Psalm 75 PDF

Panorama To the clwir director. Not to be suppressed. A psalm of Asaph. A song. 1. We give thanks to you, God, we give thanks. Your name being near, we number Your wondrous deeds. 2. At a time I appoint will I judge with equity. 3. When the earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved, I will form it...

Panorama To the clwir director. Not to be suppressed. A psalm of Asaph. A song. 1. We give thanks to you, God, we give thanks. Your name being near, we number Your wondrous deeds. 2. At a time I appoint will I judge with equity. 3. When the earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved, I will form its pillars. Selah. 4. I said to the boastful: "Do not boast," and to the wicked: "Do not raise your horn." 5. "Do not raise your horn on high. Do not speak with an unbent neck; 6. ''For exaltation does not come from the east or the west or from the wilderness; 7. "Because God judges, putting down the one and raising the other; 8. "For in the hand of Yahweh is a cup with fermented wine fully mixed, and He will pour out of this, and all the wicked of the earth will drain it to the dregs." 9. But I will declare forever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. I 0. And all the horns of the wicked He will cut off, (and) the horns of the righteous will be exalted. PSALM 1ec:====::J1X1nc ==:x-..c:::=====:x- 182 75 PANORAMA 183 In the Christian life the accent is on the present. This is true whether the reference is to the past (/ Cor. 10:6), or to the future (II Peter 3:11). All that has been exists for the present; all that may be depends upon the present. It is appropriate that our concluding discussion focuses on that moment of opportunity between what has been and what will be. I-YOU Man suffers from monotony, a wearisomeness bordering on disgust. Sartre calls it nausea, a loathing to the point of sickne~. It is the sign of losing subjectivity, the incapability of structuring life in terms of personal goals. Tedium is the clue to subhumanity. It warns us of man's propensity to live out his life on the animal level of existence. Consequently, Jaspers can call anxiety a good thing: "Anxiety is to be approved. It is a reason for hope. " 1 Anxiety at least suggests an awareness of self as subject. Similarly, Sartre defends his existentialism as humanism: "We can begin by saying that existentialism, in our sense of the word, is a doctrine that does render human life possible, a doctrine also, which affirms that every truth and every action imply both an environment and a human subjectivity."2 The daily routine of life, especially when compounded by a technological society, tends to dehumanize. The machine readily becomes the model for m1n. A person tends to be identified by the service he renders rather than by being a unique person. He wears out, not from overuse, but from psychological friction over his distasteful role. Death is sometimes preferred to this sort of existence. There are other more subtle means of coping with the unpleasant, such as the use of drugs or an uncritical obedience to a cause. It takes courage to he, to accept not only the determinants of one's circumstance but the possibility of modifying the situation so as to allow still greater freedom. But this is what it means to be 1 Karl Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History, p. HO. Jean-Paul Sartre, "Existentialism is a Humanism," Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, Kaufman, ed., p. 288. 2 184 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS a person, a subject among other selves. This is what distinguishes the I-You relationship from an "it." The former are living and acting, while the latter is lifeless and acted upon. I-YOU-THOU To the situation and self the psalmist adds a critical third factor -God ( vs. I). Bonhoeffer observed that "responsibility is a total response of the whole man to the whole of reality. " 3 The whole man involves the person as subject-object, free as well as determined. The whole of reality includes the Almighty. (The atheist by definition has prostituted the nature of responsibility.) God is not only participant in but central to life. To exclude Him is not simply to restrict the content but to miss the crux of human existence. The presence and nearness of God is the foundation on which the psalm is raised (vs. 1). God is in the here and now, at the fulcrum of life rather than at its periphery. What is the significance of God's presence? It suggests that we may engage life. Men of faith accept "the present. When the new comes into the present they assess it and respond constructively to it, whether for use or dismissal. They suffer from no fixation but neither are they driven by fugitiveness." 