Ps 15 -- The immaculate

O Yhwh / who may reside / in your tent

                Who may dwell / on your holy mountain

The psalmist begins by posing a question to Yhwh. He wants to know who can reside in Yhwh’s tent and dwell on his holy mountain. The key term here is ‘holy’. Throughout the scriptures, holiness is a dangerous thing. Moses has to remove anything covering his feet at the burning bush because it is holy ground. When Israel approaches Sinai, the holiness is so intense that they must avoid even touching the mountain. The improper offering of sacrifices in the temple is an act of sacrilege and can, and does, destroy the officiant. The stories surrounding the arc are replete instances of the power and danger of holiness. When Isaiah is lifted up into Yhwh’s heavenly temple, it is so charged with holiness that he falls down, and is terrified by his uncleanliness. The point in all of this is that the psalmist is justly concerned if he intends or desires to “reside in Yhwh’s tent” or “dwell on his holy mountain.”

For many of the instances of that speak to the danger of holiness, they occur almost by accident, or, at least, not intentionally. A main exception to this is the officiating within the Temple—those regulations are clearly laid out and the priest intends to fulfill them.

I think a point of departure here, then, is the story of Sinai and the priesthood. At Sinai, the people are told to stay away from the mountain and to purify themselves, which they do. However, Moses does ascend the mountain where he stays with Yhwh for forty days, which is when he is given the Torah along with the specifications of the sanctuary and liturgical rites. Notably, this is not a momentary stay. In a very real sense, Moses is the first ‘priest’ in this regard because he ‘resides’ and ‘dwell’s with Yhwh ‘on his holy mountain’. He is, in other words, the ideal of this psalm. It is important to recall that when Moses leaves Yhwh’s Presence and descends to the people, his face is radiating the light-of-the-presence. His contact with the holy of Yhwh made him, too, holy. He radiated Yhwh’s Presence-Holiness.

So, this is not an idol question. It was that seeks the psalmist own self-preservation. If he gets this answer correct, he may become like Moses and the burning bush—consumed with Yhwh’s glory but not destroyed. If he gets it wrong, he may become like the many who approach Yhwh improperly and are destroyed.

What follows is, perhaps unsurprising given the above, is a type of ‘ten commandments’ that permit the ‘dweller’ to be in Yhwh’s presence. They function like an examination of conscience, something the dweller can recite to himself in order to determine whether he can dwell in Yhwh’s holy presence.

He who walks blamelessly

                And does / what is right

And speaks / the truth / in his heart

The psalmist begins his ‘litany of the dweller’ with three positive statements, three things the dweller does.

First, the dweller ‘walks blamelessly’. This will be matched in the following negative three statements with “he has not tripped over his tongue”.

The statement appears to be generic and difficult to describe exactly what it means to “walk blamelessly”. The same can be said about doing “what is right”. We do know that that ‘walking’ is an image of a person’s entire life, of their choice-after-choice mode of living. In psalm 1, for example, the wise one does not “walk by the counsel of the wicked”. In other psalms, sin is described as ‘faltering’ or ‘tripping’, or straying off of the path. In the new covenant, discipleship is described as ‘walking on the way’. Perhaps what we can say, then, is that the term is general because of how broad its application is—the entirety of life. And that may be why it is the first on the list—it is the most all-encompassing of the positive statements. The pilgrim, then, would ask himself this very general and broad question to orient himself, to direct his attention toward what is being asked of him. And it is, in its most general, but also most demanding form—blamelessness. We could say, with Paul, that he must be ‘immaculate’, ‘spotless’. This what all of the following actions or inactions are to be oriented to—this utter purity; this ‘pure sacrifice’ without blemish. And in this we see something important—that just as the sacrifices offered to Yhwh must be perfect and without blemish, so too must the pilgrim, except that the pilgrim must not be only bodily free from defect but also morally free from defect. He must have acted like a sacrifice in order to be the ‘dweller’ in Yhwh’s presence.

Second, the dweller “does what is right”. This will be matched by “he has not done evil to his friend”.

Third, the dweller ‘speaks the truth in his heart’. This is matched by  “has not taken up reproach against his neighbor.”

Having been oriented to a life that is blameless, the dweller now examines whether he has ‘done what is right’. This will be complimented by his asking whether he ‘speaks the truth in his heart’. These two need to be seen together because the first looks to the dwellers actions while the second looks to whether his speech is one of integrity. In both, the focus is on what the dweller does, what he accomplishes. He must look, not at this point to what he has avoided, but to the positive acts he has taken. Has he always ‘done what is right’ and has he always ‘spoken the truth in his heart’. In this way, the positive acts required of him are total—they move from his exterior acts of goodness, to his interior acts.

When the dweller looks at his interior speech—he must have in mind the fact that the wicked are divided. They say one thing but they intend another. They try and trap people by their speech because it is not unified with their interior goals. For the dweller, though, he must do what no one else can—he must police his interiority. He must analyze whether his speech is one that is unified with his ‘heart’. Does he speak the truth to himself, or does he only speak to others ‘what is true’ (and, hence, does he lie). But, again, this is not merely a negative examination. It is not simply whether he has avoided lying to himself. Speaking truth to himself is a positive act of unifying himself, of bringing himself into accord with his outer speech and actions. This is how he becomes this ‘blameless’ dweller, how he is presented, immaculate, to Yhwh.

In this we see something important about Yhwh’s own desires, his own heart we might say—because in this we see the ‘object of Yhwh’s delight’. This ‘blameless’ person is not simply being given admittance into Yhwh’s Presence. He is not simply free from fault (although he is). Rather, he positively radiates beauty to Yhwh. Yhwh desires to be with this person. Yhwh wants to be in their presence. Yhwh has made his Presence accessible to them, as the object of absolute and total desire, so as to draw them to himself, because he, too, wants to be in their presence. We don’t need, here, to qualify this with statements regarding the fact that Yhwh does not ‘need’ them; he doesn’t. But need is not the issue. The issue is one of beauty, glory and love. Those who ‘do what is right’ and who speak ‘truth in their heart’ are the people that Yhwh wants as dwellers ‘on his holy mountain’.

                He has not tripped / over his tongue

He has not done evil / to his friend

                He has not taken up reproach / against his neighbor

And here are the three negative acts—the acts that the dweller avoids doing so that he can be in Yhwh’s presence.

