* N e w B e a c o n B i b l e C o m m e n t a r y

P S A L M S 7 3 – 15 0A Comment ar y i n t he Wes ley an Tr ad i t ion

D a v i d L . T h o m p s o n B a r r y L . R o s s

A l e x V a r u g h e s e

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CONTENTS

General Editors’ Preface 11

Acknowledgments 13

Abbreviations 15

Glossary 19

Bibliography 21

Table of Sidebars 27

INTRODUCTION 29

COMMENTARY 31

BOOK III: PSALMS 73—89 31God Is Good to Israel (73:1-28) 33How Long and Why Will You Be Angry? (74:1-23) 43Yahweh Will Judge the Enemy (75:1-10 [2-11 HB]) 50The Wrath of Humans Will Praise God (76:1-12 [2-13 HB]) 54The Absent God Is Given Praise (77:1-20 [2-21 HB]) 58Unfailing Grace Leads to King David (78:1-72) 62The Heathen Have De!led Yahweh’s Heritage (79:1-13) 72Give Ear, O Shepherd of Israel (80:1-19 [2-20 HB]) 76Open Your Mouth; I Will Feed You (81:1-16 [2-17 HB]) 82Yahweh Assumes His Place (82:1-8) 86See How Your Enemies Growl (83:1-18 [2-19 HB]) 89Better Is One Day in Your Courts (84:1-12 [2-13 HB]) 94Show Us Your Unfailing Love (85:1-13 [2-14 HB]) 99Hear Me and Answer Me (86:1-17) 106Glorious Things Are Said of You, City of God (87:1-7) 111From My Youth I Have Suffered (88:1-18 [2-19 HB]) 115Where Is Your Former Great Love? (89:1-52 [2-53 HB]) 119

BOOK IV: PSALMS 90—106 127Lord, Our Eternal Dwelling Place (90:1-17) 129Yahweh, My Refuge and My Fortress (91:1-16) 134It Is Good to Praise Yahweh (92:1-15 [2-16 HB]) 139Yahweh Reigns (93:1-5) 143God’s Righteous Judgment Will Prevail (94:1-23) 147

Praise to Our God Who Summons Us to Listen to Him (95:1-11) 152

Sing to Yahweh, All the Earth (96:1-13) 156Rejoice in Yahweh, O You Righteous (97:1-12) 160Sing to Yahweh a New Song (98:1-9) 164Exalt Yahweh Our God (99:1-9) 168Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving (100:1-5) 172My Eyes Will Be on the Faithful in the Land (101:1-8) 176Hear My Prayer, Yahweh (102:1-28 [2-29 HB]) 179Praise Yahweh, My Soul (103:1-22) 184Yahweh My God, Creator of All (104:1-35) 189Give Praise! Sing! Exult! Yahweh Has Honored His Covenant

(105:1-45) 199Though Israel Rebels, Yahweh’s Love Endures Forever

(106:1-48) 210

BOOK V: PSALMS 107—150 223Yahweh’s Fidelity Endures Forever (107:1-43) 225A Song of Praise and a Plea for Help (108:1-13 [2-14 HB]) 236The Character Assassination of a Needy Man (109:1-31) 241Yahweh’s King and Priest (110:1-7) 249Yahweh, Gracious and Compassionate (111:1-10) 257The Righteous Person Will Be Remembered Forever (112:1-10) 263Who Is like Yahweh Our God? (113:1-9) 269When Israel Escaped from Egypt (114:1-8) 273Yahweh, Creator of Heaven and Earth (115:1-18) 276Yahweh Hears Those Who Call to Him (116:1-19) 281Yahweh’s Love Is Great (117:1-2) 287Yahweh My Strength, My Defense, and My Salvation (118:1-29) 289Yahweh’s Law Governs All Our Thoughts and Actions

(119:1-176) 298Lying Lips and Deceitful Tongues (120:1-7) 345Yahweh Never Sleeps; He Is on Guard Day and Night

(121:1-8) 348Peace for Jerusalem (122:1-9) 352A Prayer for Mercy (123:1-4) 356Escape from the Fowler’s Snare (124:1-8) 358Yahweh Surrounds His People (125:1-5) 360Yahweh Has Acted Greatly! (126:1-6) 362Children Are from Yahweh (127:1-5) 366Wife, Sons, and Grandsons (128:1-6) 369Like Withered Grass on the Roof (129:1-8) 373

With Sovereign Yahweh There Is Forgiveness (130:1-8) 376I Do Not Trouble Myself with Great Matters (131:1-3) 378Yahweh Has Chosen Zion (132:1-18) 380It Is Good When Brothers Live Together in Unity (133:1-3) 385Servants of Yahweh Worship, Yahweh the Creator Blesses

(134:1-3) 387Yahweh Our Sovereign Is Greater Than All Gods (135:1-21) 388Yahweh’s Fidelity (136:1-26) 395We Remembered Zion and Wept (137:1-9) 400Yahweh Sees (Even) the Lowly (138:1-8) 405Yahweh Searches Me and Knows My Inmost Being (139:1-24) 409Vipers’ Poison on Their Lips (140:1-13 [2-14 HB]) 418Set a Guard on My Mouth, upon the Door of My Lips (141:1-10) 422Is No One Concerned for Me? (142:1-7 [2-8 HB]) 425The Psalmist Lives Because of Yahweh’s Faithfulness,

Righteousness, and Fidelity (143:1-12) 427How Blessed Is the People Whose God Is Yahweh (144:1-15) 432Yahweh: Gracious, Compassionate, Slow to Anger,

Rich in Love (145:1-21) 436Trust in Human Rulers or in Yahweh? (146:1-10) 442Yahweh Delights in Those Who Fear Him (147:1-20) 445All Creation, Praise Yahweh (148:1-14) 450Yahweh Delights in His People (149:1-9) 455Praise Yahweh! (150:1-6) 458

31

COMMENTARY

BOOK III: PSALMS 73—89

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3–15

0

73:1-28

God Is Good to Israel (73:1-28)

ĮBEHIND THE TEXT

Psalm 73 holds a strategic place in the theological shaping of Book III and of the Psalter as a whole. It does so by critically reconsidering the validity of Torah piety, one of the emphases of the Psalter introduced in the very !rst psalm.

