is this greatest theophany. And it is Yhwh’s special regard for man—he is “mindful of him” and he “attends him”; he “crowns him” and he places everything of his own creation beneath his feet. There is much more in this than a revelation of Yhwh’s glory—or, we might say, that the revelation of Yhwh’s glory includes within itself a revelation of Yhwh’s tender regard, indeed his love, of man. Perhaps the best way of stating it is this—that Yhwh’s glory is most fully revealed in his love of mankind; that Yhwh’s overwhelming mastery of the Cosmos is not the greatest display of his glory. Rather, in man, we see Yhwh’s heart revealed, and revealed in a way that otherwise would remain hidden. In Yhwh, love, glory and majesty are not separated, but all three are the same in Yhwh.

And here is where we come to an even deeper insight—that the way Yhwh chooses to reveal that he is not a part of the spectrum of the Cosmos is through his loving regard for man. It is ingenious how Yhwh accomplishes the revelation of true glory. The Cosmos itself intimates that authority and power are the same as love. Man himself does also. But, in general there is always a hierarchy of powers. For some, love may be the pinnacle but then authority is made penultimate. For others, authority is the pinnacle but love made penultimate (or, lower down the ladder). This psalm introduces Yhwh as the one who clearly reveals this coincidence of authority and love. And the revelation occurs, the revelation of the coincidence occurs, in Yhwh’s ‘coming down’ to ‘lift up’ man. This coincidence—the ‘coming down’ is a ‘rising’; the descent of authority is the rising of authority; and all of its momentum is through love. Love is the cause of both the coming down and the lifting.

And more deeply still—this is not simply Yhwh’s ‘choice’, this ‘coming-down-to-raise-up’. It is not simply a momentary act of his will. Rather, it truly reflects who Yhwh is. Yhwh is not simply a loving god; he is Love. In other words, it is a real theophany or revelation of Yhwh. Yhwh’s act ‘in time’ reveals his eternal ‘Face’, who Yhwh is “in himself”. For that reason, it is something that can be relied upon absolutely. And, in light of Christ, it is also prophetic—because it points toward the incarnation hymn of Paul’s letter to the Philippians—although he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with god as something to be grasped but, instead, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human likeness, he humbled himself and submitted to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, giving him the name above all names so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in the heavens and on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. In many ways, Psalm 8 is the prophetic template of the Philippian hymn.

Now, in the perception of man and his, to the psalmist, astonishing authority over the “work of Yhwh’s hands”, we at first glance something that seems ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’—at the same time. The psalmist “sees” Yhwh’s hands in both the heavens and in man’s elevation. It is not the case that he sees it ‘naturally’ in the heavens and then ‘supernaturally’ in man. For him, they are both revelations of Yhwh. That said, however, in man he does see a deepening of astonishment, a deepening of the revelation of Yhwh. The more he peers into man’s authority the more he peers into Yhwh’s work of ‘descent-in-order-to-raise’. Importantly, Yhwh’s work is not something that displaces man. The ‘supernatural’ lifting of man, is not something that replaces man. Instead, Yhwh’s work is precisely what ‘makes man, man’. It is important to see how this can only occur by Yhwh, precisely because he is not part of the spectrum of the Cosmos. Any other being within the order of the Cosmos, were it to ‘lift’ man in this capacity, would in fact have to replace man with its own power. Finite things operate in this way. But, with Yhwh, who is infinite, who is not part of the spectrum of the Cosmos, he can act upon man without displacing man. This is how and why Yhwh and man can both remain distinct, and both enact man’s life, but they do so in different ways and different depths—non-competitively.

O Yhwh / our governor

                How majestic your name is / in all the earth.

Ps. 7 -- the logic of judgment and abundance

O Lord / my God / I have sought refuge in you

                Save me / from all my pursuers / and deliver me

Lest they should rip me / like a lion

                Tearing me up / with no deliverer

The psalmist begins with a petition to Yhwh for deliverance. He has sought refuge in Yhwh and asks Yhwh be that refuge, to save him from his pursuers and deliver him. Yhwh is here a type of cave, a hiding place, for the psalmist while he is in flight from his enemies.

