Lessons from the Old Testament
Psalm 118, 1-2, 14-24 (All Years, Easter Day), is part of a psalm of thanksgiving, a powerful testimony to the to the direct help of God and joyful surrender to God who can overcome all afflictions. Death is a formidable power, which wants to take control; but the Lord will not let it happen. The day of rescue is a day for joy. The abiding goodness of the Lord is the theme of the psalm. He holds the Lord in highest esteem, as one whose qualities worshippers ought to desire. Jewish piety had the thought of the goodness of the Lord underlying the summons to praise and offer thanks in prayer.[1]One can understand hesed as covenant loyalty, graciousness, and kindness. The Lord honors covenants made with us human beings, sometimes even when we breach them. The Lord is the strength and might of the poet, giving him victory. The right hand of the Lord is a metaphor for the action of the Lord in defending Israel against its enemies, so the Lord is the mighty hero of this poet. The poet has faced enemies that desired his death, but he lives so that he can proclaim the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has punished him severely but did not allow death to have the final word. The king asks those in the temple to open the gates of righteousness, living by right, by the moral and ethical standards of the Lord in relationship to others, or even the gates of victory, so that he can give thanks to the Lord. The congregations affirms that the deliverance of the Lord beat the odds in rescuing and honoring the unlikely one, viewing Israel (or the king) as the rejected one that has now become the chief cornerstone, a reversal of expectations. The congregation admits that this is the doing of the Lord, a marvel acted out in their presence. The rejected one has become prominent and irreplaceable. Given that Judaism would later apply this reversal of expectations to the Messiah, it is no surprise that Christians did so as well, for which see Matthew 21:42, Acts 4:11, and I Peter 2:7. From NT times, Christians have seen connections between Psalm 18:22-23 and the initial rejection and suffering of Jesus, followed by his subsequent vindication when God raised him from the dead. Ephesians 2:19-22 calls Jesus Christ ἀκρογωνιαίου (v. 20: the corner, cornerstone, capstone, or keystone). A popular hymn from the 600s and translated from the Latin by John Mason Neale (1818-1866) begins with the notion that God has made Christ the sure foundation, head, and cornerstone, the chosen one, and precious, binding all the church in one. The poet ends with affirming that he is glad in what the Lord has done.
Psalm 16:5-11 (Year A, Second Sunday of Easter) is a psalm of trust, a statement of faith in God. The poet alludes to the land (portion, lot, boundary lines, and pleasant places) to suggest that he sees the Lord in all places. He also refers to his body, such as heart, the center of conscience, and the Lord being present to him and so close that he will not moved. This leads him, heart and soul, giving him bodily security, to rejoice in hope. The poet is in the capable hands of Lord. Thus, the Lord did not surrender him to the shadowy realm of Sheol/the Pit. This personal experience of confidence and trust in God eventually leads this community of believers toward the notion that not even death can break the relationship. His faith and total commitment to God call for a union that defies dissolution, hence he must pray to escape death that would break that union. Death will not be a trap, but rather, will manifest the life-giving power of God. Assurance of this is present communion with God. These verses became an important part of Christian tradition, with Acts 2:25-28 quoting verses 8-11b in the LXX version and verse 10b in Acts 13:35. These quotes properly provide a theological context for understanding the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It shows that the destiny of Jesus, the one who lived faithful to the Shema of Israel, tied his destiny to his communion with his heavenly Father. He became the fulfillment of the hope of the psalmist.
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19 (Year A, Third Sunday of Easter, limited in verses 1-2 in Year A June 12-18) is a hymn of thanksgiving for recovery from serious illness. He must face his recent suffering and impending death, but he relies upon the Lord for help and deliverance. He can rely upon the Lord because the Lord is gracious, righteous, and merciful. The help the Lord provides transforms him. He has kept the faith even while going through affliction. He knows his weakness, but he focuses upon faithfulness. The author places himself before the Lord as a servant, offering thanks to the Lord. He has a fear of death. He is aware that death surrounds him and the suffering of Sheol, a common symbol for dire sickness or trouble, lays hold of him. He suffers distress and anguish. The poet is helpless and relies upon God. The Lord can deliver. The Lord has answered his cry for help in the past and now he calls upon the help of the Lord again. In verse 3-4, death becomes an enemy when it has the potential of coming early. From this premature death the psalmist asked for deliverance. The psalmist reflects the view found throughout the psalter that life and death, far from being thoroughgoing opposites, were in fact part of a continuum of one reality of being, along which the individual was always located at any given moment, being simultaneously in life and in death. By force of circumstances - serious illness or injury, attack by enemies, social and familial rejection, spiritual collapse - an individual's position on the life-death continuum could shift dramatically, with one force or the other dominating one's existence. To be delivered from the "death end" of the life-death continuum was one of the prime occasions for such a song of thanksgiving as this one. He prays that the Lord would save his life. When he called upon the Lord to save his life, he was asking the Lord to bring him back from the possibility of physical death and give him further physical life. However, I suspect that he was also asking the Lord to give him new, vital, and vigorous life. He was not wanting restoration to the same old thing he had before. In verse 12, thus, in answer to his prayer, the Lord transforms his being. He wonders what he can give to the Lord to express his gratitude. The cup refers to part of the libation that accompanies the offering of thanksgiving. The death of the faithful is precious to the Lord because death is costly. The Lord does not wish those who adhere to the Lord to die. Therefore, the poet is assured that the Lord keep him alive. He expresses humility as he becomes a servant of the Lord the rest of his life. The Lord has freed him from the bondage of his illness or trouble, so he will offer his thank offering at the Temple.
Psalm 23 (Year A, B, C, Fourth Sunday of Easter, but see my discussion for Year A, Fourth Sunday in Lent).
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 (Year A, Fifth Sunday of Easter) is a personal lament. It calls on the Lord for help and affirms the trust of the poet in the Lord. The theme is that of a person who has suffered from a prolonged illness, persecuted by enemies, and shunned by friends. The poet seeks God in the face of the threat of a violent death. It expresses quiet trust in the unfailing care of God, even if the poet takes a difficult journey toward it. The poet wonders if his life has meaning or value. The poet begins with verbs and metaphors that indicate he is prayerfully seeking saving, delivering and protective power from the Lord. The Lord is a refuge, using metaphors of strength and protection. It can seem precarious to trust in the Lord, especially when the culture shames us. Shame suggests that who you are does not measure up to the standards of those who shame you. You have not just done something the other dislikes, but who you are is not sufficient to be included in their group. Such moments disclose our priorities. Have we made an idol out of the group so that acceptance by the group becomes our all-consuming concern? In ethics and in decision-making, it can be helpful to consider what those whom we admire might do, even asking ourselves how they would respond they knew of our decisions. Such a consideration is part of wisdom. However, to adjust our thoughts and behaviors because a group shames us for who we are is a different matter. To affirm belief in the Lord as the rock and fortress of his life is to affirm that what matters is the honor of the Lord, who will guide and lead. His petition is for the Lord to free him from the net his adversaries have laid. He commits his life to the Lord, a phrase Luke uses of both Jesus (Luke 23:46) and Stephen (Acts 7:59) as they near death. His trust in the protection the Lord provides shows his submission to the will of the Lord. His times are in the hand of the Lord. The invisible hand of the Lord had been stretched out toward him, and he now sees that hand and entrusts himself to it. The Lord, who is the giver of life, receives the life of the servant back again. He reaffirms that the Lord has redeemed (ransomed, rescued) him. The Lord returns his life to him. The Lord is the God whom he can rely upon and believe in because the Lord is true to the divine self and continues to be whom the Lord has shown himself to be in revelation.[2] Time belongs to the Lord. Putting it personally, our time belongs to the Lord. We live on time borrowed time in that the Lord in giving life lends us time. The lonely one has discovered God and refuge. The author is not speaking about the length of his life, but about what will be happening in his life, which depends on God. The author trustingly places his precarious life (due to his persecuting enemies and snubbing acquaintances) in God’s trustworthy, providential care. He prays for deliverance from enemies, which will mean the face of the Lord turns toward him and saves him because of the faithful love of the Lord.
Psalm 66:8-20 (Year A, Sixth Sunday of Easter) is a communal thanksgiving and lament. This portion of the psalm is a hymn extolling the majesty of God and miraculous saving deeds. It turns from Israel to the nations, who should praise the God of Israel who has not let the people of God perish. The history of suffering is also a history of God's grace. God has kept them among the living, leading Christian interpreters in the history of tradition to view this as a resurrection psalm. God has allowed Israel to survive numerous trials, starting with the most dramatic, the deliverance at the Sea of Reeds. The writer briefly elaborates on the history of the tribulations of Israel. A recent event in which Israel has been threatened but delivered from harm parallels the exodus. This may be a reference to the exile, expressed in terms of the exodus from Egypt, the arduous trek through the wilderness, and the crossing of the Jordan. God has tested them as if assaying precious metals. God brought them to the trap of the net and laid burdens upon them, allowing others to ride over their heads and bring them through fire and water. Yet, God is also the one who brought them to a spacious place, the Promised Land, a place of security and abundance, allowing them to rejoice. The poet offers a thank offering for the answer to his prayer. He has received help. The poet has also been led by God through judgment and been brought to salvation. The author gives no particulars. The person is now caught up in the divine saving history, and in fact, he has a saving history all his own! He will bring multiple animal sacrifices to the Lord, suggesting some wealth. He invites others to hear what the God has done. God has listened, answered his prayer, and continued to act in steadfast love. Telling others of the goodness of God toward us is part of what it means to thank God. Since has not cherished iniquity (אָ֭וֶן wickedness) the Lord (Adonai) has listened to his prayer. He invites the peoples to offer praise because God has accepted his prayer and maintained faithful love to him.
Psalm 133 (Year B, Second Sunday of Easter) is a wisdom psalm that takes a feature of family life and makes it a subject of teaching. It attempts to preserve the tradition of brothers living together at a time when it is declining. We might remember the stories of the difficult relationships within the extended families of the Patriarchs in Genesis or later the family of David and the kings of Israel. The verse is a reference to the typical tribal patterns of living, especially when male relatives shared grazing land for their sheep and cattle. Recall the Genesis accounts of Abraham and Lot, and Jacob and Esau. Often, sharing land resulted in nasty internecine squabbles and an eventual parting of the ways. Abraham and Lot could not live together, nor could Jacob and Esau. The story of Joseph and his brothers is an extended reflection on the danger of not living in harmony as brothers as well as how good and pleasant it is with the restoration of such relationships. When the siblings or kindred parted, often it was not a pleasant scene. Abraham and Lot were the exception, thanks primarily to Abraham’s remarkable wisdom and gentle disposition. He fixes his eye on the ideal of the extended family. Most of us have families dysfunctional enough to know that of which the writer speaks. Yet, when families that have a history of animosity change to a culture of acceptance and cooperation, we agree that goodness has entered. Others will take notice. Capulets sit down with Montagues, Hatfields with the McCoys, Catholics with Protestants, Jews with Muslims, conservatives with liberals, Democrats with Republicans, then we know something remarkably pleasant has happened. It makes for the good and pleasant in this life. Notice the text does not say that there is anything salvific or theologically redemptive about this. It is just good. It is pleasant. Of course, that is redemptive, and it might even result in the salvation of lives. Certainly, it would be true in the Middle East. Nevertheless, the psalmist is not trying to make a case for ecumenism, theological unity, or sharing doctrinal positions. Rather, this speaks to issues of long-standing estrangement. This speaks to the possibility of reconciliation. He is aware of the spiritual value of ancient traditions. Precious oil will show hospitality for guests. The anointing of priests brings divine blessing to Mount Zion. Such goodness and pleasantness in such relationships will lead to the preservation of their lives in the eternity of God. Actions that lead to goodness and pleasantness in this life will have a saving and redemptive result for eternity.
Psalm 4 (Year B Third Sunday of Easter) is an individual lament. God has been dealing with the psalmist, so others should listen. If others examine themselves, they will discover their lack of faith and lead them to repent. The psalmist's reputation is at stake. The lament (verses 1-3) include a demand that God answer when the poet calls. The answer is that God gave him room when enemies had closed in upon him. When circumstances hemmed him it, God opened up things for him. He asks that God be gracious to him in hearing his prayer. He wonders how long hi honor will suffer shame. He wonders how long love will come with vain words and seeking after lies. However, God may well be asking the poet how long the honor of God will suffer shame and how long the poet will love God with vain words and seek after lies. A sharp contrast occurs as the poet affirms his faith in the reliability of the Lord. Verses 4-8 are an address from the poet to others who need faith in the reliability of God. If the events of life disturb you, do not sin. Rather, he urges to ponder it upon their beds and be silent, offer right sacrifices, and place trust in the Lord. The term “disturbed” that occurs here is sometimes translated “angry,” as in the classic phrase, “Be angry but do not sin.” This version 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. 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.