Not only its content but also its form and genre are engag-ing. It has the marks of a wisdom piece, opening and closing with its central theological claims regarding God and good cast in pro-verbial form. Moreover, the autobiographical telling of both the psalmist’s plight and of his restoration seems calculated to instruct and encourage.

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LMS

73

–15

0

73:1

!

Still, the location of the critical reversal in the psalmist’s thought in his entry to Yahweh’s sanctuary (v 17) reveals the psalmist’s interest in pil-grimage, in temple entry and worship concerns. His experience in the sanc-tuary went beyond repetition of traditional entry af!rmations to signi!cant breakthroughs in OT faith (Broyles 1999, 302-3). Confession, resolution, and thanksgiving point to worship as the place of victory over threats to the psalmist’s faith (Kraus 1989, 84). Citing Allen and McCann, Marvin Tate claims “No less than thirty-seven literary patterns have been proposed” for our psalm (1990, 232). Gerstenberger also notes the diverse approaches put forward by students of this psalm (2001, 70-75). The fact that the psalm can be approached from so many different vantage points may in part account for its wide appeal.

On the technical terms in the SS, see C.1.c. and 4.c in the Introduction (located in Thompson 2015). Recall also the editors’ use of Asaph psalms (Pss 73—83) to signal a transition to Book III of the Psalter itself. Regarding the text itself, Ps 73 has suffered considerably at the hands of well-intentioned copyists with the result that at some points every term in a line has a note of some kind in Bardtke’s critical apparatus.

IN THE TEXT

1. The Psalmist’s Slippery Place (73:1-16)Ŷ�1 The psalm opens with the theological claim, Surely God is good to Is-rael. The emphatic particle surely/ҴDN stands !rst in the line, underscoring the claim. This particle will stand !rst also in v 13 at the statement of the prob-lem, and again in v 18 at the outset of the resolution of the psalmist’s plight. Repetition of this particle at these three strategic points, and of the causal conjunction “therefore” (OƗNƝQ) at vv 6 and 10, ties this psalm tightly together.

Hans Bardtke (BBHS) suggests revising the MT O\ĞUҴO/to Israel, to read O\ĞU�ҴO/to the upright. The NJPS, ESV, NLT, and NKJV, along with the LXX and the Tg., follow the MT, whereas the NRSV, NABRE, and REB, among others, follow the emendation. I am inclined to accept Bardtke’s suggestion for theological reasons. The poem is not, on the surface at least, about Israel as a whole, but about the implications of being among either the godly or the ungodly. To the upright !ts better with those who are pure in heart in the next line.

The psalm begins with a proverbial statement about the goodness of God. It

is a sure blessing for the pure in heart among God’s chosen people be-cause they are the ones who respond to the election of God with a single-

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PSA

LMS 7

3–15

0

73:2-7

ness of devotion (24:4; Matt. 5:8). Purity of heart is to will one thing, the love of God (Kierkegaard). It is the love of God that answers the free choice of God to have a people and opens the self to the will of God to be with them. (Mays 1994, 241)

Ŷ�2-3 The expression But as for me places an immediate distance between the af!rmation of God’s goodness to Israel and the psalmist’s experience of God (v 2). Almost slipped; . . . nearly lost my foothold put the psalmist yet in the company of the upright and the pure in heart, if precariously so. “My foothold had all but given away” draws the psalmist’s stark picture well (REB in HALOT, 1630).

The initial for/kî that opens v 3 makes explicit the reason for the psalm-ist’s slippery place—envy. He was jealous of the well-being of (ãƟO{P) the wick-ed, those arrogant ones who not only prosper but also "out their prosperity with disdain for the less fortunate.Ŷ�4 The psalmist opens v 4 also with For/kî (the NIV omits), which signals the reasons for his jealousy. It is as though he were to say, “Now !rst of all . . .” He will substantiate his response to the wicked by particularizing both their pitiful character and their prosperity.

The verse, however, is contested, as interpreters wrestle with the MT. Read as is, the psalmist claims the wicked suffer no torment in their death (OƟP{WƗP) or some such thought involving their death (PZW�P{W). So the LXX, Tg., ASV, KJV, ESV. Bardtke (BBHS) divides the MT as OƗP{Z//WƗP. Now, OƗP{Z (“for them”) has to do with denying that there is any pain in life for them. 7ƗP (“whole,” “"awless”) provides a second descriptor of their bodies, that is, they are healthy and strong. The NRSV, NLT, among others, read thus.

