Retrospect PDF

Retrospect 1. Praise Yah. Praise the name of Yahweh. Praise, you servants of Yahweh, 2. Who stand in the house of Yahweh, in the courts of the house of our God. 3. Praise Yah, for Yahweh (is) good. Sing psalms to His name, for (He is) gracious; 4. For Yah has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His...

Retrospect 1. Praise Yah. Praise the name of Yahweh. Praise, you servants of Yahweh, 2. Who stand in the house of Yahweh, in the courts of the house of our God. 3. Praise Yah, for Yahweh (is) good. Sing psalms to His name, for (He is) gracious; 4. For Yah has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His peculiar treasure; 5. For I know that Yahweh (is) great, and our Lord is above all gods. 6. Everything that pleases Yahweh He did, in the heavens, and in the earth, in the seas and all depths; 7. Who brings up vapors from the end of the earth; who makes lightnings for the rain; who brings the wind out from His storehouses; 8. Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, of man and beast; 9. Who sent signs and wonders into your midst, Egypt, upon Pharaoh and all his servants; 10. Who smote many nations, and slew mighty kings; 11. Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, 12. And gave their land for an inheritance, an inheritance to His people Israel. 13. Your name Yahweh (is) for ever; Yahweh, Your remembrance to all generations; 14. For Yahweh will judge His people, and will repent Him self concerning His servants. 15. The idols of the nations (are) silver and gold, the work of men's hands. 16. They have mouths, but will not speak. They have eyes, but will not see. 17. They have ears, but will not hear, nor is there breath in their mouth. 154 RETROSPECT 155 18. Like them are those who make them, ( as is) everyone that trusts in them. 19. House of Israel, bless Yahweh! House of Aaron, bless Yahweh! 20. House of Levi, bless Yahweh! You who fear Yahweh, bless Yahweh! 21. Blessed be Yahweh out of Zion, who dwells in Jerusalem! Praise Yahl PSALM 135 w=.========= -w====-....===========· The past is man's legacy. It is the poim of his departure, the guide to his direction, and the promise of his potential. PRELUDE TO HISTORY Before man developed a historical methodology, and often since, he has spun stories about the past. These tales, or sagas, were meant to fill in the blanks in his recollection, to give substance to dim outlines fading into oblivion. The existence of sagas testifies to man's felt need to link himself to his past but also to his limited capability of doing so. They tell us more of man's psychology than of his history. Myth may similarly be distinguished from history, but the word has a highly diversified meaning depending on the author who employs it. For instance, myth is roughly synonymous with saga for Barth; it is theological for Bultmann, and both historical and theological for Brunner. Barth dismisses myth as stories of the gods, and he eliminates from this category such events as the resurrection and the creation. Bultmann attempts to retain the theological truth by the process of demythologizing, that is by locating the truth under its antiquated garb. Brunner accepts myth as the necessary manner in which a transcendent God reveals himself to man. There are still other variations in the use of the term, but these suffice to demonstrate the ambiguity involved. 156 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS In today's theological discussion, the category of myth seems to add more confusion than clarity. The point we need to keep in mind is that if God is to meet man, it must be where man isthat is, in the making of history. Those who choose to divorce theology from history effectively silence God and make any discussion of religion meaningless. Man needs history in order to recognize God ( vss. 1-5). While credulity leaps in the dark, faith is a response to that for which we have reason. The psalmist speaks of an event-the choice of Israel ( vs. 4), and implies a revelation-the knowledge of Yahweh (vs. 5). Here we have a succinct statement, an equation which can be read as event plus revelation equals history. Event without revelation would leave God unintelligible still. Revelation without event would have no point of contact with man. God must meet man in history. or else we have no knowledge that such an encounter has occurred. History is man's avenue not only to God but to knowing himself. Reality is necessarily threatened by man's subjectivity. "It is the objective nature of the historic life which offers the means of drawing modern man out of his increasing sterile subjectivism and back into an inhabitable, if grossly imperfect, world."1 The explication of man must begin with God, for man is in His image. It must therefore begin with history, for this is the human habitat. Reflection on history is worship as the psalmist views it. Praise Yahweh, praise His name, praise Him for who He is, praise Him whom you serve, let those who attend Him praise Yahweh, praise Him for His goodness, praise Him for His grace, praise Him for His calling, and praise Him for His greatness (vss. 1-5) ! Worship consists of three things: recalling the ideal believed to have ultimate worth, self-appraisal in the light of that ideal, and rededication to it. Expedient considerations have a way of confusing life's priorities. but history provides the needed perspective to differentiate between the trivial and the trenchant. The psalmist sees the Lord of history and can therefore understand his lot. There is the painful moment of introspection when he senses his failure, followed by the joyful sequel of obedience and blessing. 