Psalm 90 and the surgical strike on this new year's day

John Hobbins writes on Facebook

Often - not always - our military intervention, or the mere threat of it (and you can't have a credible threat without a proven willingness to use one's capabilities), has saved lives and secured peace sooner rather than later.

On this I must insist that there has to be a different way to save lives and secure peace. While I agree with him that

a more pertinent criticism might be that we stabilized monsters like Saddam Hussein and the Assads for far too long.

We not only stabilized them, we set them up 100 years ago.

But to return to Syria in the last 8 years, what if there had been an earlier intervention say in 2006 when the famine began.  (See Polk here)

Syria has been convulsed by civil war since climate change came to Syria with a vengeance. Drought devastated the country from 2006 to 2011.  Rainfall in most of the country fell below eight inches (20 cm) a year, the absolute minimum needed to sustain un-irrigated farming. Desperate for water, farmers began to tap aquifers with tens of thousands of new well.  But, as they did, the water table quickly dropped to a level below which their pumps could lift it..... 

the Syrian government made the situation much worse by its next action. Lured by the high price of wheat on the world market, it sold its reserves. In 2006, according to the US Department of Agriculture, it sold 1,500,000 metric tons or twice as much as in the previous year.  

What if the international community had prevented Syria from selling their food surplus? Would this not have led to saving lives and also have been an affront to the market forces that led Syria to such unwise action? Where was Joseph when we needed him?  If you are going to have a Pharaoh - and they are a-plenty in the Middle East, then you need a Joseph - not a bigger Pharaoh.

As I was pondering these things I was reading Psalm 90 on this New Year - שנה טובה to my friends in the Hebrew world. So given that time is a theme in Psalm 90, I wondered how God might establish the deed of our hands verse 17.  Read this with me and think about how we might avoid the failure of Monarchy (Psalm 89) and move to a sustainable action that contributes to an economy that supports people rather than killing them. I have bolded the verses that jumped out at me.

90 - of transient change

תְּפִלָּה לְמֹשֶׁה אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים אֲדֹנָי מָעוֹן אַתָּה הָיִיתָ לָּנוּ בְּדֹר וָדֹר	1	A prayer of Moses the man of God My Lord, a habitation you yourself have become for us from generation to generation
בְּטֶרֶם הָרִים יֻלָּדוּ וַתְּחוֹלֵל אֶרֶץ וְתֵבֵל וּמֵעוֹלָם עַד עוֹלָם אַתָּה אֵל	2	from ere mountains were born or you birthed earth and world and even from everlasting to everlasting you are God
תָּשֵׁב אֱנוֹשׁ עַד דַּכָּא וַתֹּאמֶר שׁוּבוּ בְנֵי אָדָם	3	you turn a mortal to contrition and you say Turn children of humanity
כִּי אֶלֶף שָׁנִים בְּעֵינֶיךָ כְּיוֹם אֶתְמוֹל כִּי יַעֲבֹר וְאַשְׁמוּרָה בַלָּיְלָה	4	for a thousand years in your eyes are like a recent day that is over and a watch in the night
זְרַמְתָּם שֵׁנָה יִהְיוּ בַּבֹּקֶר כֶּחָצִיר יַחֲלֹף	5	you inundate them sleep they become in the morning as grass renews
בַּבֹּקֶר יָצִיץ וְחָלָף לָעֶרֶב יְמוֹלֵל וְיָבֵשׁ	6	in the morning it blossoms and renews of the evening it is cut down and dries up
כִּי כָלִינוּ בְאַפֶּךָ וּבַחֲמָתְךָ נִבְהָלְנוּ	7	for we are consumed in your anger and in your heat we are vexed
שַׁתָּה עֲו‍ֹנֹתֵינוּ לְנֶגְדֶּךָ עֲלֻמֵנוּ לִמְאוֹר פָּנֶיךָ	8	you put our iniquities before you our dissembling in the light of your face
כִּי כָל יָמֵינוּ פָּנוּ בְעֶבְרָתֶךָ כִּלִּינוּ שָׁנֵינוּ כְמוֹ הֶגֶה	9	for all our days face away from your fury we consume our years as a mutter
יְמֵי שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן כִּי גָז חִישׁ וַנָּעֻפָה	10	the days of our years in them a seventy year span and if valiant an eighty year span but their boldness is toil and mischief for they scurry past and we fly away
מִי יוֹדֵעַ עֹז אַפֶּךָ וּכְיִרְאָתְךָ עֶבְרָתֶךָ	11	Who knows the strength of your anger and according to your fear your fury?
לִמְנוֹת יָמֵינוּ כֵּן הוֹדַע וְנָבִא לְבַב חָכְמָה	12	To apportion our days so make us know that we may come to the heart of wisdom
שׁוּבָה יְהוָה עַד מָתָי וְהִנָּחֵם עַל עֲבָדֶיךָ	13	Turn יְהוָה, how long? And be comforted over your servants
שַׂבְּעֵנוּ בַבֹּקֶר חַסְדֶּךָ וּנְרַנְּנָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בְּכָל יָמֵינוּ	14	satisfy us in the morning of your kindness and we will shout for joy and be glad in all our days
שַׂמְּחֵנוּ כִּימוֹת עִנִּיתָנוּ שְׁנוֹת רָאִינוּ רָעָה	15	Make us glad for days you afflicted us years we have seen evil
יֵרָאֶה אֶל עֲבָדֶיךָ פָעֳלֶךָ וַהֲדָרְךָ עַל בְּנֵיהֶם	16	Let your work appear to your servants and your honour upon their children
וִיהִי נֹעַם אֲדֹנָי אֱלֹהֵינוּ עָלֵינוּ וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדֵינוּ כּוֹנְנָה עָלֵינוּ וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדֵינוּ כּוֹנְנֵהוּ	17	And let the pleasure of the Lord our God be upon us and the deed of our hands establish upon us and the deed of our hands establish