No objective evidence supports the emendation, though it may !t the context better. Elsewhere in Ps 73, the attitude of the wicked toward their experience of death is not an issue for the psalmist. The emendation also pro-vides a more balanced bicolon and rhymes with v 6a.Ŷ�5 The wicked do not participate in normal human troubles and af"ictions. One wants to say normal here, for clearly the psalmist’s jealousy is leading to exaggeration.Ŷ�6 The !rst of two bicola (vv 6 and 10) that explicitly introduce paragraphs (vv 6-9 and 10-12) detailing the logical consequences of the trouble-free life of the wicked appear here (Therefore/OƗNƝQ). The psalmist is tempted to con-clude his piety is vain; the wicked are inclined to arrogance since no ill befalls them. They wear their pride like a necklace and their violence like a well-!tting garment.Ŷ�7 The imagery of this colon proves dif!cult to penetrate. While the NIV translates ۊƝOHE as iniquity, the better reading is fat, which, when associated

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PSA

LMS

73

–15

0

73:8-11

with human beings, carries a negative meaning. “Their eyes stand out with fatness” (ASV) is as clear as any literal rendering. Kraus calls this “an absurd conception,” but makes little progress working with the alternative sometimes suggested that reads “their guilt” (ҵƗZ{QƗP{) for “their eyes” (ҵrQrP{; 1989, 82, 84). Tate’s rendering seems as clear as any and catches the tone of the MT better than most, “Their eyes bulge from fatness; the conceit of their hearts is unlimited” (1990, 227).

Ŷ�8 Due to the terse nature of Hebrew poetry, the terms scoff, speak with mal-ice, arrogance, and oppression could go together several different ways and still be faithful to the intended meaning of this verse. The powerful impact of hu-man speech, particularly the corrosive force of unchecked speech in the mouths of the wicked, add to the psalmist’s disdain for these contemptible sinners.

Ŷ�9 Continuing his objection to the speech of the faithless, the psalmist uses the terms the heavens and the earth, commonly paired in poetry. But, as will become clear, these are not just poetic jargon; he means them. When they set their mouth against the heavens, these presumptuous ones actually take on God himself. And when their tongue strides [reading WLKăODN as a Piel of KON (ESV: “struts”)] through the earth, they claim the territory as their own (with meaning equivalent to the Hitpael in God’s command to Abram: “walk through [KLWKDOƝN of KON] . . . the land” [Gen 13:17]). See Ps 73:11 for a sample of their speech.

Ŷ�10 The text here has suffered in the process of transmission. (Kraus says “manifestly dis!gured” [1989, 84].) From the well-being of the boasters and their chatter the psalmist draws another signi!cant, explicit conclusion with the causal conjunction OƗNƝQ/therefore. The NIV reads Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. This preserves most of the MT, but what does drink up waters in abundance mean?

Judging from context we would expect an assessment of these sinners who are so reckless with their speech. The psalmist seems to bemoan the regrettable in"uence these boasters have on the public. Resorting to relatively little reconstruction, Keil and Delitzsch make good sense when they state: “Around the proud free-thinkers there gathers a rabble submissive to them, which eagerly drinks in everything that proceeds from them as though it were the true water of life” (1989, 315).

Ŷ�11 Now follows a particularly caustic example of the speech against which the psalmist had protested. And they say, “How would God know?” And “Is there knowledge at all in the Most High?” Having gone so long unpunished, these boasters mock God himself (compare Ps 10:11-12). To appreciate the boldness involved in these challenges to God, modern readers must put them-selves in an ancient setting where the reality of the gods and their willingness

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PSA

LMS 7

3–15

0

73:12-16

to intervene directly to punish evildoers was taken much more seriously than is now the case.

But recall Eccl 9:1-2, where a list of good versus bad persons locates “he who swears” in the good column and “he who shuns an oath” among those deserving judgment (ESV). This language assumes a judicial setting. Here the person on trial believes consistently enough in the probability of intervention by the gods that he will tell the truth rather than risk God’s immediate retri-bution for perjury.

In parts of that ancient world the river was known as “Judge River,” be-cause of the practice of trial by ordeal. The accused party was thrown in the river. Those who survived were judged innocent; those who drowned were judged guilty. Evidence for this can be found in Mesopotamian and Ugaritic documents.Ŷ�12 Structurally matching the general claims in vv 2 and 3, a !nal bicolon summarizes the preceding particulars. In what sounds like a formal presenta-tion, the psalmist rests his case. Look! These are the wicked! Perpetually at ease they amass their fortune.Ŷ�13-16 Here we !nd the fulcrum on which the whole psalm turns, marked by the emphatic particle (see below). The psalmist states the problem driv-ing his inquiry, identi!es the critical point that offered hope, and hints at the resolution he !nally found.

The emphatic particle, Surely/ҴDN again signals a strategic statement (v 13). In v 1 it underscored the claim that would be under attack; in v 13, the assessment of the psalmist’s problem. In v 18 it will introduce the fruit of his insight. Surely/ҴDN—if these claims about the wicked are really true, surely the psalmist knows he has kept himself for nothing.

Both his inner piety (the cleansing of his heart) and his outer obser-vances (the naive, ceremonial washing of his hands) have been for nothing or worse (compare Ps 26:6 [7 HB] and Gen 20:5-6). Note also the inclusion by the occurrences of heart/OƝEƗE in Ps 73:1 and 13 ties the two verses together while at the same time advancing the presentation.

Smitten all day and suffering reproach every morning the psalmist’s life circumstance has ironically opened him to the charge that he clearly is no bet-ter than the wicked he claims to disdain (v 14). Troubles befall the psalmist of-ten enough that he and others could interpret them as chastisement. Chronic illness would open a sufferer up to this unfortunate circumstance.

If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children (v 15). The questions and protests aside, the psalmist locates himself squarely among the righteous. The catalogue of the well-off wicked in the previous lines has been an inner argument. They plague his mind but have remained for some

38

PSA

LMS

73

–15

0

73:17-20

time hidden. The result is probably the Psalter’s most dramatic understatement. When he tried to understand all this intellectually, it was a problem for [him] (v 16). A problem indeed! He had almost forfeited his faith! We note here the !rst instance of the psalmist addressing God directly (your children [v 15]).

