The superscription says To the leader: with stringed instruments. This Psalm is one of only seven (including a psalm in Habakkuk) that the official text says are to have the accompaniment of "strummed" instruments (6, 54, 55, 61, 67, 76, Habakkuk 3). Based on other passages in which lyres and harps are mentioned along with the verb "to strum," (I Samuel 16:23), the NRSV translates this notation as "with stringed instruments." A Psalm of David.
Psalm 4:1-3 offer the lament. 1 Answer me when I call, O God of my right![1] You gave me room, the answer God gave him, when I was in distress, a word that means "constraint," "constriction," as when enemies close in on every side. Imagine the release that making room would feel to one closed in by enemies. It suggests that when circumstances hemmed him, God opened things up for him. Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer. The psalm next offers a set of questions. 2 How long, you people, shall my honor (glory) suffer shame? How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies?[2] Selah Do the questions come from God? Do the questions come from the writer of the psalm? 3 But know that the LORD has set apart the faithful for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him. The writer offers an affirmation of faith in the reliability of the Lord. Even though the psalm begins with an appeal for an answer from God before the psalm is half over the petitioner expresses belief in God's faithfulness to those who exhibit faith.
In Psalm 4: 4-8, the second half of the psalm is an address by the petitioner to others who need faith in God's reliability. 4 When the events of life disturb[3] you, do not sin. Rather, they should remain calm and ponder it on your beds, when worries of the day to close in upon you, and be silent[4]. Selah 5 Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.
Most people find being alone with their thoughts and with no distractions is unpleasant. Some people would rather give themselves electric shocks than sit alone thinking for even six minutes. Timothy Wilson and some colleagues at the University of Virginia and Harvard University conducted a series of 11 studies. The abstract, published in the July 4, 2014 issue of science magazine, summarized the results by saying that participants did not enjoy spending six to fifteen minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think. They enjoyed doing mundane activities much more. Many preferred administering electric shocks to themselves rather than have their alone time. Most people prefer doing something, even if that is negative, to doing nothing. The point of the study is to highlight the challenges of the disengaged mind. By disengaging, spirituality wants to suggest that we focus upon the inner life and consider in a meditative spirit the way in which we process our interactions with the external world. Much of spirituality focuses on limiting or modifying the influence of the external world. The failure to spend such time alone for considering such matters may well lead to spiritual issues. It highlights that we cannot really disengage from the world, but we can consider how we interact with it. I wonder how personality type, especially the introvert versus the extrovert, would relate to such a study.
Does the difficulty in spending time alone mean that our society is working too hard? To state the obvious, many people work extremely hard. Yet, busyness can become sinful when it serves as a form of existential reassurance, a hedge against internal emptiness. We conclude that our lives are not silly, trivial, or meaningless when we are so busy, completely booked, and in demand every hour of the day.[5] Busy people miss the blessing of the lowest form of service that one might render to someone that day. They worry about loss of time if they stop and offer such a small act of helpful service. They take themselves quite seriously. Busy people have their lives so planned that they are not open to the interruptions that God may want to bring into their lives by the needs and requests of others. Their focus is so much upon their tasks that they pass by the one in genuine need, as Jesus taught in the parable of the Good Samaritan.[6] Busyness is a futile attempt to convey to yourself and to others that you are a person of immense importance. Such a busy life may well lead to individual exhaustion. Yet, genuine arduous work recognizes the importance of the planting the seed, and then resting to see how the seed does. When it comes to work for the rule of God in this life, not everything depends upon us. We need to allow other forces to be at work.[7]
Does such a study indict our sinful nature? Does it mean we are hard-wired for external rather than internal reality? Wilson thinks our minds do have some hardwiring toward engaging the world rather than focus on our internal world. What does this mean for the whole notion of quiet time with God? It may well mean that spirituality is as much involved in our engagement with the world as it is sitting in silence.
