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READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART XLIII

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Psalms 57, 60, 108, and 142

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Psalms 57, 60, 108, and 142 are similar to each other.

The superscription of Psalm 57 links the text to 1 Samuel 24 and 26, when David fled into a cave while on the run from King Saul.  This superscription is dubious, for the psalm refers to more than one enemy–“man-eating lions,” poetically.  The text affirms that God is more powerful than those foes.  Therefore, the psalmist sings hymns to God while surrounded by violent enemies.

The superscription of Psalm 60 links the text to 2 Samuel 8:3-8 and 10:6-18, when David

fought with Aram-Naharaim and Aram-Zobah, and Joab returned and defeated Edom–[an army] of twelve thousand men–in the Valley of Salt.

Psalm 60, following the dubious superscription, claims that God has rejected the people because of their habitual, unrepentant transgression of the moral code in the Law of Moses.  Toward the end of the psalm, the author complains that God is not marching with the army–whether Judean or Israelite–into battles.  This context belies the tacked-on superscription.

Psalm 108 replicates portions of Psalms 57 and 60.  Sources tell me that, in antiquity, copying and pasting like this was an accepted practice.  Psalm 108 merges an individual supplication and a national lament.  Given the triumphant tone of 57 and the downcast plea in Psalm 60, Psalm 108 gives me theological whiplash.  When I read that this compositing occurred after the Babylonian Exile, I conclude that this explanation makes sense, given the communal mixed emotions of that period.  Regardless of past triumphs in God, the people of God are never far away from needing deliverance again.  And the feeling of rejection by God makes sense historically in the postexilic context, as the Hebrew Bible details that time.

The superscription of Psalm 142 links that text to David in a cave.  That is another dubious superscription.  These dubious superscriptions involving David reveal the extent to which many people had David on the brain.  I conclude that before Christians started looking for Jesus in the Hebrew Bible like Waldo in a Where’s Waldo? book and taking that quest to ridiculous extremes, many Jews pioneered that pattern by searching for scenes in David’s life that fit or nearly fit psalms, assuming that one did not read the germane psalm closely.  Psalm 142 is an individual lament of someone beset by enemies (Note the plural form.) and whose only hope for rescue is from God.  The text is sufficiently vague to fit a host of circumstances.

The unifying thematic thread is that God is the only hope for deliverance.  These are tangible circumstances, not spiritual abstractions.  The enemies may conquer the kingdom.  My enemies may kill me.  I recall that God has rescued me.  That is the gist of the circumstances.

We all depend entirely upon God.  We also rely on each other.  For example, we depend upon each other’s labor.  So, interdependence, not independence, is the rule, in societal terms.  This pattern of interdependence framed within dependence upon God is profoundly countercultural in my global Western culture.  Yes, we are weak, compared to God, especially.  Do we–collectively and individually–dare to admit that reality?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 17, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTONY OF EGYPT, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND FATHER OF WESTERN MONASTICISM

THE FEAST OF SAINTS DEICOLA AND GALL, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONKS; AND SAINT OTHMAR, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AT SAINT GALLEN

THE FEAST OF JAMES WOODROW, SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, NATURALIST, AND ALLEGED HERETIC

THE FEAST OF SAINT PACHOMIUS THE GREAT, FOUNDER OF CHRISTIAN COMMUNAL MONASTICISM

THE FEAST OF RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

THE FEAST OF THOMAS A. DOOLEY, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC PHYSICIAN AND HUMANITARIAN

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READING 1-2 SAMUEL, 1 KINGS, 2 KINGS 1-21, 1 CHRONICLES, AND 2 CHRONICLES 1-33

Above:  The Ark of the Covenant, by James Tissot

Image in the Public Domain

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PART V

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1 Samuel 4:1b-22

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O God, you have cast us off and broken us;

you have been angry;

oh, take us back to you again.

–Psalm 60:1, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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Military defeat (which God allowed, according to the text) of the Israelite forces did not constitute the defeat of God.  Philistine capture of the Ark of the Covenant (in lieu of the statue of a deity, the conventional booty) did not constitute the defeat of God.  Military defeat of Israelite forces did, however, constitute a crisis.

The Ark of the Covenant symbolized the presence of God.  The Ark’s unprecedented presence on the battlefield indicated the belief that the Ark was a talisman.

The deaths of Hophni and Phinehas (per 1 Samuel 2:24) and of Eli (once he heard of the capture of the Ark of the Covenant, not the deaths of his wayward sons) added to the seriousness of the situation.  Had the glory of God departed from Israel?  The mother of Ichabod thought so.

I wonder how Ichabod felt going through life with a name meaning “no glory.”