2. Insight in the Sanctuary (73:17-28)Ŷ�17 The trouble to understand the problem of the well-being of the wicked remained with the psalmist until he entered the sanctuary of God (the MT has plural “sanctuaries,” but the NIV reads singular with the LXX and Syriac). We are not told how this critical reversal that follows came about, but we are told it was a matter of insight, insight upon which the entire psalm pivots.

There in God’s holy place the psalmist grasps the !nal destiny of the wicked. He realizes his litany of the corruption and well-being of the wicked had ignored one critical point—their !nal end. We should probably not think here of life after death but instead of what actually becomes of the wicked here and now. They often fare poorly (compare 37:38 and 49:14).

Mays describes the psalmist’s experience as

the reality [that] God "ooded his heart and became the consciousness by which he understood himself and his experience. The uncertainty of experience became the certainty of faith. The certainty he was given was not merely belief in the doctrine that the wicked perish; it was more the certainty of God as his God. (1994, 243)

Ŷ�18-20 Launched again with the third occurrence of the emphatic particle Surely/ҴDN, the psalmist begins to unveil critical aspects of the resolution of his crisis, just as earlier he had detailed this problem (73:18).

He had felt his footing begin to slip (v 2). Now he realizes that the wick-ed also !nd themselves in a slippery place. And the slippery ground upon which the wicked often !nd themselves does not just occur; God places them there, and with surprising speed. The slippery ground metaphor is rich. It obviously speaks of a precarious place, but "attery or outright falsehood (Ps 12:3 [4 HB]) may also set a trap for the presumptuous boasters (compare 12:7, 8 [8, 9 HB]). The next line, you cast them down to ruin (73:18), suggests that God often brings the wicked down by giving them over to their own deceits.

The psalmist is reminded of how quickly these catastrophes can befall the wicked. They are completely swept away [VƗS�] by sudden terrors (EDOOƗK{W) from which he had thought them to be so impervious (v 19; compare vv 4, 5).

The psalmist moves now to the image of one’s memory of a dream upon waking (v 20). The images left in one’s mind are ephemeral, transient, often disappointing. The dream was so grand. How can reality now be so despicable, so disquieting? This is what God makes of the wicked.

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PSA

LMS 7

3–15

0

73:21-24

Interestingly, the most intimate address of God in the poem appears here. We have seen ҴƟO{KvP/“God” (v 1), ҴƝO/“God” (vv 11, 17), and ҵHO\{Q/“Most High” (v 11) previously in the psalm. Here, the poet addresses God as ҴăG{QD\/Lord (Sovereign) (v 20).Ŷ�21-23 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was sense-less (vv 21-22) makes excellent sense; several problems were solved in route to this translation. First is the problem of ancient physiology and psychology. The heart, kidneys, and liver were thought to be centers of feeling, and in the case of the heart, of intellect as well, though we must resist overly precise distinc-tions between these. The NIV solves this problem by translating heart//spirit. This is the source of the now odd-sounding line in the KJV’s translation of Phil 2:1: “If there be . . . any bowels and mercies.” As in the psalms, translators spare us problems in the NT by rendering “if any tenderness” (NIV) or “affec-tion” (ESV) or the like.

The second problem encountered is in the rendering of the opening term of Ps 73:21 (kî), which determines the relationship between v 21 and v 22, that is, between the psalmist’s inner turmoil and his brutish ways. Taken as a temporal conjunction, the verses read thus: When my heart was grieved . . . I was senseless (so NIV, ESV, NRSV). Read as a causal conjunction, we take it thus: Because my heart was grieved . . . I was senseless (so LXX, NABRE). The NJPS omits this conjunction. I prefer the temporal construal that simply states a fact and leaves the possible causal connection to be determined in study of the text, not in translation.

In either case the psalmist confesses that his protests against the wicked and their alleged well-being was more the fruit of inner turmoil than of sober assessment.

Repetitions tie vv 22-23 together. One concludes remarks on the psalm-ist’s lamentable state, while the other opens the concluding celebration of his relationship with the God of Israel.

Both verses open with the !rst-person pronoun, As for me/ZDҴăQv. In v 22, the psalmist admits he has acted like a beast, with an emphasis on his un-thinking, foolish behavior (compare 49:10 [11 HB] and 92:6 [7 HB]). In 73:23, the psalmist acknowledges that God had always been with him. Both verses have the prepositional phrase with you/ҵLPPƗN.

In v 22 with you admits that it was with respect to God himself that he had acted so senselessly. In v 23 with you might more accurately have empha-sized that God was with the psalmist continually. Indeed, he had clasped this confused malcontent with his right hand, the hand of strength and deliverance.Ŷ�24 Clasped !rmly by God’s right hand, God had been leading the psalm-ist all through his time of introspection. Presumably, if God was leading him,

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PSA

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73

–15

0

73:25-26

they were going somewhere of God’s choosing. Note the claim is not simply history—you led me. Instead he states a general reality—You lead me; you did, you do, and you will lead me.

Moreover, it seems particularly fortuitous in light of the psalmist’s thor-oughly confused thinking (v 22) that God has led him by God’s own saving counsel. Moreover, leading is an act of God often associated with his care for pilgrims in route to the temple (Pss 5:8 [9 HB]; 23:3; 43:3; 61:2 [3 HB]; and others) (so Broyles 1999, 203).

Afterward heightens the drama in the line by pointing to the conclusion of something already under way. The phrase take me into glory can be under-stood in a number of ways; whichever of the following meanings is adopted, it is good news for the psalmist.

1. Broyles has remarked how appropriate such a clause would be in de-scribing the psalmist’s entry as a pilgrim into the sanctuary (presum-ably the Jerusalem temple), the place par excellence where God’s glory dwells (26:8; ibid.).