Hebrew words: 140. Percentage of Hebrew words that recur in this psalm: 54%. Average keywords per verse: 4.4.

Selected recurring words
Note the pair of long circular structures in this poem. These begin at verse 11 and 12 and can be traced through the diagonal lines that use several words in reverse sequence. Note also the focus of the poem on knowing, seeing/appearing, and finally the works of our hands establishing. 

Word and gloss * first usage

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

20

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Vs

Root

האלהים God

░

1

אלוה

אדני My Lord

░

1

אדון

אתה yourself

░

1

אתה

היית you have become

░

1

היה

בדר from generation

░

1

דור

ודר to generation

░

1

דור

ומעולם and even from everlasting

░

2

עלם

עד to

░

2

עד

עולם everlasting

░

2

עלם

אתה you are

░

2

אתה

אל God

░

2

אל

תשׁב you turn

░

3

שׁוב

עד to

░

3

עד

שׁובו turn

░

3

שׁוב

בני children of

░

3

בן

כי for

░

4

כי

שׁנים years

░

4

שׁנה

כיום are like a day

░

4

יום

כי that

░

4

כי

יעבר is over

░

4

עבר

יהיו they become

░

5

היה

בבקר in the morning

░

5

בקר

* יחלף renews

░

5

חלף

בבקר in the morning

░

6

בקר

* וחלף and renews

░

6

חלף

כי for

░

7

כי

כלינו we are consumed

░

7

כלה

באפך in your anger

░

7

אף

עלמנו our dissembling

░

8

עלם

פניך your face

░

8

פנה

כי for

░

9

כי

כל all

░

9

כל

ימינו our days

░

9

יום

פנו face away

░

9

פנה

בעברתך from your fury

░

9

עבר

כלינו we consume

░

9

כלה

שׁנינו our years

░

9

שׁנה

ימי the days of

░

10

יום

שׁנותינו our years

░

10

שׁנה

שׁנה a year span

░

10

שׁנה

שׁנה a year span

░

10

שׁנה

כי for

░

10

כי

יודע knows

░

11

ידע

אפך your anger

░

11

אף

עברתך your fury

░

11

עבר

ימינו our days

░

12

יום

הודע make us know

░

12

ידע

שׁובה turn

░

13

שׁוב

עד long

░

13

עד

על over

░

13

על

עבדיך your servants

░

13

עבד

בבקר in the morning of

░

14

בקר

ונשׂמחה and be glad

░

14

שׂמח

בכל in all

░

14

כל

ימינו our days

░

14

יום

שׂמחנו make us glad

░

15

שׂמח

כימות for days

░

15

יום

שׁנות years

░

15

שׁנה

ראינו we have seen

░

15

ראה

יראה let appear

░

16

ראה

אל to

░

16

אל

עבדיך your servants

░

16

עבד

על upon

░

16

על

בניהם their children

░

16

בן

ויהי and let be

░

17

היה

אדני the Lord

░

17

אדון

אלהינו our God

░

17

אלוה

עלינו upon us

░

17

על

ומעשׂה and the deed of

░

17

עשׂה

ידינו our hands

░

17

יד

כוננה establish

░

17

כון

עלינו upon us

░

17

על

ומעשׂה and the deed of

░

17

עשׂה

ידינו our hands

░

17

יד

כוננהו establish

░

17

כון

PSALMS 90

Last printed on 2013.09.04-12:36

August Biblical Studies Carnival

The August BS Carnival is hosted by Brian LePort here. There are some good reads including several posts that I suggested (and one of mine).