The psalmist formally does something interesting here. The immediately preceding line was about “speaking truth in the heart” whereas the first line was about “walking blamelessly”. This first negative, or prohibitive, statement, then, refers to both. This is important because on the one hand, it shows that “walking blamelessly” will entail not “tripping over this tongue”. But, when read in line with the immediately preceding statement, this also means speaking in a unified manner—not speaking double, representing one thing while the truth in the heart is another. It is an expertly developed image, incorporating both lines in a single image.

The second prohibition requires that dweller to have “not done evil to his friend”. In other words, that he does not betray the bond of friendship through evil. This will flow into the following prohibition that he has “not taken up reproach against his neighbor”. This line would seem to align closely with the positive description of “doing what is right”. The dweller, then, would first look at his life and determine whether has ‘done what is right’ but would have his attention drawn into his particular relationship with ‘his friends’. There, when his attention is more focused, he must ask himself whether he ‘done evil’ to his friend. The answer must be, “No”.

It is important to see that while the first three positive statements may imply goodness done toward another, it is only in these prohibitions that we explicitly find a third party mentioned—the friend and the neighbor. The social fabric is key; the dweller must not be responsible for tearing it, or causing it to fray. Again—central to this psalm—is that the dweller cannot be admitted to Yhwh’s presence if he has done these things. This tearing of social bonds makes him ‘blameworthy’, it makes him repugnant to the Presence. As such, the Presence desires and effects these bonds, the bonds of ‘friend and neighbor’. For Yhwh, these bonds are a good, a holy thing, and something that shows forth his Presence. They are transcendent, heavenly, holy and sacred goods. And if they are transgressed—if the dweller ‘does evil’ or ‘takes up reproach’—then he becomes profane, no longer able to be with Yhwh’s Presence.

In his eyes / the reprobate is despised

                But he honors those / who fear Yhwh

                He has sworn / to do no wrong / and does not falter

Two more positive actions—the despising and honoring gaze; and swearing to do no wrong. The heart, the tongue, and now the eyes. For the dweller, his gaze embodies the dynamic of positive act and prohibited act. It is the gaze of wisdom, that discerns and separates the good from the bad. It negatively despises the reprobate, and it positively honors those who fear Yhwh.

Note that it is not simply a matter of avoidance, of despising. The gaze must also be drawn toward someone in order to be a dweller, in order to dwell on Yhwh’s holy mountain. It must, in other words, be an aesthetic gaze, one that appreciates the beauty of holiness. The flip side of this appreciation is the ‘despising’ of the reprobate. One cannot truly honor those who fear Yhwh without also despising its reverse. The dweller, then, must look at his loves and his hates. He must analyze whether he engages in this ‘despising’ and ‘honoring’, because these are acts that mirror Yhwh’s own heart. Is he, like David, after Yhwh’s heart? Does he only despise but not honor, or does he honor and not despise? He must engage in the full spectrum if he wishes to be one who dwells on Yhwh’s “holy mountain”.

He has not lent his money / on interest

                Nor taken a bribe / against the innocent

And two concluding negative acts—does not lend money on interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent.

Both of these involve economic transactions. The first speaks to the prohibition of chagrining interest—something that was prohibited between ‘neighbors’ (fellow Israelites) but not between Israelites and Gentiles. The purpose, seemingly, was because those seeking a loan were already destitute and to charge interest on top of that would be exploitative, taking advantage of their weakness. He is supposed to loan money, however, just not with interest. The second speaks to something similar—not taking a bribe against “the innocent”. In the first, the person is in a position to aid the poor, but, instead, exploits that position and adds an additional burden to it. In the second, the person is in a position to give justice, but, instead, takes a bribe in order to skew justice. In the first, money goes ‘out’ (in order to come back, in act of oppression). In the second, money comes ‘in’. In both, the transaction is exploitative and is aimed at purchasing from the individual what should not be subject to purchase—mercy and justice. The dweller, then, is one who gives these, properly. They cannot be bought.

These two prohibitions are the most particular and easily measured of all the ‘ten commandments’. The first was the most general; the last is the most particular. And yet, as we saw with the most general (being ‘blameless’), it was not without content. Its generality does not dilute its demand. Rather, it is all encompassing, and therefore able to hold an incredible variety of acts. Something similar is at work here, in the reverse. Although it is particular, it, too, should move toward the general. In other words, the literal level of these prohibitions are essential, but the dweller should understand them also as meditative centers—as ways of asking himself whether he ‘charges interest’ or ‘takes bribes’ in other ways as well. One thing we see here is that the dweller does not occupy places where to do so would mean to exploit another person’s weakness. He avoids those ‘spaces’ of vulnerability and taking advantage of them. He avoids selling what should not be sold, but given freely.

The one doing these things / shall not be shaken forever.

The concluding line is curious. The litany has be aimed at determining who can be admitted into Yhwh’s presence and abide on “his holy mountain”. And yet, here at the end, the psalmist says that the one doing these things “shall not be shaken forever”, which seems to have no connection with the Presence.

Read without reference to the opening, the line seems to mean that those who are ‘blameless’ and abide by the litany will have an abiding stability, even in the face of being ‘shaken’. In other words, this is not a promise that the individual will not be shaken, but that it will not result in his being abidingly or perpetually shaken. The time will end, and he will return to stability.

Now, the one ”doing these things” is the one can “reside in your tent” and “dwell on your holy mountain”. The residing and dwelling are similar to the ‘not being shaken forever’ in that they both (re)turn to an abiding security. Perhaps the answer is this—that the one who lives his life in accordance with the litany (one who is ‘blameless’, or ‘immaculate’) is one who will, eventually, come to ‘reside in your tent’ and ‘dwell on your holy mountain’, not necessarily in an ‘after-life’ but in the sense of a firm and secure end or goal of that life. He will not be ‘shaken forever’ from that path; he will be rewarded; he will come to Yhwh’s holy mountain; his pilgrimage, his exodus, will end and he will come to Zion and the Temple. We could, furthermore, say this—that no matter how ‘shaken’ such a righteous person is, he can always maintain a firm conviction that it will end and that he will persist through it because Yhwh has promised his Presence to him.

Ps 14 - To know Yhwh is to praise him.

The fool / has said in his heart / there is no God

They are perverse / they do horrible deeds / there is not one doing good

This verse is the headwater to the rest of the psalm. Everything that follows—the perversity, the horrible deed, the corruption—all flow from this premise.

It is therefore important to see that this statement is one the fool says “in his heart”. This does not mean that he is ‘speaking interiorly’, nor is it an intellectual statement. To ‘say in your heart’ something means it is the all-consuming position of the person. It is the sphere of activity that they live within. It is the seed from which everything else the person does, grows from.