The psalmist’s enemies are portrayed as lions who want to ‘rip the psalmist’ and ‘tear him up’. The psalmist envisions himself being hunted and unable to outrun his enemies who are, lion-like, much more powerful than himself. To see himself as one “with no deliverer” expresses this sense of utter vulnerability, terror and panic in the face of their speed and strength. If Yhwh does not “save” and “deliver” him, if Yhwh does not act as his “refuge”, then the psalmist will be mutilated by his enemies and devoured.

O Lord / my God / if I have done this thing

                If there is injustice / in my hands

If I have repaid /  my ally / with treachery

                And rescued his adversary / empty-handed

Let my enemy pursue me / and overtake me

                And let him trample me / into the earth

                And let him lay my glory / onto the dust. SELAH

Here we see why the psalmist is being pursued—he has been accused of treachery, of betrayal. What we see here is that the psalmist is accused of disunity, of being the rupture in a relationship. In the calling down a curse upon himself, we see the logic of judgment—if he has aided his ally’s enemy; then his enemy should destroy him. This is the principle of judgment that flows through every psalm. It is a principle that the psalmists routinely call down upon their enemies. And yet, here, for one of the only times in the psalms—perhaps the only time—the psalmist calls down this judgment upon himself.

Note the similarity in these lines to the concluding lines where the wicked “dig a pit only to fall in it themselves”. Here, the psalmist says something very similar—if I have done this, then let me be destroyed. Unlike the wicked, however, the psalmist calls down this judgement upon himself. It is a crucial distinction. For the psalmist, his concern is that righteousness be established, even if that establishment necessitates his own destruction. For the wicked, on the other hand, when righteousness is established, they will participate in it but unwillingly and unknowingly; they will be overtaken by their own wickedness; or mistakenly fall into it.

The psalmist’s surrender to judgment is, in actuality, an assertion of innocence and a plea for mercy. By calling down this judgment upon himself the psalmist displays a horror at betrayal that is akin to Yhwh’s own revulsion over it. There is something important in this—that the psalmist so identifies with Yhwh’s passionate disdain for betrayal that he would consign himself to destruction if he had betrayed an ally. This is the heart of a servant—that the servant’s entire being would be made subservient to the good of the other. To call for one’s own destruction if one violated the standard of goodness, is to make oneself entirely, and without remainder, the instrument of that goodness.

Arise / O Lord / in your wrath

                Lift yourself up / against the furious outbursts / of my enemies

Awake / O Lord / my God

                Declare a judgment

And let the assemblies of people / gather around you

                And above it / take your seat on high.

The psalmist now implores Yhwh to “arise” and “awake”. He wants Yhwh to lift himself against the psalmist’s accusers and awake to declare a judgment. The reverse of both these—the position that Yhwh is now in—is that Yhwh is enmeshed—on the same level as—his enemies. Moreover, he is not enraged or ‘wrathful’ but, so it seems, complacent. The psalmist wants Yhwh’s wrath to meet the “furious outbursts”—anger for anger, but with Yhwh’s wrath lifting him to his divine level of supremacy. In other words, his wrath will show him to be who he is—the one who is above the nations and all powers.

But it is not simply that Yhwh will show himself to be the Supreme. It is not simply a matter of power. His wrath is one of justice. The psalmist wants Yhwh’s sense of justice to be enkindled—that is his wrath. He wants Yhwh to “set things right”, to “establish the good” and redeem the present order, straightening out what is crooked, healing what is broken, and judging and destroying all that acts against his good will.

From this aggressive stance the imagery shifts to one of a courtroom. There, Yhwh’s “rising” or “awakening”, is understood as his ascending to his throne “on high”. As we will see below, Yhwh’s ascending his throne is an act of a judge, sitting in judgment. He will “adjudicate the nations”. Here, the “assemblies of the people gather around him”. His rising to his throne is, simultaneously, a drawing of all people to himself; it is their unification.