What disheartens his friends is that long to see some good and a sign that the Lord is kindly disposed toward them, especially with a good harvest. Yet, the poet refuses to allow the despair of others to blind him to his need for trust in the Lord, offering the testimony that the Lord has put gladness in his heart that is greater than if grain abounded. Thus, he evidence of divine goodness is the gladness in his heart. He does not depend on the outward signs of wealth and abundance that others look for in the form of a large harvest of grain or wine. Rather, he feels God’s faithfulness internally, which is a form of wealth more valuable than earthly prosperity. The final verse describes the ultimate result of faith in God, where he can sleep in peace, for the Lord gives him safety.
Psalm 22:25-31 (Year B, Fifth Sunday of Easter, Good Friday, and Year B, Second Sunday in Lent)
Psalm 98 (Year B Sixth Sunday of Easter) is an enthronement hymn. The hunger they had for joy was persistent, so much as that it is a sign that joy is more lasting than are troubles. In fact, the sounds of nature join with human voices to offer praise to the Lord. The Lord has calmed nature on behalf of human beings. Praise is the natural anticipated response of all creation for its Creator. In verses 1-2, having experienced powerful deliverance from the Lord, they joyfully sing praises to the Lord. The event nature of the faith of Israel, and therefore of Christian faith as well, comes out here. The writer can look back upon events of victory and the marvelous deeds of the Lord. These events will give rise to the praise we find in this song. These events reveal the nature of the Lord, who is worthy of praise today. In verses 3-8, the poet summons the people to worship. The past marvelous and victorious events give rise to a summons to an event in the life of the community and individuals to praise and worship. The Lord remembers these things, a fact that brings comfort, especially as the Lord remembers the central attributes of the Lord in steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. Public witness to this attribute will demonstrate the victory of God to the ends of the earth. God comes for the world. Everyone will see the righteousness of God. These marvelous and victorious events also give rise to the hope that the Lord will remember who the Lord is today and act today in similarly marvelous and victorious ways today. Thus, the goal of history is revelation of the righteousness of the Lord. The deliverance the Lord brought was a public act to which the peoples can witness, a notion important in scripture. Thus, only in this future consummation of world history, with the deity of God and divine glory manifest to all peoples, will history reach its goal.[3] For that reason, the response of persons to such marvelous and victorious deeds will always be a matter of faith and hope. The poet calls upon the world to give homage to the Lord by making a joyful noise to the Lord with all the instruments and before the King, who is the Lord. As king, the Lord rules and judges the world. In the context of this Psalm, the judgment of the Lord is favorable, so the people offer praise. The Lord has righted wrongs and therefore elicits praise from the people of the Lord. Nature sets in motion to offer praise to the Lord as well. The sounds of nature join with human voices to offer praise to the Lord. The Lord has calmed nature on behalf of human beings. Praise is the natural anticipated response of all creation for its Creator. The poet concludes with the coming of the Lord and a messianic era of worldwide justice, for human beings and nature joining in such praise is at the presence of the Lord, who is coming to judge with righteousness and equity.
The poet can offer devotional instructions on what it takes to live a holy life (Psalm 1, Year B, Seventh Sunday of Easter, and Year C Epiphany 6). Sometimes, people need to hear words of affirmation regarding the course they are following. This psalm reminds us of the happiness we can find in following the way God prescribed. It has a simplicity, but one that masks its difficulty. This psalm points us to the blessedness or the life of human flourishing that relies upon the Lord. Those who compiled the Psalter did not choose to begin with a psalm whose first words cited David as its author or gave instructions for musicians or singers. Rather, the whole Psalter begins with devotional instructions on what it takes to live a holy life, which will in turn lead to a happy and fruitful life. The Psalm assumes that each of us has a choice as to the kind of people we will be.
Character is the fruit of personal choice‑‑and exertion. We do not inherit it from parents. We do not have it as an appendage to our birth, to wealth, or station in life. Character is the result of our endeavors to respond to the challenges of life. Character is the result and reward of "good principles sown in the course of a lifetime of virtuous and honorable action" (J. Dawes). One way to think of character is by what you are willing to do when the spotlight is turned off what you are doing, the applause has died down, and no one is around to give you credit.
The psalm begins with a contrast of two ways. Its concern is to show how readers can be Happy (‘ashrei), fortunate, rich, blessed, and prosperous. Such a person has discovered what it means to live a life in harmony with God. However, becoming wise in this way takes more than a sheer acquisition of knowledge. Israelite wisdom tradition does not value knowledge for its own sake; it values wisdom, which combines piety, humility, and a right reverence for God with a deep understanding and appreciation for how God intends the world to work. Think of Genesis 2, where a stream of water flows from the earth and provides for trees in the Garden of Eden. Think of Jeremiah 17, where the prophet contrasts the shrubs in the desert with the tree planted by life-giving water. John used the concept of “living water” to have Jesus describe the nurturing relationship of God to the Samaritan woman (John 4). Paul talks about living a life that is “rooted” in Christ (Colossians 2:6-7). Our willingness to root our lives in a relationship with God, a relationship characterized by obedience, is what yields true happiness and a life that yields “fruit.” Just as the wicked may offer their advice, and the sinner may offer leadership, the cynical and disrespectful may achieve prominent office in society. Such persons hold in contempt the value of wisdom and moral uprightness. They “know better” than what Israel has received in Torah. When we are full of self and our resources, we have no room for God. The person who is wise and hopes to become “happy” because of that wisdom will avoid such persons and associations. One way to think of this is our relationship to the culture that forms us. Today, we might need to think of our sub-culture or tribe. Some of its values may well be godly, even where it does not know it as such. Some of its values may not be so. Our happiness is in learning the difference. Wisdom develops a form of resistance when it needs to resist. Throughout the psalm, the image of traveling on the right path in life recurs. By both opening and closing the psalm with the image of the “way” the psalmist stresses that those who wish to live a life whose value will live on in the world after them must walk the life-path that God sanctions.
The focus upon Torah, or for the Christian, the Word of God as a faithful witness to the revelation of God in Israel and in Jesus Christ, is the path that helps us to maintain ourselves as the people of God in distinction from our tribe. Genuine flourishing, blessing, and joy are not in the values of the culture or tribe in which we find ourselves. Virtue is a state of character gained by repeatedly performing good actions.[4] Virtue is an acquired excellence of character that renders a person capable over the long haul of behaving in certain reliable ways.[5] Thus, the law is a source of joy for it reveals the will of the Lord. Without the event of revelation of Torah, which means God’s “teaching” (from the Hebrew verb yrh, “to teach”), one cannot be wise.
While the righteous have deep roots, the wicked are like chaff. A simple gust of wind can blow away chaff. Jeremiah 17:6-7 says they are like shrubs in the desert that do not see relief and no longer bear fruit. If their lives are on the surface, they will not withstand judgment from the Lord. What we need for human flourishing, happiness and blessedness is to have a life properly rooted and grounded. Like the roots of a tree, the source of such a life is real, but hidden below the surface. Such a life has its roots in a relationship with God in which we accept the guidance that God gives for the way we live. Such a life acknowledges its dependence upon the Lord. It will also not allow adverse circumstances or challenges to carry it away.
Psalm 47 (All Years, Ascension Day) is an eschatological or enthronement hymn. This psalm elaborates on the acclamation, “Yahweh is King.” The enthronement of Yahweh is the occasion. The empire extends to all nations who will one day join the chosen people. History and eschatology take on actual significance in worship. This is a great Ascension Sunday psalm because the psalm is a futuristic look at God who ascends amid shouts of joy and thunderous applause. As the Lord subdued the nations of Canaan for the Israelites, so the Lord will subdue all nations to the will and rule of the Lord. The Lord chose Israel, reminding us that divine election is an historical act that forms the starting point and basis of the salvation history of God with the people of God. [6] The poet considers history in the context of the goal toward which history is moving. The election of Israel and the giving land is the initiation of the kingly rule of God over the nations. The kingdom is eternal and universal, but actualized in history, and experienced afresh as a reality in the present cultivation of a relationship with the Lord and with the people of God.[7] The expectation of the rule of God was a hope for the just rule of God that will fill the earth, with this verse suggesting that the covenant people were to be already in a special way the kingdom in which its God reigns as King.[8] God takes the throne to be king of the whole earth. The poet extends the covenant with Abraham to all nations, the nations becoming the people of God, ending on an eschatological note. The majesty of God makes distinctions between religions and nations vanish. God will bring in a kingdom of peace, ending on a note of exclusive joy in God.
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35 (Year A, Seventh Sunday of Easter) is a hymn of thanksgiving that covers the stages of history of the people of God. The procession of God depicts God as coming from Mt. Sinai, through the wilderness and the divine provision for them, to take up residence in Zion. The theme is that of an upbeat, exultant praise of God for what God has given Israel in the way of providence, salvation, and deliverance.[9] It describes the victory of God over the enemies of God and the choice of Jerusalem as the place of divine dominion. While the enemies of God will no longer exist, the righteous are joyful in the presence of God. The poet reflects upon the benevolence of the rule of God, emphasizing the care, support, and responsibility God has for the powerless and dispossessed in Israel. The concluding benediction contains an imperative to sing praises to God, who in the sanctuary gives power and strength to the people. As in Isaiah 2:2-4 and Micah 4:1-3, the nations come to Zion, God dispenses justice and weapons of war become instruments of peace.
Psalm 150 (Year C Second Sunday of Easter) is a hymn, a simple call for people to praise the Lord. It becomes a joyful summons to all living creation to praise its Creator however, wherever and with whatever means are available. The psalter ends with a praise chorus. It opens and closes with Hallelu-yah or the encouragement to praise the Lord. This praise is to arise in the sanctuary, the heart of the religious community of Israel. The dome above the earth, the firmament, is to offer is praise. This praise because of the might and greatness of the deeds of the Lord, probably referring to creation as well as the historical acts that liberated a people from Egypt, brought them through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land. The faith of Israel does not arise from cool pondering of human experience. The faith of Israel arises out of events it viewed as acts of God. It was not the universal in the philosophical sense that meant so much to Israel, but the events in which the Lord acted to guide, judge, deliver, and redeem. This praise is to be offered with all musical instruments, suggesting worship in the Temple. It concludes by calling upon everything that has breath to praise the Lord, an appropriate doxology for the psalter.
Psalm 30 (Year C Third Sunday of Easter, see Year B Sixth Sunday of Epiphany)
Psalm 148 (Year C Fifth Sunday of Easter) is a hymn of praise, part of the doxological conclusion to the psalter (146-150). The Septuagint of Daniel 3 includes this Psalm as a song of praise by the three men in the burning furnace, called the Song of the Three Holy Children in the Apocrypha. The Psalm begins and ends with Praise the Lord! (halelu-yah).[10] In verses 1-6, the heaven and celestial beings offer praise to the Lord. The psalm begins with the note of cosmic scope that the ancient writers envisioned a single heaven with multiple layers. Eventually, in later Jewish and early Christian writings, cosmology developed into seven layers. The psalmist then identifies the personnel of the heavens/heights: angels, the heavenly armies (the Lord is the divine warrior), sun, moon, stars, the waters above the heavens, where the throne of the Lord is. They praise the name of the Lord because the command of the Lord created them. The Lord established them forever and fixed their boundaries. Thus, the psalm begins with a cosmic scope of praise. The Lord has a personal relationship with every part of nature. All of this suggests that an order and teleology is at work that nothing can break.[11] Verses 7-10 hint then even the sinister parts of life on earth offer praise to the Lord: monsters, deeps, lightning, hail, snow, frost, storms, mountains trees, wild animals, cattle, creeping things, birds. Verses 11-14 call upon people to join the chorus of heavenly beings and nature: kings, princes, young men and women, elderly. All are to praise the name of Lord, the divine essence, for the name of the Lord is exalted and the glory of the Lord is above earth and heaven. The Lord has raised up a king or savior, providing a messianic end to the psalm, for the faithful, the people of Israel who are close to the Lord, a unique phrasing. A similar expression occurs in the apocryphal book of Judith — “[T]he Lord scourges those who are close to him in order to admonish them” (8:27) — and in the book of Ecclesiasticus (in the hymn inserted between 51:12 and 51:13, which quotes this psalm).