Reading strategies

I have been reading with great delight Psalms through the Centuries by Susan Gillingham. This book summarizes in just over 300 pages the reception history of the psalms under five broad headings: 

• commentaries and introductions, 
• devotional and instructional works, 
• aesthetic representations in literature, art and music, 
• liturgical usage, 
• and new translations.

The results of her lengthy research project are a pleasure to read however one might have grown up with the psalms, as a lover of literature, or in liturgy, as a singer of plainsong, Anglican chant, motets, and cantatas, and many other forms of singing the psalms, or one is, out of devotion, or what some may term an obsession, a translator of the psalms.

Even if one has written a commentary (and there are so many and so varied of these), one still needs to read and reread many times this creative collection of poems called the Psalter to extract from it the remarkable insights it affords into humanity and our training in the management of governance, pleasure, and violence. You may admit, perhaps, that these are somewhat critical to our lives these days.

Over the past 3 days, I reread the first five and the last five psalms in each book. I figured that starting at Book 1 was going to result in again losing track of where I was - so I worked backwards from Book 5. What I then note is that I have read 1/4 of Book 1 (31 poems remaining, 6 to 36), a third of Book 2 (21 poems remaining, 47 to 67), most of Book 3 (7 poems remaining, 78 to 84), similarly most of Book 4 (7 poems remaining, 95 to 101), and less than 1/4 of Book 5 (34 poems remaining, 112 to 145). Let's make sure this adds up. I have read 50 poems leaving me with 31+21+7+7+34 = 100 remaining. I have 10 bookmarks in my Seeing the Psalter.

To end up finishing all five books at the same time, I would read now 1 a day from each of Books 3 and 4, 3 a day from Book 2, and 4 or 5 a day from Books 1 and 5 - curious, eh? - about 13 or 14 psalms a day - a large chunk for a 10 day journey. Moving the bookmarks one at a time, I read in Hebrew and English, checking some words as I go - and improving my slow Hebrew. Right now if I am in a hurry, I skip the Hebrew - but I hope this will change.

But I won't manage this because I am going on yet another holiday next week!

If starting from 0 using this strategy to even it out a bit more over 10 days, read 4.1 poems a day from Book 1, 3.1 from Book 2, 1.7 each from Books 3 and 4, and 4.4 a day from Book 5 (15 a day).  Would I discover anything reading each book as a sandwich working both ends toward the middle, and nibbling some in the middle as well? Yes, you see connections as you go - always different. Juxtaposing different psalms against each other is revealing. A different 10 day journey would be to read all the poems that have the same day number as the day of the month modulo 10.

Another strategy for a 15 day journey is to read 1, 16, 31, 46, 61, 76, 91, 106, 121, 136 on day 1 and so on through to day 15 (10 a day). This 15 day strategy is not as easy to remember. But the problem with both is that they do not let the books each stand as a unit. Why are the books the way they are?

Once I really get these poems in my head, I think reading even one of them will suggest many links to the others. I suspect one could reduce the volume of reading per day as well. I wonder about treating Psalm 119 as 22 psalms and reading 2 a day over an 84 day cycle beginning at Psalms 1 and 85. You would get through the Psalter about once a quarter.

Psalm 109 - Theology

Nice place to start, eh?

Maybe you have not read Psalm 109 recently. In some Psalters, it is truncated to 15 verses with the guts removed, Hebrew verses 6 to 20. The situation is in fact far more than this. I have just read the section on Liturgy and Psalmody in Christian tradition in Susan Gillingham's Psalms through the Centuries for the period of the 20th and 21st centuries. Now I understand where those priests were coming from when they removed all the cursing verses from the daily and weekly office. It was a trend. It has been a trend. The people are not able to face the demons that are in themselves. People might think that it is God's will to curse the enemy.