Importantly, as we will see, the psalmist here portrays Yhwh’s judging the nations in a way similar to his opening request that Yhwh judge him—just as the psalmist has submitted himself utterly to Yhwh judgment (and has put his entire existence beneath his judgment), so too now does he envision Yhwh rising and putting “all peoples” beneath his judgment.

The Lord adjudicates the nations

                Judge me / O Lord / according to my righteousness

                And according to my integrity / O Most High

Let the evil of wicked persons / come to an end

                But establish / the righteous

And scrutinize / the thoughts and emotions

                O righteous God

The psalmist asks Yhwh to judge and scrutinize all of mankind—himself in particular and the thoughts and emotions of everyone. This scrutinizing results in judgment—the ending of evil and the establishment of the righteous. Judgment for the psalmist is according to his “righteousness” and “integrity”.  Again, we see here that the psalmist believes himself innocent of the charges of betrayal, even though he would willingly submit to destruction if he was guilty. He would, in other words, submit to the judgment that he here requests of the wicked—that he would “come to an end”.

Once the Lord rises, once he awakes, he ascends to his throne. This ascension becomes the establishment of a divine courtroom, where the Lord now acts as king-judge in establishing a correct order within the cosmos. His ruling is cosmic—while it involves the psalmist, as the leader of Yhwh’s people, it also stretches out to and covers the entire realm of man and nations.

Here we find the ascension of Christ. Paul tells us that at his ascension into heaven he is given ‘the name above all names’—the Lord. This ascension follows his “sleep” of death and his being ‘enmeshed’ within the cosmos, his (again from Paul) being made a slave and obedient to death. It is as if his being “found in human” form, and his humbling himself to the point of death, created a type of pit into which everything fell; he drew everything to himself by being fully man and then voluntarily sinking to its depths, bending the cosmos to himself. And then, taking everything with him into death, he would also take it up with him in his resurrection. In his ascension, though, he would rise to the throne of God. He would be given the Divine Name, and he would begin the act of judgment. It is only now, in the Ascension, that this judgment truly occurs, because it is only in the Ascension that the Victor who was dead but now alive, is made into the perfect judge who can ‘scrutinize thoughts and emotions’. “From there he will come to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.”

In all of this we see how God’s judgment was always going to entail the incarnation, and how the incarnation is aimed at the ascension. From Adam (and, even before Adam) this is the goal all along. This is how it would occur. This is how God would “rise to his throne”. He would do so as the incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. The God who has redeemed them time-and-again, who has delivered them, will become the incarnate man Jesus Christ. This is truly astonishing because it means that every step along the way, is a step in the direction of the Ascension.

My shield / is upon God

                The one / who delivers / the upright of heart

God / is a righteous judge

When God judges, people are divided in two. He delivers those who are “upright of heart” while he “sharpens his sword” and “bends his bow” against those who “do not repent.” In the ‘time of the psalm’, however, the people are not so easily divided. It is the time of God’s ‘slumber’ and his being enmeshed, down ‘low’ in the powers of the cosmos. When God is ‘low’ and ‘asleep’, the world is likewise ‘low’ and ‘asleep’ in that it’s design is not being realized. It is tainted, confused, and impure. But, this is also a time of mercy, a time of abeyance of judgment so that people can “repent”. Looked at from one vantage point, it is God’s unwillingness to engage in the world’s injustices. But, from another, it is the time of patience and mercy. It is the time “after the flood” when no longer will each wrong be met immediately with a corresponding punishment; conversely, each righteous act will also not be immediately met with a corresponding act of blessing.

The psalmist knows that Yhwh can and will awake and rise above all of the powers. He knows that Yhwh is the only one upon whom he can place his “shield” and regard as his protection. And he knows that when God judges, the “upright of heart” will be delivered because God is a “righteous judge”.

