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Psalm 110 A Psalm of Enthronement

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Stained Glass window at the Melkite Catholic Annunciation Cathedral in Roslindale, MA depicting Christ the King with the regalia of a Byzantine Emperor

Psalm 110

Of David. A Psalm.
1The LORD says to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”
2The LORD sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes.
3Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you.
4The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
5The LORD is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter heads over the wide earth.
7He will drink from the stream by the path; therefore he will lift up his head.

Psalm 110 is repeatedly referenced in the New Testament[1] as a way of demonstrating that Jesus is the Messiah and that as the Messiah, he is more important even than David. Yet this psalm so important to early Christians is heard differently by Jewish readers. Within these reflections I’ve tried to hold both Christian and Jewish voices in conversation, and I think that both can help us gain a fuller picture of the scriptures that we share. This enthronement psalm shares similar themes to Psalm 2. Both psalms view this newly anointed lord as the chosen vessel of the LORD the God of Israel. The king may be seated at the right hand[2]

As an enthronement psalm for a Davidic king, these words would likely come from a court prophet or singer to be spoken as God’s words over the new king. The prophet or singer refers to the new king as ‘my lord’ because they serve that king. The capitalization of the letters in the other occurrences of LORD in this psalm indicate that it refers to the divine name, YHWH, and the vowels are pointed around the letters to indicate to the speaker to say ‘Lord’ (or Adonai in Hebrew) instead of the divine name. YHWH speaks through the prophet to the new king and invites the king into this position of honor and promises to fight on the new king’s behalf. Verse three is full of textual difficulties, as Nancy deClaissé- Walford states, the

words appear to be an elevated description of the newly enthroned monarch, obeyed willingly by the people and endowed with strength and stamina—the dew of your childhood—which emanate from the splendor of holiness.” (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 836)

Although there were both royal and priestly roles in the world of the Davidic kings, the kings of Israel did have priestly functions. Now the king is linked to the ancient figure of Melchizedek who comes from Salem, and who is also a king, and blesses Abraham by God Most High. This King of Salem becomes the priestly model for the King of Jerusalem, likely built on the same spot generations later. This installation of the new king in both a royal and priestly role integrates this new leader into their privileged place in God’s ordering of the world. (Mays, 1994, p. 352)

The ancient world was a violent place, and the Davidic kings were expected to lead the nation to both safety and military victory. Yet, Israel was never to be a military power,[3] and their strength resided in the God who executes judgment among the nations. The language of ‘filling the nations with corpses’ and ‘shattering heads over the wide earth’ continues the elevated description of the power behind the new monarch and the power behind the throne that ultimately controls the fate of the nations. The LORD, the God of Israel, will provide the stream beyond the path of the new king allowing this king to lift up his head in honor and strength.

Christian readers will hear this psalm through the lens of Christ, and ‘sitting at the right hand of the Father’ becomes a way that the church will talk about the honored and powerful position of Jesus for the church and the world. Jesus takes on the role of king for Christians and this led to the persecution of many early followers of Jesus who refused to pay honor to the divinity of Caesar. The book of Hebrews also highlights the way Jesus fulfils the role of the priesthood for Christians.[4] In liturgical churches the final Sunday of the church year is Christ the King Sunday which celebrates the way Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of God, but instead of being a conquering king he was a crucified messiah. Revelation 19: 11-16 is the closest the New Testament gets to the militaristic language of verse five and six of this psalm. The quotation of this psalm by Jesus in his conflicts with the Pharisees in Matthew 22:44 and parallels probably was not viewed as a convincing argument by his opponents and most Jewish leaders, if they utilize this psalm today, would be waiting for a return of a Davidic ruler who can rule from the power of the LORD the God of Israel and bring the nation back to a place of security. As large of a role as this psalm plays in the New Testament, I don’t believe that it plays a similar role in the thought of contemporary Judaism.

[1] Matthew 22:44; Mark 14:62; 16:19; Luke 22:69; Acts 2:34-35; 7:55; Romans 8:34; Ephesians1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3,13; 8:1; 10:12; 1 Peter 3:22

[2] Being seated at the right hand is a position of honor and power. It is interesting that in Psalm 109 the psalmists asks for an accuser to take this position for the wicked person. The name Benjamin comes from a conjunction of the Hebrew word for son (bin) and right hand (yamin).  

[3] Deuteronomy 17: 14-20 which sets the limits on a king for Israel indicates that the focus is not to be on building a stronger military but instead on a ruler being faithful to the LORD and the covenant.

[4] Particularly Hebrews chapters 5 and 7.

Psalm 109 A Prayer For God’s Vengeance

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From Susan Harris Anger and art// A Rage to Paint https://www.susanharrisart.com/blog

Psalm 109

To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
1Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6They say, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
13May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
14May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the LORD, and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15Let them be before the LORD continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.
18He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.
19May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day.”
20May that be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, of those who speak evil against my life.
21But you, O LORD my LORD, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
23I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
24My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.
25I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
27Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD, have done it.
28Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
29May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.
30With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.