Psalm 67 (Year C Sixth Sunday of Easter) is a community thanksgiving for harvest. The focus of the Aaronite blessing, Numbers 6:24-26, is more on on God than on material blessing. Praying that the face of God shine upon them is a standard request for an expression of favor in the Psalms (e.g., Psalm 31:16; 4:6; 80:3, 7, 19; 119:135). That the face of the Lord would shine reminds us that Israel's deity, from the earliest stages of Israelite religion, had an association with the natural phenomenon of light. The encounter of Moses with Yahweh was with the burning bush (Exodus 3:2). The exodus narrative includes the Lord leading the people through the wilderness by a pillar of fire at night (Exodus 13:21 and Psalm 78:14). The lightning of God lit up the world (Psalm 77:18, 36:9, 43:3, Isaiah 60:19). The ancient Near Eastern background of such imagery seems clear.[12] The psalm shifts abruptly to addressing God in the second person (verses 2-4), offering reasons why God should affirm the request. First, it will bring knowledge of God, attempting to draw nations into the sphere of praise in which Israel lived in relationship to its God. Second, the psalmist invites the entire world to praise God. Even judgment brings thanksgiving and joy. The desired result of the favor of the Lord is international social justice. Verses 5-7 makes the request in verse 1 explicit. The world needs to see God as the giver of the gifts. They must not just focus on the enjoyment of earthly pleasures. A further result of the favor of the Lord is natural bounty. Here we see that social justice and natural prosperity are two sides of the same coin. Both depend on establishing and maintaining a right relationship with God. The thanksgiving leads to hope and salvation. The loving-kindness of God reveals the majesty and sovereignty of God.
Psalm 97 (Year C Seventh Sunday of Easter) is an enthronement hymn. Like psalms 95 and 96, it emphasizes the justice and power of the Lord. As in other enthronement hymns, it depicts a utopian world. It affirms the glory of the rule of the Lord. The Lord comes with such piercing brilliance, such displays of power, and such a wondrous entourage of righteousness and justice that everyone sees it and even the mountains melt like wax. Such shimmering glory exposes all that is false, dark, and distorted. The psalm may derive from the period of 921 to 586 BC. The Israelites have built the Temple. The people recited the psalm at the covenant festival. It reflects the traditions around Sinai. The psalm becomes an artful, worshipful assemblage of themes found also in other biblical passages. Verses 1-6 show the appearance of the Lord. The enthronement has already taken place. Several psalms honor the LORD as king (see 10:16; 93:1; 96:10; 97:1; 98:6-9; 99:1); also I Chronicles 16:31-34. The earth and islands are to rejoice, as in Psalm 18:7-14. Such theophanic images are like those in Exodus 19:16 ff. (Moses) and I Kings 19:11-12 (Elijah), both at Mount Sinai/Horeb. In verses 2-5, the Lord appears as powerful in a theophany, as at Sinai. The hope of an establishment of the royal rule of the Lord over the nations had taken on eschatological features, as all the peoples behold the glory of the Lord.[13] Verses 7-12 shows the effect of the appearance of the Lord on the Gentiles. We shall see that responses to the awesome appearance of the Lord vary. In 96:4-5, divine beings hold the Lord in a awe, for they are mere idols. This psalm degrades other deities even further, showing progression in these psalms. The Lord has already done combat with the gods. The righteous, Zion and the towns of Judah, do not shrink back from the just rule of the Lord, but rather, they welcome it and join with the Lord in that rule. Since the Lord loves those who hate evil, the poet encourages the righteous to be part of this fight. The Lord guards and rescues the faithful (Hasid) from the wicked. Light and joy come to the upright in heart, ending with a call for them to rejoice in the Lord and give thanks. To the holy name of the Lord.
Psalm 104:24-34 (Pentecost) is a hymn that focuses upon nature. The creation focus of Psalm 104 is like that of Psalm 19:1-6 and Genesis 1, where the Lord created sun, moon and stars (which other people worshiped as gods/goddesses), and the creation praises the Creator. Also, in Psalms 96:9-13; 98:7-9; and 148 (all), creation itself does the praise-singing. Other passages that marvel at creation include Psalms 8 and 89; Proverbs 8:23-31. the sequence here of plants before the stars is like Genesis 1, largely because they belong closely to the earth and to depreciate the stars in comparison with the divine rank that the stars had in the religious world around Israel, especially Babylon.[14] One parallel to Psalm 104 in another culture is that of Ikhnaton, Pharaoh Amenophes IV (1375-1358 BC), Hymn to the Sun. it refers to the beauty of the sun, affirming it has the beginning of life. The sun blinds the earth with its love. The world is in silence and darkness until the sin rises. Animals, like cattle, birds, and sheep, as well as vegetation, offer praise to the sun. The sun gives life and breath. The sun (Aton) makes the Nile in the Netherworld to preserve the people of Egypt. Aton is in the heart of the poet and holds the earth in its hand. In verses 24-26, wonder fills the sea, to the point where Leviathan plays in it. In fact, one can sense the exuberance of the writer. James Herriot notices this exuberance in the title of his book, The Lord God Made Them All. We find such exuberance as well in the New Testament, for the Lord is worthy to receive glory, honor, and power, for the Lord created all things (Revelation 4:11). Creation occurs through wisdom (Proverbs 3:19, and the parallel Psalm 136:5, as well as Jeremiah 10:12 and 51:15). Indeed, in Proverbs 8:22 ff., God creates Wisdom first. A common observation among scholars today is that the Torah and the Prophets view the Lord primarily in terms of covenant, while the wisdom tradition views the Lord primarily through the Lord as creator. If one observes life, one can see the harmony in creation and live in right relation to it.[15] Such wisdom teaching is akin to the New Testament's understanding that God created and sustains everything through Christ; see such passages as John 1:1-5, 10, 14, where God explicitly has created everything through the logoV/Word. Also see Hebrews 1:2-3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:13-17 ("firstborn," from prwtotokoV, can mean either first in order or highest in rank = supreme over). The carol/hymn "Of the Father's Love Begotten"[16] reflects this outlook.
Of the Father's love begotten
ere the worlds began to be,
he is Alpha and Omega,
he the Source, the Ending he,
of the things that are, that have been,
and that future years shall see,
evermore and evermore!
…
now he shines, the long-expected;
let creation praise its Lord,
evermore and evermore!
…
let no tongue on earth be silent,
ev'ry voice in concert ring,
evermore and evermore!
Among the creatures of the sea is Leviathan, a serpentine or crocodilian sea monster whom the Lord made to play in the sea. In verses 27-34, the Lord is the preserver of life. The Lord cares for each individual creature, providing it with food and water at the right time, a sign of the Lord preserving creation.[17] The poetically expressed fear of all creatures is that the Lord might "hide his face," that is remove the divine presence, from them. They would experience dismay ("terror" or "panic") because if the Lord were to take away their breath (ruach), they would die. (The same Hebrew root words for "hide," "face" and "dismay" appears in Psalm 30:7.)[18] Theologically, this notion connects with the infinity of God as the source of the life-sustaining nearness of God. For God to turn away is to create fear because it would mean denial of life.[19] The breath of the Lord preserves all life. This suggests that life presupposes life. Humanity had nothing to do with creating the conditions for its own life.[20] Ruach is a mysteriously invisible natural force that declares itself especially in the movement of the wind. This is the background of the statement in John 3:8. This passage says the Spirit is the incalculable force of the origin of all life. The breath of the Lord is a creative life force.[21] The Spirit is the source of life. The life of the creature is through the divine Spirit and the continued enjoyment of life is the result of a loan of life at creation. Without this connection with the Lord, creation could never reach its goal.[22] The sending forth of the spirit suggests movement within time and space. The Lord not only creates but also sustains creation. The creative activity continues as the Lord providentially gives ongoing breath and sustenance (daily food from the hand of the Lord, to the creatures the Lord has made, as also in Psalm 145:15-16 and 147:7-9). The Spirit of the Lord is the life-giving principle, to which all creatures owe life, movement, and activity. This is particularly true of animals, plants, and humans.[23] This verse also connects with the notion of the Lord doing new things in creation, such as its evolution, as a creative act of the Lord.[24] Wind, breath and spirit are three often-interchangeable meanings of the Hebrew word ruach; similarly, pneumain Greek (as in the play on words in John 3), from which we get our word pneumatic (air-filled). So, unless the Lord sustains their breath, all creatures return to the dust from which they are made (see Genesis 2:7; 3:19; Psalm 90:3; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Job 34:14-15: "If God should take back the spirit [ruach] to himself, and gather to himself his breath, all flesh would perish together, and all mortals return to dust."). In contrast, when God sends forth the spirit (the divine ruach, the "life-giving breath" - NET) God creates them (anew). The Old Testament uses 'bara' for God's creating (as Genesis 1:1, 21, 27 [three times]; 2:3, 4). The poet will sing to the Lord as long as he has being, desiring that is meditations, thoughts, or musings in this psalm are pleasing to the Lord, for he rejoices in the Lord, desiring his soul to bless and praise the Lord.
Psalm 29 (Year B Trinity Sunday) is an enthronement hymn that evokes images of the power and Glory of the Lord that subdues the enemies of Israel and assures the nation peace. We pause before the mystery of an unbelievable power that can transform the confusing, painful, terrifying stuff of our lives and world into hope, freedom, and peace. We acknowledge our limits and frailty. However, opening ourselves to awe increases tolerance for uncertainty and opens our receptivity to new and unusual ideas that are crucial if we are to make significant changes in our view of the world. Such awe is an experience of vastness and a need for our accommodation to that vastness. Our attention shifts to what is outside us. Such awe opens us to the wisdom we will need in life. For example, awe reminds us of our littleness amid vastness, which can enhance our connectedness to others. Even the awareness of the vastness of the universe can draw attention to the precious quality of local meaning. Such awe or wonderment is the beginning of religion, even as it is the beginning of philosophical reflection (Kant). Awe leads to a sense of the sacredness of life and gratitude for life. God has unrestricted power, creating without a struggle with chaos.[25] As a result, the people of the Lord can look at torrents, earthquakes, cataclysms, convulsions of nature, regardless of their mystery and lawlessness at first sight, as harmonious notes in the song of creation and varied expressions of the love the Lord has for them.[26] The people of God are always in need of strength and peace, given the ambiguities and harshness of this world. Shalom is a peace that passes all understanding. It suggests the inner peace one receives when one experiences unity with the world, even if only for a moment.[27]
Psalm 8 (Years A and C, Trinity Sunday) is a hymn in which contemplation upon the stars leads the poet to focus on the majesty of the creator. This hymn of praise to God is for God having created human beings in the divine image, and for placing us in a natural world of wonders where the divine-human relationship is the greatest wonder of all. The whole Psalm may be a reflection upon Genesis 1 and 2. It begins with referring to Yahweh Adonai, a rare occurrence in the Old Testament. It begins and ends with the inclusion, which stresses the theme of the psalm as the majesty of the name of the Lord Adonai in all the earth. The psalm begins and ends with awe and joy in the glory of the Lord. Since the Lord set divine glory about the heavens, the rule of the Lord is manifest in works that proclaim divine glory. The goal of creation is the glory of the Lord in the sense that creation is an expression of the free love of the creator in action oriented fully toward that which God has made. [28] In referring to the mouths of babes and infants, those just learning to speak, Genesis 1 refers to the word of God as the source of creation, but here suggesting that little children are a revelation of the Lord, even as Jesus alluded to this in Matthew 21:15-16. The Lord establishes strength as well because of the foe, to silence the enemy and avenger, suggesting that even the utterances of those learning to talk will make sure of the victory of the Lord over forces that attempt to thwart the creative purpose of the Lord. Verses 3-9 articulate the position of human beings within the divinely created order. The poet looks at the heavens, referring to Genesis 1, and the work of the fingers of the Lord, referring to Genesis 2, the moon and the stars that that God established, referring to Genesis 1, and he ponders the immensity of creation as the divine handiwork. His contemplation leads him to reflect upon humanity (‘enosh) or mortals (ben-‘adam) and how the Lord Adonai engages in the characteristic activity of caring for them. We find a similar pairing in Psalm 144:3-4, where the question is the same as this text, but the answer is that they are like a breath and their days are like a passing shadow. A similar pairing occurs in Psalm 73:5. The Hebrew nuance suggests amazement at the Lord noticing a single human being as an individual amid the vastness of the universe. To paraphrase the astonished psalm-singer’s words, “Given the vastness and complexity of the universe, why would you, Majestic Lord, take note of and care deeply for a single one of those human beings!?” The universe is, in ways the poet could know scientifically but has intuited well, astronomically large, and infinitesimally small (subatomic particles). God’s creation is amazing and awe-inspiring. How does insignificant humanity matter to God at all? The poet ponders how the characteristic activity of the Lord is that of being mindful of and caring for human beings. Humanity seems so insignificant in the presence of such immensity of the universe. Yet, the poet finds that the Lord has interest in humanity. The Lord is paying attention to the single, individual human being amid the vastness of the universe. The questions arise due to amazement that the Lord distinguishes humanity from other creatures.[29] Job 7:16-21 is an interesting and cynical reversal of this notion. In his suffering, Job desires that God would pay less attention and leave him alone. The answer of the psalmist to his own question is that only out of the free kindness of the Lord does humanity become a partner with the Lord.[30] The insignificance of the creature shows the grandeur of creation. Yet, what is the rightful place of human beings? For the Lord Adonai has made human beings a little lower than ‘elohim, which could refer to God but more likely refers to divine beings, crowning them with glory and honor, giving human creation the quality of the divine glory and honor. [31] Humanity receives this glory and honor in the governing or dominion role that God has offered humanity over the rest of creation. Genesis 1:26 uses differing Hebrews words, but the thought is the same. God makes humanity in the image and likeness of divine beings and grants them dominion over other living things. This notion is part of the basic respect for life that we might see as the ethical implication of creation. Human lordship is a responsibility for the earth, and especially for animal life (verses 7-8).[32] This ruling position of humanity expresses human closeness to God. God calls upon human beings to share and exercise the dominion of God over creation. Genesis derives the human task of rule directly from the fact that human beings are representatives of God in the divine rule over creation. Human beings prepare the way for the divine dominion in the world.[33] Humans simply share in in the divine likeness and the associated dominion over other creatures that distinguishes humans from the rest of the creatures of God.[34] Hebrews 2:6-8 and I Corinthians 15:27 quote from this part of the psalm. The answer to the question raised in verse 4, as to how God takes an interest in humanity, comes in the form of succinct anthropology, dependent upon Genesis 1-2. All this testifies to the theme: of the majesty of the name of Yahweh Adonai.