4 Where fear obscures the alternatives and chokes off motivation, the presence of God grants man the permission to act. Man becomes the creative being God intends for one formed in His image. Life makes a demand to which the Christian can respond in the affirmative. Fear says "no," but faith "yes." Not only does God's presence provide man with an openness to life, but it gives him a purpose for being. Life is a gift to be lived to God's glory. Augustine warns: "Do not invoke, before thou confess; confess, and invoke. For Him whom thou art invoking, unto thyself thou callest."5 Man calls in vain to a God whose way he will not tolerate, but faith answers the question of life's meaning. It knows why. To permission and purpose must be added the power to live as I 'Bonhoeffer, Ethier, p. 258. 4 F erre, op. cit., p. 17. 1Aurelius Augustine, Expositionr on the Book of Psalms, p. 350. PANORAMA 185 guaranteed by God's presence. While man is urged to introspection, analysis can lead to paralysis. This is especially true in a situation void of the forgiveness and restoration of God-insight here is crippling. The believer knows a victory which has overcome the world (John 16:33; I John 5:4); his encouragement includes divine enablement. I-YOU-THOU-IT God is present in the course of life. He does not have to be searched out in a mystic fashion, but awaits man in the routine of life. As Bonhoeffer suggests: "God encounters us not only as a Thou, but also disguised as an it.... Faith demands this elasticity of behavior. Only so can we stand our ground in each situation as it comes along, and turn it to gain." 6 That is, life is situational, but the situation always depends on God's presence. We do not have to feel for Him as if unsure of His promise, but we may accept our responsibility with confidence. Our concern is not with whether He walks with us, but whether we walk with Him. A pointed break in the tenor of the psalm at verse 2 implies a happening of some consequence. The situation is a threat to the serenity expressed in verse 1 but an opportunity to rely upon the presence of the Almighty (vs. 6). Christianity is a troubled faith, living as it does in tension with life's departure from the ideal. There are always the injustices, irreverences, and tragedies of human existence. An easy faith would be no faith at all, for it would close its eyes to the real world. However, the absence of faith provides no good alternative, rejecting all meaning because of the problems encountered. The resolution is neither escape nor despair, but facing life with God in confidence. God speaks. The personal pronoun is emphatic ( vs. 2), as if to say that the Almighty is not upset by the threatening situation. The matters of place, time, and means are of divine prerogative. Man is tempted to make Deity follow a prescribed pattern of behavior, a calculated agenda to which He is obligated. The re"Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, p. 124. 186 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS sult is that one not only accepts this static concept of God but circumscribes himself in the same manner. The text helps us recapture the dynamic nature of existence (vss. 2-3). As Viktor Frankl reminds us, "Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual. These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment.' 11 Every situation is characterized by its uniqueness, and there is one course of action best for that occasion. Man is responsible to find and act according to his insight. Ethics, then, is situational, if we mean by this that decisions must at least in part re.fleet the unique character of the given circumstances. There are no pat answers, no godly gimmicks, no simple directions. Life is complex, and faith races out on life. The situation, however, must not be allowed to swallow up the subject. Joseph Fletcher explains his view: "Situation ethics puts people at the center of concern, not things. Obligation is to persons, not to things; to subjects, not objects. The legalise is a what asker (What does the law say?) ; the situationist is a who asker (Who is to be helped?) ns The situation exists for man, not man for the situation (Mark 2: 27). Fletcher is right in as far as he goes, but he stops critically short. In thinking to be extreme, he has failed to be sufficiently radical. He has reached for the human factor but neglected the divine. God is the center around which life orbits (vs. 1). Ethics is not only situational but humanistic, and not simply humanistic but theistic. While man may feel God's presence, His nature and acts are difficult to comprehend. The deliverance of Israel left behind the destruction of Egypt. The grand victory of Calvary reduced the disciples to confusion. Even the glorious event of the resurrection proved to be the cause of stumbling to the Greeks. God's acts must be interpreted by His words (vss. 2- 3). 