Читать книгу Trusting YHWH - Lorne E. Weaver - Страница 7

To open the Book of Psalms is to enter the world of God. To read the Psalms is to read the words of God and hear the words of the ancient people of Israel in response to this God who has graciously drawn them into an eternal covenant. The entire book of Psalms or, the Psalter, is one continuous conversation which ranges over many centuries–perhaps nearly a millennium-between the God of Israel and the people of Israel; or more accurately, the God of glory and this particular people who have been called to live life on the edge of glory as the people of God.

There is no mystery to this conversation. It is all an embroidery of grace. Specific words and phrases help us track the meaning of these 150 psalms down to our present day. It is this legacy—which is one of abiding trust—that mirrors a deep confidence in the presence of YHWH their God.1 That is the subject of this book.

It would be an understatement to say that these particular poems emerged out of a longing and passionate faith. The many different poets of the Psalms were convinced that YHWH was their God and they belonged to the Just One. Through this poetic medium it became possible for ancient Israel to articulate its understanding and perceptions of the world that flowed from their long journey toward a realized monotheistic belief. These hymns and songs, complaints and laments, prayers and praises are compact verbal structures reflecting simplicity itself. But their message is anything but simple.

Hebrew psalms appear frequently in the guise of cultic 2 hymns and represent a common poetic genre that flourished throughout the ancient Near East in late Bronze Age II, early Iron Age I. This genre and its forms were adopted by the Hebrew poets and became the instrument for expressing, in a collective voice, whether first person plural or singular, a radical new sense of time, space, history, and creation. Armed with the conviction that their God was the One and Only God of All, these poets and kings, singers and musicians, priests and teachers, braved the taunts and sarcastic affronts of their ancient neighbors and bet on the future and their life with יהוה. This psalmic character of individual and communal destiny found its greatest expression through these multiple liturgies that tracked their worship of יהוה and their celebrations of God’s life with them, which were inextricably bound up in their common life.3

There is no question that the Psalter is preeminently the book of prayer and praise in the Hebrew scriptures.4 Many of its songs, hymns, prayers, and laments have their setting in the cultic life of ancient Israel, which employed them daily in their individual and communal exercise of worship. We can seldom if ever be sure precisely what specific function each psalm 5 played in Israel’s worship. This is a grievous loss to us. The Psalms are never the sole product of human ingenuity and genius. Rather, they reflect the particular modes of expression employed by all Israel in the various and manifold exigencies of their daily life and historical existence.

The book of Psalms is the Bible’s book of the soul. In psalm after psalm, the human being turns directly to God, expressing his or her deepest thoughts and fears, asking for help or forgiveness, offering thanks for help already given. And so, for centuries and centuries, people have opened the book of Psalms in order to let its words speak on their behalf . . . These psalms–in fact, all the Psalms–open a direct line of communication between us and God. No wonder, then, that the pages of the book of Psalms tend to be the most worn and ragged in any worshiping family’s Bible. And even Americans who know nothing else of Scripture often know Psalm 23 in the majestic language of the King James Version 6

In keeping with this complex and expressive purpose many of the psalms, upon closer scrutiny, prove to have a tensile and semantic structure that one would not expect from the conventionality of the Hebrew language. Israel, gathered, stood in the presence of יהוה her covenant-keeping Lord. It is יהוה who reigned as king on the royal throne of the ark, which was sequestered in the small asylum of the sanctuary. Israel had journeyed through the wilderness and the ark of יהוה would eventually come to rest in Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem. Israel’s early life was first of all characterized by pilgrimage and wandering. Her later sedentary life with the institution of the monarchy provided the historical context for the eventual development of her own inspired theology which achieved a fuller explication in her liturgical life and worshiping practices. The Psalter is the achievement of all Israel—over a period of about a thousand years—and its purpose is the praise and the glory of יהוה who is uniquely Israel’s personal God.7

The Psalms represent the language of Israel’s worship of יהוה. They are inexhaustible and they are timeless. They tell us how life is to be lived to its fullest-shalom. All statements about life are to be seen and understood in the primary context of Israel’s Psalms, without losing sight of the fact that the Hebrew scriptures shared in the expressions and concepts of the religious world of the peoples around them. Life is a gift and a trust, like the land that was given in trust to God’s people.

For those who are making an initial and serious inquiry into the Psalter, it is of fundamental importance to recognize this perspective at the outset: the psalms belong to a world which is no longer our world. But its themes and aspirations are as relevant to human life today as when they were first used in the worshiping life of Israel some thirty-three centuries removed from us.8

Although we can never fully understand much of that world, yet it is the book of Psalms that, unlike any other literature in the Bible, brings us into God’s world. This is the world inhabited by יהוה and it is a soulful world full of wonder and awe. The particular world-view of the Hebrew poets is foreign to us, but their words still carry an amazing relevance which sometimes shocks our own postmodern sensibilities. This Hebraic zeitgeist reflected a wholesale affirmation of her life in God.