Psalm 8 is a reminder that human beings are part of creation, as well as the ones most responsible for its care.
First, Psalm 8 paints a big history. I have long had an interest in the big story of science. I still find myself fascinated by the history of the earth. In a documentary on Netflix, I saw graphics of the origin of the Milky Way Galaxy, the evolution of this solar system, and the making of the moon. The earth itself has gone through dramatic changes over millions of years, going from quite hot, when Indiana had tropical weather, to a new term, “snowball earth,” when the earth was covered in a sheet of ice. Of course, such a documentary will show the gathering of land and sea, the slow emergence of life, and the emergence of human beings. Big History, a discipline taught in some schools, attempts to place human history in the context of universal natural history. It wants to trace themes from the beginning in the big bang to today. As Stephen Hawking put it, with what I hope is some humor, “My goal is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.” For those who have no interest in history, it may sound boring. Let me see if I can get you curious.
• The entire expanse of human civilization — 5,000 years — makes up a mere two percent of the human beings living on earth.
• Approximately 98 percent of human history occurred before the invention of agriculture.
• All the matter we know of in the universe is likely to be no more than one billionth of the actual matter that was originally created.
• Earth’s moon was probably created by a collision between the young Earth and a Mars-sized proto-planet.
• At present, we cannot drill deeper than about seven miles into the Earth, which is just 0.2 percent of the distance to the center (4,000 miles away).
• Between A.D. 1000 and 2000, human populations rose by a factor of 24.
• Traveling in a jet plane, it would take 5 million years to get from our solar system to the next-nearest star.
The point is that some people are trying to see the big picture, and therefore better help us understand our place in it. Louie Giglio captures that message in a multimedia sermon called “Indescribable,” which contains spectacular images and statistics from the cosmos. It is worth a 40-minute online viewing. Here are a few of his statistics:
• A beam of light takes eight minutes to cross the 93 million miles between Earth and the sun.
• Our solar system — sun and eight planets — is the relative size of a quarter, making our galaxy the size of North America.
• If you were to count the stars in our galaxy, one per second, it would take you 2,500 years to count them all.
• The Milky Way galaxy contains billions of stars, but our galaxy is only one of at least 200 billion galaxies.
In the philosophical and theological discussion of the universe, the question of teleology often arises. Is there any hint that all of this is headed somewhere? Is there a goal, a purpose, which we can discern in the vastness of creation? If so, then nature is striving for perfectibility. It is a tempting notion. Evolution describes adaptation of species to life on this earth and in this universe to improvement of design, in a sense, or at least fitness for life. We must not think of this as nature willing itself toward this, but rather, the natural process of evolution. The other view is that evolution is pure, random chance. Life blunders like a blind person in a battlefield. Luck controls survival. Yet, the conflict may not be as deep as we might think. Human beings have a deep commonality with the rest of life. We know that human expression of emotion and thinking has a mirror in the snarls, grimaces, and behavior of animals. Our explanations for the origin of nature and its history will reflect our emotion, intelligence, and imagination. We must not pretend that we can achieve some form of narrative objectivity that only God could have. In other words, if fitness, design, and beauty are the result of evolutionary processes, then maybe a nuanced notion of teleology is a good direction to move.[35]
Second, God gets personal in little history. While God counts and names the trillions of stars, God goes so much further with each of us, designing us each uniquely. God knows what makes us tick, hears our prayers when we cry out and cares about each one of us. We should feel awe. Honor. Divinely inflated self-worth. All that beauty to look at and God pays attention to us.
Third, Psalm 8 does not remove a quite real problem many have the world God has made - the reality of suffering. Life is a struggle. Living things feel off other living things. I do not want to get too disturbing here, but all living things struggle to live. All living things die. This, too, is an important part of the world God has made. We do not understand it all. We might wish it were different.
Fourth, Psalm 8 can help us put ourselves in proper perspective. Life is not about us. The work of the fingers of God testifies to the indescribable, majestic work of God. This means that our involvement in the world should have a basis in our respect for the natural order that God has created. We are significant in our individuality because we are part of something larger than anything we can imagine.
Genesis 1:1-2:4 (Year A Trinity Sunday)
The Bible begins with God (Genesis 1:1-5). It does not even try to prove, give evidence, or demonstrate its belief in God. God is eternal, while everything we know is temporal, having a beginning and end. The Bible begins with the creative activity of God. God is the source and origin of the material world. God graciously conferred existence on individuals. The beauty of the doctrine of creation is that of a reality distinct from God, one that is not an echo of God, and a reality that God affirms and with whom God desires fellowship. God preserves creation, continues to care for it out of love and goodness toward what God has created. God will bring creation to what Paul declares in I Corinthians 15:28, in which God will be all in all. This creative activity of God occurs within time, as in the symbolic reference to seven days. God takes time seriously. Creation is a testimony to the patience of God, who nourishes growth through time. The result of this creative activity is unambiguously “good.” God takes delight in what God has created. The word God utters creates the universe. The text is not myth or saga, but Priestly doctrine, sacred knowledge preserved and handed down by many generations of priests. The emphasis is that one can declare faith objectively. The atmosphere is one of sober theological reflection rather than awe or reverence. The emphasis is on the activity rather than its temporality. Something like “In the beginning of God creating the heavens and the earth” is the intent. Given the nature of this activity, it does occur at the beginning of time. The theological principle is that the only creative principle resides in God. It affirms only one creative, caring God throughout the cosmos. The divinely ordered world reflects the covenant of grace between God and humanity. The statement affirms that which transcends humanity in unknown heights while affirming the reality of the human realm and the interconnection between them. Unlike the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian account of creation, in which multiple gods war for control of a chaotic universe, Genesis 1 has only one God, namely 'Elohim, the God of Israel. There is no cosmic sea goddess, Tiamat, whom the Lord must vanquish to create the world. There is only God's spirit, hovering like a restless wind made by beating wings over the tehom, a word from the same root as Tiamat's name; only in Genesis, the tehom is merely a deep abyss of swirling water. The Spirit is life-giving, involved directly in creation. God preserves creation from being ungodly or anti-godly. God creates harmony and peace, as creation becomes the theater and instrument of the acts of God, as well as an object of divine joy in which God invites creation to participate. This P account of creation affirms that the God of Israel created the universe and makes it clear that other cultures worshipped as gods were the inanimate objects in nature.
The one God creates with a word. God need not manipulate coarse matter physically. God only says, "Let there be …" and there is! God used a set of words to bring order out of chaos and light out of darkness. Such words are not simply describing something. They are “performative utterances,” in the words of J. L. Austin, creating the reality they are describing. Words have always been critical to the creative work of God. Creation is by a free, divine decision and declaration. When creation separates itself from its origin, it does so to its own hurt, for it falls into falsehood and error. To say it was good is to say that it is in accord with the divine purpose. It receives divine approval. God has good intentions toward all that God has made. The opening chapters of Genesis will question the goodness of the created order, but in this text and at this point, the goodness of creation is an affirmation of faith.
On the first day of creation, God speaks and there is light (verses 3-5). In Genesis, this work continued when “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night” (Genesis 1:5). God created day and night when God called these periods day and night. The creation of day and night - through the activity of creating and separating light from primordial darkness - allows for the basic reckoning of time. Time can commence. The works of God take place during the day and in the light. Light depends upon God for its existence and continuing presence. Light has no power generating from within itself. It derives its dignity and power from God. God grants time for that which God has made. Existing in time, it belongs at the side of God, expressing the affirmation of God and the possibility of God choosing it. God turned toward creation in gracious good pleasure. To have time is to allow finite things to exist in the presence of God. Created things live under the divine Yes, and thus receive divine preservation and shelter.
On the second day of creation, God makes for the life that is to come, creating a space where there is air to breathe (1:6-8), by creating a dome that separates the waters under the dome from the waters above the dome, thereby dividing the chaotic powers of the water, making them creatures of God, naming the dome Sky. The text does not refer to the goodness of the divine act on this day, but given the context, we can presume so. Here is a striking example of a time-bound insight we have now abandoned. The cosmology that finds expression in the idea of the firmament bears impressive testimony to the science of antiquity, which rationally relates the order of the universe to human engineering. For this reason, one must not base theology on the literal sense of the passage. A theological doctrine of creation should follow where the biblical witness leads by claiming current knowledge of the world for a description of the divine work of creation, using the resources that are at hand. Theology will not do justice to the authority of the biblical witness if it tries to preserve the time-bound ideas with which the biblical account of creation works instead of repeating in its own day the act of theologically appropriating contemporary knowledge.[36] The text invites us to visualize God creating a living space for all finite things. This day establishes a boundary, pushing away chaos so that all finite things receive protection from God and have the assurance that God will protect them.
The third day of creation continues the establishment of boundaries, separating land or earth from the sea, preparing earth to sustain life by allowing vegetation to arise and with the reference to its seed preparing for the future, the divine activity of this day receiving the pronouncement of its goodness (1:9-13). God is rejecting chaos in favor of a divinely provided order that allows for life. Because this land is dry and fruitful, people can live on the earth and of the earth. Future creation will be the furnishing of this house. However, the twofold work of the third day is its construction. According to the explanation now given, a creature is alive when through its seed it can continue in the existence of similar creatures, and in addition can bear fruit. In the creation saga, this miracle is just as significant as the miracle of the separation of heaven from earth.