This process of reflecting on scripture, particularly the parts of scripture that the church rarely utilizes, has opened my eyes to a far more dynamic and honest relationship between God and God’s people. Sometimes that dynamic and honest relationship is uncomfortable for people who grew up, like me, in churches where prayer was always a calm and measured practice. Psalm 109 rarely will find its way into a church bulletin or a sermon, but this psalm of imprecation that prays for harm to come to a wicked person provides a fertile place for discussion of the relationship between ourselves, others who have wronged us, and God. Anger and the desire for vengeance are powerful emotions, and too often we as people of faith have refused to give voice to these human feelings. Yet, these feelings will find their way into our lives and into the culture around us.

In a situation where the relationships that shape our society are shattered the faithful ones cry out to God. They name the brokenness that they encounter. They name those who have wronged them. But the brokenness of the world and the person who has brought about the suffering are placed into God’s hands. The person lifting up this cry to God has no ability to determine what God will do with the prayer and the ‘wicked one.’ Here, instead of suppressing the reality of suffering and pain or taking vengeance into their own hands, the faithful one cries out in desperation to God to act on their behalf.

Ellen Davis’s chapter on the cursing psalms in Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament (Davis, 2001, pp. 23-29) has shaped a lot of my thinking about the imprecatory (or cursing) psalms in general and this psalm in particular. The language of the bible shapes should shape our practices of faith, and the psalms and the prophets can give us language to articulate our honest feelings in our conversations with God. These may not be the more attractive offerings of thanksgiving or praise, but these words and feelings we also commit to God’s steadfast love. Ellen Davis shared the advice she received from a professor to take the imprecatory psalms into the chapel at a time when it was unoccupied and pray them at full voice. The experience helped her to move beyond her hurt and begin the needed journey to forgiveness. She remarks afterwards,

For the cursing psalms confront us with one of our most persistent idolatries, to which neither Israel nor the church has ever been immune: the belief that God has as little use for our enemies as we do, the desire to reduce God to an extension of our own embattled and wounded egos. (Davis, 2001, p. 26)

God cares for both the faithful and the wicked. Yet, that does not mean that the crimes of the wicked are not noticed by God. Psalm 109 anticipates a God who both hears this petition and acts upon it. The wicked and deceitful seem to have no problem using their words to shatter or their lies to cause harm to both the individual and the community. There are times when the innocent are surrounded by words of hate or attacked without justification. There are situations where love is repaid with hate and good with evil. As I was working through this psalm, I was reading Elie Wiesel’s Night where he shares his experience of being a young Jewish boy whose hope and faith were broken in Auschwitz in 1944 and Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping which continues the fictional Hunger Games series where children are put into a fatal game for the entertainment of the powerful. Both the historical and the fictional may be extreme examples of a world where wickedness has triumphed over kindness, but the origin story of the people of Israel is the story of a God who rescued them from oppression and slavery. It is a story of a God who heard their cries and acted for their rescue from that a world without steadfast love.

One of the keys to hearing this psalm occurs in verse six. Most English translations being the verse with “They say” which places the most extreme portions of the psalm in the mouths of the adversary. Yet, there is no textual support in Hebrew for the words “they say.” (Bellinger, 2014, p. 473) Even if these words are put into the mouth of the adversary, the psalmist still wishes for these words that the adversary pulls around themselves like a cloak may become the garment they wear every day and soak into their body like water or oil all the way to the bones. Whether you read these words as being spoken by or toward the adversary, this brokenhearted prayer ascends to God bearing the hurt and brokenness of the psalmist’s world asking for God to intervene on the psalmist’s behalf and answer the psalmist’s pain.

The Hebrew word hesed, often translated steadfast love when coming from God or kindness (as in verse 12 and 16) when coming from other people, is a key idea throughout the Old Testament. Hesed is tied to the covenant between God and God’s people, as well as the covenant between the people of God. Central to the accusation of this individual is their failure to show hesed.

For he did not remember to show kindness (hesed), but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death. Verse 16.

Hesed is the glue that holds the Hebrew society together. It is both the proper relationship between God and God’s people but also the proper relationship among the people. When hesed is not present, the poor, needy, and brokenhearted die. The implications of a person living in disregard for the standards of society may be fatal. This could apply to a nobleman in Jerusalem who takes advantage of the vulnerable or a businessperson or politician who uses their influence in a way that impacts the physical and emotional health of others. The bible’s way of thinking assumes a common obligation between humanity and creation to care for one another. I once heard Rolf Jacobson remark that the Ten Commandments and the law in general were about, “my neighbor’s best life.”