The truth is that we can be active and engaged in the world and thinking deeply at the same time. We may need to spend more time considering how active engagement and pondering join in our spirituality. Scott Peck writes of the importance of thinking well. It does not come naturally. We must learn to think well as we process relationships with people and our world.[8] Disengaging is not sloth. In fact, slothful people may be outwardly busy, but go through life on automatic pilot. They know something is wrong with how they relate to the world but refuse to do anything about it. In contrast, one who does nothing, who is lazy, may well be at peace. Their laziness in this moment may be prelude to worthy action.[9]
Stan Purdum will say that the bicycle is a marvelous thought machine, combining activity with thought and silence. Brother Lawrence, a monk of the 1600s, wrote The Practice of the Presence of God. At one point, he writes that the time of business in the kitchen does not differ from the time of prayer. The point is that we need to find the means that works best for us to ponder the issues of life and the things of God.
[1] Like most poetry in the Hebrew Bible, Psalm 4 has some portions for which the meaning of the words is uncertain. Even the first line is translated differently in the Greek version from the reading contained in the Masoretic Hebrew text. The Hebrew has the imperative phrase, "Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness." The Greek, perhaps thinking that the imperative was inappropriate in an address to God has "He has answered me, [namely] the God of my righteousness." The Greek version also implies that help has already come to the petitioner. God has already answered. The phrase "God of my righteousness," or "God of my right," as the NRSV renders it, might also be read as the NJPS translates, "O God, my Vindicator," namely, "the one who makes me to be in the right."
[2] If the term "glory" is being used here in the same way as it is in Ezekiel, the speaker could be God, referring to that part of God's self that appears to human beings in the temple. The "vain words" and "lies" that follow, which humanity loves and seeks, could best be understood then as other gods or idols whom people prefer to worship rather than trusting in the true God. The NRSV translates the "vain things" as "vain words" but it needn't be translated that way. The term for "words" does not appear in the text. The Old Testament does, however, often refer to idols obliquely with terms for "emptiness," "futility" or "vanity" (see for instance, Amos 2:4; or Psalm 40:4). The speaker, however, could also be the petitioner, asking how long his or her "glory" would be mocked, referring also to God and also contrasting the true worship of Yahweh to the worship of idols. It seems unlikely that the term "glory" (translated in the NRSV as "honor") is meant to refer to the pride or self-esteem of the petitioner.
[3] The term "disturbed" which occurs here is sometimes translated "angry," as in the classic phrase, "Be angry but do not sin." This version probably derives from the fact that the Hebrew term translated by the NRSV as "disturbed" can mean to "quiver" or "quake" as when one is excited, agitated, perturbed or angry.
[4] The phrase "be silent" can also refer to quiet expressions of dismay, like sighs or moans, thus the NJPS translates this verse, "Tremble and sin no more; ponder it on your bed and sigh." This implies that in the face of God's power the best human response is to be in awe and to reflect, not to expect to understand.
[5] --Tim Kreider, "The 'Busy' Trap," The New York Times, June 30, 2012.
[6] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (Fortress, 1996), 99-100.
[7] --Tony Campolo, "The myth of busyness," Red Letter Christians blog, March 6, 2011. redletterchristians.org. Retrieved October 12, 2014. The overwhelming thought process is that a very busy life (for Jesus of course) + work + family + every little thing people ask you (with good intentions of course) = God's favor and will for your life. This formula will undoubtedly not directly equal God's favor but instead will equal individual exhaustion. Jesus, on the other hand, talks about a man who plants a seed and then goes to sleep and rests. While he is sleeping, corn begins to grow, "first the blade and then the ear, and eventually the full corn appears." In short, we should not feel that everything is dependent on us when it comes to the work of the kingdom of God. We should do what we are called to do, but not feel that we have to consume every moment in making things happen for God and for God's kingdom.
[8] Peck, M. Scott. The Road Less Traveled and Beyond. New York: Touchstone, 1997, 23 ff.
[9] --Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (Harper & Row, 1973), 89-90. Sloth is not to be confused with laziness. Lazy people, people who sit around and watch the grass grow, may be people at peace. Their sun-drenched, bumblebee dreaming may be the prelude to action or itself an act well worth the acting. Slothful people, on the other hand, may be very busy people. They are people who go through the motions, who fly on automatic pilot. Like somebody with a bad head cold, they have mostly lost their sense of taste and smell. They know something's wrong with them, but not wrong enough to do anything about it. Other people come and go, but through glazed eyes they hardly notice them. They are letting things run their course. They are getting through their lives.
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