The fourth day of creation involves lights in the sky that separate day from night as well as the seasons, two great lights, sun and moon, and lesser lights, the star, setting them in the dome to separate light from darkness (1:14-19). God pronounces the goodness of htris divine activity. Here is another striking time-bound statement. Here it is not so much a matter of outdated cosmology as it is one of outdated controversy. In opposition to the Babylonian creation epic, which relates the creation of the stars to the formation of the firmament, the creation story puts first the dividing of land and sea in verse 10 and the creation of plants. One might see here a result of the exactitude with which it describes the mechanical function of the firmament. The erection of the vault of heaven means that the waters under it gather, and therefore in other places dry land appears in verse 9 and vegetation can sprout in verses 11-12. Although clearly sun and moon are intended, they are not named, a fact that may be an implicit polemic against the worship of astral bodies that occurred when Manasseh was king in Judah and Josiah removed the priests who led the worship of sun and moon (II Kings 23:5). The surprising later placing of the stars intends to depreciate them in comparison with the divine rank that the stars had in the religious world around Israel, especially Babylon. In the Bible, the stars simply have the lower function of lamps or signs for the seasons. Von Rad in his commentary on Genesis will stress the polemical point of this passage. Of course, this controversy as to the divinity or creatureliness of the stars is no longer relevant in modern thought. However, the interest of the story in an inner nexus in the sequence of the individual acts of creation finds natural expression in a modern depiction of the world of creation. This time, however, the formation of the earth comes after that of the stars and galaxies, and within the galaxies of the solar system.[37]
The fifth day of creation is the completion of the new creation under the protection of the firmament, involving animal life that flies, creatures in the sea, and every living thing, this time receiving not only the pronouncement of its goodness, but also the blessing of fertility, multiplication, and expansion of these animals, which receives divine authorization and empowerment, with the promise of success (1:20-23). Although the chaotic, hostile powers are given limits or boundaries, they are still present, showing that life occurs close to hostile territory and will always need divine protection. Life will always exist with a hostile frontier. The procreation of posterity, and therefore the existence of nature in the form of natural history, of a sequence of generations, is a definite venture where it has the form of a spontaneous act of a creature qualified for the purpose. In God’s blessing of animal life, we transcend the concept of creation and enter the sphere of the dealings God has with the creation. What we have here is the beginning of its history, or at least an introductory prologue, which announces the theme of this history, that is, the establishment of a covenant between God and the creation of God that moves independently like God and renews itself by procreation after its kind. What the text reveals is the grace that does not will that the fashioning of finite nature, for all its difference from the divine, should be futile or unfruitful. The goodness of the Creator does not allow this finite nature to exist in its relative independence and self-propulsion without permission and hope. God wills in all friendliness to bear, surround and rule it in the exercise of the freedom granted to it.
The sixth day of creation, the termination of creation, involves the creation of land animals, including “creeping things,” culminating in the in God gathering the heavenly court and involving them in the creation of humankind (adam) in “our” image and likeness, granting them dominion over the animals, suggesting the creation of groups of humanity created simultaneously, making humanity, male and female, in the divine image, blessing them with dominion and fruitfulness, suggesting that animals and humanity were vegetarians, with God pronouncing this divine activity very good (1:24-31). The creation of human beings does not occupy a separate day, suggesting the close connections human beings have with other creatures of the land. The saga does not view humanity in isolation but as associated with other living things. These living things are the companions of humanity. The animals share with humanity independence of movement and multiplying themselves. Humanity has a nobility within the created order, and therefore a responsibility for the rest of creation, depending upon the rest of creation for sustaining its life. Such animal life is the companion of humanity and the anticipation of humanity. The animal participates with humanity in the covenant God establishes with humanity. Animals and humanity proceed from the earth. Their existence and nature belong to the earth, to its destiny and preparation as the dwelling-place of humanity. The creation of humanity is the result of a concerted act on the part of God. In the ancient Near East, the king was the image of the god acted with divine authority, whereas here creation of humanity in the image and likeness of God carries with it a commission to rule over the animal domain. Human beings are the steward accountable to the true owner, which the Priestly Document will express directly in Leviticus 25.
God wants humanity to look carefully at what God has given them, especially the multiplicity and variety of life that lays before humanity. It all exists for the sustenance of humanity. The author stresses that everything that has the breath of life is for humanity. This story of creation derives the human task of rule directly from the fact that humans are representatives of God in the divine rule over creation. This is the point of the statement here, where the divine image and likeness have a direct link to rule over earthly creatures. In this way, our human dominion has a link to the dominion of God. As the image of God, humans are the vicars of God preparing the way for the dominion of God over the world.[38]
The Old Testament makes little of the concept of the image of God: Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1, 3, 9:6, and Psalm 8:6-7. Of course, the daring equation of the man Jesus with the divine image is an unprecedented and radical innovation. The image and likeness, repeated in Genesis 5:1ff, implies that the image is still true of the descendants of Adam. Paul implies as much in I Corinthians 11:7 by referring to the male gender as made in the image of God. In I Corinthians 11:7-8, Paul followed common Jewish exegesis of his time by limiting divine likeness to the male gender, combining with Genesis 2:22-24. It became the basis for promoting the inferiority of women and the refusal of ordination to women. Paul got this idea of deriving the image of God for women through the man from the idea that she came from the rib of Adam. The problem, of course, is that the verses link the creation of both male and female directly to the image of God. In any case, the image remains, regardless of the differences in the genders.[39] Christian theology presupposes human destiny is toward fellowship with God based on this notion of human creation in the image of God.[40]
The work of Phyllis A. Bird argues directly against the popular exposition by Barth, who argued that the image of God reflects the relationship that exists in male and female, based on linking “Let us make” and the creation of male and female.[41] She says that the point of image and likeness in this passage has to do with the dominion that God assigns to humanity.[42] When secularity cut itself off from such religious roots and became excessive in its abuse of its dominion or power over creation, it sought to turn around and blame religion.[43] The image ceases to be such if it bears no similarity to the original. Of course, human beings may be poor images that bear little similarity to their original, but a total loss of similarity eliminates the whole idea of an image. Conversely, the sharper the image, the greater the similarity. When we read here of human beings representing God, the point is that humans are according to the image of God, but not to the same degree. Sin distorts the image. In Christian theology, however, Jesus is the image of God with full clarity. Thus, in the story of humanity, the image of God was not achieved fully at the outset. It was still in process. The full actualization of the image and likeness awaits participation in the transformation into the image of Christ. The point is that human beings are not fixed beings. They have an unfinished nature.[44]
This statement of creation being good and very good has its justification only in the light of the eschatological consummation. Only in the light of the eschatological consummation may one say things of our world, given all its confusion and pain. Yet, those who say it despite the suffering of the world honor and praise God as their Creator. The verdict “very good” does not apply simply to the world of creation in its state at any given time. Rather, it is true of the whole course of history in which God is present with the creatures God has made in incursions of love that will finally lead it through the hazards and sufferings of finitude to participation in divine glory.[45]
This presentation of priestly theology has aimed at and moves toward humanity as the true occupant of the house/temple prepared by God. Human beings are the central creatures on the ground, in space, and amid all others, the one capable of full participation in what God has created. With the creation of humanity, creation is “very” good. Humanity would not be who it is without its creation in the image and likeness of God. God has provided the house and all the living things in it so that it can sustain the life of the one creation of God that is capable of being a full partner with God. In the divine realm there is a counterpart within the realm of the finite and temporal with whom God can relate in self-encounter and self-discovery, in freedom and cooperation, in confrontation and reciprocity. As those who bear the image and likeness of God, each human being has a counterpart in fellow human beings engaged in encounter and discovery, freedom and cooperation, confrontation and reciprocity. It is an I-You encounter. In relation to God, this means entering a covenantal partnership. This fellowship with God becomes the pattern for encountering fellow human beings in partnership as well. The only differentiation that matters is the relation between male and female. All other forms of differentiation that has often led to hostility, such as ethnic group, race, color of skin, rich and poor, are human creations. The text does not allow us to think of humanity as neutral sexually. Rather, humanity is the differentiation of male and female. Humanity as male and female become the representative of God to the rest of creation. Here is its vocation in relation to the rest of creation. Given this vocation, humanity hears a friendly word from God in the form of blessing to be fruitful and multiply. Humanity continues to bear this image and likeness because of grace, the faithfulness of God to what God has made, and the hope contained in the affirmation of faith that God is the creator. Human weakness revealed in its willingness to turn from the source of its life does not have the power to negate this grace and faithfulness of God. Humanity will deny this image and likeness, laden with all the moral sickness that is a consequence of this denial. Even this weakness of humanity points beyond itself to the trust in God as creator. For Christian theology, all this points to the one to come, Jesus Christ, who is the image of God. The friendly blessing of the word of God at creation finds its replication in the sending of the Son as a friendly and definitive word of God. In Christ, humanity fulfills its promise to be image of God.
The seventh day of creation is the completion of creation, as God institutes Sabbath, blessing and separating the seventh day from other days as a new sacred time, which Israelites could observe regardless of where they lived, concluding that these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created (2:1-4a). Why does God rest? God is not tired. God is building a temple. For the ancient person, the gods rested in temples. If the gods are resting it means security and stability for the human beings who worship them. In this sense, “rest” refers to engaged, ruling, and order. In the first six days, God sets things in their proper order and for their proper purpose. God is now ready to dwell in the temple. The seventh day is a “God with us” moment in the sense that God moves into creation to dwell with us. In the first six days, God builds a house. On the seventh day, the house becomes a home. The Creator delights in creation enough to want to be with it. God derives pleasure from what God has created. The outcome of creation is divine rest as God moves in and settles down with creation. The point of the story is not a scientific account, which in fact misses the point. The point is that creation is the place where God lives in which God delights.
We see this purposeful creation in the structure of Genesis 1. During the first day, God creates "light" (which science tells us is an object) but calls it "day." God is not merely creating light, but rather the function of time. On the second day, God "separates" the waters, creating the function of weather. On the third day God creates vegetation to provide food. In other words, God begins by creating the functions of time, weather, and food -- all the things that are necessary for human existence (and the things we talk about the most). The fourth and fifth days, God installs functionaries like the sun and moon (interesting that they are created after night and day) and the animals that are to be fruitful and multiply. And then, the sixth day, is the creation of humankind, whose function is to care for the creation, have "dominion" over it and reflect the image of God within it (1:26-27). Everything is created for a purpose, and at the end of the sixth day, God looks at it all and calls it "very good" – it is all functioning as he intended.
Throughout this study, I refer to the discussion by Karl Barth.[46] The destiny of all that God has made lies entirely in the purpose of its Creator as the One who speaks and cares for it. The things God has made have their right, meaning, goal, purpose, and dignity in the fact that God as the creator has turned toward it with divine purpose. What was and is the will of God in doing this? We may reply that God does not will to be alone in the glory that belongs to God. God desires something else besides God. God is the One who is free in love. In this case we can understand the positing of this reality, which otherwise is incomprehensible, only as the work of the love of God. God wills and posits the things God has made because God has loved it from eternity, because God wills to demonstrate the love God has for it, and because God wills to reveal and manifest it in the co-existence of God with the things God has made. It would be a strange love that was satisfied with the mere existence and nature of the other, then withdrawing, leaving it to its own devices. This is the unique feature of the covenant in which the love of God is exercised and fulfilled. Its external basis, that is, the existence and being of the creature with which God is covenanted, is the work of the will and achievement of God. The creation of God is the external basis of this covenant. The inner basis of the covenant is simply the free love of God, or more precisely the eternal covenant that God has decreed in God as the Father with the Son as the Lord and Bearer of human nature, and to that extent the Representative of all creation. Creation is the external basis of the covenant. We find this aspect of creation in Genesis 1:1-2:4a. It describes creation as the work of power and planning, like a temple. What will finally take place in this account is the summit of creation, man and woman created in and after the image of God. Humanity does not end the history of creation, nor is it humanity who ushers in the subsequent history. Rather, the rest of God is the conclusion of the one and the beginning of the other. That is, the free, solemn, and joyful satisfaction with that which has taken place and which God has completed as creation, and the invitation by God for humanity to rest with God. The goal of creation, and at the same time the beginning of all that follows, is the event of the Sabbath of the freedom of God, Sabbath rest and Sabbath joy, in which humanity has been summoned to participate. Sabbath is the event of divine rest in face of the cosmos completed with the creation of humanity, a rest that takes precedence over all the eagerness and zeal of humanity to enter upon the work humanity wants to do. God created humanity to participate in this rest.