It is, in other words, parallel to the following line—they are perverse, they do horrible deeds/ there is not one doing good.

For the psalmist, these two lines say the same thing. One cannot “say in his heart there is god” and live a life of “horrible deeds”. The external deeds are manifestations of the dialogue of the heart—what a person “says in their heart”. These deeds are am abomination to Yhwh. The psalmist uses particularly strong words for them. If this is what it means to say “there is no god”, then the opposite of the “fool” is not so much “wisdom” as it would be “lovingkindness”. In other words, here the ‘atheism’ is an expression of extreme moral impurity, not so much an intellectual statement of God’s existence, per se. It’s opposite, then, is the covenant life—“lovingkindness”.

Yhwh has looked down / from heaven / upon the sons of man

                To see if there is one / acting prudently / one seeking God

In Genesis, when Yhwh’s angel informs Abraham that he is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham negotiates the angel down from fifty to ten righteous men—if there were only ten righteous men the angel agreed he would not destroy the cities. In Jeremiah, Yhwh tells Jeremiah to go throughout the city and if he could find one person who acts rightly, he would forgive the city. In Ezekiel, Yhwh looks for one man who would stand before him on behalf of the land; he found none. In all of these, Yhwh is searching for a righteous man who would stand against a coming destruction. They would act as saviors of their cities, because by their righteousness Yhwh would avert his wrath. They would be like a mother chicken, spreading her wings over her young. The point here is not on the judgment so much as it is on the incredible power of righteousness to ‘redeem’ or ‘save’ an entire people. It speaks to the profound depths of Yhwh’s mercy and his desire to enact it against his wrath.

In all of these examples, the realm of destruction/mercy, is one that is rife with wickedness—the realms of power are corrupt and it stretches from the top to the bottom. Likewise, in many instances where Yhwh is described as “looking down from heaven” it is often with a negative connotation—whether the flood, tower of babel, or otherwise. The imagery seems to be one of a measured, evaluating gaze; one that is aware of injustice and is looking to examine and judge the situation.

Here, presumably something similar is at work. The entire world is corrupt and Yhwh is looking for one person that he can rely on to be his intercessor. He wants one man who would stand on behalf of the world so that he can enact his mercy. For this psalm, the one Yhwh is looking for is the one who is acting prudently, who, in other words, seeks God.

The whole lot have turned aside / together they are corrupt

                There is not one doing good / not even one

Don’t they understand / all the workers of iniquity / who are consuming my people

This is the judgment of Yhwh’s penetrating, judging gaze—all of the sons of men are corrupt. He cannot find the ‘one man’ who would intercede as a savior of the sons of men. Their ‘folly’ is that they lack all remnants of covenant love—lovingkindness. They do not “do good”. They “don’t understand”. The final image is the most disturbing of all—the “sons of man” are consuming Yhwh’s people.

It is not merely that they behave corrupt to each other, nor only that they are failing to do good. They are not simply evil because of their passive failures. They are actively oppressing and destroying Yhwh’s people. But it is also not merely destruction. The evil are often portrayed as lions, who are pursuing the psalmist, ready to tear him apart. Here, while there is no image of the lion, there is the image of their ‘feeding upon’ Yhwh’s people, of deriving sustenance, and nourishment from them. So what we see here is a type of Yhwh-father looking down from heaven and what he sees are his children being consumed by the “sons of man”. It is a horrifying and horrible image. It should point to Yhwh’s heart, and its effect upon him.

                They have eaten bread / on Yhwh / they have not called

This line in many ways sums up the psalm and the life of the fool—the Scriptures speak of man not living ‘by bread alone’ but on the word(s) of Yhwh. Here, the fool does the reverse—he eats bread but does not call upon Yhwh.

The fact that the immediately preceding line describes the fools as “consuming my people” an now describes them as “eating bread” to avoidance of Yhwh, reveals the parallel—their consuming of Yhwh’s people is their ‘not calling’ upon Yhwh; their consuming of Yhwh’s people is their ‘eating bread’ (or, their ‘living by bread alone’). They are utterly closed to Yhwh, and their closure does not result in their simply operating within a dome of self-regulation. Their closure to Yhwh makes them evil. It makes them corrupt. It makes them cannibals. They do not merely turn away from Yhwh, but they turn against themselves. They fail to “do good”. In their turning away from the true source of nourishment (“man does not live by bread alone”) they turn upon humans to consume; they turn to “bread alone”. It is a terrible, anti-eucharist, because it is flesh-bread that is not a divine outpouring and sacrifice, but more akin to a vampire, taking the victim’s life into itself and thereby turning the victim into the evil that consumes it.

They were in great fear / but God is in the assembly / of the righteous

You would confound / the counsel of the poor / but Yhwh is in his refuge

These verses appear to contrast the state of the wicked with that of the righteous. The evil were in great fear and they were confounded, but God is in the assembly of the righteous and Yhwh is their refuge. What is clear is that something has occurred causing the wicked to retreat. An act of judgment.

The wicked’s failure to call on Yhwh did not prevent Yhwh’s gaze—what the psalmist shows is that man always-already stands underneath the gaze of heaven. No matter how wicked the “sons of man” become, and no matter how much they seal themselves off from Yhwh, they cannot block or camouflage themselves from Yhwh’s gaze. Yhwh will, at some point, gaze down from heaven and will act, depending on what he finds.

The judgment—it is not straightforward. We have seen how Yhwh’s judgment often entails a “letting be” of the wicked acts, such that they return on the wicked. Here, for example, those that consume will be consumed by their evil actions. Those who are fools will become ‘confounded’. They send out wickedness and in a type of ‘logic of wrath’, it turns on them, boomeranging back on their own heads. So, for the wicked, the judgment that falls on them produces confusion. Their security in themselves—their walling themselves off from God—has turned on them producing fear and confusion. Their cannibalistic devouring of Yhwh’s people now comes back upon them.

For the wicked, Yhwh “gazes down from heaven”. For the righteous, though, God is “in their assembly”. He is “his refuge”. It is key to see this geographical theology—for the wicked Yhwh is distant and a god who gazes down with a penetrating, judicious gaze. For the righteous, on the other hand, Yhwh is intimate. He is close to them—in their assembly—and he is protective toward them. It is a similar dynamic to that experienced in the exodus, when, to the Egyptians, the plagues became the embodiment of Yhwh’s wrath. And yet, in the very midst of his wrath, he formed spheres of protection where the Israelite’s dwelled in safety (the ‘Passover’ being the most dramatic and final example of this).