'Fnnkl, Man's Search for Meaning, p. 77. 8 Joseph Fletcher, Situation Ethics, p. SO. PANORAMA 187 The divine wor~ makes the difference between discovering God as the disguised It and not discovering Him at all-the vital contrast between a world in which God is thoroughly engaged and one which has absorbed Him. Man not only finds God in the world but faces life with Him. He is at the same moment searching out and serving the Revealed One. Living with an articulate Deity is a peculiarly demanding experience. Truth is threatening. It promises to upset the status quo, to dissolve certain of those means by which satisfaction has been obtained and to thrust persons into untried situations. Christ, as truth embodied, was the most unsettling Person who ever lived. Men were drawn from their personal aspirations at His call. The crucifixion was the final testimony to the fact that He could not be ignored. The cross is still a scandal, a threat to man's insulation against God's will, and a call to those concerned with it. There cannot be rest while divine holiness struggles with the world of injustice, and divine mercy with man in need. God is concerned with the it, fot Christian living is a concrete exercise. This "is not solely a matter of moral character; it is also a matter of correct appreciation of real situations and of serious reflection upon them." 9 I knew a woman whose conversation was punctuated with references to God's faithfulness, but whose reputation was of doubtful character. While her experience may have had some validity, it failed to demonstrate genuineness to the degree that it remained abstract. The it is not the whole picture-only the condition where divine human encounter takes place. Satan's alternative is not falsehood but part truth. He torments man with guilt void of grace, with duty lacking direction. Balance is necessary. The Christian (I) can not pronounce the blessing of God (Thou) on the man in need (you), and fail to meet his physical need (it}. Man may entrust himself to the situation when it is understood in its totality. Christ accepted even the cross in the framework of llis Father's will. Truth which does not engage life becomes ambiguous, losing its pointedness; it becomes censorious, a weapon 'Bonhoeffer, Ethics, p. 364. 188 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS of injury, and/or curious, degenerating into idle discussion. The Christian does not send God's word, but takes it with him, and finds its application in the situation. He will learn, over and over again, what it means that "all things work together for good for those who love God'' (Rom. 8:28), as he lives life without isolation from God, man, or conditions. Sensitivity to the situation must be cultivated. There are words appropriate to the intimacy of the home, never meant to be shared in public. Who has not been embarrassed by a lack of propriety on the part of others and himself? Bonhoeffer imagines a child being questioned by his teacher and before the members of the class concerning the alleged drunkenness of his father. Such crudeness is repugnant. This is not to suggest that wrong will go unchallenged, but the time and manner are of crucial importance. Christ knew when to whip the money-changers, but He also comforted the socially ostracized. His disciples must learn His sense of judgment, and this is a product of living in the fullness of every siru.ation. Life, accordingly, is opportunity. Each moment must be judged on its own merits and liabilities (vss. 2-3). It will be considered in the light of relationship ( divine and human) and responsibility (personal and collective). Life draws upon the accumulated wisdom of experience and the revelation of God. His word is revolutionary, recasting life within the perspective of creative possibility. CONFORMED The tone of the psalm again shifts with verse 4, and man's presumption comes to the fore (vss. 4-8). Pride is inordinate selfesteem, not self-respect. The distinction is strikingly illustrated in Paul's boast: "But let me not boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 6: 14). At first glance, it seems that Paul meant to exclude appreciation of everything except Christ's sacrifice. The context proves differently. He enjoins men to render service worthy of esteem ( Gal. 6: 4), not limiting their commendation to the benefits of Christian fellowship (6:1-2). What, then, did Paul mean? The larger context provides an PANORAMA 189 answer. The epistle to the Galatians reflects the intense struggle with the Judaizers, which had turned the work among the Gentiles into utter confusion. Paul rejects the past advantage supposed by the circumcision, and the partisan spirit the Judaizers fostered. His boasting is rather in the unity in Christ, which breaks down the barrier