The words directed at the wicked adversary are sharp. That a wicked person would be appointed against him, someone to accuse him on his right hand, when he is tried to be found guilty (Hebrew wicked), and that his prayers would be sin (either missing the mark or something refused by God). That his life would be short and another would claim his position, that even his wife and children would bear the repercussions of his fall. The adversary created a world without hesed (kindness) for the psalmist and now may the world fail to show him hesed. That the sins of his ancestors would be remembered and yet his memory fade. In Hebrew I don’t think there could be a stronger curse than to encounter a world devoid of hesed.

 One verse of this psalm has entered the political dynamics of the United States. I first encountered a bumper sticker with Psalm 109:8, “May his days be few, may another seize his position” referring to Barak Obama. The psalm is used to appear to be prayerful and cursing at the same time. Psalm 109:8 may have been utilized before Barak Obama, but I have seen it used to piously point to Donald Trump and Joe Biden since. It is unlikely that most people who have worn this psalm proudly on a shirt, button, or on their car read the entirety of the psalm, but unfortunately in the polarized and angry political climate the vengeful desires against not only those in power but their entire family would probably be embraced by many. Verse eight is also the only verse of this psalm that appears in the New Testament, in Acts 1:20, when Peter makes the case for replacing Judas. Yet, the use in the New Testament bears no desire for vengeance on Judas, merely understands the psalm as authorizing the search for a new disciple to fill the twelfth position after Judas’s death.

How do we use this rarely utilized psalm. My first reflection comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his The Prayerbook of the Bible:

So the psalm of vengeance leads to the cross of Jesus and to the love of God that forgives enemies. I cannot forgive the enemies of God by myself, only the crucified Christ can; and I can forgive through him. So the carrying out of vengeance becomes grace for all in Jesus Christ. (DBWE 5:175)

Bonhoeffer takes the traditional Lutheran law-gospel hermeneutic where the psalm of vengeance (as law) pushes us to the love of God in Christ (gospel). As Ellen Davis mentioned earlier our inability to see anything redeemable in our enemies does not preclude God from acting in mercy and grace towards them. But Ellen Davis also has a wise if uncomfortable way of utilizing these psalms of cursing:

If you have the courage (and it will take some), try turning the psalm a full 180 degrees, until it is directed at yourself, and ask: Is there anyone in the community of God’s people who might want to say this to God about me—or maybe, about us? (Davis, 2001, p. 28)

We may not feel oppressed. We may not have anything we need to forgive in another, but perhaps there is someone who we have wronged. Whose futures have we, intentionally or unintentionally, harmed? Whose wives and children have learned to curse our names as individuals or as a group? Whose reputations have we destroyed? In her own way she encourages this use of the psalm as law which highlights the places where we also have not shown hesed.

Yet even a psalm of cursing ends with thanks to the God who defends the needy and saves from those who would condemn. Ultimately hesed, so important to this psalm and the Old Testament in general, is one of the defining characteristics of God. God is both the model of what hesed looks like, but also the one who intervenes when hesed is not found. This psalm has demonstrated all the differences between the world of oppression the psalmist lives in and the world God intends for God’s people. It resonates with the Lord’s prayer which calls out to God for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Psalm 103 A Meditation on the Steadfast Love of God

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A Frosty Morning By USFWS Mountain-Prairie – A Frosty Morning, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=110781726

Psalm 103

Of David.
 1Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
 2Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits —
 3who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
 4who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
 5who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
 6The LORD works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.
 7He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
 8The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
 9He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever.
 10He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
 11For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
 12as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.
 13As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him.
 14For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.
 15As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field;
 16for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
 17But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children,
 18to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.
 19The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
 20Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word.
 21Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will.
 22Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul.

This poem of blessing and praise attempts to capture the fulness of God’s steadfast love and compassion from the experience of the individual, the community of the faithful, and all of creation. This psalm is not an acrostic[1] but like an acrostic poem it is twenty-two lines long and it is likely that the author is using form to denote a whole or complete treatment of the steadfast love and compassion of God. In twenty-two lines the poet covers a remarkable breath of issues. Rolf A. Jacobson can state,

Psalm 103 is a wide-reaching hymn of praise that reaches out and touches most of the great theological issues of life and faith—sin and forgiveness, sickness and health, oppression and vindication, God’s election of Israel and the gift of the law, God’s transcendence and God’s mercy, human mortality and divine immortality, and the reign of God. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 759)

This psalmist joins its voice with the hosts of heaven and the works of God’s creation in lifting their humble blessing on the God of steadfast love and compassion.