What needs to be born in mind, in the context of this psalm, is that God “being in the assembly of the righteous” is the reverse of what the fool said in the opening “in his heart”—there is no God. And that he is in the assembly of the righteous counters the second, parallel line—they are perverse, they do horrible deeds, there is not one doing good. In other words, God’s presence is the epitome of the source of all wisdom and covenantal lovingkindness. His “being in their midst” is what makes them righteous, and their being righteous is what makes their assembly a fitting place for him.

Would that Israel’s deliverance / would come out of Zion

                When Yhwh restores / the fortunes of his people

                Jacob shall exult / Israel shall rejoice

The psalmist now looks to the future, when deliverance “will come out of Zion”. At that time, Yhwh’s people, who were consumed by the wicked, will have their fortunes restored to them. They will no longer be hiding within Yhwh’s protective embrace, but they will out in the open, free from harm; and they will “exult” and “rejoice”.

The restoration of fortunes is not simply an ‘old testament’ belief in wealth as a sign of favor, or the psalmist’s (supposedly inappropriate) materialistic focus. The Scriptures end with a city coming down from heaven that is beyond staggering in its wealth and display. The point, of course, there is that in the redemption, the wealth of the earth now perfectly coincides with holiness. There is no longer the disconnect that existed before—when the nations exploited the poor in order to obtain their wealth; when wealth was a sign of terrible power. The ‘inner’ and the ‘outer’, instead, are completely aligned in Yhwh’s restoration, in his redemption.

As above, that deliverance comes out of Zion is part of the exultation and rejoicing. It comes from the place where Yhwh dwells with his people. It comes from the Temple, the gathering of his assembly (what we could call the church, the liturgical people of God). The place of liturgy is also the place of victory, the place of restoration. It is the place from which Yhwh’s power will unleash on the world.

Jacob and Israel—the focus up to this point has been on the corruption of the entire ‘sons of man’. That has been the unity of this psalm. It is, of course, not a true unity because it is full of the wicked who, by their nature, cannot be unified (evil is disunity). There has been another unity—“my [Yhwh’s] people”. They are obviously not included within the group of the “sons of man”. Here, at the end of the psalm, in its concluding line, another community-in-unity is mentioned—Jacob and Israel. We have here the entire northern and southern tribes of Israel, restored by Yhwh, from Zion, and united in praise of him. This united group are the true Adams of the earth; the true ‘sons’. Whereas the “sons of man” are unified in their foolishness and wickedness, Jacob-and-Israel are united by Yhwh-in-Zion and his restoration of their fortunes. This is a divine, covenantal unity.

We began with the fool who said in his heart there was no god. We end with the exulting and praising of Yhwh by Jacob and Israel. In the first, there is no god; in the second, Yhwh is being praised. In the first instance, the fool has been consigned to his own folly and destruction. In the second, Jacob-Israel has been delivered and his fortunes have been restored. This bookending of the psalm is meant to direct our attention to precisely what the fool denies—God/Yhwh—and to his manifest and clear working for his own people. Note how destruction comes about through a type of ‘letting be’, of letting evil work its way back to its own destruction, whereas deliverance and redemption are always portrayed not as a ‘natural outworking’ but as an unambiguous act of Yhwh. Yhwh ‘turns’ this psalm. And that is why the psalm ends not so much on the proclamation that “God exists” (contrary to the fool’s heart) but on the note of resplendent praise and exultation. We might say, to declare Yhwh’s existence is to proclaim and exult him. That his existence cannot be stated truthfully in any other way. To know Yhwh is to praise him.

Ps. 13 - How long

How long / O Yhwh / will you continually / forget me

                How long  / will you hide your face / from me

How long / must I set pain / in my soul

                Grief in my heart / by day and night

How long / will my enemy be exalted over me

The psalmist begins by questioning Yhwh. He wants to know how long Yhwh will permit the present moment of suffering and injustice to persist. Importantly, this time of injustice is described as a lack of Yhwh’s remembrance and lack of his presence. Yhwh has “forgotten him” and “hid his face” from him. It is key to see how the psalmist does not begin with the ‘exaltation of his enemies’ over him but with Yhwh’s absence. That is stands at the root of his enemy’s exaltation and his suffering, and that is the greatest tragedy to the psalmist. We might say that his enemies exaltation is more of a symptom of the disease of Yhwh’s absence. This would align with other understandings of evil and suffering that we have seen in other psalms where the wicked are punished. There, what we find is that when Yhwh’s punishes the wicked, in large part he simply allows them to fall prey to their own deeds: they dig a hole for the righteous, but they fall in it themselves. Their evil boomerangs back upon them. It is not, however, that this is simply a natural outworking of evil. Yhwh must remove some type of protection from around them, such that their own evil is now allowed to return on the wicked. Here is the point, with the wicked, evil’s potential is actualized through Yhwh’s ‘absence’, through his permitting evil to work its course. Something similar is going on here—evil is ‘exalted’ when Yhwh ‘forgets’ his people and when he ‘hides his face’ from them. This may seem contradictory because on the one hand Yhwh’s punishment of the wicked is understood as a type of absence, while the exaltation of the wicked is also understood as an absence. But the connecting thread is who Yhwh is absent from. When Yhwh works judgment on the wicked, he removes himself from the wicked and his ‘presences’ himself with the righteous. When injustice is present, Yhwh is ‘absent’ from the righteous but seemingly present with the wicked (or, he is at least permitting the wicked to succeed).

It is key to see that the absence of Yhwh is understood here because of injustice and not simply because of an existential feeling of emptiness. The psalmist, and those in his community, could, in that sense, ‘read off of history’ that God is absent.

It is a profound point—to see within suffering the absence of God—because it points to a much deeper reality and truth—that in order to see suffering as absence one must have a deeper conviction that flourishing is the presence of God. It is because of what the psalmist has lost that he is in such despair. Yhwh should not absent. That is the source of his cry and question—“How long…?” Time should not experience Yhwh’s absence. It should be full with it. His Presence should be stitched into the fabric of time itself, such that the question, “How long…?” should never occur. That it is being asked, means something is wrong. The enemy is in the ascendant.