between Jew and Greek, and maintains the fellowship without distinction. He does not disparage personal or interpersonal worth, but only the inordinate estimation of such. The nature of the problem will come into better focus as we follow the psalmist's reasoning in verses 4 to 8. Pride is deceptive. It assumes, as in this case, that the resolution of events is quite within human prerogative (vs. 6). A delusion of this magnitude is critical. The man who holds it exists in a dream world, shocked to awareness occasionally as he trips over the hard realities of life. He tries to reorder experience away from God and around himself, while the failure of life to conform to his specification continues to frustrate him. Pride is also dictatorial (vss. 6-7) "This is its most intolerable pose: for reasons that it does not feel called upon to give, it assumes the prerogatives of the judge and executes its arbitrary pseudo justice solely in terms of the whim that at the moment flatters its posture."10 Pride readily dons religious garb in order to sanction its demands upon another person. One can hardly imagine a more serious offense than oppressing man in the name of God. We may imply from the text that pride is dilatory, causing man to delay in accepting his God-given responsibilities. It wastes time in idle boasts, while overlooking the weightier matters of living. Man forgets that life is not for his entertainment, but a demand upon his service. Pride turns the world topsy-curvy, higgledy-piggledy. Man waits for the world to come to him instead of taking the necessary initiative. He errs, not in gratification over a job well done, but in greed for an honor not deserved. To the characterization of pride as deceptive, dictatorial, and dilatory must be added its destructiveness (vs. 8). The figure of God's cup of wrath is a familiar one, and suggests the impervious '°Edwin McNeill Poteat, The Interpreter's Bible, IV, p. 402. 190 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS nature of the moral inebriate and his incapacity caused by violating theonomous law. 11 In the certainty of destruction, the promise of the cup poured out on pride, "we again learn what estimate we ought to form of the providence of God-that we ought to regard it as exercising its control by an ever-present energy over every part of our life." 12 Only when we undertake to see the grim reality of God's wrath hanging over man can we begin to appreciate grace and forgiveness. Paul T ournier tells of a patient who warned him at her first consultation that she was uninterested in and would not entertain religious matters. Time passed. She was curious as to her inhibitions: "I wonder if it isn't pride which paralyses me like this." Tournier observed: "Everybody is proud.... I am as proud as you are." The patient was taken back by the admission. "You are not proud." Tournier demurred. She expressed alarm: "What you say is frightful! If everybody is proud whatever he does, then there is n? solution." The doctor replied: "Yes, there is a solution, one only, but I cannot tell you of it, as it is a religious one, and you have asked me not to talk to you about religion." The patient now pressed for his answer, and Tournier summarized: "The solution is that I am a proud man who has been forgiven. " 13 Each warning of judgment implies the call to repentance and the promise of forgiveness. The admonition is intended to bring man to his senses, rather than confirm him in his fault. Justice does not preclude but requires grace. The present is man's opportunity for salvation (II Cor. 6: 2), since God is present and His promises sure. However, man must respond to God with consideration of his propensity to pride, or he will manipulate even the service of God to his own ends and become the religious hypocrite. Better things than this are expected, the psalmist says. TRANSFORMED The remammg verses ( vss. 9-10) stand in sharp contrast to man's presumption. The freedom which man asserts to gain his 11 Psalrns 11:6, 60:3; Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15; Revelation 14:10, 16:19, 18:6. "Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms, III, p. 191. 