This is a psalm where a little knowledge of Hebrew can bring a lot of richness to one’s reading because translations restrict the meaning of some key Hebrew ideas. “Bless,” Hebrew barak, originally meant to bow in homage to one’s king or lord and it does not have the connotation of providing a gift or benefit that the English bless/blessing has. This poem or praise or worship is framed by “bless” and the imperative to “bless” begins with the psalmist and then extends to the heavens and earth joined by the psalmist’s “soul.” “Soul” in Hebrew thought, Hebrew nephesh, is not the Greek idea of a soul which is different from the body but instead is the essence of life and the totality of oneself. It is not only the spiritual Greek “soul” which is to praise God but the center of one’s life and everything else that is a part of the psalmist joined in the action of praising God’s name.

Martin Luther’s contemporary Philip Melanchthon once stated memorably in his Loci Communes, “that to know Christ is to know his benefits.” (Melanchthon, 2014, p. 24) Now this psalm attributed to David[2] reflects on several of the primary characteristics of God and their benefits for the psalmist and all of creation. The thirteen attributes articulated in Exodus 34: 6-7 provide the language for much of reflection on God’s characteristics throughout the scriptures. In the aftermath of the golden calf, God has chosen not to destroy the people of Israel and declares to Moses:

The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed,

“The LORD, the LORD,

a God merciful and gracious,

slow to anger,

and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

7 keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,

 forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,

yet by no means clearing the guilty,

but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children

and the children’s children,

to the third and the fourth generation.”

The psalmist begins with the LORD’s action of forgiving iniquity which is linked to the healing of diseases. The word for diseases can refer to illness, weakness, or pains that come from hunger, famine, disease, or old age (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 763) and the cause of  ‘disease’ is often a punishment for iniquity in Hebrew thought.[3] Yet, it is the forgiveness of the LORD which brings about the rescue from death for this poet. The rescue from the Pit may be a time when their life was at death’s door or it may be a metaphor for God’s rescue from a time of urgency, but regardless the psalmist has benefited from the forgiving nature of the LORD for the LORD’s servant and the poet understands the benefits they have received from their God.

Instead of crowning the psalmist with gold or silver they are crowned with steadfast love and mercy. Steadfast love and mercy are traits associated with God and God has reached into the divine character to place these traits upon the servant of the LORD. Steadfast love, Hebrew hesed, is the central feature attributed to God and hesed is the root of the New Testament concept of the grace of God. Hesed is a relational love and within this psalm God’s hesed is for those who fear him. Hebrew thought is covenantal in nature and the steadfast love of God is tied to the fear, honor, and respect of God’s people. Transgressions can be removed but the mercy of God is only known in relationship with the LORD. Frequently in the psalms hesed is paired with faithfulness, but in this psalm and other psalms relating to human sin and divine anger resolved by faithfulness it may instead be paired with compassion/mercy. [4](Mays, 1994, p. 328) The psalmist trusts that God’s hesed and mercy/compassion will prevail over any anger at the transgressions of either the psalmist or the people.

The dimensions of the “steadfast love”/hesed of God and the forgiveness of God are measured by the vastness of the heavens. The vertical distance between the heavens and the earth are used metaphorically to speak of the unmeasurable hesed of God. Yet, although English translations obscure this, the length of the heavens is used to envision God’s forgiveness of transgressions. The Hebrew behind “as far as the east is from the west,” is literally rendered as distant as the sunrise (rising) is from the sunset (setting). The compassion/mercy of the LORD is compared to the compassion of a father for their child. God’s steadfast love and forgiveness are as vast as can be comprehended and yet God’s compassion is as tender and intimate as what one hopes to experience within the family.

The immeasurability of the steadfast love of God and the forgiveness of God is contrasted by the impermanence of God’s human servants. The psalm picks up the play on words of Genesis 3:18 “you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”[5] The impermanence of humanity is poetically rendered by the metaphors of dust and grass, flowers and wind. In contrast to the impermanence of humanity is the permanence of the hesed of God which lasts from everlasting to everlasting to those who live in faithfulness to the covenant and obedience to the commandments. The steadfast love of God in Hebrew is a relational concept and the gracious, eternal, and forgiving love of God is tied to the fear, respect, obedience, and faithfulness of the servant.

The psalm ends where it begins, in ‘blessing’ the LORD. The blessings begin with the angels and the hosts and ministers of the LORD and then extends to all the works of God’s hands (the creation of God) and finally resides in the voice of this poet praising God in harmony with all creation. The psalmist has seen the way God has crowned their life with the attributes of God, and they have come to celebrate the benefits of living in a relational covenant of steadfast love and compassion/mercy with their God. Martin Luther would later echo the sentiment of the psalmist in reflecting on God’s act of creation when he stated, “For all this I owe it to God to thank and praise, serve and obey him. This is most certainly true.” (Luther, 1978, p. 25) Like the psalmist we can reflect upon the benefits of this life lived in blessing and praise of God, we can marvel at the immeasurable depth of God’s steadfast love and forgiveness, and we can strive to live in faithful obedience to the God whose love and compassion shape our lives.