In the book of Revelation is where we finally see this consummation of the Presence over the Absence. There, throughout the entire book, there is a clear sense that God is both present and absent from his creation (he works, but only through intermediaries). Until the coming of the new earth from heaven, the world is a place of light and darkness, flame and shadow. But, when creation has been cleansed, such that the new creation can descend from heaven, then does the Lamb himself become the Light, and there is no need for a Temple because no longer is the Presence contained within the holy-of-holies. The entire Cosmos is the holy-of-holies; it becomes the place of absolute Presence-Without-Absence. Then, there “is no night” but only day. But, until then, the cosmos is a mixture of presence and absence.

Here, because the psalmist is experiencing suffering he is, necessarily, also experiencing Yhwh’s absence. As long as there is “pain my soul”, there is an absence of Yhwh.

Look / Answer me / O Yhwh / my God

                Enlighten my eyes / lest I should / sleep the death

Lest my enemy should say / I have prevailed over him

                Lest my adversaries / should rejoice because I am shaken

But I have trusted / in your lovingkindness

                My heart shall rejoice / in your deliverance

I shall sing praises / to Yhwh

                As soon as he has dealt bountifully / with me.

The psalmist directs Yhwh to “look”, which requires Yhwh to turn his face toward the psalmist, thereby reversing his ignoring of the psalmist. In other words, in this psalm for Yhwh to ‘look upon’ the psalmist means for Yhwh to work redemption, blessing and abundance. He also directs Yhwh to “answer me” which would, likewise, mean Yhwh has recalled the psalmist from his forgetfulness. Both commands aim to get Yhwh’s attention, to draw him and his authority into the present thereby establishing a right order.

Interestingly, the psalmist never tells Yhwh to punish the wicked. He does not ask Yhwh to judge them or let them fall into their own traps. His sole focus is on his own glorification, his own ‘enlightening eye’, and Yhwh’s dealing with him ‘bountifully’.

The command that Yhwh “enlighten my eyes” is the opposite of the “sleep of death” where the eyes are permanently closed. It therefore does not mean a type of mental enlightenment, only, but a also bodily redemption away from death. This needs to be seen in the same context as the opening, where the foundational complaint was Yhwh’s absence and then the wicked’s ascendancy. As there, the psalmist’s source of life—what ‘enlightens his eye’—is Yhwh turning back to him. It is, in other words, Yhwh’s presence. In Yhwh’s light, he sees light; within Yhwh’s gaze is he given the ability and power to gaze. It is not, then, first, bodily integrity, but Yhwh’s Presence and attention. With that comes bodily integrity and life. With that, is the ‘pain in his soul’ and ‘grief in his heart’ turned into rejoicing, and the signing of praises.

But this must not be seen as alternatives, as if Yhwh’s Presence can somehow be enjoyed apart from its ability to bring abundance. It is not, we might say, dis-incarnate. For the psalmist, the final act so to speak, when he can ‘sing praises’, comes about after Yhwh “has dealt bountifully with me.” In other words, yes, all of this is absolutely grounded in the ‘first movement’ of Yhwh toward the psalmist, but this should not be seen as a chronological ‘first’, but a first in the order of importance; it is qualitatively ‘first’, not quantitatively first. The psalmist will know that Yhwh has ‘turned toward him’ after he Yhwh has ‘dealt bountifully’ with him. Yhwh’s Presence, Yhwh’s attention, is always-already life and bounty. That is why these are not separate realities. His Presence is not an abstraction. This is also why the psalmist is not being ungrateful or ‘materialistic’ when he weds his praise of Yhwh to Yhwh’s dealing bountifully with him. It would be a rejection of Yhwh to act otherwise. It would also be a rejection of the fact that (with) Yhwh is life, and death is what he conquers. 

There is, here, an important principle—that often the effect of Yhwh’s Presence reveals more deeply his ‘qualitative priority’. The psalmist here will come to see Yhwh’s turning to him “after the fact”, as it were, even though he lives in the hope of that realization now.

This time before the realization—this time when the psalmist knows of Yhwh’s ‘qualitative priority’ and that Yhwh will act—is the time assured hope. 

Psalmist often ask Yhwh to save them from death so that they can continue praising him. If they were to descend to Sheol, they would go to a place where there is no liturgy to Yhwh because his name is ‘forgotten’ there. The purpose of redemption, then, is not simply to ‘save a life’. There is a ‘benefit’ we might say to Yhwh, in that he saves a liturgical person—someone who can continue to render him a ‘sacrifice of praise’. This is not, however, simply a one-way street. For the psalmist, the greatest blessing is to be permitted into Yhwh’s presence and to praise him. But the emphasis does not fall there, typically speaking. Instead, it focuses on what the psalmist can render to Yhwh. That is what we find here—praise is given to Yhwh after Yhwh deals bountifully with him. 

The fact that the psalmist begins with three questions of “How long…?” and ends with a certainty of future deliverance and praise is important to grasp. What turns the question into a certainty is the psalmist’s trust in Yhwh’s covenantal “lovingkindness”. The covenant requires adherence to certain stipulations. If those stipulations are followed then blessings or life or gifts follow. If they are not, then there are curses or punishments.

Ps. 12 -- Yhwh's utterances

Psalm 12

Help / Yhwh / for the faithful one / has come to an end

                For the honest persons / have disappeared / from among the sons of man

The theme of this psalm is speech and silence. In this opening line, the psalmist orients us to this fact by paralleling the “faithful one” with the “honest person.” For this psalm, to be ‘faithful’, is to speak truthfully. We will see later what that may mean, but for now, these faithful/honest persons have disappeared. They cannot be found. Honesty itself has disappeared then and the world, as we will see, is full of lies.

For the psalmist, this does not mean that lies have simply taken over. It means that he and those like him are in danger. Only honest men could protect him before, but now that they have disappeared, he is entirely vulnerable. We will see later how power is understood in relation to speech and why that makes the psalmist increasingly more vulnerable. And, we will see how’s Yhwh’s speech in particular makes him the one the psalmist now calls out to for help and protection.

They speak vanity /each man with his neighbor

                With flattering lip / and double heart / they speak

We now begin to see how the false men operate. The direction of their speech is key—it is “with his neighbor”. Later we will see that this—this ‘communion of lies’—is how they believe they establish strength—through their ‘tongues’. This is what substantiates their power and, more importantly, their ability to oppress the poor and the afflicted. They believe that because they have authority over their own speech, then they have no authority over them—because, ultimately, speech is what determines power and reality in this psalm.