                But God is indignant every day

                If a person does not repent

He sharpens his sword

                He has bent his bow / and prepared it

And for it / he has made ready instruments of death

                He will make his arrows / fiery shafts

The judgment will also necessarily entail the destruction of the wicked. The righteous’ ‘shield’ is upon Yhwh (either God is the shield itself or he holds the shield for his servant) but for the wicked, in the judgment they stand utterly exposed and defenseless. Whereas Yhwh acted as a defense to the righteous, here he attacks the unrepentant—he sharpens his sword and bends his bow. He readies the ‘instruments of death’. In all of this we see how God’s judgment entails a type of war—shields for the righteous (shields that either are God or are held by God) and swords and arrows. It will not simply be a declaration of innocent or guilty but will be the punishment as well. When God judges, the righteous and the wicked “become what they are”. The world, which was previously confused due to God’s patience and mercy, is divided and separated, as in creation itself when everything is “separated” (earth from sea, day from night, water below from water above, etc…). It is the ordering justice of God in re-establishing his creation.

In this verse, God is portrayed as the one who actively attacks the unrepentant. As we will see, the psalmist will then shift perspective and, there, the wicked will destroy themselves. In all of this, perhaps we discern something important—that when Yhwh rises in judgment, and when he re-establishes creation’s goodness and order through an act of separation, the act of justice and separation will be a synergy between his acting and the wicked’s acting. In other words, the destruction of the wicked will entail as much of their destruction of themselves as it will entail Yhwh “loosing his fiery shafts”, just as the redemption of the righteous will also entail as much of their “integrity” and “righteousness” as Yhwh’s establishment of them.

Lo / he is in labor with iniquity

                And he is pregnant with mischief

                And gives birth / to falsehood

He dug a pit / and excavated it

                Then he fell into the hole / he was making

His mischief returns / upon his own head

                And his violence / descends on his forehead

The images begin with those of potency, of what is about to occur or be brought about: “In labor”, “pregnant”, “dug a bit”. In all of these the wicked are attempting to bring about—to actualize—their “iniquity”, “mischief” and “falsehood”. When the potency becomes actualized, though, what occurs is not what the wicked expect—when their child is born, when the pit is dug, their evil turns upon them, their children return to destroy them, the pit they dug to trap the righteous, is something that they fall into. Everything comes down on their own heads.

What we see here is that God, in his “rising”, his “waking” and his “judgment” prevent the wicked from fully realizing their goals. In fact, quite the opposite—his presence causes the wicked to not only be thwarted, but to destroy the destroyers. There is a beautiful logic to this because now the wicked is utterly destroyed by the wicked actually turning upon its makers. With the destruction of its creators, wicked is utterly destroyed. It is not simply a punishment, but a root-and-branch destruction of the wicked itself. That is why it boomerangs back upon them—to cut it out from its source. 

Conversely, we might say that just as the wicked’s goals are used to dis-create them, so too would the righteous people’s goals come “back upon their heads” to re-create them. The “work of their hands” is realized in God’s judgment. It is brought to fruition. They are engines of life and therefore an astonishing, abundant life now returns on them. The seeds that they sow now return, not in a harvest that correlates to their seed, but a harvest that is lavish and utterly dwarfs their efforts.

If this is the logic of judgment then Christ’s life becomes this fully realized seed that, in the judgment, is now made into the absolute abundance. In the incarnation the Word and “Life of the Cosmos” becomes flesh and brings that flesh to its utter completion and, in so doing, now enables it—realizes it—to become the vehicle of heavenly and absolute blessing and Life. .

I will laud the Lord / because of his righteousness

                And I will sing / the praise / of the name of the Lord Most High.

