Psalms 93 and 94

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POST XXXVI OF LX

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The Book of Common Prayer (1979) includes a plan for reading the Book of Psalms in morning and evening installments for 30 days.  I am therefore blogging through the Psalms in 60 posts.

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 226

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Psalm 93, adapted from a Canaanite myth (a common literary and theological device in the Bible), depicts YHWH as the King of the Earth and as one triumphant over the primordial forces of chaos.  Human forces of chaos–those who, out of delusion think that God does not see or care, target the widows, strangers, and orphans for violence–come in for divine smiting in Psalm 94.  (See my comments about God caring in the posts for Psalms 14 and 53.)  Deliverance of the oppressed is very bad news for the oppressors.

I also notice the difference between divine smiting and discipline in Psalm 94.  Smiting leads to destruction, but discipline provides spiritual instruction.  In human terms a responsible parent disciplines his or her children, for their own good and that of society.  Discipline does not cross the line into abuse, for which no moral justification exists, and remain discipline.  Although discipline is frequently unpleasant, is preferable to the more unpleasant consequences of greater offenses than one has committed.  God is, metaphorically, of course, a parental figure to us.  Why should we not expect discipline from God?

Defenses of God by human beings interest me.  On occasion I offer some myself.  At other times I back off and cite the insufficiency of human defenses of God.  I admit freely to inconsistency on this point.  At this time I restrict my defense of God to one point:  discipline is not abuse.  We ought not to imagine otherwise.  Abuse tears people down; it does not build them up.  The existence of discipline by God indicates that God has not, in the words of Psalm 94, forsaken.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 17, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, ANGLICAN PRIEST, PRESIDENT OF KING’S COLLEGE, “FATHER OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN CONNECTICUT,” AND “FATHER OF AMERICAN LIBRARY CLASSIFICATION;” TIMOTHY CUTLER, CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, ANGLICAN PRIEST, AND RECTOR OF YALE COLLEGE; DANIEL BROWNE, EDUCATOR, CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, AND ANGLICAN PRIEST; AND JAMES WETMORE, CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND ANGLICAN PRIEST

THE FEAST OF JONATHAN FRIEDRICH BAHNMAIER, GERMAN LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

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