And people did. Again from Gillingham, Psalm 109 was applied by those such as the Lollards who sought reform in the late medieval period and they applied against the clergy and church leaders (p. 115).  Ha - good move. If I had known Psalm 109 in the 1950s, I and my fellow students would have applied it in our residential school and we, the poor and needy, might well have taken strength from it.

So here are the questions: what does God do? What does God say in this Psalm? - answer - nothing. The poet may expect some action, but it is not to happen. The poet may expect a response, but there are no words in the poem from God. But there is hope in the last verse that Yhwh will stand at the right hand of the needy to save him from those judging him.

There is still theology in this psalm: within it we know that the poet praises God, expects a voice, knows that there is judgment and severance from memory, before Yhwh continually, (a nice contradiction - how do you forget that which is before Yhwh continually) and recompense, that Yhwh can be appealed to for the sake of your name, for the good of your mercy, for help, for mercy, for the knowledge in the enemy that Yhwh has done it. Yhwh has a hand in this. But ultimately, the poet realizes that Yhwh will bless and the poet's polemics relax into the traditional hope for shame in his enemies.

Still much to learn from this psalm. Notice how the sequence of the words from verses 16 to 20 form the backbone of the resolution of the complaint: 9 words reused in sequence, as if the poet were reflecting on human betrayal and polemics and leaving the judgment to Yhwh. However we apply the NT usage of this Psalm, (see Neale and Littledale for some detail here) it cannot be seen as justification for hatred and violence on the part of the worshiper. But those who preach will have to do more than eliminate the psalm from the Psalter.

Selected recurring words (16 to 31)

Word and gloss * first usage

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Vs

Root

עשׂות to do

░

16

עשׂה

חסד mercy

░

16

חסד

עני poor

░

16

עני

ואביון and needy

░

16

אביון

* קללה denial

░

17

קלל

בברכה in blessing

░

17

ברך

וילבשׁ as he clothed himself with

░

18

לבשׁ

* קללה denial

░

18

קלל

* יעטה wrapping him

░

19

עטה

נפשׁי me

░

20

נפשׁ

עשׂה deal with

░

21

עשׂה

חסדך your mercy

░

21

חסד

עני poor

░

22

עני

ואביון and needy

░

22

אביון

* יקללו let deny

░

28

קלל

תברך you will bless

░

28

ברך

ויבשׁו let them be ashamed

░

28

בושׁ

ילבשׁו let clothe themselves with

░

29

לבשׁ

* ויעטו and let them wrap themselves

░

29

עטה

בשׁתם with their shame

░

29

בושׁ

אביון the needy

░

31

אביון

נפשׁו him

░

31

נפשׁ

What questions should a theology of the Psalms ask?

I have been tossing about some ideas on a theology of the Psalms. Some questions occurred to me

• who are the players and actors in the Psalms?
• who rules?
• what is the city?
• what is the produce, and where is the fruitfulness that we might seek?

More important for this is perhaps - how does God act? and what does God say? - or more accurately what might we infer from the poets about God's actions and sayings and about what they considered concerning their God, whose name YHWH is defined as "the name by which I will be remembered for all time." Doesn't that raise some questions about Jesus or Christ as God?  How might this be dealt with to undermine the will to power represented in the arguments?

There are lots of possible theological subjects, redemption, ransom, creation, suffering, election, heaven, hell and so on - but it seems to me that any abstraction of subject matter must come after the questions have been explored. My post on the subject matter of the psalms based on analysis of semantic domains got a lot of hits. Maybe that's where theological speculation might start...

So what? Do we think somehow that we must have an idea of God?  Is any writing on this prone to generating confrontation?  Probably - but what if analysis were dispassionate for a moment? Dispassionate like the opening of Psalm 18 (joke).

I have left undone a series on key verses, and more on memorization of this poetry. Where will I go - even I wonder...

Now that I have normal comments reinstated - maybe someone - anyone - can comment....

Google+ and comments

Google + comments on this blog have all disappeared since I have reverted to Blogger comments. Google's motto was 'do no evil'. In the case of comments, they have failed to do good. Sorry about conversations that are now lost. But there is no technical solution that allows both.

Faith and its expression

At great risk of displaying my foolishness, I am stimulated by two posts from people I have never met in person to form a statement of faith that expresses something. Each post asks "Where should a statement of faith begin?" The first that I read is here and the second is linked to it. Each post is reasonably good in its own way.  It is a bit of a word challenge - what do you do with Jesus, Christ, and God in terms of their character, and their role from our point of view.