This story, in context, contains no hint of pervasive national wickedness for which God punished Israel via the Philistines.  One must, therefore, wonder why the defeat occurred.  A prosaic answer would entail an explanation of military strategies, of course.  That, however, is not the point of this story.  No, the point relates to the sovereignty of God.

The defeat was ironic.  The Philistines were polytheists who misquoted the history of the plagues of Egypt (Exodus 7:8-11:10), placing them in the wilderness, oddly.  Yet, according to 1 Samuel 4, these Philistines were agents of God.  They were about to learn how little they understood about the God of the Israelites.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 14, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM CROFT, ANGLICAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF JOHN BAJUS, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF JOHN HENRY HOPKINS, JR., EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND HYMNODIST; AND HIS NEPHEW, JOHN HENRY HOPKINS, III, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND MUSICIAN

THE FEAST OF SAINT MAXIMILIAN KOLBE, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1941; AND JONATHAN MYRICK DANIELS, EPISCOPAL SEMINARIAN AND MARTYR, 1965

THE FEAST OF SARAH FLOWER ADAMS, ENGLISH UNITARIAN HYMN WRITER; AND HER SISTER, ELIZA FLOWER, ENGLISH UNITARIAN COMPOSER

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Above:  Moses, by Theo van Doesburg

Image in the Public Domain

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For the Tenth Sunday after Trinity, Year 1

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Lectionary from A Book of Worship for Free Churches (The General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches in the United States, 1948)

Collect from The Book of Worship (Evangelical and Reformed Church, 1947)

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O God, who declarest thine almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity;

mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we,

running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises,

and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—The Book of Worship (1947), 202

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Numbers 32:1-15

Psalm 60:1-5; 61

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Luke 9:18-27

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One theme present in these readings is to do what is correct, even if that brings suffering into one’s life.  Suffering has a range of causes, from life to consequences of sins to the costs of righteousness.  Take up your cross daily and follow Jesus, we read in Luke 9:23.  Do not endanger the whole with sin, we read in Numbers 21:1-15.  Rather, use spiritual gifts to enrich the whole, for the glory of God, we read in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

What we do affects others.  What one person does affects others.  What one segment of the population does affects the whole population.  In Hebrew theology, therefore, the whole is responsible for the sins of the few.  Hebrew theology, as in Numbers 32:1-15, teaches collective responsibility consistent with mutuality.  We are responsible to and for each other; that is an example of Hebrew ethical teaching.

The authors of the Hebrew Bible were not libertarians and Western individualists.

We can build up each other or teach each other down.  If we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 21, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ROMAN ADAME ROSALES, MEXICAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1927

THE FEAST OF SAINT CONRAD OF PARZHAM, CAPUCHIN FRIAR

THE FEAST OF GEORGE B. CAIRD, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST THEN UNITED REFORMED MINISTER, BIBLICAL SCHOLAR, AND HYMN WRITER AND TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF GEORGIA HARKNESS, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER, THEOLOGIAN, ETHICIST, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT SIMEON BARSABAE, BISHOP; AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS, 341

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ON THE OCCASION OF A DISASTER

I posted these prayers at GATHERED PRAYERS yesterday.–KRT

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Compassionate God, whose Son Jesus wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus:

Draw near to us in this time of sorrow and anguish,

comfort those who mourn,

strengthen those who are weary,

encourage those in despair,

and lead us all to fullness of life;

through the same Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer,

who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever.  Amen.

Readings

Job 14:7-13 or Jeremiah 31:15-20

Psalm 60 or 130 or 80:1-7 or 23

Romans 8:35-38 or Revelation 21:1-7 or Romans 8:18-25

Luke 6:20-26 or Mark 13:14-27

—Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 733

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IN A TIME OF NATURAL DISASTER

O God, you divided the waters of chaos at creation.

In Christ you stilled storms, raised the dead,

and vanquished demonic powers.

Tame the earthquake, wind, and fire,

and all forces that defy control or shock us by their fury.

Keep us from calling disaster your justice.

Help us, in good times and in distress,

to trust your mercy and yield to your power, this day and for ever.

Amen.

–Andy Langford, in The United Methodist Book of Worship (1992), 509

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DURING A NATIONAL CRISIS

God of ages,

in your sight nations rise and fall,

and pass through times of peril.

Now when our land is troubled,

be near to judge and save.

May leaders be led by your wisdom;

may they search your will and see it clearly.

If we have turned from your way,

help us to reverse our ways and repent.

Give us light and your your truth to guide us;

through Jesus Christ,

who is the Lord of this world, and our Savior.  Amen.

