PSALM 47
This is the rock star psalm. I spent the entire psalm imaging it being sung on stage by a
longhaired singer with lights going of all over the place. It’s the opening line that did it: “All you
peoples, clap your hands” Pretty rock
star, no?
Well, check out the next line: “shout to God with joyful
cries.” OK, obviously more overtly
religious than rock stars, but put them together and it sounds like a Psalmist
Woodstock getting revved up.
It’s a good thing the opening gave me the hook, because the
psalm itself is fairly standard stuff.
It’s praise to the power of the Lord.
There’s really nothing about how people react to God – it’s just how
awesome God is. It’s 10 verses over
three stanzas. So in my mind, the
second stanza became the bridge & and I figure a guitar solo can go just
before the third stanza.
PSALM 48
It’s another psalm about how powerful and wonderful God
is. These are the psalms that do the
least for me. In psalms, and throughout
the Bible as a whole, I find it most interesting when there’s a human
element.
The main distinctive feature here is the emphasis on how
much God scares the bejeebers out of kings that oppose him: “terrified, they
were put to flight. Trembling seized
them there, anguish like a woman’s labor.”
Not much of a psalm, though. Not
for me anyway.
PSALM 49
Here’s another psalm with a rock star start: “Hear this, all you peoples! Give ears, all who inhabit the world.” Rock on, psalm, rock on.
Eh, it’s another psalm about how wonderful the Lord is. It’s another psalm that’s more about God
than how humans relate to God. Eh.
There is a bit more than that going on, to be fair. It’s also a psalm that renounces the pursuit
of wealth. No matter what you have, you
can’t take it with you. For a rich man,
“At his death, he will not take along anything, his glory will not go down
after him.” This is an anti-prosperity
gospel psalm. Good for Psalm 49.
Also, it foreshadows Christian theology, as it says God has
the power to keep you from the hand of Sheol.
Well, Sheol is the ancient Hebrew concept of the afterlife, and it’s
basically just hell. Well, if God can
keep you from going there, where will you go after you die? The Christian answer, of course, is heaven.
The psalms give us a window into popular religious belief
during the time of the ancient Hebrew.
And it’s out of these popular beliefs that Christianity grew.
PSALM 50
The first part of this is standard talk of how great God is.
Then God grabs the mike and lays down a few stanzas. Well, that’s novel.
The first part is God talking about the righteous and how
they’re great and he’ll treat them great in turn. “They call on me on the day of distress; I will rescue you and
you shall honor me.” Word to the
mother, MC God.
However, rather than dropping the mike and walking off, God
flips it around and freestyles on what he’ll do to the wicked. Short version: bad things, man, bad things.
It’s a different approach to a psalm, which I
appreciate. But I never much cottoned
for this notion of Good People and Bad People.
It’s all black and white – no shades of gray. Yeah, that’s never been my experience with humans.
PSALM 51
This is a psalm associated with a specific event. The intro says it’s the psalm of David after
Nathan the prophet has confronted the king about his affair with
Bathsheba.
Well now is David ever repentant. Actually, he might be a little too repentant. He begins off by asking the Lord to have
mercy on him, and speaks of God’s merciful love, and abundant compassion. Yeah, when the sinner starts off by talking
how compassionate God is, it’s a way to make a case for himself. That rings a bit off to me. If you’re repentant, begin by talking about
how horrible you’ve been, not how forgiving your judge is.
He does get around to discussing how horrible he is, and he
sounds very emotional. Even there, it
sounds a bit off. “I have done what is
evil in your eyes.” Yeah, maybe you
don’t need the “in your eyes” qualifier, David. Also, right before then David says “Against you, you alone have I
sinned.” Hey – what about Bathsheba’s husband?
You know, the man you had killed to cover up what you did? I’d say you sinned before him as well.
So the prayer for apology strikes me as more self-serving
than anything else.
There are some interesting theological dimensions to this
psalm. He mentions the Holy Spirit, so
I assume Christians like that. More interestingly, he notes how sacrifices
aren’t worth giving because what matters is in a person’s heart, not their
deeds. Huh, so it’s inner faith over
outer works for David. That makes this
a more Protestant psalm. Also, it
completely goes against the entire book of Leviticus, which basically argues
that you make up for your deeds by giving an offering.
PSALM 52
This is a denouncing psalm.
The notes say it’s about denouncing people who have chosen the path of
power and wealth over the path of the Lord.
And I can see that, it’s clearly like that when it talks of he trusted
in the abundance of his wealth, and grew powerful through his wickedness.” This
is a poor man’s psalm.
Normally I like those sorts of psalms, but here it strikes
me off. You see, it’s less about
decrying the high and mighty and more about cheering their demise. The psalm says that the rich think they’re
so great with all their wealth and bling – but just you wait. Someday the true order will be established,
and they’ll be cast down. And the righteous who fear God? “They will laugh at him” ( Him being the
rich, not God).