[1] In an acrostic poem each line begins with a successive letter in the alphabet. In Hebrew there are twenty-two letters and a multiple of twenty-two is often a clue that a psalm or other Hebrew poetry is acrostic. Acrostic poetry tends to denote dealing with a topic in a complete manner.

[2] Some scholars attribute this psalm to a post-monarchical period and point to the reference to Moses instead of a king as evidence of this reaching back to a pre-Davidic period for a foundation for their faith. Although this historical reconstruction is possible, it is also possible that a psalm written by David, particularly before he is king, would refer back to the last common leader of the people of Israel and the creator of the law.

[3] Although this is not absolute. Within Deuteronomic thought suffering and illness is linked to iniquity, but there are significant counter voices like Job which challenge this linkage.

[4] Psalm 51:1; 77: 7-10.

[5] The name Adam in Genesis 3 is taken from the Hebrew word for soil/ground adamah. In both the psalm and Genesis 3 the word for dust is aphar, but even though the Hebrew utilizes two words in the wordplay the connection between the two words is clear in Genesis 3.

Psalm 102 The Song of One Suffering in Solitude

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Job (oil on canvas) by Bonnat, Leon Joseph Florentin (1833-1922)

Psalm 102

A prayer of one afflicted, when faint and pleading before the LORD.
 1Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you.
 2Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call.
 3For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.
 4My heart is stricken and withered like grass; I am too wasted to eat my bread.
 5Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my skin.
 6I am like an owl of the wilderness, like a little owl of the waste places.
 7I lie awake; I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.
 8All day long my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse.
 9For I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink,
 10because of your indignation and anger; for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside.
 11My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
 12But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; your name endures to all generations.
 13You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to favor it; the appointed time has come.
 14For your servants hold its stones dear, and have pity on its dust.
 15The nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth your glory.
 16For the LORD will build up Zion; he will appear in his glory.
 17He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their prayer.
 18Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet unborn may praise the LORD:
 19that he looked down from his holy height, from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,
 20to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die;
 21so that the name of the LORD may be declared in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem,
 22when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.
 23He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days.
 24“O my God,” I say, “do not take me away at the midpoint of my life, you whose years endure throughout all generations.”
 25Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
 26They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You change them like clothing, and they pass away;
 27but you are the same, and your years have no end.

 28The children of your servants shall live secure; their offspring shall be established in your presence.

Psalm 102 is described in its superscription as a prayer of one afflicted, when faint and pleading before the LORD. This type of description is unusual among the psalms. It doesn’t indicate an author to attribute the psalm to, nor does it give instructions for its performance or a reference to a scriptural story that the psalm comes from. This psalm of a suffering one who is alienated from their body, from society, and ultimately from God may have been intended as a psalm that any suffering individual could recite at times where their situation seemed hopeless, and God’s help seemed far away. Imagery of impermanence, loneliness, pain, and shame permeate the complaint of the psalm, but like many psalms of complaint there is a turn towards hope. The psalmist intuits that the answer, “to human finitude and mortality is divine infinitude and immortality.” (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 754)

The opening language of the psalm resonates with appeals throughout the psalter as Rolf A. Jacobson notes:

The opening appeal to be heard employs language quite typical of these entreaties—hear my prayer, let my cry come unto you (39:12), do not hide your face (27:9; 143:7), turn your ear towards me (31:2; 71:2), make haste to answer me (69:17; 143:7) (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 751)

Although Rolf Jacobson attributes this to intentionally creating a generic composition for use in the community, the use of familiar language may also reflect a person shaped in the communal worship which utilizes these psalms. The language of prayer and faith is shaped in the worshipping community which shaped the psalmist’s faith and life. Yet, now in a time when the author is alienated from their own physical body, from the community, and from God, they turn to the words that shaped their life when they were physically, socially, and religiously whole.

The psalm moves between personal complaints about their own health and isolation, “I complaints” in Westermann’s terminology, complaints about the actions of isolation and persecution by those in the psalmist’s society, “they complaints”, and complaints about the way that God is treating the psalmist, “you complaints.”[1] The personal complaints begin with an image of transience that reminds me of Ecclesiastes frequently used term hebel (vanity, emptiness). Hebel literally means smoke, mist, or vapor but is often used metaphorically to refer to the emptiness of life.[2] Now for the psalmist their days pass away like smoke and their bones burn like a furnace. Their life down to their very bones is going up in smoke while their heart withers like grass and they are too far gone to even eat the bread that could give them strength.  Their songs have turned to groans and their body now is transforming into a (barely) living skeleton. We don’t know if they were suffering from an illness, but they attribute their suffering to God’s judgment upon them. Their suffering is also done in isolation, they are like an unclean owl of the wastelands or a lonely bird on a roof. These lonely images of birds heighten the feeling of the psalm, for the sufferer is not only weak but they are abandoned.