What they speak is key—vanity and flattery from a double heart. What is interesting is that their speech, at least here, is not about the oppression of the wicked, but about the false building up of each other. They ‘strengthen’ each other through lies and vanity. And yet, this building up is premised on a ‘double heart’—meaning that what is spoken is not true, but in fact conceals reality. This introduces something perplexing—that the concealment of reality is the basis for power. Because this seems like a contradiction of sorts, it is more understandable that the liars believe that because they ‘possess’ their own lips, they are their own masters. If speech is a form of power, first, and then a form of truth-telling, lying is permissible because the tongue is being used to establish power. In other words, truth is at the service of power and therefore can be sacrificed if it gets in the way of establishing power; it is secondary, at the service, to power. If that is the case, then the liar’s words are, in fact, true (oddly enough). Truth can be spoken, but only in so far as it stands at the service of power.

For the psalmist, this entire line of reasoning is anathema. As we will see, speech is not first a form of power and then a form of truth telling. And that, ultimately, is because speech is not, first and foremost, a human action but a divine one. Yhwh determines the content and purpose of speech—not humans.

Let Yhwh cut off / all flattering lips

                The tongue / that speaks great words

It may seem like a tangent, but it is hugely important that the first recorded spoken words of Scripture are Yhwh’s, not man’s. He is the ‘first speaker’ and his words literally do what they say—in this they are ‘truthful’; when he says something, that thing literally occurs. The Cosmos is “truthful” in that regard, in that it is the abiding, creative ‘word’ of God. His words create, establish and maintain reality. When Adam arrives, his first words are those of ‘naming the animals’. In other words, he enters into this movement of creation-through-speech and participates within Yhwh’s governance, but he does so by moving ‘into the stream’ of Yhwh’s speech. Adam’s words do not function independent of Yhwh’s. If we love because God first loved us, it is equally true that we speak because God first spoke. Our love moves into and along his love, just as our speech moves into and along his speech.

This places an incredible importance on speech. It is not simply a reporting or description of reality. In this regard, the liars have one thing right about it—it is power; speech does something. When man speaks, he becomes a co-creator with Yhwh; or, we should say, when he speaks truthfully he does. Man spreads Yhwh’s governance, His separating of the ‘light form the darkness” and Yhwh’s ability to bring about “good” and “beautiful” forms through that separation and distinction. When man speaks falsely, by contrast, his words bring about de-creation, and become a gateway through the chaos that seeks creation’s destruction passes through. Both are performative in this way—they both ‘do something’, either in furthering the good creative act of Yhwh or participating within a chaos that is entropic and desires creation’s destruction.

The ‘liars’ of this psalm do not understand speech as being grounded, first, in Yhwh’s speech. Instead, they understand speech as “our own”. They have done to speech what Adam did with the fruit—reached out and grabbed it as if they could take sole possession of it. And, in so doing, they have perverted and ruined it, just as Adam perverted and ruined wisdom when he ate the fruit. 

As we argued above, the perversion of speech, then, the claiming it as “our own”, is not simply wrong or a neutral act—again, it is performative. It does something. And what it does is spread the reign of chaos that Adam began; in the terms of the new testament, it cedes more ground to Satan as the king of this world. That is why the psalmist asks Yhwh to “cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great words”—he is asking Yhwh to excise the cancer that these lips are causing to metastasize within the Cosmos. Yhwh’s judgment is a type of chemotherapy to their cancer, destroying that which destroys, in the name of reasserting health, integrity and goodness.

Those who have said / By our tongues / we will establish strength

                Our lips are our own / who will be our master?

Because of the devastation / of the afflicted / because of the groaning / of the poor

                I will now arise / says Yhwh

                I will set them in safety / I will shine forth for him

The psalmist here describes the effect of the liars words as “the devastation of the afflicted”. This is the entropy and chaos that the liars have permitted to spread throughout the community. Their vanity and their flattering lips—their establishment of power—has all been at the cost of “the poor” who are groaning.

We need to see here the close proximity of the liars who say “our lips are our own, who will be our master” and the sounds made from the mouth of the afflicted—their ‘groaning’. The liars speak vanity and duplicity. The poor, however, speak in groans. The psalmist wants us to know several things from this. First, that the poor’s groans are more truthful than the words of the liars. Second, that liars do have a master, and that master hears the cry of the poor they are afflicting. The poor’s groans are truthful, and for that reason they are heard by Yhwh. The point here is that truthful words are ‘heard’ by Yhwh and when those words are ‘groan of the afflicted’, they move Yhwh into action. More deeply still—and what the psalmist wants us to grasp—is that the groans are actually more powerful than the words of the liars, precisely because they are heard by Yhwh; or, in other words the true ‘master’.

That the afflicted are heard by Yhwh reveals the falsity of the liars claims that mastery of their lips means they have no master. Yes, they are master of their own mouths, but no, that does not mean that they have no master. Human speech freely stands on its own, but it is derivative of Yhwh’s speech. It always-already stands within and under its judgment—judgment either for blessing or destruction. That it stands freely should never be confused with the idea that it stands outside of Yhwh’s judgment. It is always measured against the words of Yhwh.

One important thing to notice is that the groaning of the poor is contained within Yhwh’s own words. The psalm does not say, for example, that the poor groaned, Yhwh heard, and then Yhwh spoke. This is not an insignificant point, nor is it a merely interesting formal observation. Yhwh has taken their groans up into his own—he has possessed them, ‘owned them’—and used them as the basis for his coming redemption. They are part of the promise.

Throughout the scriptures, the groaning of Yhwh’s people calls Yhwh into action—and into dramatic action. The exodus is the most poignant example but there are others (Abel’s blood and during the time of the judges; those under the altar in Revelation ‘cry out’). Each time, the groans ‘jump start’ history by moving Yhwh into action, forcing him to put history back on its tracks after it had been derailed.

If we look at both sides of the groaning we also see how the groaning brings about the revelation of the wicked’s words. The wicked say they are their own master because they are ‘own’ their lips. The groaning of the wicked then causes Yhwh to speak, and what Yhwh says is that “he will arise” and “set them in safety and shine forth for him.” Yhwh’s words reveal that the time of the wicked has only been a time of patience. The wicked falsely interpreted Yhwh’s passivity as his indifference to their claims of mastery and to their oppression. They believed that it was a void, or an absence, that they could fill with their own plans. But they were wrong. At the moment they claim mastery of themselves, Yhwh reveals that he will “arise” in mastery over them. He will reach down and redeem the poor and, importantly, shine forth in kingly glory for them/him. His glory has been hidden, but it will now blaze forth. What Yhwh says directly confronts the words of wicked. They claim they establish their own strength—Yhwh claims he will arise (over them). They believe their oppression of the wicked is their own—Yhwh is going grab the oppressed way from them and “set them in safety”. They believe they are their own master—Yhwh is about to unveil his kingly glory, that will manifest to everyone that he is master.

