Continuing to work my way through psalms, a little bit at a time....
PSALM 13
This is just a plea for help – it’s even called “Prayer for
Help.” Oh, so I guess I’m right. It’s short, but has a real air of
desolation. Not only are there problems
in the world and with the psalmist’s life, but it begins by wondering why the
Lord has completely forgotten. Yeah,
that’s an extra level of despair.
But he keeps the faith despite it all, trusting in God’s
mercy and joyous in his salvation. It
doesn’t sound like he has anywhere else to turn, frankly.
In a nice change of pace, there is no violent imagery
here. The closest it gets is the
psalmist asking for help “Lest my enemy say `I have prevailed.’” That’s not at all violent, but one thing I
find striking is how the psalms keep personalizing their problems. There is always an enemy (or enemies);
always some people who are to blame.
It’s never forces or a situation, it’s always an individual. Maybe that’s why these psalms often leave me
flat; I tend to not personalize things.
This is a good psalm, though.
PSALM 14
This one begins off as follows: “The fool says in his heart,
/ `There is no God’ / There deeds are loathsome and corrupt.”
Hey! No look here,
Bible, I may be a fool but that doesn’t make me loathsome and corrupt. But is this psalm really targeting
non-believers or just wrongdoers?
Because most of this psalm is about how people do wrong (actually, do
evil), act horribly and the like. Well,
it looks like there isn’t much difference here between someone who doesn’t
believe in God and someone who is an evildoer.
Evildoers are non-believers and non-believers are evildoers. There’s no recognition that believers do
wrong. No, I’m not the target audience
for this psalm.
That said, there is another element at play here:
class. “[Evildoers] would crush the
hopes of the poor, / But the poor have the LORD as a refuge.” I have a much easier time getting behind
class antagonism. Anyhow, this is one
of reasons I have trouble believing that all the psalms attributed to David
(including this one) really is from him.
This doesn’t read like the poem of a king.
EDITED to add: click here for the next batch of psalms.
EDITED to add: click here for the next batch of psalms.
It may be worth remembering that David at least began his life as a humble shepherd, not a king or one who was "destined" for greatness or necessarily from a wealthy family. he may have written this early in his life, before he became the king we see in the chronicles, or at least in a time of vulnerability and reminiscence after that.
ReplyDeleteIt's also worth remembering that this was written in an era in which everyone believed in some kind of god(s), that there were powers and authorities beyond this earth that brought about consequences for good and bad deeds. Given that ancient Hebrew did not have capital letters, that first sentence could just as easily have been "there is no god" meaning not necessarily that he was an atheist, but that he acted as though there were no consequences for his actions, no piper to pay for all his wrongdoing.
Either that, or if it is the God of Israel specifically that the fool says does not exist, it could be that he has perpetrated his crimes in the belief that the Hebrews' god is not real, and that they have no real protection in a supernatural sense, which the psalmist is speaking against and hoping will be proven wrong when the Lord brings justice for his Israel and the poor.
Travis - interesting points. I'm still skeptical that David wrote must of the psalms attributed to him, because it just strikes me he'd be a person a lot of unknown-authored psalms would be attributed to.
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