For fun, I will start at the beginning. The source of my words is (of course) in the Bible. All versions of the canon of Scripture in the tradition in which I am taught, start with the second letter of the Hebrew alef-bet. It is said that Alef was willing to let Bet go first, even though Alex was first according to the list of letters. So faith as a statement is must be willing to let faith which is expressed in action go first. When we look at that first partial sentence in Genesis, the first action is creating. In our lives, as we become aware, we are faced with that which is created (from our point of view) and we have no known subject for this act. The subject is therefore God.

We too, created in the image of God, are to be (first), creative. We do not begin with explanation.

When we have been creative, we may then attempt to express in words what it was that made us so, a prevailing strength, hard work, daily practice, an inner force of determination, an inner change of heart, and so on. These are aspects of what may be called the human spirit, and of what may be determined as an anointing, or Christ-like behaviour. (Note I did not say Jesus-like, but Christ-like.) This Anointing Spirit who broods over the disorder of the formless deep is likewise an unknown actor, presupposed by us who act in a creative way and seek to explain such action.

As the chosen people said (somewhere) - we will do and we will understand. The doing is first. The Alef gives up its desire to be first. (But it is also noted that the first letter of the Decalogue is Alef.)

Where is the doing of God best illustrated? It is a long story and tortuous, a history filled with violence and passion, and with tenderness, with vulnerability and exploitation, with self-seeking and self-protective behaviour and with self-giving. I have noted before the five-fold repeated description of 'the LORD' in Book 5 of the Psalter - Yhwh who makes heaven and earth. This God is named by the name that was revealed to Moses - a name by which this God is to be remembered for all time. The actions of this God are to make heaven and earth - the phrase is expressed as an active ongoing participle. (We may think that created is in the past, but it is really ongoing as the Psalms make clear - and as one could translate Genesis 1:1 also: see e.g. here. I am willing to believe Holmstedt on Grammar. He's done his homework.) These actions are summarized with the fifth mention of this phrase in Psalm 146. This is a God who keeps truth forever, who does judgment for the oppressed, who gives bread to the hungry, releases prisoners, gives sight to the blind, consoles the disturbed, loves the righteous, shelters the guest, restores orphan and widow, and subverts the way of the wicked.

This is a 'go and do likewise' moment.

Who is the obedient but the one who does what was desired from the beginning at the same cost that was invested in the beginning, even before the foundation of the world?  Dare I say that the power to become such children is given by the same Spirit that broods like a Mother over the formless waste and the waters of destruction that so easily temporarily get the better of us?

There is plenty of unity in these statements. They circle back on each other. There is plenty of trinity in these statements also but there is no salvation in belief without obedience. And the hearing and obeying is a costly act of creation paid in one's own kind, flesh and blood.

We may jump to conclusions, creeds and confessions, but salvation and deliverance come through an inexpressible Anointing, aka Christ, an anointing that results in hearing and doing. Words there are indeed that are Spirit and Life. The poor and the hapless do not remain downtrodden when the Spirit moves. In truth, the Bible may begin with the second letter of the alef-bet, but the second letter takes creative power from the first and the Spirit is a brooding and redeeming warrior through her brood. Wisdom is justified in her children. If Jesus had not been mortal, temporal, like us, we would not know this hope so clearly. The same hope exactly is expressed in the psalms. We are called into the same hearing, the same drama, the same courtroom, the same life.

It is pretty clear that most religions agree that we must care for the poor and the hapless - but do we really go the whole nine yards? Do we subvert the way of the wicked or do we rather admire the way in which people get ahead in this world? Do we even protect and allow and encourage such self-service in the cafeteria before us?  It must also be clear that we mortals have a very difficult problem. We are beset with conflict in ourselves. Should we not eat, drink, and be merry? The oracle Psalm 36 has it right - on the transgression of the wicked within my heart... there is no dread of God before its eyes. The following acrostic (Psalm 37) on the wicked shows, as does Psalm 1, how important the wicked are. They are the ones who have the opportunity to work out their deliverance in fear and trembling, if indeed we will. Note it is the way of the wicked that is subverted so that the wicked one might come to its corporate and individual senses and not be insensitive or senseless or foolish (and say in its heart - God is of no account, Psalms 14, 53).

The obedience is spelled out in the Psalms - and from these texts Jesus reads the whole conversation with the one who created the heavens and the earth and who teaches humanity knowledge (a phrase I learned with delight from Kimhi).  We may read and be taught (Torah) with Jesus. Such is the Gospel.