1 Page Smith, The Historian and History,p. 240. RETROSPECT 157 In addition to obedience, "the good or bad will of man manifests itself also in his attitude to God's guidance in history, either thankfully accepting the divine ordinances and praising God, or else resisting and grumbling. " 2 God was not pleased with those who complained in the wilderness, and their punishment remains a warning to all who read the record (I Cor. 10:6-11). In contrast, the proverbial sufferer Job could respond: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shill I return; Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away; blessed be the name of Yahweh'' (Job 1: 21). Praise is the taste of honey which sweetens the bitter experiences of life. Historical perspective endows praise with realism. The psalmist knows of God's greatness (vs. 5). "The subject is emphatic in the Hebrew. Whatever the heathens may believe, I can as an Israelite have definite knowledge of God's unique supremacy."3 History validates worship, and worship elucidates history. Worship of Yahweh is the meaningful prelude to historical reflection. GROUND OF HISTORY The psalmist sees the world as created and maintained by God (vss. 6-7). The universe is not eternal or quasi-divine, nor does man exist in the patrimony of the gods, subject to their whims and cunning. Rather, the condition of life consists of divine challenge and human response, a conviction derived from the creation, and sustained by confidence in God's providential activity. Yahweh is a universal and solicitous sovereign. The psalmist "maintains that not a drop of rain falls from heaven without a divine commission or dispensation to that effect."" The existence of evil does not preclude either God's rule or the richness of life as ordered for man's benefit. The sun shines for his warmth. The cool of the night is for his refreshment. The trees yield fruit to satisfy his hunger: St. Francis of Assisi was remarkably sensitive to such matters. "Be Thou praised, my Lord, with all Thy creatures," he rejoiced, "above all Brother Sun, who gives the day and Rudolph Bultmann, Hittory and Eschatology, p. 97. Abraham Cohen, op. cit., p. 441. Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms, V, 176. 2 3 158 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS lightens us therewith. Be Thou praised, my Lord, of our Sister Mother Earth, which sustains and hath us in rule, and produces divers fruits with coloured.flowers and herbs. " 5 Appreciation for the means by which divine care is expressed must not degenerate into nature worship. The distinction between God and the world is clearly defined in creation and perpetuated by His providence. To worship nature would be for man to bow before that which is less than he, and to rob himself of his responsible and creative role. An Arabic proverb says that a man who tu.ms out other than expected lightens but does not rain. No such contradiction exists between God's reputation and His performance (vs. 7). He is steadfast and dependable, and may be counted upon to terrify the evil and rejoice the heart of the righteous. Humanity lacks such forthright consistency; man's faithlessness stands in bold contrast to God's faithfulness The events of history adequately illustrate man's variance; revelation, however, is necessary to focus events in the light of God's purpose. Both together constitute the nature of the universe. The ground of history is the realization of God's gracious availability, the difference between Creator and creation, and between the resolution of God and the wavering expressions of mankind. Every moment is pregnant with opportunity, the point of encounter between God and man in time. NATURE OF HISTORY History is the account of man (vss. 8-12). As Boris Pasternak puts it: "Man does not die in a ditch like a dog; he lives in history."6 It is not only that which happens to man, but what results from his actions. "Man makes history by his responsible ( and irresponsible) acts, by how he uses his creative gifts. If he is to be explained solely by nature and biology, then history is unexplained or meaningless because nature, when the free decisions of responsible persons are excluded, is simply a process of change."' Vfhomas Okey, ed., The Little Flower of St. Francis, et. al., p. 295. Quoted in Smith, op. cit., p. 4. 