This chapter of Genesis calls for evaluation considering the exilic renaissance of belief in creation and a theology of creation. The creative action of God occurs at the beginning or founding of the world. The founding of the world at the first had contemporary relevance, in that the concern is with an order that stands unshakable right up to the present. In this regard, the account corresponds to cosmogonic myths, especially the Babylonian Enuma Elish epic, which stands behind it. Nevertheless, the description of the divine creation action Genesis 1 differs profoundly from the mythical presentation. The unrestricted nature of the action of the Lord corresponds to what we read in II Isaiah and the Psalms concerning the action of the one and only God in creation and history. This story gave classical expression for ages to come to this unrestricted nature of the power of God in creation. It did so by focusing on the divine Word of command as the only basis of the existence of creatures. Creation on this view did not need to include a battle with chaos as it did in the Babylonian epic or a struggle with the sea like that of the Ugaritic-Canaanite Baal, of which we still find echoes in the Psalms. The effortless nature of the simple command illustrates the unrestricted nature of the power at the disposal of the Creator. Psalm 29, 93, and 104 portray the kingship of God as without beginning or end, not attained by a fight with chaos. This idea may be mythical as well, in contrast to some who claim it has an anti-mythical origin. The prophetic view of the working of the Word of God in history may lay behind this presentation of creation from the exilic period. He points out that the idea that all things come into being through a magically operative word or through the royal command of God is also in the Egyptian Memphis theology related to the royal God Ptah. One also finds it later in the Apophis myth describing the sun-god Re. However, one can find no literary connection between such texts and Genesis 1.
In any case, the concept of creation by the divine Word is not as such the unique feature in the biblical view of creation. However, what is distinctive is that which creation by the Word demonstrates, which is the unlimited freedom of the act of creation, like that of the historical action of the God of Israel. This unlimited freedom of the creative action later found expression in the formula “creation out of nothing,” first found in II Maccabees 7:28, but also compare Romans 4:17 and Hebrews 11:3. However, Hellenistic Jewish writings contain the idea of creation out of shapeless primal matter, such as in Wisdom 11:17, a notion that recurs in second century apologists Justin (Apol. 1. 10. 2) and Athenagoras (Suppl. 22.21). Yet, Tatian argued that God must have also brought forth such primal matter. Theophilus of Antioch and Irenaeus of Lyons played a significant role in establishing the doctrine of creation out of nothing. Such reflections lay the groundwork to argue that Karl Barth is quite wrong to give this nothing of “nothing” a reality under the name of “nothingness.”[47] Yet, Genesis 1 does not refer to any resistance to the creative activity of God. The unrestricted power of the divine Word of command rules out any such idea. This would also argue against the view of “nothing” by Jurgen Moltmann in God in Creation, resting on speculation that identifies nothing as the space that God gives creatures as God withdraws, which becomes a materially unfounded mystification of the subject.
The unique character of the biblical concept of the creative action of God rules out any dualistic view of the origin of the world. The world is not the result of any working of God with another principle such as we find in the Timaeus of Plato or the process philosophy of Whitehead. In the view of Whitehead, for example, God works by persuasion, not by mighty creative action. However, such thinkers as Whitehead emphasize a notion of divine persuasion that is attractive, as we also find L. S. Ford The Lure of God, J. Cobb, God and the World, D. R. Griffin, all seeking an alternative to creation out of nothing. Such a notion is consistent with the patience and kindness of God as God deals with the creatures God has made, especially as God relates to them with love and seeks them out in suffering with them. Once God has called them into existence, demonstrating that they owe everything to God, then God respects their independence in a way that is analogous to the description by Whitehead. To achieve divine ends, God works by persuasion and not by force. Such patience and humble love do not come from weakness, however, but express the love of the Creator, who willed that the creatures God has made should be free and independent.
Process theologians have rightly argued that creation out of nothing makes the existence of evil a difficulty. Why would God, creating with unrestricted freedom, not create a world without evil? Yet, in their clear presentation of God with restricted power, they open the door for it being irrational to trust this God in gaining victory over evil. The classical expression of creation in Genesis 1 also opposes a dualistic view for the same reason in that it limits the power of God. We need to hold together the freedom of the divine origin of the world on the one hand and God holding fast to what God has made on the other. Such notions belong together. We might deduce the link from the concept of divine love as the origin of the world. The love and freedom of God are inseparable. The Trinitarian explication of the concept of divine love avoids misconceptions. The biblical concept of creation needs a Trinitarian basis.[48]
Certain hymns capture some of the spirit of these few verses. “Morning has broken like the first morning,” wrote Eleanor Farjeon in 1931. Maltbie D. Babcock (1901) wrote, “This is my Father’s world.” For him, “all nature sings, and round me rights, the music of the spheres.” The birds “declare their maker’s praise. Even if “the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” Therefore, since “this is my Father’s world,” “I rest in the thought,” the Lord “speaks to me everywhere,” and “the Lord is king, let the earth be glad.”
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 (Year C Trinity Sunday) is part of unit, Chapters 8-9, that are the height of the teaching of Proverbs on wisdom. In verses 1-4, the author continues to give wisdom a voice by personifying wisdom (hokhmah). Here wisdom prepares openly to proclaim her virtues, calling out to the passersby, where much of the commerce of the city would take place. Her first words are to announce the object of her ministrations, inviting all persons to hear. Competition is fierce in the marketplace, but wisdom goes there. Verses 22-31 focus upon the role of wisdom in creation and therefore the antiquity of wisdom. It focuses on cosmology. Wisdom predates the emergence of the Hebrew people and Israel. These verses give impressive credentials to Wisdom and these are anything but mundane. God created Wisdom prior to all other things and then used Wisdom to create the rest of the world. By choosing to employ Wisdom, then, ordinary human beings can have at their disposal the same guiding force with which God created the universe. Thus, the Lord created (qanah) wisdom as the first of the works of the Lord, a theme also found in Colossians 1:15 and Revelation 3:14. Wisdom here is an aspect of the glory of the Lord, providing a glimpse into divine creative power and work, although this text became the basis for Judaism in the third and second centuries BC to symbolize the presence and activity of the Lord in the world. Wisdom, as an agent of Yahweh's self-revelation, functions to reveal the sweeping majesty of the divine presence at the creation of the world. Arius, in the fourth-century, used such a notion against Athanasius in the heated discussions concerning the generation of the second person of the Trinity.[49] Nevertheless, the context here supports the sense of "created" or "established." The remaining verses constitute an in-depth discussion of the role of wisdom in creation. Wisdom exists prior to the deep (Genesis 1:2), meaning that wisdom was already present when the Lord began creating the heavens and the earth. The text follows the order of creation in Genesis 1. The concept of this circle is that of a circle that one would make when the inverted bowl of the firmament touches the earth, forever keeping the waters of chaos separated from the bubble of air and sky in which God planted creation. This image of the earth as contained beneath a circular vault that holds back the waters of chaos is one we also find in Job 22:14 and Isaiah 40:22. Wisdom at the side of the Lord in determining the boundaries of the earth. Wisdom brought delight to the Lord and rejoiced before the Lord, delighting in what the Lord had created and delighting in the human race, which the Lord saw as being good. Thus, one does not need to exalt the sole efficacy of God in a way that suggests the disparagement of the creature and therefore the Creator. The creature may continue to be what it is, running its course within the limits marked off for it. God does not begrudge it this joy. There is a delighting in which first the Creator and then the creature has a part. This is the grand mystery of the divine preservation.[50] The picture in verses 30-31 could be that of the child wisdom who is the darling of the Lord. This would also suggest birth rather than creation. The intent here is to emphasize the vast intelligence of wisdom by assigning her a function in creation.[51] The point is that Wisdom is not only present at creation but also a participant in creation. All this recalls the presence of the "logos" in the prologue to John's gospel, 1:1-3 and Colossians 1:15-16. Wisdom and the Word have a creative presence at creation and thus justify an impressive claim upon our lives.
As the Wisdom school developed, it grew from the concept of personified wisdom as a mere literary device in Proverbs 14:1 to further personalizing in the post-exilic period, when polytheism was no longer a threat to true religion. Job 28 ponders where human beings can find wisdom. Gold does not contain it. The Abyss does not have it. Death has only heard rumors of wisdom. Rather, the Lord has established wisdom, and therefore the fear of the Lord is the source of wisdom. Baruch 3:9-4:4 represents wisdom as a thing distinct from God or human beings, desirable in itself, but identifies Wisdom as the Torah. Proverbs 8-9 represent wisdom as a person. Here, wisdom reveals her origin, her active part in the creation, and the function she discharges among human beings in leading them to God. Sirach 1:1-8, praising wisdom as being with the Lord and remaining forever, created before the world, and its root is the Lord, recalls Job 28. However, other portions of Sirach are in line with what we see in Proverbs 8. In Sirach 4:11-19, wisdom teachers her children, helps those who seek her, observing that those who love her love life. Those who hold wisdom close inherit glory, so the Lord loves those who love wisdom. In Sirach 14:20-15:10, one receives blessing when one meditates on wisdom and seeks wisdom intentionally, like a hunter seeking prey. The fear of the Lord and observing the Law exhibits wisdom. In Sirach 24:1-29, Wisdom is part of the heavenly council offering a speech in which she praises herself as coming from the mouth of the Most High and covering the earth. Wisdom found her home in Israel. Is this personification the result of a poetic device? Is it an expression of older forms of religious thought? Is it a newly revealed truth? Wisdom 7:22-8:1, Wisdom fashions and penetrates all things. Wisdom is the breath of the power of God and an emanation of the glory of God. She is beautiful beyond comparison. If Wisdom is an outpouring of the glory of God, she shares in the divine nature. One may also apply such descriptions to a divine attribute rather than to a distinct personality. The New Testament will draw attention to this dimension of wisdom. In Matthew 11:19, Wisdom receives vindication by her deeds. In Luke 11:49, the Wisdom of God determined to send Israel prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill. In I Corinthians 1:24-30, Christ is the power and wisdom of God. Christ is the wisdom from God, and therefore our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Colossians 1:16-17 uses similar language as we saw in Jewish literature regarding wisdom, referring to Christ as firstborn of creation, creation occurred through Christ, and Christ presently holds all things together. Hebrews 1:2-3 refers to the Son, who is heir of all things, the one through whom God created, a reflection of the glory of God, and the one who sustains all things. Paul envisions the rock that Moses struck in the wilderness, from which came water that nourished the people, as an Old Testament presence of Christ (I Corinthians 10:4). Of course, John 1:1-18 uses the language of Logos, but the images that we find in Jewish literature, to express the unique relationship of Jesus of Nazareth to God. John 6:35, in a similar spirit as we find in Proverbs, has Christ as divine Wisdom declaring him to be the bread of life in a way that those who come to eat will never hunger or thirst reflect the theme as well. The point is that this passage is among the reasons the New Testament could speak of Christ as intimately involved in creation.[52] The rich background of the Old Testament reflection upon Wisdom provided the apostolic witness with the language it needed to describe the uniqueness and universality of Jesus of Nazareth.