2. Taking him in glory could refer to providing an honorable burial, suit-able for one who dies. This view assumes no “reward” in an afterlife but instead recalls the importance of an honorable, a glorious entry into Sheol (cf. Ezek 31:16-18; 32:17-21).

3. Others have found it signi!cant that take me into glory shares the same verb for take that is used of God’s “taking” of Enoch (OTۊ) in Gen 5:22, 24. In Genesis Enoch is known as one who “walked with God,” a translation of an emphatic, re"exive form of “walking” or “walking around” that connects to signi!cant passages in Gen 3:8; 13:17; 17:1-2; and 24:40.

In this case take becomes something of a technical term for bringing persons into the presence of God, and glory a term for the place of God’s glory. There is no particular reason to shy away from this possibility because of the scarcity of afterlife talk in the OT.

The verse is rounded off in a bit of elegance with the last words in each colon set in a rhyme—you lead me/WDQۊƝQv . . . you will take me/WLTTƗۊƝQv�Ŷ�25 In faith the psalmist compares the offerings of the world to the presence of God. Earth has nothing that compares to God himself. Weiser notes, “The ultimate motive of the assurance and blessedness of faith is, however, not hope in the future glory, but joy in the present life of union with God” (1962, 574).Ŷ�26 My "esh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. In order to achieve this smooth rendering of the psalmist’s af!rmation, several interpretive decisions must be made, starting with the !rst word in the Hebrew sentence, may fail/NƗOk. One would not expect to

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PSA

LMS 7

3–15

0

73:27-28

translate the particular verbal aspect used here for a statement of a possibility, may fail. More likely, we would expect a statement of a past reality (fainted) or a present condition (fails).

My "esh and my heart read well as the subject of the opening verb. Then comes the noun rock/܈�U. “The rock of my heart, my portion forever” (NABRE, REB). Each word is clear enough, but what does the line mean? God is the strength of my heart encounters the dif!culty that rock/܈�U does not mean strength as a simple abstraction (NRSV). Metaphorically it can mean a hiding place, a place of salvation, a “stay” (NJPS), or a “crag” (so, Gold-ingay 2007, 415), but not strength.

More promising, we might take rock as a divine name, Rock, one of Yahweh’s ancient names, attested in old poetry such as Deut 32:4, 15. The second heart/OƝEƗE is also intrusive and simply dropped by some interpreters (so Weiser 1962, 506, and Kraus 1989, 83), perhaps here by dittography, as Bardtke (BBHS) suggests without evidence for OƟҵ{OƗP (forever) at the end.

Ŷ�27-28 With two forceful lines the psalmist now brings his deliberations to conclusion. The !rst, a bicolon, bluntly states the plight of those who live far from God. In the second and !nal line, a tricolon, the poet savors his own vibrant faith.

Further content is given to the idea of the wicked. They live keeping their distance from God and breaking covenant like an unfaithful spouse (v 27). Of course, they are spiritually distant from God, not spatially so. On the contrary, God is often evidently present in their lives working judgment (compare vv 18-20). On the surface it appears they simply perish as a matter of course, but that is not so. God himself puts an end to them.

The opening Nv�KLQQr (behold; the NIV omits) should probably be taken as relating to both of the concluding lines (vv 27 and 28). .v�KLQQr may simply signal emphasis, actually double emphasis, indicated by an exclamation mark or italics, underscoring the importance of these lines to the psalmist’s conclu-sion. Or the Nv�KLQQr may mark substantiation as well as emphasis.

This bicolon then would explain how the preceding deliberations were possible. How could the psalmist weather the storm of jealous doubt and come through to buoyant trust in Yahweh? This journey depended in part on his ultimate con!dence in the judgment of Yahweh and !nally (v 28) on his own awareness of the goodness of God.

But as for me places his own experience of the goodness of God in direct contrast to the plight of those distant from God. This nearness to God, along with his newfound con!dence in God’s goodness as his refuge, provides the !nal warrant for the striking outcome to which the psalmist gives testimony.

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73:1-28

ȦFROM THE TEXT

The discom!ting experience of the psalmist is so common as to !nd a sympathetic reader almost anywhere. The idea that the upright should expect the blessings of God and, conversely, should expect the wicked regularly to experience signs of God’s displeasure is common. In the case of the psalmist these expectations are not simply intuitive. They are promised as blessings to be expected by those who faithfully keep Yahweh’s Torah and/or curses that will befall those who clearly do not keep Torah (compare Ps 1). When the psalmist allowed himself to be preoccupied with these sorts of episodes he found himself on the brink of catastrophe.

In the sanctuary his attention was drawn from his caricature of the wicked as trouble-free blasphemers to a more sober picture of their actual situation. Truth be told, their ends are often supremely unenviable, their prosperity and ease remarkably deceptive. Not only so, but the sanctuary also prompted more candor about the de!ciencies of his own piety, especially his envy of the wicked.

Perhaps more important, in the sanctuary he could see the multiple evi-dences of God’s presence in his own life. All the while, during and beyond his ranting, the God of Israel had been actively present in his life, holding him, guiding him, and transforming his present quest for awareness of God with the promise of glorious presence with God in the end.

Most important, he came to see that when all of this was said and done, he really wanted nothing more nor less than awareness of God’s presence so clear and forceful as to make his previous calculations of reward and punish-ment seem trivial. Echoing the words of his opening af!rmation, what now seemed truly good was the nearness of God himself. The possibility of walking with God himself was an existential answer.

Whether we !nd in the Hebrew Scriptures a more adequate response to this issue (that is, “the problem of evil”) than Ps 73 is debatable. The realiza-tion that justice will not be done within the bounds of life here and now is a breakthrough insight. One must look beyond the present to the destinies of both the righteous and the wicked, particularly to life hereafter.