But it clashes with the marketing, materialistic, militaristic world in which, most of the time, we have our being. Biblical poets use human speech metaphorically to portray a world in which God is related covenantly to a people, Israel, and through them to all peoples. It is a world in which our relation to God, whether in times of divine presence or apparent absence, is expressed creatively in this language of great power.9

The language of the Psalter does not contain abstract theological statements or anything approaching philosophical theology. What it does contain is some of the most erudite theological thinking and richness to emerge out of its deep sense of the knowledge of יהוה. This knowledge of God is rooted in relationship and the entire edifice is supported by the fact of the covenant. It elicits responses in prayer, praise and, frequently, laments or complaints which reflect the existential life situations of this people who have become, by the election of יהוה, the people of God. Israel’s knowledge of יהוה is both a burden and a blessing. It defines the parameters of her long and historic relationship with and witnesses to the varied implications and meaning of that relationship.

No other literature in the Bible approaches the levels of intensity, pathos and promise as we find in the book of the Psalms. It tells us how life is to be lived this side of glory. It informs our spiritual formation, growth and maturity in faith. It teaches us life! G. W. Anderson enriches our introduction:

The Psalter is the supremely representative theological document of the Old Testament . . . and this book is, in its entirety, explicitly or by implication, confession. Its unity is not the formal unity of a carefully articulated statement, but the organic unity which is given to it by a worshiping community. Although it spans a considerable period in the life of that community, it does not present with any clarity the successive phases in the historical development of its religion, but gathers together those themes which were dominant throughout the development. It expresses them, not in some rarefied, quintessential abstraction of the faith of Israel, but in the prayers and praises in which, generation after generation, Israel confessed Yahweh, and in confessing [Him] encountered [Him].10

Some of the psalms have recognizable forms which help us to better understand the burden of their message and how we relate to them. Many of the individual psalms are heartfelt complaints which end in a reaffirmation of vows of trust. Some are songs of pilgrims approaching the temple; some concern the bellicose utterances of warfare; some are hymns to creation; some are prayers of repentance; some are songs addressed to the king and others perhaps composed by the king. Not infrequently, the psalms seem disjointed to our literary sensibilities. To a very large extent this problem disappears when we view them as litanies of spontaneous prayer in which a limited number of themes are constantly repeated. What I am referring to here is a sense of the reader of the Psalter engaging a text that does not always seem inviting to modern ears. But once we have come to appreciate these select themes, it is not difficult to see how together they make up a coherent confession of faith.

This is confirmed by a small but invaluable publication by Jean-Pierre Prevost, in which he explains the significance of some forty key words that constitute the essential prayer vocabulary of the Psalter. “Throughout the entirety of the psalms there is a great deal of repetition. The prayer vocabulary . . . is not extensive; the same words are used over and over again . . . They are the essence of the prayer, which lies in the relationship they presuppose and are there to deepen.” 11

To enter the world of these psalms we must first appreciate the cultural milieu in which Israel’s relationship with יהוה found expression. It is a world that is far removed from our experience. Its ideals are not abstractions, but rather reflect the realities of a “concrete immediacy.” The conflict, bloodshed and oppression frequently referred to are not the products of metaphorical imagination, but the stuff of everyday experience. The Psalter is vibrant and alive because it is rooted in human and historical experiences of life.

The rock, for instance, is often spoken of—“I love you, יהוה. . . my strength. יהוה is my crag, my fortress, my champion, my God, my rock, in whom I find shelter, my shield and sure defender, my strong tower” (Ps 18:1, 2 , REB). It is not a monument or a scenic tourist attraction but rather a riveting metaphor for Israel’s personal God, the Rock. Note that the term rock occurs within a parade of metaphors that speak of refuge and strength, defense and shelter. These are recurring themes, all of which we will encounter over and over again in the pages just ahead.

The themes which the poet of Psalm 18 repeats make up the coherent confession of the faith of old Israel. The significance of this confession is not in its theological subtlety or inventiveness but in the daring with which it affirms the reality and practical implications of Israel’s relationship with יהוה. This relationship is trusting, personal, and intimate. Such is the passionate trust that is characterized by the poets, again and again throughout the Psalter, in their efforts to articulate clearly what it means to be in love with יהוה who is their Deliverer, their Salvation, their Refuge, their Redeemer!12

The following section addresses fifteen broad contours that are reflected throughout the Psalter. The citing of these verses which are taken from many psalms provides a scriptural context for the remainder of this book. In order to immediately saturate the reader in the Psalms, and to enable the reader to read and hear them as sacred scripture, the reader is encouraged to patiently and quietly read the following section–uninterrupted if possible.