The social complaints are also sharply worded as the psalmist’s unnamed name is synonymous with a curse among their enemies. Their personal weakness and isolation are viewed in the society as a curse from God, and enemies have taken advantage of this weakness. The only nourishment left for this abandoned one is the bread of ashes and the drink of tears.  Yet, behind both the physical pain and suffering and the social isolation is the LORD. We are never told of any sin that this poet has committed, but they view their suffering because of God’s anger and distance. In the words of the psalm God has cast the suffering one aside and yet hope resides in God repenting from God’s attitude towards the psalmist, turning the face and hearing with the ear and responding with grace and healing.

In contrast to the evanescent position of the psalmist is the strength and might of the LORD. The psalmist now joins his fate to the action of God to have compassion on Zion. It is possible that this psalm originates in the time of the exile where there is hope for the rebuilding of Zion and rescue the people from the destitute position as exiles in a foreign land. Yet, even without the context of the Babylonian exile, the turn to hope is based on the faithfulness of God for the people and a belief that God’s anger lasts only a moment, but God’s favor is for a lifetime.[3] The poet’s strength may have been broken in the middle of their life by God’s action, but if God wills it will be renewed. The heavens and the earth which seem so permanent to humanity are like a garment that can easily be changed by the powerful and permanent God. God will continue to endure and only in God can this suffering one hope to find a renewed physical, social, and religious life. The psalmist claims their familial bond to the LORD the God of Israel and now awaits the parental turning of their God to the children of God’s servants.

[1] Rolf A. Jacobson notes this helpful pattern citing Westermann, The Psalms (54-57). (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 752)

[2] Psalm102 does not use the term hebel but the combination of words of impermanence create a similar resonance for me as Ecclesiastes.

[3] Psalm 30:5.

Psalm 101 A Leader Shaping a Community of Character

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The Presentation of the Torah By Édouard Moyse – Own work Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41893002

Psalm 101

Of David. A Psalm.
 1I will sing of loyalty and of justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing.
 2I will study the way that is blameless. When shall I attain it? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house;
 3I will not set before my eyes anything that is base. I hate the work of those who fall away;
 it shall not cling to me.
 4Perverseness of heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.
 5One who secretly slanders a neighbor I will destroy. A haughty look and an arrogant heart
 I will not tolerate.
 6I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, so that they may live with me; whoever walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me.
 7No one who practices deceit shall remain in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue in my presence.
 8Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all evildoers from the city of the LORD.

As modern readers we tend to read the psalms individualistically, and from that perspective this psalm can sound judgmental. “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged”[1] may resonate with many modern readers but if we read the psalm from this perspective, we fundamentally have missed the point of this psalm written for or by a ruler in a communal society. I am heavily influenced by Charles Taylor’s description of society prior to our disenchanted view of the world, and I think his description of the community or parish deploying the collective power of its prayers, worship, and faith for blessing and protection is instructive here. In Taylor’s words, “Villagers who hold out, or even denounce the common rites, put the efficacy of these rites in danger, and hence pose a menace to everyone.” (Taylor, 2007, p. 42) Especially after working through the prophet Ezekiel, it is clear that the Hebrew view of the world in relation to God expects a society of justice and a ruler who enforces the character of the world that God’s law articulates. The king in Jerusalem, and leaders throughout history have been responsible for checking the selfish impulses of those who have the power to exploit others. Allowing injustice to take root in their kingdom quickly corrupts not only the individual practicing the injustice but the entire society.

This is a psalm of loyalty (hesed)[2] and justice, two primary characteristics of God that are to be embodied in the community of the faithful. Throughout this psalm the ideas of being blameless and having integrity translate the Hebrew terms tam and tamim.[3] This psalm is a royal psalm, and so the one studying the way of blamelessness (tamim) likely points to the ideal of a king articulated in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. Yet, the king can acknowledge that their practice of these ideals of loyalty and justice and the way of blamelessness are still aspirational.

The leader aspires to walk with integrity of heart and to keep its opposite, perverseness in heart, far from them. The metaphor of walking (halak) is often used in Hebrew about the way one lives one’s life. Halakah is a term commonly used to talk about the law and one’s life is to be oriented around the practices outlined in the law of God. In addition, the heart in Hebrew thought is not the seat of emotion, but the seat of will and discernment. This leader’s life and will are set upon God’s way for the community and not on the way that will enrich themselves or allow them to accrue more power. This leader in following God is walking in God’s way, learning to set their heart on the things of integrity and justice, and their character is shaped by the God they serve.

The character of the leader shapes the character of the community. One of the critical acts of leading a community is setting boundaries that protect those under the leader’s authority. Those who slander a neighbor, who are haughty and arrogant and feel they are above the law, who practice deceit and utter lies undermine the ethos the leader is attempting to cultivate. The leader seeks the way of loyalty and justice, a blameless way that models the character of God, and the presence of those who follow the path of wickedness, deceit and injustice are a danger to the life of the community.