Without recourse to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, Christians can go no further than the psalmist. The whole question is turned upside down. Disciples of Jesus are actually called to suffering and to a cross. Chris-tians do not look to life’s circumstances to tell them of God’s disposition to-ward them. They look to one place and one place alone to tell them whether or not God loves them—to the cross of Christ (Mark 8:27—9:2; Rom 8:31-39; 1 John 4:9-12).

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0

74:1

!

How Long and Why Will You Be Angry? (74:1-23)

ĮBEHIND THE TEXT

Psalm 74 is the !rst of !ve psalms (see also 75, 76, 77, and 78) in the Asaph collection. These !ve psalms share some vocabulary and themes. For the probable song title, song types, and “authorial” attribution see the Intro-duction section C.1.3.4 (located in Thompson 2015).

Mention of “Mount Zion” in “everlasting ruins” (74:2-3) leads us to date Ps 74 to the late exilic years, certainly prior to the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (compare Neh 1:1-4; Hag 1:5-11). Not just this time note, but also the deep pathos of the work, suggests such a location.

Psalm 74 is packed with clusters of traditional vocabulary from several distinct topics touched by the poet. These have to do with God’s people as God’s “sheep,” as his purchased nation, inherited and “redeemed” (vv 1-2). They include Mount Zion, as Yahweh’s sanctuary and “inheritance” (vv 2-3). The poet joins the theme of mythic, primordial battle with God’s mighty creation (vv 7, 8, 13-16).

The psalm (save vv 10-11) seeks to bring leverage on God by calling to mind God’s people and the place of his dwelling (v 2), the rapacious nature of the enemy’s attack (vv 3-8), and the silence from God they now suffer (v 9).

The psalmist seeks an end to the divine silence by reveling in God as “King,” in God’s history of saving acts (v 12), and his victory over the primor-dial "oods and monsters (vv 13-14). Though silent now, it was he who estab-lished earth’s “natural” systems (vv 15-17). Just as these claims undergird the opening lines, so they now support the concluding pleas (vv 18-23).

Unlike Ps 73, which tackles the question as to whether or not individual Torah piety actually “works,” the psalmist here does not argue with God as to whether or not the demolition of the land was warranted. Instead, the basic issues raised seem instead to be the severity and duration of the destruction.

For more information on the brief SS see the Introduction, C.1.a and 4.c (located in Thompson 2015).

IN THE TEXT

1. Why Does God’s Anger Linger? (74:1-3)Ŷ�1 Two brief, straightforward questions ask the reason(s) for God’s linger-ing anger (ҲkQDS) toward his people. That the psalmist assumes God is angry presumes some sign of that anger. Some indication of a breach in “covenant”

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74:2

law (Lev 26:15) has evidently appeared as Moses had said would be the case (compare Lev 26:14-39; Deut 28:15-68; 29:16-28 [15-27 HB]).

In this case, it appears the nation has suffered some time in the past (Ps 74:3-8) a military catastrophe. According to Lev 26:25, this would have signaled a national breach of her “covenant” with God (ҲƟOǀKvP [Lev 26:12-13]) (compare Deut 28:49-52). But therein lies the problem. Although the destruction was great and the demolition enduring, no prophet (Ps 74:9) or priest has stepped forward to explain convincingly the cause of God’s anger.

Though the psalmist’s questions and petitions are brief, they receive strong support. Reference to God’s people as his sheep ranks among the more tender and picturesque of the names given them (compare 79:13; 100:3). That the people are his sheep implies God’s land is his pasturage and God their king as the royal Shepherd. Hence we are not surprised when in 74:12 the psalmist actually calls God “King.” (See also Pss 23:1-2 and 28:9, and then 80:1 [2 HB] where God’s full title, “Shepherd of Israel,” appears and where he is thought to sit enthroned among the cherubim.)Ŷ�2 The rest of the !rst paragraph urges God to act now, bringing attention long overdue, at least in the mind of the psalmist.

The psalmist taps ancient traditions to describe people he calls God to deliver. These are the nation . . . purchased [TƗQvWƗ, or created] long ago by God (compare Exod 15:16 and Deut 32:6-9). Whether the verb qnh should be translated as “purchase” or “create” in these passages is debated among scholars. In any case, according to ancient tradition they are the people whose boundaries were marked out by the “Most High” and who were given to Yah-weh as his “allotted inheritance” (Deut 32:8-9).

Here, they are said to have become Yahweh’s inheritance by redemption (g’l). To “redeem” means either to purchase someone’s freedom (compare Lev 25:48-49), or to reclaim something or someone as one’s own without purchase (e.g., as of Israel in Exod 15:13). Either meaning makes redemption a striking picture of God’s saving acts.

Finally, in this opening paragraph, God’s people are identi!ed by refer-ence to their most sacred space, Mount Zion (Ps 74:2). Even before David captured it from the Jebusites (2 Sam 5:6-7), the forti!ed mount just south of what became the city of David was known as Zion.

As David’s and then Solomon’s building accomplishments marched up the saddle between the Tyropoeon and Kidron Valleys, the name Zion came also to apply to more and more land. This culminated in its application to the Temple Mount and to the temple itself, the unique place of Yahweh’s dwell-ing, celebrated here and elsewhere. Here Yahweh dwelt, not simply in the sense of living somewhere, but of reigning, of dwelling as Israel’s king.

