Categorisation/Genre:
l Not lament. Differences between V14 vs lament:
speech acts, the words of the psalmist are directed to himself and others, not
to God. They key thing is lament is speaking directly to God. Here it’s
grumbling, speaking “behind God’s back”. Confession: kind of. Ps73 is an
example of a wisdom psalm, which are psalms that meditate on a long history of
God’s fidelity and teach the generations to trust in God’s faithfulness.[1]
A temple entrance liturgy. As a whole: V28, speaking to God, with a communal
component, “Tell of your deeds”= testifying. A testimony = a witness of God’s
goodness and to elicit a similar kind of response from the hearers.
Structure:
l “Surely” ach: V1, 13, 18. A key
structural marker.
l V1-12: Complaint. Prosperity of the wicked the
focus of V4-12.
l V13-17: Irresolvable tension. There’s a turn at
the end, “their end”.
l V18-28: Solution, a complex one.
l “Heart”: V1, 7, 13, 21, 26.
Context:
l Book 3 of Psalter: wrestles with the exile
(great crisis of Israel’s faith)
l Psalm 73: anticipates the conclusion to that
crisis.
l Israel’s worship: hear from the word of God, in
particular their history (the saving deeds of God)
l They key to this psalm is to recognise the
nature of true blessing. They key function of this psalm is to reconfigure what
It means to be blessed.
l Psalm 72: speaks of the prosperity of Solomon,
which arise out of kingship done in righteousness, wisdom. Solomon was terrible
from the start: 1King 1&2, Solomon did judicial assassination of one of his
rivals. So it’s deeply ironic that Psalm 72 is a psalm of Solomon, because if
the king did what’s righteous, Psalm 73 wouldn’t be happening. This Psalm makes
us come to grips with living in a broken world. Psalm 73 depicts a reality that
deeply conflicts with the opening statement.
l The key here is “envy”: this is the shalom of
the wicked. Shalom doesn’t exist where there is lack of righteousness. When we
take God out of the factor, then the wicked do indeed prosper. The only way you
can envy the wicked is when you take God out of the picture. Because with God
in the picture, there is a horrible future awaiting the wicked.
Exegesis:
l V1-3: The psalmist starts off by voicing his
confusion and jealousy about “why do the wicked prosper?”[2] He
is confused because “surely, God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in
heart!”, yet he sees “a world that does not seem to reflect God’s values and
God’s kingdom.” Our faith becomes stuck if this conflict is not resolved.[3]
The psalmist is representing the voice of those who are oppressed by the
faithless.[4]
V4: The wicked having no struggles “until death”, but some split the word up to
“to them,” and “health” (wholeness, be complete), meaning they have no problems
for their health.[5],[6]
The Hebrew word used for “fat” can be used figurative for flourishing, healthy.[7]
So, it could be “their body is fat” or “their body is healthy”.
l V5: Other people suffer, they do not.
l V7: “Eyes bulge out” is a cartoon-like
illustration, and the eyes expresses what is inside the person.[8]
l V8: The nature of the trouble they are planning
is oppression, or extortion, the heavy financial burdens they can place on
their victims.[9] The reason for their confidence is that they make their plans “from
on high” from their powerful position.[10]
l V9: “They set their mouths in heaven and their
tongues roam over the earth”. A merism (a pair of contrasting words used to express
totality or completeness): the first merism is the heavens and the earth
(Genesis 1:1). The wicked are not only “looking down at the faithful to speak
against them, but also looking up to heaven to speak against God.”[11]“The
wicked can let their tongues loose in a way that has implications for the whole
earth.”[12]
l V10: Most translations indicate that his (God’s)
people have turned to the wicked ones.[13] The
wicked are doing so well that the people get drawn to them.
l V11: “How can God know? Is there knowledge in
the Most High?”: A response to the conduct of the wicked. “If there is a God,
then this God has no play in our affairs. We carry on as we wish.” The
fact that the faithless are able to get away seem to suggest that God does not
take any notice of what goes on and does not bother with affairs of this world.[14]
l V13: “All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hand in innocence.” The key here is “in vain”. “I have kept my
heart pure, but how is God good to me?” His commitment to God has been
pointless. It seems as though righteous life was pointless.[15] This
is like Job: “does Job trust you for nothing?” The psalmist does not get any
payoff and sees his faith as futile. But that is unfaithful. Psalmist is
saying, “Can’t speak, I try to understand it, but I am stuffed either way. Try
to make sense of it and just doesn’t work.”