7 Aaron Ungersma, The Search for Meaning, p. 86. RETROSPECT 159 A delicate balance must be maintained between fate and freedom, between that which determines the course of man's activity and the alteration of causes in line with personal and social goals. Otherwise, history and man become inscrutable. The very nature of the problem is such as to lead one toward an either/or decision, to determinism or existentialism, to fate or freedom. A third consideration is therefore desirable-an element which has been called facticity. By facticity is meant the sum total of determinants in any given situation. It includes not only those environmental factors external to man, but the physical and psychological makeup of the person. Facticity rescues freedom from fate, and fate from freedom. The point can be illustrated from the text of the psalm. The psalm has been described as a mosaic, a work constructed out of bits and pieces of other works. For instance, verse 1 is perhaps indebted to Psalm 1H : 1, verse 2 to Psalm 134: 1, verse 4 to Deuteronomy 7:6, verse 7 to Jeremiah 10: 13, verses 10-12 to Psalm 136:17-22, and the remainder of the psalm to Isaiah 44:12-20, Jeremiah 6: 10, and Psalm 115:4-11. Nonetheless, the psalm has a clearly liturgical setting which demonstrates that the author used his sources to produce a new work for the purpose of worship. The dependence exhibited in the text became the occasion for a creative production. F acticity also saves fate from freedom. "Praise and blame are as meaningless apart from continuity of character as they are meaningless apart from some kind of freedom." 8 Complete indeterminism would frustrate history and rectitude as quickly as would a thoroughgoing determinism. The psalmist identifies himself with the devout lineage of Israel, assuming the legacy of faith and continuity of perspective. History concerns man, but it is inevitably an interpretation of man's experience. Viewing the assassination of Julius Caesar apan from the institutional conflict which gave rise to it sheds little light on the incident itself. Any event or series of events may be interpreted within larger circumferences of meaning, as illustrated in the psalmist's equation: event plus revelation equals history. ' David Elton Trueblood, Philosophy of Religion, p. 283. 160 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS History is progressive. It is going somewhere, and the place it is going is not just anywhere. God's purpose with the world is in the process of being achieved. Man builds with God's purpose or he is broken by it. Augustine gave this view classical expression: "This race we have distributed into two parts, the one consisting of those who live according to man, the other of those who live according to God. And these we also mystically call the two cities, or the two communities of men, of which the one is predestined to reign eternally with God, and the other to suffer eternal punishment with the devil. " 9 This is not to suggest an undue optimism, as if God's purpose will be reached apart from His climactic assault on the kingdoms of this world; but neither should it rule out God's working in history. As Arnold Toynbee astutely observes: "While civilizations rise and fall and, in falling, give rise to others, some purposeful enterprise, higher than theirs, may all the time be making headway, and, in a divine plan, the learning that comes through the suffering caused by the failures of civilizations may be the sovereign means of progress." 10 In similar fashion the psalmist interprets the fall of those who oppressed Israel ( vss. 8-9) and resisted their march (vss. l 0-11), as well as the reception of the land as an inheritance ( vs. 12 ). History is progressive but not perpetual. It has a telos, a fulfillment, a date with divine destiny. Christ is the climax of history. He is the fullness of the divine revelation, the very nature of the Holy One taken flesh. In His life, death, and resurrection we have the most complete invesonent of event with revelation. This means that we can see history in its truest meaning through the advent of Christ. The consummation of history awaits the future, but that future will be with the same Jesus. DYNAMICS OF HISTORY History is about man as he is seen in the light of God's unchanging person and unvarying purpose (vss. 13-14). We must Aurelius Augustine, The City of God, II, p. 49. Arnold Toynbee, Civilization on Trial and The World and the Wert, p. 25, 10 RETROSPECT 161 now consider the dynamics of history, the means by which man learns to structure his experience in order to make use of the divine opportunity. Two illustrations will provide the neces.5ary guidelines. Augustine pondered the promise and provision of God which resulted in the deliverance from Egypt ( cf. vss. 8-9): "Moses, being stealthily kept from the murders of the infants, was brought to the royal house, God preparing to do great things by him... and became so great a man that he-yea, rather God, who had promised this to Abraham, by him-drew that nation, so wonderfully multiplied, out of the yoke of hardest and most grievous servimde." 11 While the deliverance itself was the prominent event to be recited to each succeeding generation (Exod. 12:26-27), Augustine was impressed by the relation of the incident to the fore going pledge of God, and by the fact that Yahweh was preparing a deliverer before the lords of Egypt had conspired to oppress the Hebrews. While events were breaking around God's people with terrifying suddenness, He had already provided the means of resolution. Josephus turned his attention to the service rendered by Moses as a true servant of God: "I would demonstrate that Moses did not fail in any one thing that he foretold them; and because it is for the good of mankind, and that they may learn this cautionnot to say anything that may displease God, lest he be provoked to wrath." 