Is there any way out of the destructive place that we have entered? Do not be gracious to all those treacherous in mischief. Selah.
How will we know our mischief if we have no access to the truth? If we make up our own reality? If we keep on lying to each other? This is really quite a prayer - and if you oscillate between the individual (David) and the corporate reality of Israel surrounded by enemies, and you the individual and the corporate realities of party strife and imagined propaganda that surrounds you, you can perhaps come out of the bubble long enough to wake up. Note how the poem helps us by generalizing to include all the nations.
Kindness recurs in verses 11, 17, and 18. Translations seem to be embarrassed by the grammar, Tate and JB prefer to avoid the construct in verses 11 and 18, the God of my kindness. This is a delightful possessive. They have no problem with the possessive if it applies to God (verse 17). But it's not just that God is kind to me - in fact both Tate and JB (and KJV) use an English gloss including the word love, but this is not needed. JB even reduces the phrase to the God who loves me. Sure this is true, but it is not what the words say here. God is kind and his kindness becomes both my kindness by imitation, and mine by the gift of his to and in me.
Read what it says, not what you think it means. Meaning becomes trite and banal. The word of God is never such. The kindness of God, the sense of God, the presence of God cannot be reduced to formulas to be memorized, especially when we go off and do exactly the opposite: persist in lies just for the hell of it.
Who are we in this psalm? The good guy or the bad guy? Do we hear ourselves snarling?
thlim | Psalms | ||
n't | 59 | ||
| a | lmnxk al-twkt ldvid mctm. bwlok waul, viwmru at-hbit lhmito. | 1 | For the leader. Do not destroy. Of David, a miktam, when Saul sent and they watched the house to have him executed. |
| b | hxilni maoibii alohii, mmtqommii twgbni. | 2 | Deliver me from my enemies, O my God, from those arising over me, be my retreat. |
| g | hxilni mpoyli avvn, umanwi dmim howiyni. | 3 | Deliver me from workers of mischief, and from persons of blood save me. |
| d | ci hnh arbu lnpwi iguru ylii yzim. la-pwyi vla-k'tati ihvh. | 4 | For behold they lie in wait for me. The strong amass over me. It is not my transgression and not my sin, Yahweh. |
| h | bli-yvon iruxun viiconnu. yurh lqrati urah! | 5 | Without iniquity, they race and prepare themselves. Be aroused to my call and see! |
| v | vath ihvh-alohim xbaot alohi iwral hqixh lpqod cl-hgoiim. al-tkon cl-bogdi avvn slh. | 6 | But you Yahweh, God of hosts, the God of Israel, awaken to visit all the nations. Do not be gracious to all those treacherous in mischief. Selah. |
| z | iwubu lyrb ihmu cclb visobbu yir. | 7 | They return of the evening. They snarl like the dog, and they surround a city. |
| k | hnh ibiyun bpihm krbot bwptotihm, ci-mi womy? | 8 | Behold what they ferment in their mouths, swords in their lips, for who is to hear? |
| 't | vath ihvh twkq-lmo. tlyg lcl-goiim, | 9 | But you, Yahweh, will laugh at them. You will deride all the nations, |
| i | yuzo aliç awmorh, ci-alohim mwgbi. | 10 | His strength for you. I keep watch, for God is my retreat. |
| ia | alohi ksdi iqdmni. alohim irani bworrii. | 11 | The God of my kindness will go before me. God will let me see my watchers. |
| ib | al-thrgm pn iwcku ymi hniymo bkilç vhoridmo. mginnu adonii. | 12 | Do not slay them lest my people forget. Make them totter in your force and bring them down. Our shield is my Lord. |
| ig | k'tat-pimo dbr-wptimo! viilcdu bgaonm, umalh umckw ispru. | 13 | The sin of their mouth! The word of their lips! But let them be caught in their pride, whether they recount imprecation or cringing. |
| id | clh bkmh clh vainmo, viidyu ci-alohim mowl biyqob, lapsi harx slh. | 14 | Consume in heat. Consume and they will not be, and they will know that God governs in Jacob, to the ends of the earth. Selah. |
| 'tv | viwubu lyrb ihmu cclb visobbu yir. | 15 | And they return of the evening. They snarl like the dog, and they surround a city. |
| 'tz | hmh iniyun lacol, am-la iwbyu vilinu. | 16 | They will totter off for food, If not satisfied then they will hang around. |
| iz | vani awir yuzç varnn lboqr ksdç, ci-hiit mwgb li, umnos biom xr-li. | 17 | But I, I will sing your strength and I will shout for joy to the morning of your kindness, for you have been a retreat to me, and a haven in the day of my straits. |
| ik | yuzi aliç azmrh, ci-alohim mwgbi alohi ksdi. | 18 | O my Strength, to you I will sing a psalm, for God is my retreat, the God of my kindness. |
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