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0

74:3-7

Weiser notes that now the worshipers

think they must remind God of his own promises and of his saving deeds (cf. Ex. 19.4; 15.13 ff.) and must draw his attention to the fact that it is his dwelling-place which has been destroyed and de!led and that there-fore his own cause is here at stake. The devastation of the house of God has become the occasion for a crisis in their belief in God. (1962, 518)

Ŷ�3 The psalmist calls for God himself to conduct a review of the devastated sanctuary along with the heaps of rubble, which once were the city walls. One thinks of the haunting scene Nehemiah found on his nighttime survey of vir-tually the same, pre-Second Temple picture (Neh 2:11-13).

Some of the psalmist’s contemporaries had known no other reality than these everlasting ruins. Surely this would move God to action on behalf of his people.

2. The Fury of the Enemy’s Attack (74:4-11)Ŷ�4 Now the psalmist supports his call for God to act in reprisal for the vi-cious attack against God’s people. He does so by detailing the attack, the ruth-lessness of each soldier’s attack and the ruin wrought on the temple. Knowing God’s regard for his sacred dwelling and bringing to mind again the painful memories of its ancient destruction are designed by the psalmist to move God to action.

God should break his silence and take up arms of his own in retaliation against the ancient intruders. One aspect of the temple after another catches the psalmist’s attention as a point around which to focus God’s memory of the de!lement of the sanctuary.

Here, the psalmist mentions the holy of holies itself. This very place of God’s meeting (P{ұăGHNƗ/your meeting place) with his people became the gathering place of the invading troops. In the very place where Israel had shouted the praises of Yahweh, the enemy roared its crude tumult of victory. They hung their own battle standards in the holy place where Israel had dis-played her shields and "ags.

Ŷ�5-6 Precious, prime wood decorated the temple (1 Kgs 6—7; 2 Chr 2:14 [13 HB]; 3:14). Beautifully carved panels and strong, hewn logs decorated the building. The enemy slashed and cut its way through this wood like clumsy brutes clearing out a thicket (Ps 74:5). Axes and hatchets were used to whack down the carved paneling (v 6).

Ŷ�7 Then the consecrated wood became kindling with which to burn Yahweh’s sanctuary to the ground; . . . the dwelling place of your Name. This is “Mount Zion, where you dwelt” (v 2), this is “the place where you met with us” (v 4).

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74:8-12

These are roughly semantic equivalents that focus on the place of the presence of God as singled out for particularly disgusting treatment by the enemy.

Ŷ�8 The !rst phrase, They said in their hearts, illustrates the hatred of the warriors; We will crush them all together indicates that no pity was to be given in the battles.

The phrase, They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land, is puzzling. If this refers to places desecrated by Josiah in his reform (2 Kgs 23:4-25), one would not expect it to be regarded as bad news, as it is here. Perhaps the reference is to sites other than the temple where nonsacri!cial worship of Yahweh may have been conducted early after the deportation.

Sites such as Mizpah come to mind where Gedaliah, the Judean governor appointed by the Babylonians, established his administrative headquarters (2 Kgs 25:23; Jer 40:10). Later Mizpah became known not just as an administra-tive site but also as a place of prayer (1 Macc 3:46). Surely, Gedaliah’s gather-ing place would not have been the only one in the land, where the people met for encouragement through readings, prayer, and song. The point here is that not even the shrines scattered through the land escaped the enemy’s wrath.

Ŷ�9-10 Again the lack of information and the question of time preoccupy the psalmist. Though the MT does not mention God in Ps 74:9, the NIV sup-plies from God. The psalmist’s implication, then, is that God is the one who, through his prophets, should be breaking the silence imposed by the exile. No signs given evoke the picture of information/signals being sent from one city wall to the next by successive watchmen. Ezekiel’s call as a prophet to func-tion like a watchman for Yahweh among his people underscores the aptness of this image for the call and function of God’s prophets (Ezek 3:16-21). No signs, no prophets—the result, no information.

The question, How long . . . ? (ұDG�PƗWv) (Ps 74:10), for the psalmist is not primarily a matter of tolerating discomfort, but instead is an issue of the ongoing mockery of God. Every day the exile goes on the longer God’s name is dragged in the dirt, the longer the victors mistake the defeat of Judah for the defeat of God (compare Joel 2:17).

Ŷ�11 It is as though God stands with his strong arm, your right hand, hidden in the folds of his garment, inexplicably refusing to join the battle. This makes no sense to the psalmist.

3. God the King and Creator (74:12-17)Ŷ�12 But God is my King from long ago. The psalm pivots on this claim. Up until this point the psalmist has focused his attention directly on God (that is, God as “you” or “your”). Again in Ps 74:13 to the end of the psalm, reference is directly to God. But here in v 12 the poet states his own clear faith regarding

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74:13-17

the kingship of God, his submission to God as King implied by several lines leading to this claim.

Two aspects of this kingship of God receive note; !rst, its longevity, either in his own life (as in Pss 23 or 44) or in the nation’s; and second, this king’s perennial role as Savior. Wherever his kingship emerges so also does salvation. This conjoining of kingship and salvation appears remarkably in the very structure of the Mosaic covenant. The covenant offered Israel in the book of Exodus situates Yahweh in the place of a/the Great King and Israel in the place normally occupied by a conquered people serving as vassals of the con-quering king.

Instead, however, the Great King is Israel’s historic Savior, delivering her from bondage in Egypt. And the covenant offered Israel places her, not in the role of groveling slaves, but rather, as Torah put it, in the status of a “most favored nation” (see Exod 19:5-6).

Ŷ�13-14 From here through Ps 74:17, borrowing vocabulary from Canaanite mythology, the psalmist combines language of God’s primordial victory over chaos (Gen 1:2) with lines celebrating his sovereign feats in creation. The re-sult is what Hossfeld and Zenger call a “hymned excursus” on the Creator (2005, 248), rich in thematic references but dif!cult to follow theologically.