1 3Tournier, op. cit., p. 211. PANORAMA 191 autonomy proves suicidal, while the servitude of God brings freedom indeed. The distinction holds exciting possibilities. When Jean Paul Sartre defines man as being-having-freedomwithin-the-limits-of-a-situation, he adds: "Authenticity, it is almost needless to say, consists in having a true and lucid consciousness of the situation, in assuming the responsibilities and risks that it involves, in accepting it in pride or humiliation, sometimes in horror and hate. " 14 In other words, the present consists of freedom, awareness of the limits set by the situation, and acceptance of the attendant responsibilities. These ideas may be translated into Christian usage. Freedom is the ability to modify determinants in connection with personal ideals and goals. The Christian's ideals aspire to those of his Lord (Phil. 1: 21) and his goals reflect his calling in Christ (Phil. 3: 14). He is of all men most free to be himself, to repudiate the carbon copy, and to live the dynamic life of fellowship with the Savior. There is also a stoic quality to Christianity, a willingness to accept life as one finds it by the grace of God. Yet, this is not meant to suggest complacency. A dynamic optimism allows the Christian faith to sweep beyond stark defiance of conditions: "What is impossible under one set of conditions becomes possible under another; and Christianity undenakes to supply the conditions, to generate the spiritual dynamism required to render its injunctions practicable."15 Progress seldom comes quickly, and never without cost. One plants, another waters, but there is ever the confidence that God will supply the increase (I Cor. 3; 6-7). The accent in responsibility for the Christian is on response. His life is a relationship. While obedient to God's precepts and faithful to his Lord, the term which best describes his experience is love (agape). It is the path to true freedom. Love is attraction. It cannot desist from talking of the Loved One and honoring Him (vs. 9). Yet care must be taken in the way that ardent affection is applied as a test for spirituality: ''Some people are 'cold' by temperament; that may be a misfor14 Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew, p. 90. 1,&Bowman, op. cit., p. 14. 192 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS tune for them, but it is no more a sin than having a bad digestion is a sin; and it does not cut them out from the chance, or excuse them from the duty, of learning charity." 16 Persons differ temperamentally. Neither bursting into ecstasy at the slightest provocation nor keeping a cool head gives one reason to boast over his associates. The expression of love is as diversified as the persons who experience its wonder. Christian love is action. Agape is seeking love; it does not wait for encouragement nor withdraw in offense. It is sacrificing love, voluntarily offering and faithfully fulfilling the requirement for reconciliation. There is no disparity between promise and performance. If the Church must call attention to its love, it has ceased to love as it should. True love puts works where its words are. Love is acquisition. It is the efficient means of claiming the present for Christ (I Cor. 13). Paul's elaboration of love comes in the middle of a discussion of spiritual endowments. The Corinthian church prided itself on its gifts, and each member coveted the most ostentatious. Paul sought to correct the situation by pointing out that gifts are provided as God wills for the building up of the Church. He urged the Corinthians to seek the more edifying gifts, though not to the exclusion of others. He then outlined the far better way of love. Paul pushed his argument, step by step: "Suppose I have the greatest breadth of articulation; without love my words would be empty. Suppose I have comprehension, extending into the hidden things and expanding to the breadth of knowledge, coupled with wonder-working faith and capable of expressing it; without love I am a cipher." Paul appears to be moving from the more to less obvious occasions for unloving zeal: "Suppose I were a faithful steward of all I possess, and even surrendered my own body to torture-since my purposes are wrong, without love it helps me not in the least." The orator may become enamored by his oratory, the student by. his knowledge, and the steward by his good deeds. Without love the oratory is meaningless, the knowledge nil, and the deeds unnoted. 14 Lewis, Mere Cbristianity, p. 101. PANORAMA 193 Paul goes on to describe love (in the words of the Williams' translation) : Love is so patient and so kind; Love never boils with jealousy; It never boasts, is never puffed with pride; It does not act with rudeness, or insist upon its rights; It never gets provoked, it never harbors evil thoughts; Is never glad when wrong is done, But always glad when truth prevails; It bears up under anything, It exercises faith in everything, It keeps up hope in everything, It gives us power to endure in anything. "Love is this... not that, this... not that." The pedagogy is elementary, perhaps dramatizing the childishness of the Corinthian believers. Love is patient-persisting through testing and slow in avenging wrong done; kind-cooperating with others. It rejoices with truth-celebrating the triumph of right; it bears upholding up under all burdens; believes-thinking constructively; hopes-anticipating success; endures-refusing to flee under