—Book of Common Worship (1993), 818

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TIME OF CONFLICT, CRISIS, DISASTER

O God, where hearts are fearful and constricted, grant courage and hope.

Where anxiety is infectious and widening, grant peace and reassurance.

Where impossibilities close every door and and window, grant imagination and resistance.

Where distrust twists our thinking, grant healing and illumination.

Where spirits are daunted and weakened, grand soaring wings and strengthened dreams.

All these things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), 76

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TIME OF CIVIC MOURNING

God our creator, through whose providing care we enjoy all goodness and life,

turn our eyes to your mercy at this time of confusion and loss.

Comfort this nation as we mourn;

shine your light on those whose only companion is darkness;

and teach us so to number our days that we may apply our hearts to your wisdom;

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), 77

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Book One: Psalms 1-41

Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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The psalter of the Septuagint contains 151 psalms.

I have written based on all of them, in numerical order.  I have retained the Hebrew numbering system, not that of the Septuagint.

Although I have no theological reticence to venture into textual territory that, according the United Methodism of my youth, is apocryphal, I do have limits.  They reside in the realm of Orthodoxy, with its range of scriptural canons.  Beyond that one finds the Pseudipigrapha.  Psalm 151 concludes the Book of Psalms in The Orthodox Study Bible (2008); so be it.

The Hebrew psalter concludes with Psalm 150.  In other psalters, however, the count is higher.  In certain editions of the Septuagint, for example, Psalm 151 is an appendix to the Book of Psalms.  In other editions of the Septuagint, however, Psalm 151 is an integrated part of the psalter.  There is also the matter of the Syraic psalter, which goes as high as Psalm 155.  I have no immediate plans to ponder Psalms 152-155, however.  Neither do I plan to read and write about Psalms 156-160 any time soon, if ever.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 23, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS MARTIN DE PORRES AND JUAN MACIAS, HUMANITARIANS AND DOMINICAN LAY BROTHERS; SAINT ROSE OF LIMA, HUMANITARIAN AND DOMINICAN SISTER; AND SAINT TURIBIUS OF MOGROVEJO, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF LIMA

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM JOHN COPELAND, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

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Book Five:  Psalms 107-150

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Also in the Greek:  Psalm 151

151

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They say.

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POST XLIV 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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NOTE:

Versification in the Book of Psalms is not universal.  One style of versification is that which one finds in Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Bibles.  Another is the versification in Protestant Bibles.  When I prepare these posts, I consult a range of Bibles and commentaries.  At any given time, the totality of these sources cover both styles of versification.

The versification in this post is that of The New Revised Standard Version (1989).

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Psalm 108 consists of two parts:  verses 1-5 (nearly identical to Psalm 57:7-11) and verses 6-13 (almost the same as Psalm 60:5-12).  [I know, for I laid opened three copies of The New Revised Standard Version, placed them next to each other on my desk, and read slowly.  I did not rely exclusively on the notes in commentaries.  I noticed an extra “and” as well as the changing of “us” into “me” in Psalm 108.]  Tradition attributes Psalm 108 to David.  I am not so sure, however, given the ancient custom of attributing authorship of a famous dead person.  Unlike some other psalms, in which the distinct parts have little to do with each other, the first section flows organically into the second.  The text is, anyway, a prayer for victory.

The author (allegedly David) of Psalm 109 also seeks victory; that is straight-forward.  The ambiguous element of the text is the question of the identity of the speaker of the curse (which God has the power to subvert into blessing, by the way) in verses 6-19.  The New English Bible (1970), The New Revised Standard Version (1989), The New Revised Standard Version:  Catholic Edition (1993), and The Revised English Bible (1989) preface the prolonged curse with

The 1991 revision of the Book of Psalms for the New American Bible prefaces the long curse with

My enemies say of me.

The Jerusalem Bible (1966) and The New Jerusalem Bible (1985) start the section with quotation marks.

However, the Revised Standard Version (1952 and 1971), the Revised Standard Version–Catholic Edition (1965), the Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002), Mitchell J. Dahood (1970), TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985), and the 1970 and 2011 editions of the New American Bible do not set the prolonged curse apart as to indicate that another party is speaking.

If the speaker of the prolonged curse is the aggrieved party, i.e., the psalmist, “David,” Psalm 109 is consistent with other angry psalms up to this point.  The emotion is certainly predictable.  It is, as C. S. Lewis explained,

the natural result of injuring a human being.