OK, let’s pause it here for a second. The rich guy is horrible because he used his
power to lord over others and treat them poorly. But the poor think they’re right and when the true order is
established they’ll be on top and the rich guy is on bottom – and they’ll treat
the rich guy with such disdain. So
what’s the morality here then? Both
sides think they are right and justified in treating the other like
garbage. This psalm is more morally
murky than it looks at first glance.
PSALM 53
This is called “A Lament Over Widespread Corruption” but I
don’t see any corruption going on here. It’s just a psalm decrying those who
don’t believe in God, which I don’t consider to be at all the same thing as
corruption. A different belief as yours
doesn’t make someone corrupt.
Though it’s a short psalm – just seven verses long – it has
a lot of the elements I really don’t like.
It sees things in a purely good/bad, black/white manner where there are
no shades of gray. People are either
evil doers or they are good. It’s like
a cartoon.
Second, evildoer means someone who doesn’t believe in
God. I find that rather offensive. And it reminds me a lot of what bothers me
about religion and the religious – the holier-than-thou attitude, the sense of
self-righteousness, the willingness to be disdainful of someone not like
them.
Look – I’m not saying that all religious people are like
that. Not at all. I’m not even saying that most are like
that. Not in the least. That hasn’t been my experience. But would anyone deny that some religious
people are like that? I can’t imagine
anyone would deny it, and if they do – they surely aren’t paying any attention
to politics in 21st century America. Well, it’s things like Psalm 53 that inspire these worst and most
annoying traits in the faithful.
PSALM 54
This is a short psalm, which is largely saying the same
thing as many others. I guy in time of
strife is pleading to the Lord for help.
(In fact, it’s attributed to David at the time when Saul was trying to
kill him).
The evil guys are out to get me, please help, you’ve always
come through me before. Yeah, nothing
we haven’t seen here before. Help
Obi-Wan Yahweh, you’re our only hope.
PSALM 55
The longer this psalm went on, the less I liked it. It starts off with a person going through
personal hell. He rocks with grief, and
groans. He’s in torment, and is
speaking to God as a result. OK, this
is one of my favorite themes in the psalms – a person undergoing a sense of
crisis and confusion is reaching out to God for help. That’s as it should be.
And the raw personal emotion is captivating.
Then it’s back to the enemies talk. I like it more when it’s a person’s internal
turmoil, or just ill defined problems.
Among other things, that is more relatable. We all go through problems we can’t fully deal with. But how often do we blame them on enemies
that seek nothing but evil? I’d like to
think that most of us are more willing to give the benefit of the doubt to our
fellow man more often than that. It
reads like something a junior high student might write. That’s when I associate having problems that
can be blamed all on those big bad jerks.
Then the last stanza begins, “Let death take them.” Oh. Wonderful.
Yeah, praying to God to help yourself out? That’s fantastic. Praying
to God for your enemies to die? Eh,
check please. I frankly barely read the
rest of the stanza. Apparently it’s a
bunch of praise to God. Yeah, you
praise God because you think he’ll kill your enemies. Not awesome. Waiter –
check, please!
PSALM 56
This is another psalm I have trouble relating to. Early on, it’s more
woe-is-me-because-people-are-out-to-get-me.
I get the woe is me part, but not because there are a bunch of
cartoonishly evil creatures after me.
And sure enough, they are cartoonishly evil. In fact, at one point are psalmist flatly declares, “They are
evil.” Oh, well – very well then.
It’s a psalm of David when the Philistines have captured
him, so I guess it makes sense. But
those stories aren’t necessarily ones that I can relate to. They work in the historical section of the
Bible because they are stories, but now we’re just supposed to put ourselves in
his shoes and – really? I don’t see
it. It’s easier to relate to someone in
the context of a story, than in the context of a poem.
PSALM 57
This is another prayer for deliverance. It’s even titled, “Confident Prayer for
Deliverance.” Very well then. And it’s another psalm that feels like
junior high. “I must lie down in the
midst of lions hungry for human prey.
Their teeth are spears and arrows; their tongue, a sharpened
sword.” Yeah, I was on that school bus.
I served time in that gym class.
So I can relate, but it seems a little odd that I find one
of the most beloved parts of the Bible to be operating at the emotional level
of a junior high students.
PSALM 58
This one has a memorable title – “The Dethroning of Unjust
Rulers” – but is basically a standard good vs. evil psalm with no shades of
gray.
It has some notable imagery – the bad guys are described as,
“Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a serpent stopping its
ears, so as not to hear the voice of the charmer.” Wait – snakes don’t have ears.
Ah well, close enough. Later,
the psalmist switches metaphors, imploring, “O God, smash the teeth in their
mouths; break the fangs of these lions, LORD.”
A thing I just noticed writing the above – the people the
psalmist disagrees with are being literally dehumanized. They’re snakes; they’re lions – but their
not people. So it’s easier to have them
destroyed. Yeah, these psalms just
don’t do it for me.
EDITED to add: click here for the next batch of psalms.
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