12 The expediency of Pharaoh is in contrast to the persisting wisdom of Moses in each circumstanc of life. The lessons are clear, but what is the dynamic at work? History first answers the question: "Who am I?" "Having been is also a kind of being-perhaps the surest kind.... Though past, these possibilities are now safely ensconced in the past for all eternity and time can no longer change them."13 The individual is too changeable, his society too uncertain, for one to ignore the assistance of history in drawing his experience into focus. History also o.ffers a key to answering the query: "What might 11 Augustine, The City of God, II, p. 162. uFlavius Josephus, "Antiquities of the Jews," The Works of Flaviu.s Josephus, Henry Stebbing, ed., pp. 81-2. uviktor Frankl, The Doctor and the Soul, p. 38. 162 PSY-OIOLOGY IN THE PSALMS I be?" "Knowing yourself means knowing what you can do, and since nobody knows what he can do until he tries, the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is." 14 The point is well taken. Man is his potential. From the past he may determine the heights to which he may climb, and the dismal depths to which he may sink. The varying fortunes of man ( vss. 8-12) are in sharp contrast to the persisting offer of God (vss. 13-14). History is the answer to the inquiry: "To whom can I tum for assistance?" The steadfastness of God is life's stability. More certain than the natural laws we take for granted is the moral law we try to ignore ( Gal. 6:7). History tells us of folly and faith. We need only recall the analogous situation of a child to his parents to sense the importance of having a supportive and consistent environment. As the child benefits from an encouraging and unaltering parental pattern, so man finds God's moral law a blessing. History ultimately speaks to the concern: "What ought I to do?" The precedents are not always easy to interpret and are still more difficult to apply. Offenses must come, but the righteous man is encouraged to know that, while judged for his wrong, God will not abandon him to destruction (vs. 14). History tells man of judgment tempered with grace. The past helps clarify for man his nature, prospect, salvation, and responsibility. He cannot escape from history. To ignore it is foolish, to succumb to it is tragic, but to use it as a guide to life is noble. History provides the dynamic dimension for creative living. SEARCH FOR HISTORY The psalmist resumes the theme of the false gods in verses 1518. They have mouths which do not speak, ears that cannot hear, and eyes that do not see. They create nothing but are created. The praise of man cannot breathe life into them, and his worship links him in their death. i.Robin Collingwood, The Idea of History, p. 10. RETROSPECT 163 It was a religious world to which the psahnist addressed himself. The gods were numerous, often acting as patrons to the nations, but always to be considered and placated. Epics were written to extol them-as for instance the Enuma Elish and the Babylonian favorite Marduk. History fared poorly in such a context; event was distorted by the precocious acts of the divinities. Man's initiative could hardly be distinguished from the skill he had developed to manipulate the deities. History requires man to be responsible; "it is incumbent upon him through his remembrance of the past to carve out a new path for himself. ''15 The death of the gods was an invitation to event and the history which depended upon it. Our age has rapidly depopulated the realm of the gods, threatening them with extinction, but history is still endangered. We recall the equation: event plus revelation equals history. Will Herberg warns us that "the definition of life in terms of the 'sacred history' of God's dealings with men... is the only alternative to the idolatrous 'totalization' of one or another of the partial histories which make up our lives.''10 To attempt to understand even apart from revelation is to interpret a dialogue as a monologue, an encounter as a personal reflection, and an end as a means. The forces of reduction threaten to obliterate history. Meaning becomes practically limited to empirical observation, and physical law is expressed in mathematical equation. History becomes sociology-man given over to the control of his conditions. Anthropology becomes biology-man demoted to being the child of geographic and economic conditions. The result is strikingly similar to antiquity's view of man-the challenge-response ideal is lost and man is again object rather than subject, the servant instead of the master of means. Modern man's death is as final as those who worship the lifeless gods of the ancients (vs. 18). POSTSCRIPT TO HISTORY The psalmist concludes his mosaic as he beg-an it-with praise (vss. 19-2i). The liturgical cycle is complete-Yahweh is exalted Karl Jaspers, Man in tbe Modern Age, p. 215. SCW"tll Herberg, "Biblical Faith as Heilsgeschichte," p. ~9. 16 164 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS as the Lord of history. He has blessed the houses of Israel, Aaron, and Levi; He hears those who fear Him, irrespective of lineage (vss. 19-20). Faith needs history: "Without proper appropriation of faith's heritage man suffers from a rootless religion. Faith must be finnly rooted."17 This fact was strikingly illustrated in the nineteenthcentury effort to distinguish between Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. Each writer produced his own scheme for getting behind the New Testament records, but it remained for Albert Schweitzer to demonstrate the extreme subjectivity reflected in these attempts, and their failure to present anything more than the preference of the author in reconstructing a Jesus-legend. 