The splitting open of the sea (perhaps better capitalized as Lord Sea/Yamm) hints at its background beyond Judah (Ps 74:13). In the process God crushed the heads of Leviathan (v 14). At Ugarit the twisting dragon had seven heads (KTU 1.5.iii.1-5), an oddity that surfaces already in the third millennium BC Mesopota-mian glyptic art (Hossfeld and Zenger 2005, 247, plate 3). Note the odd-sounding plural of the heads of the sea monster smashed by God. We note with interest the seven occurrences of the second singular pronoun, you(r) or you(rs) in vv 13-17. Is it too much of a stretch to connect these details? Perhaps not (compare Dahood’s treatment [1968, 205-6]).

Ŷ�15 Water in Egypt and the Levant is a precious resource for life. It is God, however, who governs the "ow of water, breaking open springs and torrents of water in a wadi. On the reverse, God also dries up the ever-"owing rivers or underground springs.

Ŷ�16-17 The phrase, you established the sun and moon (v 16), delivers an-other polemic against the theology of Israel’s neighbors for whom both the sun and the moon, especially the sun, were worshiped as important deities. Looking back on the days leading up to the destruction of the temple, Asaph may have recalled the signi!cant presence of paraphernalia for the worship of the sun (ODããHPHã) (Assyrian Lord Shamash/Shamshu, i.e., Lord Sun) im-ported under King Manasseh and his predecessors (2 Kgs 23:11). The prophet

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74:18-23

Ezekiel’s vision also shows the importance of Asaph’s af!rmation of God’s creatorship of the sun and moon (see Ezek 8:16)!

Against all this the psalmist lays claim to God’s lordship over these heavenly markers of both the daily and the seasonal calendars of the corrup-tion of Yahweh worship, perhaps the worship of Yahweh as “Sun,” right in the Jerusalem temple.

4. Remember Your Covenant and the Enemy’s Clamor (74:18-23)Ŷ�18 Returning to the theme of Ps 74:2, the psalmist brackets the psalm with calls for Yahweh to remember the enemy’s mockery. Their words and deeds and thoughts have shown constant disdain for God, his temple, and his people. These are foolish people, not necessarily unintelligent, but nevertheless, moral and spiritual dullards.

Ŷ�19 The twofold petition (do not hand over . . . do not forget) serves as a reminder to God that he has a responsibility to protect his people. The life of your dove to wild beasts is a literal translation. In spite of the fact that several English versions show some form of this reading, the metaphor of God’s peo-ple as a dove seems odd. Some follow the LXX and translate “those who praise you” instead of the life of your dove, which requires only minimal emendation. The parallel between the two groups of persons—“those who praise you” and your af"icted people—is stronger, but the meaning remains uncertain.

Ŷ�20 The psalmist takes God back to his own word, calling him to attend to his covenant. But which covenant is it to which God should have regard? And why? Violence still permeates the land wherever there is darkness. One might think here of caves, overlooks, shelters, and the like taken over by hoodlums eager to prey on the hapless of the land, as found, for example, all up and down the wilderness between the highlands and the Jordan. This sounds like circumstances calling basic Torah into question (that is, Deut 29); thus the Sinai covenant may be intended here, rather than the covenant with David (2 Sam 7:10-11).

Ŷ�21 The !rst segment of this verse calls on God not to let the oppressed [sg.] retreat in disgrace/humiliation (NƗODP). The words for the poor [ұRQv] and needy (ҲHE\{Q) are also singular. The psalmist refers to the classes of persons as a whole, all the people of God who have suffered at the hands of the enemy. God is called upon to assist his people who have been oppressed so that they may in turn praise his name.

Ŷ�22-23 The cause of God’s people should become God’s cause, claims the psalmist (Ps 74:22). Not simply the overt assaults on Yahweh’s name and dwelling but also the enemy’s mockery and clamor continually disturb and

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74:1-23

disrupt Israel’s peace (v 23). The psalmist and his neighbors cannot escape

these lingering reminders of the enemy’s upper hand. And God should not

forget them either.

ȦFROM THE TEXT

Two agendas deserve attention. First, at the heart of much disquiet

among God’s people are the desire for an explanation of God’s ways, past and

present, and an understanding of his doings and his “schedule.” When brought

into the temple, Ps 74 directs worshipers to these concerns. “Go ahead. Ask

your questions,” it seems to say. Given enough time, God seems to have for-

gotten what it was he had in mind, even in such monumental undertakings as

the Babylonian exile of his people.

We know from other scriptures that God shares our concerns regarding

human arrogance and the treatment of his people. Recalling no more than

the so-called oracles against the nations makes this clear. Jeremiah 46—51 or

Ezek 25—32 come to mind.

But these concerns shared by God and his people do not follow a shared

calendar. In this particular psalm we hear no answers. Perhaps the payoff is

simply the value in being reminded of the sorts of questions God’s people

should be asking.

A second concern surfaces in Ps 74:13-15; it is the desire to commu-

nicate the truth of God in language relevant not only to our culture but

also to our pagan neighbors. In search of imagery to strengthen the impact

of his claims, the psalmist recalls elements of ANE creation stories. The

psalmist’s world does not exist in isolation from the world of his neighbors.

He is well aware of their belief systems, and he seeks to show that God is

the sovereign ruler of the cosmos, including all the chaotic forces in the

world.

The supplication at the end of the psalm

expresses the unshakable belief that God, who has shown himself in the

creation of the universe to be the Lord over the chaos, has now also the

power to suppress the revolt of the chaotic powers and that in view of his

covenant promise he will not allow his downtrodden people to become

the defenseless prey . . . of the cruel lust for power of these enemies.

(Weiser 1962, 520)