Ps. 6--Sheol and the Son's Rising

O Yhwh / do not rebuke me / in your anger

                And do not chastise me / in your wrath

The psalmist is in torture, both physically and spiritually—everything, from the top down and from the outside to the inside, is feeble and disturbed. He is under attack. The psalmist is like a sinful and punished man, a man who is inhabiting the realm of curse and affliction. It is from this realm that he now pleads with Yhwh to “not rebuke me” in his anger or “chastise me” in his wrath. He already appears to be an object of Yhwh’s anger and wrath and so the question is why does he begin the psalm in this fashion.

On the one hand, it may be that he sees his condition as a result of his sinfulness and so he is imploring Yhwh for mercy. The difficulty with this is that the psalmist never says he is sinful; there is no confession of sin. Perhaps the sin is the unknown type, but that seems unlikely given, again, the fact that the psalm does not even mention sin. In other words, it has to be read into the psalm, or understood as being presupposed. Also, he later attributes his condition to his ‘enemies’, not to himself. When Yhwh heals and redeems him, it will be from them. It will not, it seems, be in act of merciful forgiveness.

The other way of reading this is to see in it a Job-like request that Yhwh not be angered by his bringing of his petition. Perhaps his sickness has been permitted by Yhwh and the psalmist does not seek to thwart, or attack, Yhwh’s will. The problem I see with this is, like the word ‘sin’, there is nothing that says this in the psalm.

I think a beginning of an answer is when this verse is read as contrasted with the following verses. The first verse asks Yhwh to not be angry or wrathful. The second verse, in a reverse parallel, asks Yhwh to be gracious and heal him. He then asks Yhwh “How long?”. The question holds some of the answer we are looking for. The psalmist clearly sees his torment as coming from Yhwh and wants to know how much longer it will last. If it continues, it is likely he will end up dead and Sheol where he cannot praise Yhwh any longer.

I think what we see here is that the question of “How long?” is another way of saying the opening verse. The psalmist sees his condition as, at the least, being permitted by Yhwh. His sickness, inner and outer, is a result of Yhwh’s anger and wrath. As we know from other psalms, Yhwh’s ‘wrath’ is often simply his letting be, of his removal of protection. It is not his active willing of a wrong or evil. So, I think the opening verse is understood as being the psalmist’s request that Yhwh not continue in his ‘wrath and anger’ against him. In other words, it is not a request that Yhwh avoid beginning to be angry but that he stop what is already occurring. Whether it is caused by sin or whether he is Job-like simply isn’t stated. All the psalmist wants is for it to stop—for Yhwh to ‘return’ to him, to save him, to deliver him from his condition, because of his lovingkindness.

Be gracious to me / O Yhwh / for I have grown feeble

                Heal me / O Yhwh / for my bones have become disturbed

And my soul / has become exceedingly disturbed

The psalmist begins with the negative request—that Yhwh refrain from doing something (not rebuke him, not chastise him). He now turns to the positive request—that Yhwh do something (be gracious to him, heal him).

The basis for this request is because the psalmist is feeble and his inner and outer man has “become disturbed”. What the psalmist desires is for Yhwh to restore to him integrity—unity—in both body and in his soul/spirit. The strength that is a sign of health is what gives unity to the person, what keeps him stable. With that strength ebbing, he is losing his unity and integrity. He has “become disturbed”. The strength of unity is now the weakness of disbursement. As we will see, this lack of integrity is a ‘symptom’ of Sheol, a beginning of the psalmist’s descend into Sheol. We could even schematize it thus—Heaven is the place of utter integrity and unity, of strength and life while Sheol is the place of disbursement, a lack of solidity and weakness.

For the psalmist, that is what Yhwh can provide—he can “heal him”; he can give him strength and integrity and unity. He can give him vitality. He can bring together the parts of the psalmist that he himself cannot unify.

                But you / O Yhwh / How long?

Return / O Yhwh / Save my soul

                Deliver me / because of your lovingkindness

For in Death / there is no memory of you

                In Sheol / who can praise you?

The psalmist here expresses his sense of Yhwh’s distance from him. It is this—this farness of Yhwh—that is causing, or contributing, to his deterioration. As we saw above, the effect of a curse-like existence is often Yhwh’s not-acting, and not so much of his direct willing. As Paul would later say, the wrath of God is his letting people succumb to their desires and idolatry.