18 The failure was followed with a preoccupation with the Christ of faith. The Christ-idea replaced the historic figure. Some theologians stood against the trend, but their numbers were few and their voices generally not strong. The pendulum has swung again, and of necessity, for faith needs history. Joachim Jeremias summarizes the need: "We vzust continually return to the historical Jesus and his message. The sources demand it; the kerygma, which refers us back from itself, also demands it. To put it in theological terms, the Incarnation implies that the story of Jesus is not only a possible subject for historical research, stndy, and criticism, but demands all of these."19 Not only does faith need history, but history needs faith. The psalmist speaks less of history in general than in the particular of God's assured working with His people (vss. 19-21). Israel was a despised and oppressed people, but God had raised them up. They had no land, but Yahweh fulfilled His promise to give them a prosperous property. They lacked leadership but God raised it up. They had no future, but were given an inheritance in which all nations would be blessed. History was practically the selfauthentication of God to the community of faith. Faith without history is credulity, but history without faith is blind. The meaning of every event of critical significance is connNels F. S. Ferre, The Finality of Faith, p. 23. isAlbert Schweitzer, The Quest for the Historical Jesus. BJoachim Jeremias, The Problem of the Historical ]ems, pp. 14-15. RETROSPECT 165 troversial. Even the resurrection of Christ from the day of its occurrence was given an alternative explanation (Matt. 28: 12-15). Faith is not selective, choosing what it wishes to see, but responsive, accepting the divine challenge as it is revealed. So the call of Christ to Martin Luther meant that he must leave the monastery, and accept blame and persecution in order to serve his generation. History is testimonial. It deals with concrete events rather than ambiguous speculation. For Israel, "the Exodus from Egypt, which they were convinced was a sheer miracle of deliverance, was the central symbol. Far from having recourse to arguments such as the Greek thinkers encouraged, the Israelites would have considered such arguments abstract or even tiresome." 20 Similarly, the apostles bore witness to the resurrection and subsequent ministries of the Lord. History is both the record of God's faithfulness and the invitation to a similar rewarding experience. History is dynamic, involving the progressive movement toward a climactic conclusion; each step of the way is an opportunity for man to more fully realize his place in the divine purpose. It is dynamic because it allows man to entertain profitably the questions pertaining to his being, prospect, support, and responsibility. It is dynamic because it preserves the challengeresponse ideal, escaping from both the patrimony of the gods a1:1d the reductionism of the secular. History is alive due to God's presence, and to the degree to which man is aware of himself and his opportunity. There have always been signs of decay in civilization. The West seems to reflect many such indications along with some signs of resurgent strength. Christianity has long been identified with Western civilization, contributing much to it and benefiting not a little in return. What if the West succumbs to pressure from without and/or cancer from within? What is the future for Christian faith? Toynbee's answer is provocative: "If our secular Western civilization perishes, Christianity may be expected not only to endure but to grow in wisdom and stature as the result of a fresh experience of secular catastrophe." 21 He recalls how ivrrueblood, op. cit., p. 133. 21 Toynbee, op. cit., p. 209. 166 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS Christianity not only survived the collapse but became heir to the Roman Empire. No exacting parallel is possible or asked for. The point is that faith is not in the past, but in the God who was revealed there (vss. 19-21). The vessels which held something of God's blessing were not in themselves durable. Time has a way of exploiting human defection to its destructiveness, but God does not perish in the conflagration. History has fulfilled its task when it has brought man to face the present. Thus, the psalmist urges man to praise God, to lift holy hands and joyous voices to His acclaim. The past is prelude. The present is possibility, but the potential of the present is in the past. Without the past, man is defenseless against his enemies, certainly against the very nausea of dull routine itself. Man's need for the past is no less evident in the sagas of antiquity than in the reductionism of contemporary thought. The persisting clue to history is the interpretation of event in the light of God's revelation, the record of divine challenge and human response. When man has seen the potential of the present, the past has achieved its pedagogical purpose.