James Mays notes that Martin Luther called this psalm, “the mirror of a monarch” and relates the story of Ernest the Pious, Duke of Saxe-Gotha who would send an unfaithful minister a copy of the 101st Psalm when that official had done anything wrong. (Mays, 1994, pp. 321-322) A leader who models their leadership on the loyalty and justice of God, who strives to study the way that is blameless and walk in integrity of heart was unusual both in biblical times and in our own time. Yet, it is path that the way of God expects for those entrusted with power in family, land, city, congregation, or the world. The things we invest in with both our resources and our actions show where our heart is located. As Jesus would state in the Sermon on the Mount, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”[4] The life of faith is not merely a quest for individualistic righteousness, but to shape a community of loyalty and justice that seek the way of blamelessness and walk in integrity. Both Hebrew and Christian communities have often fallen short of the vision of this psalm, but leaders can call the community together to this of life shaped by the character of the God we attempt to follow. Communities that are in the heart shaping business of studying the way that is blameless and modeling walking with integrity.

[1] Matthew 7:1.

[2] Hesed is one of those rich Hebrew concepts that loses richness in translation. It is often translated as steadfast love in English. I am partial to ‘covenantal faithfulness’ as a translation of this term but it almost always points to the connection between God and God’s people. A Christian/New Testament term that is heavily related to God’s hesed is grace.

[3] See my discussion on Perfection and Blamelessness in the Bible.

[4] Matthew 6:21.

Foundations Course: Session 1 God the Foundation

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Greenhouse for Faith Foundations Course: Session 1 (God the Foundation)

The Greenhouse for Faith: What We Grow Here is Meant to be Planted in the World

This is an introduction to a way of thinking about God that is ancient, but it is beautiful. It has brought life and meaning to one of the larger families of faith throughout the world. Yet it is very different from what many churches teach.

These reflections use the image of a greenhouse as a model for thinking about God, our relationship with God and the world God created.

The Foundation: that which everything else builds upon is a way of thinking about God.

This way of thinking focuses in on who God is and what God has already done.

“Let God be God” is a short summary of this way of thinking because we focus on God as the primary actor.

God is the creator, rescuer, and the one who renews this world and our lives.

God loves this world and is active, passionate, and engaged in the world and in our lives.

God also works in ways that may be mysterious, hidden, or unseen by us in our lives.

Questions for reflection:

  • When you think about your relationship with God do you begin with what you believe you need to do or what God has done?
  • Do you think that God is active in the world? In your life?
  • How do you walk through times where God’s working in the world seems hidden from you?
  • What in your life are you thankful for? What is something that is a part of the world that you are thankful for?

Foundations Course: Session 2 Christ-Where God Meets Us

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Greenhouse for Faith Foundations Course: Session 2 (Christ)

The Greenhouse for Faith: What We Grow Here is Meant to be Planted in the World

There are four pillars that will be used in this greenhouse: Christ, Word, Faith, and Grace that help us understand the God who is our foundation. These are the classic ‘alones’ or ‘solas’ (Latin for alone) of Lutheran thought.

The first pillar is Christ: We are Jesus people. Jesus is where we come to know primarily what God is like.

The life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the key through which we understand everything else about God.

The God who comes down to be among us: the witness of Christmas is of the God who comes to meet us in Jesus. God comes where God can be approached and becomes vulnerable so that we may draw near. We don’t have to ascend to where God is because God approaches us where we are in Jesus.

In Jesus we also come to know the God who suffers for this world and the people God loves. On the cross we find a God who refuses to give up on the world or God’s people. The cross looks like a place where God’s love is absent, but we believe this is where we most clearly understand the depth of God’s love. A love that refuses to give up even when it is rejected and killed.

Questions for reflection:

  • How is Christ’s example of love different from romantic love?
  • How does Christ’s example of love inform romantic relationships?
  • How do you see your own leadership impacted by Christ’s example of love?

Foundations Course: Session 4 The Gift of Faith

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The Greenhouse for Faith: What We Grow Here is Meant to be Planted in the World

There are four pillars that will be used in this greenhouse: Christ, Word, Faith, and Grace that help us understand the God who is our foundation. We talked in the previous sessions about how we come to know about God in Christ and through the Word.

The third pillar is Faith. Faith is a word that is often used in churches but is rarely defined.

  • In many churches faith is the collection of beliefs which the person is expected to agree to or believe in. There is nothing wrong with good doctrine, but that is not the faith that we are talking about.
  • Faith for us goes back to God and it is a gift of God. God is the one who opens our eyes, our hearts, and our minds and gives us an openness to what God is doing in the midst of the world. This is one of the ways God is at work in the world continuing to create faith.

I am interested in seeing where God is already active in the world.

Faith allows us to see that we are both saint and sinner.