–Quoted in J. Clinton McCann, Jr., Volume IV (1996), The New Interpreter’s Bible

Psalm 109 concludes with an affirmation that God stands with the needy.  In a real sense, however, whenever one victimizes another, there are only victims.  After all, whatever we do to each other, we do to ourselves.  If we, for example, seek to keep others “in their place,” or to restrict their opportunities, we harm the progress not only of them but of society as a whole, and thereby restrict our own opportunities.  Are we not, therefore, also among the needy because of our nefarious actions?  Yet, as I have written many times, when oppressors refuse to cease oppressing, divine deliverance of the oppressed is catastrophic for the oppressors.

Analysis of Psalm 109 in The New Interpreter’s Bible includes an affirmation of the importance of expressing anger when one is a wronged party.  That analysis also emphasizes the importance of submitting that anger to God.  The word “anger” comes from the Old Norse angr, which means grief, affliction, and sorrow.  These underlie anger, which is a burden too great to carry for long.  We should, therefore, surrender it to God.

I have carried much anger to God.  I have also spoken some of it in the presence of a priest and left it under the seal of confidentiality.  Uttering my strong, negative, and understandable feelings was a process that contributed to my spiritual recovery.  I have learned the wisdom of abandoning grudges and not picking new ones.

That is the spiritual journey of the author of Psalm 109.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 18, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ERDMANN NEUMEISTER, GERMAN LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM PORCHER DUBOSE, EPISCOPAL THEOLOGIAN

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POST XXII 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 60 affirms the idea that angering God leads to abandonment by God.  The text also agrees that such divine action is not permanent.  Psalm 60 has two distinct and related sections; the second answers the first.

Likewise, Psalm 61 has two sections, but they seem to have little to do with each other.  The first part is an individual petition to God.  The author affirms that God has been his refuge and seeks to remain close to God.  The second section is a prayer that God will extend the life of the monarch.

Psalms 60 and 61 mention enemies.  So does Psalm 59, which, unfortunately, includes a request for divine vengeance.  Psalm 59 also features a motif commonplace in the Book of Psalms:  dehumanizing the enemies.  They are not human beings with complexities and inherent dignity, according to the text; no, they are like growling dogs who roam the city in search of food.  The depiction of one’s enemies (often national ones) is familiar to me, a student of history.  I think immediately of propaganda on all sides during World Wars I and II, for example.

Our enemies might be truly perfidious.  Or perhaps the reality of the situation might be nuanced.  Either way, our foes are, like us, human beings.  They and we stand before God, in whom dwell both judgment and mercy, and whose wisdom exceeds ours by far.  Our foes today might become our friends, or at least allies, eventually.  And maybe we, not they, are in the wrong.  God, in infinite wisdom, knows the truth.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 11, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF NEOCAESAREA; AND SAINT ALEXANDER OF COMANA “THE CHARCOAL BURNER,” ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR AND BISHOP OF COMANA, PONTUS

THE FEAST OF AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT CLARE OF ASSISI, FOUNDER OF THE POOR CLARES

THE FEAST OF MATTHIAS LOY, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER, EDUCATOR, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR; AND CONRAD HERMANN LOUIS SCHUETTE, GERMAN-AMERICAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, EDUCATOR, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

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Above:  Christ Pantocrator

Image in the Public Domain

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The Collect:

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 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 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Zechariah 13:1-9

Psalm 60 or 108

John 16:25-33

2 Corinthians 6:11-7:1

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The assigned psalms have national themes.  Psalm 108 is considerably more upbeat than Psalm 60.  The national theme continues in Zechariah 13, in which God will, in the future (relative to the composition of the text), purify the Davidic Dynasty, the people of the realm, and the land of sin (namely idolatry) and false prophets.  That vision of the future remains unrealized in 2 Corinthians and the Gospel of John.

In John 16 one reads what might seem like an odd statement in the context of the narrative of the Fourth Gospel.  Jesus, shortly prior to his brutal execution, tells his Apostles:

In the world you will have suffering.  But take heart!  I have conquered the world.

–John 16:33b, The Revised English Bible (1989)

Jesus is about to die on a cross, but he has conquered the world?  Jesus will, of course, remain dead for only a few days.  He has conquered the world.  What more can any person or power do to him after his resurrection?  He has conquered the world.  Many of the faithful will suffer for the sake of righteousness.  Some of them will die for it.  Yet the blood of the martyrs waters the church.  The world is a mess and has always been one, but, in the words of “This is My Father’s World,” a great hymn, “God is the ruler yet.”  Jesus has conquered the world.  If we do not recognize this reality, we need to look beyond outward appearances.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 11, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT PHILIP THE EVANGELIST, DEACON

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Adapted from this post:

https://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2016/10/11/devotion-for-the-third-sunday-of-easter-year-d/

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