That palpable sense of absence is what leads to the psalmist’s question to Yhwh of “How long”. How long will he remain far from him. He implores Yhwh to “return”; to “save my soul” that is disturbed; and “deliver him”. This absence of Yhwh is the path to Sheol. If Yhwh stays “far off” much longer the psalmist will become a citizen of Sheol. And for Yhwh this is a loss—a loss of praise and of his “memory”. These terms—praise and memory—are very similar. The act of “remembering” Yhwh is not simply an act of mentally recalling Yhwh. In Deuteronomy 8, for example, the act of “remembering” serves as the basis for praise and for obedience. To “forget” Yhwh is to become disobedient, to devolve into idolatry and, ultimately, to be destroyed. To “remember” Yhwh, on the other hand, means to live within Yhwh’s covenant power and blessing—it preserves Yhwh’s people from a pride that they achieved their glory on their own and it preserves them against disobedience. When Yhwh’s people are gathered together in liturgy, moreover, they recount Yhwh’s saving acts, and thereby make them present again. This is the liturgical act of memory—of ‘making present’ Yhwh’s blessing-power. When the psalmist says, therefore, that in Sheol there is no “memory of you” and no “praise of you” he is making a profound point about death and liturgy—that death means the end to liturgy and, accordingly, the end to Yhwh’s presence. If liturgy and memory are the means by which Yhwh is made present to the people, then Sheol and death represent a type of anti-presence, anti-temple and anti-liturgy. It is a place from which Yhwh’s covenant power cannot redeem or heal.

But here is a deeper point to this—a liturgical person is a delight to Yhwh. He is something that Yhwh so delights in that his praise can be used as a reason to move Yhwh into action—to cause him to engage his covenantal lovingkindness and redeem the psalmist. This is deeply significant. We saw before how Yhwh is the one who gives vitality and integrity to the psalmist; he is the one who can bring together what is “disturbed”. This is Yhwh’s character and his blessing. Here, we see that this life, integrity and blessing are given so that the person can, in memory and liturgy, return praise to Yhwh. There is a synergy here—Yhwh’s original blessing is to turn into man’s return of blessing and praise which, in turn, leads to Yhwh’s blessing which leads to additional deposits of “memory” and praise, and so on. This is why Sheol is so devastating—it ends this synergy and cycle of blessing and praise. This object of Yhwh’s delight—this vessel of his blessing and praise—no longer can “remember” him.

This understanding of man as a liturgical person coincides with Genesis and its portrayal of Adam as the messiah and priest of the Garden. And, it also coincides with Genesis and its understanding of the curse(s) that fall on Adam and Eve after their expulsion from the Garden—the cycle of blessing and praise is interrupted; the openness and nakedness of one-to-the-other is now clothed (in both an act of mercy and condemnation).

I have grown weary / with my groaning

Every night / I soak my bed

                I dissolve my couch / with my tears

My eye wastes away / because of grief

                It grows weak / on account / of all my enemies

The psalmist recounts his utter dissolution, his almost literal melting into Sheol, as he pours himself out in misery and groaning. Even his eyes have grown weak as they pour out their tears; they “waste away”. For the psalmist, his weakness and illness is attributed to “my enemies”, the first mention in the psalm that the he is under attack, apparently by human forces. It is notable that he does not say that his dissolution is due to sickness but because of “grief” and his “enemies”. Perhaps we should see in this psalm a Job-like two-pronged attack—from both sickness and from enemies.

It is into this dissolution that the psalmist asks Yhwh to “come close”, to restore to him the integrity of health and to “dissolve” his enemies. As we will see, he asks Yhwh to take the curse that he now labors under and turn it on his enemies—to cause them to lose integrity; to cause them to become ‘disturbed’; to remove their ‘health’ so that their strength is gone and they are unable to continue their attempts to thwart Yhwh’s blessing and the psalmist’s praise. And, if they become the ‘curse’ the psalmist now is, then the psalmist will become the ‘blessing’ that they are. If Yhwh is far from the psalmist, then when Yhwh comes close to him, he will then be far from the “workers of wickedness”. This is the ‘grace’ and ‘healing’ that he prays for—one that is not simply rooted in his reception but also in the enemies destruction.