fire. Conversely, love is not jealous-becoming envious or contentious; does not boast-lauding itself; is not proud-swelling with conceit -or rude-causing others to be embarrassed at the unmannerly behavior; does not seek its own-forgetting others in the cause of self-aggrandizement; does not get provoked-being irritated to anger; does not think evil-dwelling on that which is unwholesome; is not glad over wrong-sympathizing with the wrongdoing of associates. Paul brings out the specific-universal nature of love: love "bears up under anything," "exercises faith in everything," "keeps up hope in everything," and "gives us power to endure in mything." Paul Ramsey observes: "Love for men in general often means merely... a selfish sociability, while love for neighbor for his own sake insists Upon a single-minded orientation of a man's primary intention toward this individual neighbor with all his concrete needs." 11 Love requires a clearly defined object. A diffused Paul Ramsey, Basic Christian Ethics, p. 95. 17 194 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS sentimentality, on the other hand, may rationalize the lack of love or even excuse itself from having true love. The individual is himself an object of his love. Erich Fromm points this out: "Not only others, but we ourselves are the object of our feelings and attitudes; the attitudes toward others and toward ourselves, far from being contradictory, are basically conjunctive."18 Selfishness is detrimental to oneself as well as others, while self-love sets the tone for a general respect and understanding. Love implies totality as well as specificity: "Love always involves persons with each other in the totality of their being; to be concerned with another for less than his whole self is to have something less than true love for hirn."19 We may like or dislike certain personality traits, but we either love or hate persons. Paul continues his description of love: Love never fails; If there are prophesies, they will be set aside; If now exist ecstatic speakings, they will cease; If there is knowledge, it will soon be set aside; And so these three, faith, hope, and love endure, But the greatest of them is love. (I Cor. 13:8, 13, Williams) His climax is that ''love never fails." Having affirmed that love remains stalwart, Paul returns to the subject of spiritual gifts. The triplet of faith, hope, and love surpass spiritual gifts because of their durability. "Out of these" love is greatest. Charles Hodge interprets the superiority: "Throughout that chapter the ground of preference of one gift to others is made to consist in its superior usefulness. This is Paul's standard: and judged by this rule, love is greater than either faith · or hope. Faith saves ourselves, but love benefits others. " 20 'Erich Fromm, Man for Himself, p. 129. Arthur Vogel, The Christian. Person, p. 83. :aoCharles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 276. 1 PANORAMA 195 Love resists our most arduous efforts to capture it in verbal symbols. Lacking love, Sartre vividly describes other people as hell-a restriction of life. With love we find liberation of spirit It is this contrast that the psalmist draws in the concluding verse of his psalm as he describes the legacies of the wicked and the righteous (vs. 10). CONCLUSION "Our enduring task in philosophical endeavor is to become authentic men. " 21 Man's concern is not with theoretical knowledge, unless the experience of living hinges upon it, but with living, and life is a condition of the present. Christ invests the present with meaning and opportb.nity. While the slave of sin perishes, the servant of Christ abides (John 8: 3536). The contrast between the sinner (vss. 4-8) and the exultation of the believing (vss. 9-10) are similarly observed by the psalmist. Every moment is qualified by the situation, the self, and the Savior. The Christian can accept himself because God has received him, his lot because God has called him to it, and his future because it is in the keeping of the Almighty. His responsibility makes him painfully sensitive to the situation, but his relationship keeps him joyfully aware of God's presence. The present has continuity with the past, purpose for the future, and meaning for eternity. So the Scripture reads: "Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart" (Psa. 95: 7b, Sa). nKarl Jaspers, The Perennial Scope of Philosophy, p. 159. Bibliography Allport, Gordon W. "The Open System in Personality Theory," Theories of Personality, Lindzey and Hall, eds., 231-239. Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica. Three Volumes. New York: Benzeger Brothers, 1948. Augustine, Aurelius. The City of God. Two Volumes. New York: Hafner Publishing Company, 1948. - - · Enchiridion. 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