The utterances of Yhwh / are pure utterances

                Silver refined / in a furnace

                Gold / purified seven times.

The ‘utterances of Yhwh’, in this psalm, are those he just pronounced—the certain promise that is going redeem the oppressed and shine forth for them.

And notably, the psalmist first describes them as ‘pure’. The only other descriptions of language thus far in the psalm have been of ‘vanity’, ‘flattery’, ‘great words’, and words that are essentially idolatrous (we are our masters because we are the masters of our speech). More importantly, the words come from a heart that is ‘double’, and therefore impure, a mixture of things that should be separated. That is not the case with Yhwh—his words are utterly and absolutely pure. They are like metals that have been overly refined to remove the smallest taint of impurity. More to the point—because they are like gold refined ‘seven times’, they are completely perfect and complete.

It is important that in the previous verse Yhwh’s response to the groaning of the oppressed was that he would arise. But here, that ‘rising’ is now a form of pure utterance. That should not be surprising though in the context of this psalm because, again, speech is performative. It does what it says. So, if the liars say they are their own masters, their speech will condemn them and show them to be liars once Yhwh responds. When Yhwh ‘speaks’, by contrast, his speech is pure and therefore will not ‘miss the mark’ as the liars speech has. It will do what it aims to do—and because his speech is absolutely perfect, there will be no gap between what is said and what happens. Its potential will be filled out completely because it contains no impurity to impede its realization. And that may be an important point—that the speech’s realization is directly related to its purity. In other words, speech will become what it says, to the extent that it is pure. For the liars, their speech will itself become vain, empty, and miss the mark precisely because it is impure. Yhwh’s speech, by contrast, will ‘hit its mark’, absolutely, because it is completely pure.

One last thing to note—the psalmist portrays Yhwh’s utterances as perfectly pure silver and gold, metals of extreme value. This emphasis on their value must be seen along with the “groans of the poor”. Yhwh’s statements that “I will now arise; I will set them in safety; I will shine forth for them”—is their wealth. They are poor now, but because of Yhwh’s promises, they will be established. It is a crucial dynamic to see—the false ones believe that the present world order is one of their making and that nothing stands above them, and that therefore the poor will always remain oppressed because there is no one who can thwart their oppression. But they are wrong—Yhwh stands as their true master. Heaven will not tolerate them. Likewise, the present world order is one of the righteous being ground down into poverty, but their “treasure is in heaven”, and they will be raised up and made steadfast and secure. And it is Yhwh’s refined and perfect words which constitute the basis for this hope in a reversed reality.

You / O Yhwh / will watch us

                You will guard us / from this generation for ever

All around / the wicked strut about

                As the vileness / of the sons of man / is exalted.

The psalm concludes with confidence that Yhwh will “watch us” and “guard us” from “this generation”, referring to this generation of liars and deceivers. They are surrounded by them and their vileness. Their speech and their behavior is infecting everything around them, and the psalmist and his community are in danger of being infected by the contagion. That is why Yhwh should ‘watch’ and ‘guard against’. The question is how does Yhwh “watch” and “guard” us from the vileness?

Within this psalm, the answer is through his ‘utterances’. They are the purity that combat and protect against the vanity and vileness of the sons of man. It does not seem, then, that Yhwh’s watching and protecting is simply something passively received. His utterances must be, in a sense, consumed—actively taken in and then incorporated into the ‘body’ of people. It must be the bread they live by.

Ps 11 - a pilgrimage psalm

In Yhwh / I have sought refuge

This opening grounds the psalm because, as we will see, the psalmist moves between poles of fear and confidence.

How can you say to me:

                Flutter like a bird / to the mountain

For look / the wicked are bending the bow

                They have fitted their arrow / onto the bowstring

                To shoot in the dark / at the upright in heart

It is not clear who is telling the psalmist to fly “to the mountain”. It may be a friend, the psalmist speaking to himself or, even, an enemy. Regardless of who the speaker is, the psalmist is perplexed by the advice because the wicked are already prepared to shoot him down. The speaker wants the psalmist to make himself vulnerable by taking flight and leaving the ground, thereby making himself visible to those who are hunting him. While the ‘mountain’ may appear to afford him protection, getting there would almost certainly result in his death.

The height of the mountain is important because it will play a role later in the psalm. Mountains are not simply high places, but places that are nearer to heaven and therefore the divine. Yhwh routinely meets his servants on high mountains. The psalmist’s escape is then not simply a naturalistic “getting away” but also a “going toward”—toward divine sacred/aid. It may be that the speaker, therefore, is telling the psalmist to flee Yhwh and go toward another divinity that will be more able to protect him; a type of idolatry.

The psalmist’s response, seen from that perspective, is a bit different, or deeper. The “wicked” are not, I think, simply wicked men. They are men who are embedded within a divine framework, and would therefore be operating with a type of divine backing or aid. Their “arrows shot in the dark” would be guided not simply by ‘natural’ trajectory but by divine aim and assistance. So, on the one hand, the instigator is telling the psalmist to fly to the mountain-of-divine-aid, while the psalmist responds that his enemies are themselves ready to attack him with divine aid and assistance. Between these two poles, he is simply caught in a type of divine contest, with no certainty as to the outcome. This uncertainty is what flows in the following lines where the “foundations are being torn down”. As we will see, though, there is a ‘third option’ that assures the psalmist safety while not being tossed between the two poles of a divine game.

The foundations are indeed / being torn down

                What has the righteous done

This statement and question are essentially where the psalmist finds himself when confronted with the option to ‘fly’. Between the two poles of competing divine forces, it appears as if the foundations of the world are themselves being torn down—if there is no sure exit from the dilemma then that lack of exit also points to the fact that the foundations of the cosmos is itself unstable, is itself caught between the same divine forces that the psalmist is caught between. Within this realm, righteousness itself is no guarantee of success or safety.

Yhwh is in his holy temple

                Yhwh’s throne / is in the heavens

This statement is what turns the psalm, and the psalmist. It transforms the psalmist from a position of despair to one of hope. And, it simply states “where” Yhwh “is”—but that geography is key, as we have seen.