The Prologue of John has a close relation to this passage. Sirach 24 and Wisdom 7 are also part of the background for the prologue. Philo also has this basis for his thinking as well. The scholarly concern is that the notion of Logos in John is close to that of Wisdom here, rather than to Gnostic ideas.[53] However, we must note that the notion of pre-existence did not preclude the idea of creaturliness, as this passage shows. Thus, the pre-existence of the Son did not necessitate the notion of Trinity.[54] The early Christian theological reflection found certain Old Testament passages to be implicitly Trinitarian. Modern exegesis does not sustain such a procedure. It shows that the Christian view of the Son as a preexistent hypostasis alongside the Father, and similar views concerning the Spirit that developed during the formation of the doctrine of the Trinity, were not from the outside opposed to Judaism and its belief in one God. One example of this procedure is the preexistence of wisdom in this passage, which was the starting point both for the Johannine concept of Logos and for the doctrine of the Logos in early Christian Apologists. Rabbinic theology also equated the preexistent wisdom of God with the Torah. Justin Martyr (Dialogue, 61.1ff) referred this passage to the Logos, and thus equated wisdom with the Logos rather than the Spirit. In addition, when Origen (De Princ. I.2.1-4) combined the notion of Jesus as the only Son with 8:23 he did not have an adequate biblical basis for the concept of the eternal begetting of the Son have an adequate biblical basis.[55] The theological tradition has explained the participation of the eternal Son in the act of creation with the help of the idea that the Logos corresponds to the divine intellect, which from all eternity contains within itself the images of things, the ideas. The notion goes back to Middle Platonism and its distinction between ideas and the divine mind, or, in Philo, the divine Logos. Origen (De Princ. 1.2.2) incorporated it fully into his systematic presentation of Christian doctrine. According to him the origins, ideas, and forms of all creatures are present in the hypostatic wisdom of God, the Son. Therefore, he calls the wisdom of scripture, referring to this passage, the beginning of the ways of God. Thus, regarding the function of Christ as the mediator of creation, the New Testament develops the idea of the Son of God in connection with the Jewish concept of preexistent divine wisdom, as we find in verses 22-31, and expresses it in terms of the concept of the Logos, as in Colossians 1:15-20, Hebrews 1:2-3, and John 1:1-18.[56]Questions related to the origin of the idea of preexistence, which we find in Jewish wisdom speculation as this passage and Sirach 24 testify, must not crowd out the more basic question of the reasons for linking the idea to the figure of Jesus in the tradition concerning him, such as Luke 13:34-35.[57]
Genesis 11:1-9 (Year C Pentecost) relates the scene of the Tower or City of Babel. Consistent with the story J is developing, this story attributes the variety of languages emerging out of the Promethean pride of humanity still unwilling to accept subordination to their creator. Noah and his sons continue the sinful ways of humanity. Their descendants build a tower of Babel that is expression of their arrogance. The story relates the pride of humanity in building a city with a tower that reaches into the heavens. However, traditional Jewish interpretation of this story has held that the sin of the builders, seeking to establish fame for themselves in one place, was not as much pride as refusing to obey the divine command to “fill the earth” after the flood (9:1). The story occurs between lengthy genealogies tracing the primordial roots of various nationalities known to the author. It forms a bridge between the history of the world and the history of the people of Israel. It reveals the brokenness of the relation between the Lord and humanity. In this case, humanity seeks to go up to the Lord. We learn, however, that the Lord will come down in judgment and grace. Babylon is a city of immense importance in the ancient near east. Babylon was also the dominant force in the region from which Israel’s ancestors migrated, so one cannot separate the negative attitude taken toward the activity of tower and city building from where the action took place. The story is noteworthy for its apparent knowledge of Babylonian building techniques. This text refers to kiln-fired bricks as opposed to sun-dried bricks, which were much more common and less costly and were the building material of choice among ordinary Mesopotamians. Kiln-baked bricks, to which one could apply decorative glazes (much like modern-day ceramics), were used to face the monumental architecture for which Babylon became renowned. Both the monumental buildings and their costly adornments reflected and required the concentration of wealth in urban centers like Babylon of which many biblical writers disapproved (but to which most of Israel’s kings, beginning with David, aspired). Kiln-fired bricks were also the manufactured building materials of the alluvial plain of Mesopotamia (where the reliable supply of water from the Tigris and Euphrates made brick-making practical), whereas most structures in hill-country Israel (including the temple) were made of worked stone, which was scavenged (in the case of houses) or quarried (for the temple) rather than manufactured. The subtle distinction suggests the author’s prejudice against such extravagance shown by Babylon. One senses both astonishment at the advanced technological level of the culture and a sense that technology poses grave dangers when it is not accompanied by reverence for God. In the Bible, Babylon is the embodiment of sinful arrogance. The city said in its heart that it will ascend to heaven and raise its throne above the stars of God and sit on the mount of the assembly on the heights of Zaphon (Isaiah 14:13). Jeremiah urges people to flee from the midst of Babylon and save your lives, do not perish because of her guilt, for this is the time of the vengeance of the Lord, repaying it for what it is due, for Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, making the earth drunk as the nations drank of its wine, and so the nations went mad (Jeremiah 51:6-7). Again, humanity seeks its own way. Eve thought of gaining wisdom in her way. Cain chose the path of jealousy, anger, and violence. Those who lived before the flood chose wickedness. Arrogant and insecure, they have become self-important.[58] They undertook great architecture. The city is a sign of their self-reliance and desire for fame. They combined their energy with naïve desire to be great. Behind culture is a rebellion against God. Babylon exists in opposition to the Lord. The story shows how people, in stretching for fame and political development, rebel against the Lord. The story of this early part of Genesis, its Primeval History, is one of a widening chasm between the Lord and humanity. On the human side, sin spreads to avalanche proposition. The Lord must descend to see the prideful work of humanity, an anthropomorphism characteristic of the primeval history (see, e.g., Genesis 3:8). When the Lord says, “Let us go down,” it implies a pantheon or council of heavenly beings. The response of the deity to the building project is one of defensiveness, not dissimilar to the divine response to the human acquisition of the knowledge of good and evil (3:22). The deity’s action in both cases is to protect divine prerogative by denying the humans access to the tree of life in the first instance (3:23), and to confuse their language in the second (11:7). The author plays on the name Babel, which means “Gate of God/El” with the verb balal, meaning “to confuse.” The theological jab is that Babel/Babylon, with its concentrated wealth, opulence and forced labor for royal building projects, far from being the gate of God, is confusion. The judgment of the Lord upon their settling in Babylon leads to humanity fulfilling the command of the Lord to multiply and full the earth. This time, the judgment of the Lord upon their sin is to scatter them through different languages. Yet, human disunity and exile are not the final wish of the Lord. The builders wanted to make a name for themselves, but in Abram the Lord promises to make his name great. When here, the Lord scatters humanity over the earth, the Lord calls Abram out of Mesopotamia and promises him a land of his own. Whereas the builders of Babel are cursed with an inability to understand each other, the Lord promises to bless all those who bless Abram.
We see a pattern developing in J of human sin, divine judgment, and divine preservation. The event of Adam and Eve in the garden disobeying the Lord led to the judgment of expulsion from garden, which led to preservation through extending life and giving clothing. The event of Cain killing Abel, led to the judgment of him wandering, which led to preservation through the mark of Cain and his protection by the Lord. The event of world sin led to judgment by the flood, which resulted in preservation through the family of Noah. The event of the prideful construction of the Tower of Babel led to the judgment of dispersion and the confusion of languages, which resulted in preservation through the call of Abraham. Thus, the relationship between the Lord and the nations has broken. However, through Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed, which is the goal of the divine election and choice of Abraham. The point of the election of Israel is to resolve the breach between the Lord and the nations. We will not appreciate the significance of the theological effort of J if we do not see the account of primeval history in this context.[59] In this context, we can better understand the election and blessing of Abraham. From the multitude of nations, the Lord chooses a man, in the particularity of election. The story has shown how people, in stretching for fame and political development, rebel against the Lord. The story is a brief folk tale explaining the origin of the different languages of the world. The story shows that the divine gift of unity is a temptation to humanity and a danger that may lead to its destruction. In fact, in Chapters 1-11, we cannot be sure that the story of creation is also a story of salvation.[60]
To return to the theological point, in Chapter 11, is God's relation to the nations broken? Only in this context can we understand God's election and blessing of Abraham. From the multitude of nations, God chooses a man, in the particularity of election.
The theological viewpoint is always in the foreground of Genesis 3-11 and its hamartiology. When humanity did in relation to the Lord and each other and the reaction of the Lord to what humanity did provides the organizing theme. It begins the transgression of the limit on knowledge that the Lord established between the divine and the human. The Lord offered every kindness to humanity, as would a loving father, but human beings reacted like the ungrateful child. By endeavoring to enlarge its being toward the divine, humanity stepped out of the simplicity of obedience, forfeiting the right to the pleasant garden and intimacy with the Lord. The older son killed his younger brother because the Lord took delight in the offering of the younger son, expressing his envy and anger. A still greater catastrophe takes place as the divine beings take delight in the daughters of humanity. The Lord annihilates humanity, except for Noah and his family. We then learn that the regularity of nature is a sign of the patience of the lord with humanity. Due to the arrogance of humanity, the Lord dissolves the unity of humanity into a multitude of languages and nations.[61]
J incorporates a picture of primeval history that incorporates all that is human. J is the product of an enlightened mind, into whose field of vision the enigmatic character of human beings has entered and finds worthy reflection. Temptation is a process of tortuous enticements. Sin reveals itself in the disruption of human relationships. Language, which begins as a means of assisting humanity in ordering the world and understanding it, ends in the confusion and division of humanity.[62]
We are now ready to see how J envisions the possibility of healing the breach between humanity and the Lord, a healing that will begin with the call of Abraham and his family to be a blessing to the nations.
Isaiah 25:6-9 (Year B Easter Day) has the theme of the banquet of the nations. It has a close connection with Isaiah 24:21-23, suggesting the two texts are from the same author. It combines two images. One is that of the elders around Mt. Sinai in Exodus 24:9-11. The other is that of the pilgrimage to Zion of all nations in Isaiah 2:1-4. On Mount Zion, the Lord of hosts, as in 24:23, will make for all peoples a feast of rich food and well-aged wines. The feast testifies to the joy of the nations at the salvation of Israel and a climax to the pilgrimage to Zion. It is also a triumphant ending after years of grief and sorrow. Isaiah began with a hope for the day when all the people of the earth might sit down in peace together, a hope that appears vain in view of the contemporary turmoil throughout the world. The changes in human nature necessary for that hope to happen seem hopelessly beyond possibility. Surely, Isaiah was speaking of a time beyond this time and place. The basic imagery is a royal banquet. This verse is an example of Jewish tradition using the figure of a banquet to depict the eschatological future of fellowship in the fullness of the reign of God. This image is important in forming an understanding of the origin and meaning of the Lord's Supper.[63] The Lord will destroy a sign of mourning, that is cast over all peoples, and swallow up death forever. The Lord will remove suffering. If death is not the end, then surely God is the one who must make it so. We have no right to say it. The darkness of death is the simple biological end to a biological life. Poet John Donne wrote: “And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.” Many of us feel some ambivalence about this belief. The Christian faith holds out a glowing promise of that which lies beyond, and yet there is little or no evidence to support this promise. It comes to us on trust alone. Yet many of us are willing to stake our lives on the promise.[64] The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all persons, the disgrace of the people of God will be removed. The nations will see how wrong they have been to treat Israel the way they have. The final emphasis shows that at the time of the author, this triumphant future seems impossible. This passage shows that the eschatological consummation in which God will wipe away all tears removes all doubts concerning the revelation of the love of God in creation and salvation history even though the love of God has been at work already at each stage in the history of creation. Only in the light of this promised end do we find confirmation of Genesis 1:31 that creation was “good.” Only in the light of this “end” can we make such an affirmation, given the confusion and pain of this world. When people today offer praise and honor to God as the creator of all that is, they do so in faith and trust that this end will happen. Creaturely reality is a process oriented to a future consummation.[65] For that reason, when Barth says that God the creator does not need justification, our response might well be astonishment. Yet, even for Barth, the light of Jesus Christ overcomes the shadow side of creation. The reason the “end” is so important is that the present human experience of the world is so ambiguous. The point is that present praise and worship anticipates the praise of the heavenly community. Yet, even before this eschatological future, the love of God is present to their salvation. Therefore, the whole path from the beginning of creation by way of reconciliation to the eschatological future of salvation the march of the divine economy of salvation is an expression of the incursion of the eternal future of God to the salvation of creatures and thus a manifestation of the divine love.[66] The text concludes with a song of thanksgiving sung by Israel in celebration of the salvation brought to them, for on that day, Israel will invite the nations to see that this is their God, for whom that have waited, so that the Lord might save them, so let us be glad and rejoice in this salvation.