  • We can be honest about the times when we have missed the mark, where we have fallen short of God’s intent for our lives, where we have been caught up in sin. We can be honest about the brokenness in our lives and in our world.
  • Yet, it is primarily about what God has done in Christ and the gospel. God has forgiven, set us free, justified us and made things right between us and God. We as forgiven people are God’s saints set free to be a part of God’s work in the world.

Faith allows us to live in the tension of being saint and sinner. Therefore, I can rise us this day to live as a part of God’s kingdom.

Questions for reflection:

  • Does seeing faith as a gift from God impact other areas of your life?
  • How have you seen God being active within your own life?

Foundations Course: Session 6 A Life Lived for God’s Glory

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The Greenhouse for Faith: What We Grow Here is Meant to be Planted in the World

This final session looks back on all the things that God has done for us and in light of that we consider how we are to live. We are ending where a lot of Christians begin.

  • Many communities of faith begin with what we need to do to be in a right relationship with God and how we need to live our lives to ‘get into heaven.’
  • We start with what God has done and that God is the primary actor in the world and in our faith. God is the foundation for all we do. God in Jesus Christ shows us what love is like. The word as we encounter it in both scripture and the proclamation of the church continually points us back to the love of God in Christ, the gracious God of our faith. Faith itself is a gift of God where God opens us to experience God’s love, forgiveness, and frees us to participate in what God is already doing in the world. Everything we have talked about points to the gracious God who refuses to give up on this world that God loves and the people that God created.

How then do we live? Here are five markers of what a well live life looks like:

  • We live in Gratitude: We say thank you to God for all God has done for us and for this world. We live in ways that give thanks back to God. All that we encounter is a gift: life is a gift, faith is a gift, and when we can encounter this day as a day that God has made, we can rejoice and be glad in it and respond with gratitude.
  • We live in Freedom and forgiveness: We do trust that we can rise up each day as a child of God who has been forgiven and set free. We can go into each day with trust, faith and hope and we can let go of the things that have bound us in the past.
  • We encounter the world and our neighbor in grace, love, and forgiveness: We lift people up when they need to be lifted up. We forgive when people believe they are unforgivable. Forgiveness is one of the hardest things that we do but it is also one of the greatest gifts of our faith. Forgiveness refuses to allow the past to determine the future.
  • We live in service to our neighbors and the world that God loves: We follow a Lord who came to serve, and in following Christ we will serve both the neighbors we encounter, and this world God loves. God sends that which God loves into this world to both put down roots and bear fruit, and we are a part of what God is sending to this world God loves.
  • We live solely for God’s glory:  When we baptize a person we say “let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” We pray that our life is a mirror that reflects the love, grace, and forgiveness that we have received from God. We live our lives so that God may be glorified. Our lives of gratitude, freedom, love, and service ultimately a lived to give glory to the gracious God who is at work in our lives and in our world.

Questions for reflection:

  • How do you define gratitude? What does it look like for someone to be gracious as an action instead of feeling it?
  • How does Christ’s example of gratitude inform your relationships?

Review of Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most by Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz

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Miroslav Volf has been an influential theological voice for me since his publication of Exclusion and Embrace and I have learned a great deal from his writing over the past two decades. Volf has been wrestling with the question of what makes a life worth living in his publications for the last eight years and this book feels like the successful culmination of years of writing, teaching, and seeking wise partners from his position at the Yale Divinity School and the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. His previous books on this topic (Flourishing: Why we Need Religion in a Globalized World and For the Life of the World: Theology that Makes a Difference) have helped frame the questions that now A Life Worth Living provides a guide for working through. A Life Worth Living models the class that Volf, Croasmun, and McAnnally-Linz teach at Yale, as well as at Danbury Federal Correctional Institute where they invite their seekers to consider several faith and wisdom traditions as they pose several key questions that are a part of seeking an authentic life. These questions include: What is worth wanting? What is the place of happiness in an authentic life? What is the authority are we responsible and what traditions form our vision of truth? How does a good life feel and what role do negative emotions/suffering have in the good life? What is worth hoping for? How should we live and what provides for a meaningful life? How do the various answers come together to form a life worth living? How does our good life fit within our bigger picture of the world? What do we do when we fall short of our visions of what life should be? How do we react to the suffering we experience and the suffering we encounter in the world around us?

One of the gifts of this book is it invites the reader into an encounter with a diverse set of wise voices who provide very different answers to each of the questions the book poses and provides a spectrum of possible answers for one willing to engage the questions. It is not a difficult book to read and it does not expect any previous engagement with philosophy or theology, instead coming out of the experience of teaching both undergraduates and inmates it simplifies the voices which come from across the religious and non-religious spectrum into an approachable set of stories. But the simplicity of the presentation does not take away from the deep nature of the reflection prompted by the questions that the book presents. This is an invaluable resource for those seeking to live a life that authentically reflects the values of the person trying to construct a life worth living.