1. With the exception of the scriptural quotations and direct quotes from the works of others, I will be using the Hebrew script יהוה [Yahweh or YHWH) for the English, “LORD.” The Hebrew language reads from right to left. An exact transliteration of the four consonants, or Tetragrammaton would be “HWHY.” The pronunciation is only approximate. In ancient times, most scholars agree that it sounded something like Yah-way or, Yah-vay.

2. The term cult (Ger. kultus) as used here is an academic one. It refers to the “Sitz im Leben” or the real–life situation of a people–their corporate worshiping life, their rites and ceremonies and liturgical re-enactments as a faith community in the worship of their particular God. The “cultic life” of a people changes over time as that community wrestles with the practice of their belief system in new life situations. The use of the term cult here is to be distinguished from the more contemporary notion of cult that is usually understood negatively to connote the activities and secretive life of modern day separatist groups which are usually formed around a fanatical obeisance to a central autocratic personality. Modern examples abound.

3. cf. Muilenberg, The Way of Israel.

4. I will be using the terms “Hebrew Bible,” or “Hebrew Scriptures,” or, the “First Testament” rather than the Christian term, “Old Testament.” Some biblical scholars prefer the term, “Tanakh” (an acronym of the triadic parts of the Hebrew Bible: the Torah or Law or, Pentateuch; Nevi’im, or, Prophets; and the Ketuvim” or, The Writings; i.e. TaNaKh). Instead of using the term, “New Testament” I will make reference to the “Christian Scriptures,” or, the “Second Testament.” Such are my efforts to be respectful of both traditions although I am writing, of course, as a Christian.

5. Note: The word “psalm” is capitalized when referring to the book of Psalms or when it is followed by a number (e.g. Psalm 91); it is lower case in all other uses. The word “Psalter” is usually capitalized.

cf. Weiser, Psalms. Old Testament Library. “The Psalter has been called ‘the hymn-book of the Jewish Church’, and that with some justification, for it contains various features that point to the cultic use of the psalms in the worship of the Temple and especially in the synagogue service in late Judaism.” iv.

6. Kugel, How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, 459

7. Miller, “Enthroned on the Praises of Israel,” Interpretation. 39.1. (1985): 5-19. “To go through the Book of psalms is to be led increasingly toward the praise of God as the final word. While doxology may be the beginning word, it is clearly the final word. That is so theologically, because in praise more than any other human act God is seen and declared to be God in all fullness and glory. That is so eschatologically, because the last word of all is the confession and praise of God by the whole creation. And that is so for the life of faith, because praise more than any other act fully expresses utter devotion to God and the loss of self in extravagant exaltation of the transcendent Lord who is the ground of all.” 8.

8. Anderson, Out of the Depths. “. . .the Psalter, though it received its final form three or four centuries before Christ, reflects a long history of worship, reaching back at least to the time of David and, in some instances, including forms of worship used by Israel in the early period of the settlement of the Land of Canaan. It may cover as much as a thousand years of the history of the worship of Yahweh.” 13

9. Anderson, Ibid, 9.

Prothero, The Psalms in Human Life. . . .“it [the Psalms] is presented as the anatomy of all parts of the human soul; in it, as Heine says, are collected ‘sunrise and sunset, birth and death, promise and fulfillment—the whole drama of humanity.’” i.

10. Anderson, “Israel’s Creed: Sung, Not Signed,” Scottish Journal of Theology 16 (1963) 283. Note:

The oft used masculine pronouns will be bracketed [ ] to indicate the embrace of both feminine and masculine agencies.

11. Prevost, A Short Dictionary of the Psalms, 19.

cf. Tate, Psalms 51-100, Vol 20. “The psalm is intended for instruction and exhortation and is designed to challenge and strengthen the faith of those who trust in Yahweh.” 450.

cf. Barth, Introduction to the Psalms. “. . . the common basis of all the psalms is a constant, total and exclusive trust in the God of Israel.” 56.

cf. Muilenburg, Ibid, “In the Psalter, we listen to the way of Israel’s speaking in the presence of the Holy One.” 110.

12. Murphy, “The Faith of the Psalmist,” Interpretation 43.3 (1980): 229-39. “No one approaches the Psalter today without the recognition of two fundamental characteristics of these prayers . . .that the original locus or setting of these prayers is the temple liturgy, . . .and that the prayers that have been preserved in the Psalter are best appropriated by recognizing the various literary genres (hymns, laments, thanksgiving) which govern their structure and motifs.” 230.