Isaiah 65:17-25 (Year C Easter Day) discusses the promise of the Lord. The poem distinguishes faithful from spurious Israel, a common feature of post-exilic Israel. It clearly distinguishes between those within the community who remain faithful to the covenant and those who have abandoned it. The community may deserve to have God reject it as a whole, but it contains the blessing of the righteous. The only specific sin mentioned here is superstitious worship. This dual capacity of Jerusalem to function as both symbol and physical manifestation of hopes and ideals persists throughout the biblical record (see Revelation 21:2). The biblical record shows a tension between the present and the future, the earthly and the heavenly, the real and the ideal Jerusalem. This approaches what scholars call apocalyptic material. The salvation the prophet expects is beyond history. Thus, new things in nature are part of the creative acts of God, and thus, evolution is possible to understand as the creative act of God. Yet, in eschatological expectation, we read of the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. All these works participate in the quality of divine action at the creation of the world.[67] Jewish expectation linked the hope of the reign of God to the idea of overturning of the natural conditions of human existence itself. Nothing less than a new heaven a new earth will actualize the reign of God.[68] Revelation 21:1 and 20:11 use the image as well. Attention shifts almost immediately to Jerusalem, scene of centuries of conflict and suffering, and the symbol of both Israel’s highest aspirations as a sociopolitical entity and religious epicenter, and its most humiliating failures and defeats. Jerusalem, its inhabitants and its environs will be the focus of the rest of the vision, expanding Jerusalem’s significance beyond the merely temporal-geographical, on the one hand, and concretizing the eschatological vision in mundane realities, on the other. This dual capacity of Jerusalem to function as both symbol and physical manifestation of hopes and ideals persists throughout the biblical record (see Revelation 21:2). The outward and visible signs of the divine blessing include the cessation of weeping and cries of distress, which may be the result of such natural calamities as famine or, more likely, human-made calamities such as war. The prophetic imagery is deliberately vague to allow the widest possible resonance with hearers. The transformation about to take place involves not only the physical city of Jerusalem, but also and most especially its inhabitants. The picture is an idealized representation of God’s chosen people in peace and prosperity in God’s chosen space. High infant mortality was a way of life in pre-penicillin societies, so much so that one can assume its presence as background reality in most ancient literature, including the Bible, and the reference here to the infant living a few days is one of the few biblical acknowledgements of one of life’s harshest ancient realities. At the opposite end of the human life span is the old person who dies young at 100! The promise that they shall eat the fruit of their agricultural labors is an assurance of peace. The new earth will be a restored Paradise. The Lord will be so near that God will answer their prayers before they speak them. The concluding images of the passage remind us of Isaiah 11:6-9, where the imagery is more elaborate. It refers to the wolf and lamb, the leopard and young goat, the calf and the lion, and a little child leading them. This image of nature being at peace is a powerful one. The images function here to broaden the scope of the salvific nature of the promised restoration to include not only the socio-political realities faced by the post-exilic Israelite community, but all of creation. Redemption in much of prophetic and eschatological literature encompasses all of creation and not simply its human component. The vision of a new heaven and a new earth is comprehensive, and there is no salvation for human beings apart from the natural world around them. The Lord saves humans with creation, not out of it.
Ezekiel 37:1-14 (Year B Pentecost Sunday, see Year A Fifth Sunday in Lent).
Isaiah 6:1-8 (Year B Trinity Sunday) relates a vision of the Lord in the temple (see Year C, Epiphany 5). It occurs in 742, the year King Uzziah died. It relates the call of Isaiah or a new stage in his prophetic career. If it relates his calling, it is odd that we do not find it at the beginning of the book. The passage bears strong similarity with Exodus 3-4, 6, Jeremiah 1, and Ezekiel 1-3. This passage is an example of the multiplicity of biblical ideas of revelation. Here, while worshipping in the temple at Jerusalem, Isaiah becomes part of the counsel of the Lord and receives his commission. [69]Many scholars think the specific setting for chapter 6 to be an annual religious drama conducted in the temple. This drama, known as the Enthronement Celebration (see Psalms 47, 93 and 96-99), depicted the return of the Divine King to the temple as victor over the forces of evil to receive the crown as king, creator, and judge of his people. The call of Isaiah to become a prophet of God is the best-known event in Isaiah's life. If the vision recorded in 6:1 marks the start of Isaiah’s ministry. His words to Ahaz were uttered not long after his ministry in Jerusalem began and may have propelled him from the ranks of ordinary court prophets to pre—eminent status. Isaiah was a part of the privileged class within Jerusalem as indicated by his ease of access to the centers of power. His presence around the temple normally restricted to priests might place Isaiah within that class. Might he have been among the 80 priests of valor who confronted King Uzziah on his ill-fated attempt to offer a sacrifice within the temple precinct (II Chronicles 26:16-21)? Certainly, uppermost in Isaiah's affections was his love for the city of Jerusalem and his interest in the special relationship between YHWH and the Davidic dynasty.[70]
When the nation is going through a difficult transition from a popular and effective ruler to his unproven and less popular son, Jotham. I hope I am not reading too much into this, but it sounds like Isaiah is worried about the future. Without Uzziah at the top, what is to happen? He knew that the next king would not be like Uzziah. After all the good that Uzziah accomplished, the new king could wipe it all away. Isaiah needed the reminder that it is not good to place too much trust human beings in general and in political leaders. They often disappoint us. Those whom we think of as leaders, as celebrities, and lift far above ourselves as idols, often turn out to be too much like us. They are weak. They have feet of clay. Yet, we find it easy for fame, beauty, intellect, wealth, and power to impress us. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Many passages in the Bible conceive of the Lord as a physical being whom a few can see, as in Exodus 24:11, 33:11, and Numbers 12:8. The vision occurs in the temple, during an act of worship. Thus, on one Sabbath day, Isaiah entered the temple. Isaiah was dejected, anxious, yet hopeful that the Lord would give him a sign. He offered his prayers. The priests performed their duties. All went on as before. However, this time Isaiah saw the Lord. A dejected prophet caught a vision of the real king. He had been so impressed with the accomplishments of a human king. He needed a reminder that not all was lost. The real king was still in charge. He caught a vision of who the Lord really was. This was no ordinary Sabbath day. Everything had changed. Isaiah would not be the same after this. Throughout much of his ministry, Isaiah tried to persuade the king not to put his trust in foreign alliances. Rather, amid the complicated politics of that period, he needed to place his trust in the Lord. The king simply did not listen. His vision included the presence of Seraphs mixed creatures popular in Egyptian symbolism as guardian deities, other visions of the heavenly court being I Kings 22:19-23 and Job 1-2. They sing an antiphon, thrice repeating holy, indicating the surpassing holiness of YHWH. As for the Christian reader, wise counsel suggests a need to avoid taking the threefold "Holy" of verse 3 or the "us" of verse 8 in any Trinitarian sense. The former is for emphasis; the latter is YHWH addressing those attending his throne. Yet, the hymn by Reginald Heber (1826) has part of its imagery from this verse. “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” the hymn begins, who is merciful and mighty, “God in three persons blessed Trinity.”
Isaiah reacts to this vision with recognizing his need for cleansing if he is to commence his life as a prophet. His guilt is overwhelming. He feels unfit to be the mouthpiece of the Lord. The point of the cultic separation of what is holy, of what is dedicated to the Lord or related to the Lord, and especially of the deity and the places and times of the divine presence, is not just to protect the holy against defilement by contact with the profane. The separation has the design of protecting the world of the profane from the threat of the holy. This explains why Isaiah in this verse responds to a vision of the holy Lord with terror.[71] However, one wonders if we might not have here an answer to the dominant question of philosophical anthropology: Who am I? The answer of the prophetic call narratives is that the answer arises out of a divine mission, charge, and appointment that transcends the bounds of the humanly possible. Confronted by his call, Isaiah recognizes himself to be personally full of guilt. Self-knowledge comes about when confronted by the mission and call of God, which demand impossibilities of humanity. It is knowledge of self, humanity, guilt, and the impossibility of one’s own existence when confronted with the possibilities demand by the divine mission. One attains knowledge of oneself by discovering the discrepancy between the divine mission and one’s own being, by learning what one is and what one is to be, yet what one cannot be in one’s own strength. The call becomes the prospect of a new ability to be. One learns who one is not from within oneself but from the future to which the divine mission leads one. We learn who we are only by the history to which the missionary hope leads one. In this history of missionary possibilities, one recognizes that we are open to the future and therefore hope for new possibilities of being. This means our future is hidden from his in the present and will be revealed to us in the projects that open up to us as we fulfill the mission.[72] He is also aware of the guilt of the people of the Lord. Their “unclean” lips could not stand before the eternal King and therefore they have fallen victim to death. The judgment of God upon the people of God confirmed this verdict.[73] Part of discipleship may be this confession and anguish over what we have done before the Lord. The suggestion from Carl Jung was that a patient spend time along with himself, and the response of the patient was that he would not think of worse company, to which Jung replied that this is the self you inflict on other people every day.[74] Thus, part of the Christian tradition is the promising idea of daily confession. Granted, some persons can spend their day with a “woe is me” attitude, forgetting that the Lord comes to unworthy people. Thus, despite the unworthiness of Isaiah and the people to which he would offer his prophetic ministry, the Lord appeared to him, going through an act of ritual cleansing that displays unimaginable grace as a seraph touches his mouth, an act that cleanses his whole being.
Few things are as self-evident as the sinfulness of us as individuals and our collective experience as human beings (Reinhold Niebuhr). Yet, our notion of self-fulfillment sets aside moral codes as impediments to our self-fulfillment. It denies that a basic struggle in growing a soul and making us increasingly humane is learning the difference between right and wrong. If learning such a difference develops the heart, we live in a time when the leaders of the self-fulfillment model want to remove the heart and still demand that the heart function.[75] Instead of self-fulfillment and the removal of moral categories being an advance over previous generation, it may well be that we have become dishonest about the human condition. We are sick rather than sinful. If so, it may well be that apart from an encounter with God, sin is a sickness or slipup we can easily dismiss. In that sense, genuine knowledge of God brings a genuine sense of human impoverishment. False knowledge of God can bring arrogance.[76] Christians can have such honesty regarding their condition because of a prior confidence a forgiving and gracious God. The human heart is a great battleground between good and evil, between certain natural human inclinations, and the good that God intends for us. With the awareness of the great gap between God and us is also the awareness that the grace of God overcomes us. Thus, while Peter may urge Jesus to depart from him because is a sinful man (Luke 5:1-11), the good news is that he never does.
Isaiah will receive a divine commission. Grace becomes obvious as the broken and sinful Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord. The Lord comes with forgiveness and grace, and therefore a mission. Isaiah identifies himself before the Lord with faith, trust, and courage. He wants to do what needs to be done. He has no authority outside this commission.
[1]
[2] James L. Mays (Interpretation-series Psalms, p. 143)
[3]
[4] Aristotle
[5] Thomas Hibbs
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9] (R.E.O. White, A Christian Handbook to the Psalms, Eerdmanns)
[10] The form comprises the Piel plural imperative of the verb halal, which means “praise” (in the base form it means, “be boastful”), plus the apocopated (shortened) form of the divine name, Yahweh. The form appears as two words in Psalm 135:3, but otherwise (and always when it opens and closes a psalm) as a single coalesced word (as the English word “another” joins “an” with “other”). The verb is common in biblical Hebrew, especially in the Psalter, where the praise of God is second only to personal lamentation as a theological theme.
[11]
[12] Marjo C.A. Korpel, “The poetic structure of the priestly blessing,” JSOT 45 [1989], 6).
[13]
[14]
[15] Carole R. Fontaine says (in Women's Bible Commentary [Westminster John Knox Press], 153):
[16] Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, 348-410
[17]
[18]
[19] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume I, 414.
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26] John Muir, "The fountains and streams of the Yosemite National Park," Atlantic Monthly, vol. LXXXVII, no. 519 (January 1901), 565.
[27] Scott Hoezee, "All Cry Glory!" Calvin Christian Reformed Church Website, August 22, 2004, http://calvincrc.calvin.edu.
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
[33]
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[35] -Richard Fortey, Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), 25.
[36]
[37]
[38]
[39]
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[42] Phyllis A. Bird, Harvard Theological Review, 74:2, 1981, 129-159.
[43]
[44]
[45]
[46]
[47]
[48]
[49] (see Robert C. Gregg and Dennis E. Groh, Early Arianism: A View of Salvation [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981]).
[50] Barth (Church Dogmatics III.3 [49.1] 86) . He (II.1 [31.3] 666) also notes that much of natural theology is suspect because it is tedious and unmusical.
[51] Von Rad
[52]
[53]
[54]
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[56]
[57]
[58] Wright, N.T. Simply Christian. New York: Harper Collins, 2006, 73.
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[61]
[62]
[63]
[64] Inspired by Carver McGriff.
[65]
[66]
[67]
[68]
[69]
[70]
[71]
[72]
[73]
[74] Parker Palmer, "Borne Again: The Monastic Way to Church Renewal," Weavings, Se-Oc 1986, 14.
[75] The image is from C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man.
[76] Pascal, Pensees (527).
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