l V14: The psalmist is personally affected by the
wrongdoing of the faithless.[16]
l V15: the psalmist acknowledges that to speak in this matter would be
inappropriate because he has a responsibility in leading God’s people, so to be
faithless towards God was also to be faithless towards them.[17]
l V17: Turning point, where the psalmist went “into
the sanctuary of God”. The simple ordinary experience of worshiping God. James
KA Smith: “Desiring the Kingdom”: secular liturgies. What we ought to do when
we gather as communities of faith is to reconfigure who we are, what we desire,
how we see the world and how we conduct ourselves in it. One of the problems of
Protestantism is our liturgicism is thin.
l V18: There is the option of translating this as
“you will set them on slippery ground” or “you will set them in falsehood. The
prosperity of the wicked is like a bad dream, you toss and turn! The wicked
“fall to ruin”: There is double meaning to the Hebrew word used for “ruin”. Ruin
probably works better given what follows. Deception can also work for what is
in front. The double meanings of the words were probably chosen because they
have the double meaning. Part of the meaning will be lost in English no matter
which way we translate it. Another option is to include both meanings:
“deceptive place of ruin”. This could be speaking eschatologically, or maybe
the fact that the wicked don’t know God is the reason they “fall to ruin”.
l V19: The fall of the wicked will be sudden and
complete.[18]
Psalmist realises there’s something wrong with how he sees the world before.
l V25: It is only God that one needs.[19]
l V26: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and
my portion forever.” The limitations of “I” is set against the limitlessness of
“God”.[20]
Many modern translations use “strength”, but the word
means “rock”, referring to a place of refuge or God as a constant place of
security.[21]
Andrew Sloane loved this verse. He went to a funeral to the wife of the person
who supervised his doctoral degree, and he used this verse, and this was a few
months before he died. You can hear from his words that his flesh and heart are
failing. That’s where the psalmist lands. This is the climax of the psalm, this
is what it’s all about. What is it to be blessed? It’s not that those around us
love us and our deeds prosper. To be blessed is to have God in the end: true
prosperity theology, the definition of prosperity.
l V28: The psalm ends with “the nearness of God
is my good. I have set Lord Yahweh as my refuge”. This is the first time Yahweh
is mentioned in this psalm. God’s presence with him is the ultimate good.
[1] Jacobson, ““The faithfulness of the Lord Endures Forever”,” 116.
[2] DeClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, and LaNeel Tanner. The Book of Psalms, 584.
[3] DeClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, and LaNeel Tanner. The Book of Psalms, 593.
[4] John Goldingay, Psalms Volume
2: Psalms 42-89 (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 400.
[5] Ross, A Commentary on the
Psalms: Volume 2, 548.
[6] DeClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, and LaNeel Tanner. The Book of Psalms, 586.
[7] Ross, A Commentary on the
Psalms: Volume 2, 548.
[8] Goldingay, Psalms Volume 2:
Psalms 42-89, 405.
[9] Goldingay, Psalms Volume 2:
Psalms 42-89, 405.
[10] Goldingay, Psalms Volume 2:
Psalms 42-89, 405.
[11] Goldingay, Psalms Volume 2:
Psalms 42-89, 405.
[12] Goldingay, Psalms Volume 2:
Psalms 42-89, 406.
[13] DeClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, and LaNeel Tanner. The Book of Psalms, 586.
[14] Goldingay, Psalms Volume 2:
Psalms 42-89, 407.
[15] Goldingay, Psalms Volume 2:
Psalms 42-89, 408.
[16] Goldingay, Psalms Volume 2:
Psalms 42-89, 408.
[17] Dan Wu, “The Psalms and perplexity: mediating with the psalmist on
the puzzle of existence,” in Stirred by a
Noble Theme: The book of Psalms in the life of the church, ed. Andrew G.
Shead, (Nottingham: Apollos, 2013), 244.
[18] Goldingay, Psalms Volume 2:
Psalms 42-89, 410.
[19] DeClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, and LaNeel Tanner. The Book of Psalms, 592.
[20] Goldingay, Psalms Volume 2:
Psalms 42-89, 415.
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