Depart from me / all workers of wickedness

                For Yhwh has heard / the sound of my weeping

Yhwh has heard / my supplication

                Yhwh will accept / my prayer

All my enemies shall be disappointed / and exceedingly disturbed

                They shall turn back / They shall be disappointed in a moment.

Here we see the lightning strike of Yhwh’s redemption. It comes like a thief in the night, suddenly and unexpectedly. And the reversal that Yhwh accomplishes is total, without remainder. The psalmist is “heard”, his “prayer accepted” and “in a moment”, his enemies are turned back by his sudden return to glory. They now inhabit his realm of curse—they “turn back”; they are “disappointed”; they are “exceedingly disturbed” as his bones and soul had been.

The spiritual geography of the psalm is important to note—the psalm begins with a call that Yhwh not “rebuke him”; he then calls upon Yhwh to “return to him”; he now tells the wicked to “depart from me” and they shall “turn back”. What we see here is that evil is “close” in the time of the psalm while Yhwh is “far”; when Yhwh hears the prayer, however, the reverse will occur—evil will “depart” and Yhwh will “come close”.

Jesus prayed in the garden, to the point of tears-like-blood. These tears, the sound of his weeping, is heard by the Father. And the resurrection is the lightning strike of his response—it is sudden, catches everyone by surprise, utterly reverses the messiah’s condition and his enemies, and is total. Here we find a divine life irrevocably flooding into Jesus. He becomes the locus of eternal life now. He becomes the ‘heard one’ of this psalm, and the enemy that is now banished from him is death. But this banishment is not temporary, but permanent and eternal. His resurrected life is one of enduring, perpetual and astonishing integrity—it will never be ‘disturbed’. And so will his enemies—just as divine life now flows into him, banishing death, so too does it make of him an abiding victory. He is forever established in his victory. His enemies no longer have any purchase over him as they did during his life. They are now forever-perpetually “disappointed and exceedingly disturbed”. They are forever-perpetually “turned back” and “disappointed in a moment”. Just as, during his life, was he a perfect reflection and instrument of the Father, so too Jesus’ resurrected body becomes the forever-perpetually ‘heard one’.

This psalm also offers window into one of the reasons the Father would raise the Son—we saw above how the psalmist’s ability to give praise to Yhwh is the paramount reason why Yhwh should not allow the psalmist to sink into Sheol. There is something Yhwh himself would lose if he lost the psalmist. To take this a step further, if the Cosmos is meant to be a liturgical vessel—something Yhwh pours himself into so that it can, in turn, praise Yhwh—then Yhwh would, in some way, fail if Sheol had the last word. But more deeply still—if Sheol and death are the realms of anti-praise and anti-liturgy; if they are the alien and foreign interruption into the realm of Yhwh’s creation; if Sheol and death rob Yhwh of praise and what he both desires and is due; and if man is “man” in so far as he is living and liturgical; then the incarnate Son could not be abandoned to Sheol and Death. The incarnate Son is this man-made-to-return-liturgy-to-Yhwh as Yhwh’s delight. And more, he does not simply offer to Yhwh what Yhwh desires but he offers to Yhwh what Yhwh is due and thereby ‘saves’ Yhwh from unfaithfulness and disrepute. He saves his honor and reputation (something that Moses used repeatedly to save Israel from destruction). If the Son had been abandoned in Sheol then, in a very real sense everything would have ultimately been abandoned to Sheol—and the Creator-God would have lost his creation to death. Likewise, if the Son is not abandoned in Sheol then everything is redeemed from Sheol and made into the liturgical vessel it was meant to be.