We mentioned before that geography played a crucial role—the ‘mountain’ is not simply a high place, but a place of divine meeting. The ground is inhabited by the wicked, is also a place of divine assistance. Because the cosmos is contained within this divine sphere from the top-to-the-bottom, the psalmist sees no real escape from his dilemma.

Until he focuses on Yhwh, who is both entirely immanent—inhabiting the earth—in his “holy temple” and entirely transcendent—above the earth and mountains—“throne in the heavens”. In Yhwh there are no two competing forces but the One who encases the all, who stands before and after the two poles of divine competition that the psalmist originally saw himself contained within. In Yhwh, the entire cosmos is cast in a different light. No longer does it oscillate between competing divinities. Rather, it exists within the One. No longer are its foundations understood as “being torn down”. But, because it exists within the One, and because Yhwh both dwells within and above it, its foundations are secure. We could put it this way—when the psalmist originally contemplated his position as one that could not escape competing divine forces, that competition itself revealed that the foundations of the cosmic order are in the same position as the psalmist himself. However, all of that is, in a sense, ‘rewritten’ when seen in Yhwh’s shadow—now that the One is understood as single, governing authority, so too is the foundation of the cosmic order revealed as secure because grounded in this One, this Yhwh. It is ‘one’ as he is ‘One’.

But there is more to this than that. Before, the psalmist contemplated escape to a “high mountain” but could not begin that journey because other competing divine forces. Now, however, he understands that there is a “high mountain” that is secure—Zion, where Yhwh is in his temple. And, because Yhwh is not ‘simply’ in his temple but also sits on his throne in heaven, Yhwh will protect him in his travel to the Temple. There is a place, not a metaphorical place, not a mountain without a name, not simply a ‘high place’—but a sacramental place where Yhwh is. And this is a real, secure place, unlike what he previously could imagine. All of those other places were never substantial because the divine reality that imbued it could not guarantee its perpetuity and security. Because the divine reality was limited, the place was never really a place. But, in the Temple, this “place” is a real sacramental place because Yhwh is the heavenly king as well. It is that dual reality of Yhwh (or the extreme Oneness of Yhwh) that makes the Temple the real “place” on earth. We might say that that is why we have two eyes, both enabling us to see a single object. In order to see the Temple, we have to also see Yhwh on his heavenly throne. And, in order to see Yhwh on his heavenly throne, we have to see the Temple. It is seeing both that enables us to see each one.

His eyes see

                His eyelids scrutinize / the sons of man

Yhwh tests / the righteous

                But the wicked / and the one loving violence –

                His soul hates

Yhwh’s eyes—it is not simply that Yhwh is present both on the earth in his Temple and beyond the heavens on his throne. Yhwh is also the measure of all of being.

Before, the psalmist saw the measure of all being as the competition between divine forces; there was, in that sense, no stability, no real measure. Nothing could ultimately test the entirety of being, from the top to the bottom, from the most intimate to the most epic. The only thing that could be said was that there was struggle and appeasement. But, in Yhwh, that is all entirely different. Yhwh’s gaze is the one, single measure. He is the standard. His immanence and his transcendence enable him to also be the standard, the scrutinizer of all.

And the ‘tester’ of the righteous and the hater of the wicked. Before, the cosmos could not be ultimately seen and judged; it did not stand underneath an absolute gaze, but only the gaze of competing deities. As such, it could only be a place of competition, of disclosure and concealment. But, in Yhwh, the world can become a place of true testing and hatred, of righteousness and wickedness, because Yhwh does place the world under his absolute gaze. Nothing can be concealed from him.

He rains down on the wicked / coals, fire and brimstone

                And a burning hot wind / is the portion of their cup

But Yhwh is righteous / he loves righteous deeds

                The upright / shall see his face.

So Yhwh’s gaze is absolute and he sees all. His seeing is also always-already an act of testing, of separating the wicked from the righteous. The world now falls under his ‘love’ or his ‘wrath’. Here, we find the effect, or consequence, or ‘portion’, of his testing.

For the wicked it is coal, fire, brimstone and a burning hot wind. For the righteous, it is “seeing his face”.

Note how the psalm began with the wicked bending their bow to shoot arrows up, at the righteous as he flew to the mountain. In the middle of the psalm, we saw how the world is overtaken by Yhwh and removed from the divine competing powers, including those that back the wicked. Here, instead of the wicked’s actions rising into the air, coal, fire and brimstone “rain down” on them. Yhwh dwells in a sovereign realm of authority far above the divine powers that back the wicked. As such, his judgement comes “down” upon them, implicitly judging (or overcoming) the divine powers that back the wicked. And, more importantly, giving the psalmist reason to have confidence in Yhwh, rather than to listen to the voices that tell him there is no real escape for him. Yhwh is and can be a true and absolute refuge, because it is from him that an absolute judgement falls upon the wicked and the righteous.

The effect on the wicked is profound. This is not merely the boomerang effect of evil, but, in a way, heaven being weaponized against the wicked. We have to see this dramatic nature of their punishment in order to understand that the blessing given to the righteous cannot be less profound than what the wicked receive. But it could be missed because of the way the psalmist describes these two judgments. For the wicked, the psalmist deploys three images of total destruction and describes their judgment as what they must ‘drink’. It is a ‘full’ description. But, for the righteous, the psalmist offers a single reward—they will “see his face”. The starkness of this reward when compared with the overwhelming judgment on the wicked is key. And here is the reason—for Scriptural man, nothing more needs to be said than this. It is the ultimate blessing. Nothing can surpass it and it is what every psalmist desires more than anything. For that reasons, it also the most daring of things to seek for and desire. We might even say this—that it is in fact more dangerous of a reality than the judgment that falls on the wicked. For a person who is not clean and righteous to enter into the presence of the Face, means complete and total annihilation. But, for the pure and righteous, it means more than the fulfillment of all desire. It means being in the presence of Him who exceeds absolutely every longing or anticipation of blessedness.

This directs us to another important aspect of these concluding lines. If they wicked are overtaken from above, the righteous are treated somewhat differently. Instead of describing their blessing as ‘coming down’ upon them ‘like rain’, or something else, they are described as eventually coming to “see his face”. The righteous live their lives in pilgrimage to the Temple, where they will see Yhwh’s face. They, and their righteous deeds, will be rewarded by Yhwh, who himself is righteous. This the image coming to see its model, the image coming to see its king. And it is key that the psalm ends with “the face”. The psalm itself is, in a way, in pilgrimage to the face just as the righteous are.