Pslams 34 to 37

More psalm-type things.  (I was going to do the opening chapters of Numbers today, but what I wrote apparently didn't get saved.  Oops).

PSALMS 34

Trying to find something to say about each individual psalm is tricky.  It’s not that this one is worse than many earlier ones, but they do start to read all the same after a while. 

The start to this one is especially generic – it praises God.  That’s nice.  Then you get the sense that the Lord is who the psalmist cries out to when he’s in need.  Again, that’s nice. 

There is one distinctive wrinkle later on.  The psalmist moves off his own personal experience to instruct the others what God is like.  This section even begins “Come, children, listen to me.”  He then says, “I will teach you to fear the LORD.”  What comes next isn’t a bunch of reasons why the Lord is fearful, but wonderful.  The fear line really seems out of place.

But then again, to modern ears talk of fearing the Lord often sounds out of place in general.  People don’t turn to the Bible to fear the Lord but find consolation.  The idea of a Lord of wrath is out, but it clearly had a pull on people for a long time.  It was part of having power.  Many things we explain away casually were attributed to this Lord – things like the weather. 

PSALM 35

This is another psalm that has the feel of junior high school.  The psalmist is outraged and aggrieved.  He’s oppressed and being treated like garbage and he really goes on about his problems.  It reads like a person getting himself worked up over his problems.  He’s really basking in his difficulties. 

The key thing here is that it’s not just random happenstance causing the psalmist problems – it’s his enemies.  He goes on at length about all the abuses they hurl at him  - malicious witnesses accuse him of false doing, they are gleeful when he stumbles, “They slandered me without ceasing; without respect they mocked me.”  Yup – that’s junior high all right. 

Early on the psalmist asks the Lord to destroy his enemies, but at the end he has a more personal request – “Restore my soul from their destruction, my very life from lions!  Then I will thank you in the great assembly.”  Hmmm – being a devout Christian sounds like it would help you get through eighth grade.

PSALM 36 

Again, I’m struck by how psalms can praise God on the one hand as the most merciful and wonderful and kind deity of them all, and on the other hand says everyone must fear him.  I don’t really associate mercy and fear together like that.  I guess we should fear God’s power.  Maybe respect is closer to it.  Certainly, you shouldn’t take God for granted, and if you fear him, then you’re not taking him for granted.

Anyhow, this is a fairly standard psalm along the theme of “smite the enemies, o Lord!”  As always, this isn’t my favorite psalm theme.  It has some nice phrasings in it, though: “Do not let the foot of the proud overtake me.” 

PSALM 37 

OK now – this is a different sort of psalm.  First, it’s one of the longer psalms, clocking in at 40 verses.  Second, each of the 22 stanzas is led off with a letter in the ancient Hebrew alphabet. (Did they have only 22?  I have no idea).  So just on the page it looks different.

More than that, it’s a bit of an extended philosophical rumination – with plenty of religion thrown in, of course. At its heart lay a key question – why do bad people succeed if the Lord is good and all powerful?  Yup, that’s a good question. 

But the answer I find less than satisfying.  It says, OK so the bad people might be ahead right now – but just you wait.  The Lord will give them an All Mighty smackdown.  Oh, and based on the language of this psalm (and the overall theology of the Old Testament), the smackdown will come in this world, not the next.  Really, psalm?  Really? 

In fact, it even goes so far as to say “Neither in my youth, nor now in old age have I seen the righteous one abandoned or his offspring begging for bread.”  The poor are never the holy?  Really, psalm? 

Here’s where Christianity has an advantage – they can say the reward is in the next world.  Can’t argue that.  Can’t prove it either, but can’t disprove it. 

Oh, and speaking of Christianity, this one has some lines that’ll later be reflected in the Sermon on the Mount: “but those who wait for the LORD will inherit the earth.”  “But the poor will inherit the earth.”  “For those blessed by the Lord will inherit the earth.”  “The righteous will inherit the earth.”  

EDITED to add: click here for the next batch of psalms