Psalms – Page 3

Reasons to Celebrate in Hard Times (Psalm 103), Part 4: Let Us Thank Him

August 25, 2022 by Dan Olinger 1 Comment

Part 1: God Is Good to You and Me | Part 2: God Is Good to His People | Part 3: God Is Great

How do we respond to God’s goodness and greatness, to his utter commitment to seek and accomplish our welfare, forever?

Our response should be automatic, immediate, and immense.

We should be grateful.

We should all be grateful.

David makes that point with a crescendo of praise:

²⁰Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

I teach systematic theology, with its 10 traditional doctrinal units. The unit on salvation—soteriology—is a lot longer than the unit on angels, for a simple reason: we don’t know much about angels, because we’re not told much.

We do know that we humans are “a little lower than the angels” (Ps 8.5), and that they serve both God (our verse here) and God’s people (He 1.14); that they have considerable, but not infinite, power (Da 10.13); and that some of them, at least, enter God’s throne room (Is 6.2). These are not personages to be trifled with.

But David calls them to praise God. And then he escalates.

²¹Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.

God often refers to himself as “the LORD of hosts,” a title we take to speak of his power to enforce his will, backed as he is by heavenly armies. (Of course, as omnipotent, he doesn’t need the backing, but it makes for powerful imagery [2K 6.17].)

All those hosts? The ones with the chariots of fire? They bow in humble corporate gratitude before him who is good, who is great.

²²Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion.

Remember how, during Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Pharisees told him to hush the exuberant crowd? Do you remember what Jesus said to them?

“If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Lk 19.40).

The inanimate creation itself knows its creator, and David calls it to do the obvious thing—to call out in praise to him.

Which, come to think of it, creation does, every day, and every night (Ps 19.1-6).

I’ve heard that song on the beach at 6.30 am, when I stand with a small band of strangers to watch the glowing orb first peek its beams over the clear horizon.

I’ve heard it while viewing the butterfly display at Chicago’s Field Museum, each creature a different color, some even changing colors as you walk by—even though they’re dead—and meditating on the size of heaven’s graphic design department, all their energies expended on creatures that are made of paper and live for just a week.

I’ve heard it while meditating on flagellates, those tiny creatures that inhabit the digestive tract of termites and break down the indigestible cellulose—which is the only thing that termites eat—into substances that the termite can digest, all the while being protected by the termite from the surrounding oxygen, which is toxic to flagellates. (Which do you suppose evolved first—termites? or flagellates?)

I’ve heard it while threading between thunderheads while negotiating Bozeman Pass in a Cherokee Six.

I’ve heard it in the immense darkness of night in Death Valley or a Nebraska ranch or a Pacific or Caribbean island when I tip my head back toward the sky and stand awash in the light of millions of stars.

Creation’s praise continues all around us, 24 hours a day, despite the brokenness of the planet.

And so I conclude as David does—

Bless the LORD, O my soul.

How can I keep from singing?

I note that there’s more to come.

One day, soon enough in God’s eternal timetable, we all—all God’s people, all his servants, human and otherwise—will surround his throne and sing his praises, millions of voices, including my currently feeble one, raised in perfect praise to the one who is worthy, because he is good, and because he is great, and because he has loved and rescued us.

Even so.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Reasons to Celebrate in Hard Times (Psalm 103), Part 3: God Is Great

August 22, 2022 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: God Is Good to You and Me | Part 2: God Is Good to His People

It’s often been said that if God is great but not good, we’re doomed to extinction; if he’s good but not great, then we’re doomed as well, because there’s nothing he can do about our needs. David has delighted us with his meditation on God’s goodness, but now he exponentiates that delight by noting that God can—and will—do all that his goodness motivates him to do.

To begin with, he knows (Ps 103.14)—specifically, he knows the weakness of our constitution (“our frame, … that we are dust,” as the KJV so lyrically puts it).

The fact that God knows all things is an immense assurance to us, his people. He knows who we are and what we are; he knows what’s coming down the highway at us; he knows what it will take to deliver us from the Enemy. He knows.

And because he is good—a point David has already established—he loves us and wills to deliver us.

Omniscience is one of the noncommunicable attributes of God, one of the ways he stands apart from, and above, all other beings and all the forces of his creation. When we face the complexities of life, there’s a lot we don’t know, and we find that ignorance frustrating—“What should I do?”—and sometimes even fear-inducing—“What’s going to happen to me?” But he knows.

There’s more.

He lives.

We have a few short years—as I approach age 70, I understand all the more how short they are—in which we can get done all those things we seek to accomplish, the bucket list and everything else. We’re constantly frustrated by the obvious fact that there just isn’t enough time.

¹⁵As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. ¹⁶For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

But God, God lives forever. He has always existed, and he always will. For him there is no deadline pressure, no crowded schedule, no ebbing of strength or mental focus.

And that means that his attributes, all of them, have always been and always will be. That goodness David told us about? Still good. Always will be.

Here David focuses on a single aspect of God’s goodness:

¹⁷But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children.

Here the KJV calls this attribute “mercy,” which in English is the withholding of deserved punishment. That in itself is a remarkable source of hope.

But the other English versions render this word differently:

NASB: “lovingkindness”
ESV: “steadfast love”
CSB: “faithful love”
NIV “love”

It should occur to us that these are much bigger ideas than just mercy, the withholding of punishment. And that’s a clue that there’s more to this underlying Hebrew word than we might expect.

This is the word hesed, which is one of the most theologically significant words in the entire Hebrew Scripture. It’s the focus of the most often-repeated verse in the Bible: “his mercy endureth forever.” When I was in Seminary, my Hebrew professor glossed it as “steadfast loving loyalty.”

This is covenantal commitment to an important relationship. It’s the fierce determination to see to the welfare of someone you are committed to in love. It’s how husbands ought to treat their wives, and wives their husbands, and parents their children, and children their parents.

Totally committed. Determined.

That’s how God sees his people. And he sees them that way forever. No matter what.

If you’re his child, he is committed to exercising his goodness on your behalf for as long as he lives—until, as the founder of my university put it, “the angels sing a funeral dirge over his grave.”

And that, my friends, will never happen.

He is infinitely good, and he is infinitely great. He wants to protect, direct, and empower his people; he is able to do that; and he is committed to do it.

So how should we respond?

Next time.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Reasons to Celebrate in Hard Times (Psalm 103), Part 2: God Is Good to His People

August 18, 2022 by Dan Olinger 1 Comment

Part 1: God Is Good to You and Me

David—or whoever wrote this Psalm—has begun with a call to praise God, and he’s given as his first reason a series of good things God has done for him—and you, and me; the recipients there are all singular. In the next section he changes to the plural; he talking about things that God has done not just for “me,” but for “us”—for his people corporately. Throughout history, God has consistently intervened to meet the greatest needs of his people.

At Israel’s birth as a nation, God revealed himself to them in multiple ways: at the burning bush (Ex 3.1-6), through the plagues in Egypt (Ex 5-12), at the parting of the Red Sea (Ex 14.21-31), and at Sinai (Ex 20). In fact, verse 8 of our Psalm is essentially a direct quotation of Exodus 20.6.

And what is the characteristic of God—what is the good thing about him—that the Psalmist chooses to highlight in this section?

Mercy.

In his dealings with his people, God is the sort of person who doesn’t give them the punishment that they deserve. Despite our sin, despite our selfishness, despite our arrogance and disrespect toward him, he shows mercy.

Specifically,

He is slow to anger (Ps. 103.8). He doesn’t lose his temper or lash out in uncontrolled rage. He puts up with a lot from us and doesn’t crush us like a bug—which, as omnipotent, he certainly could. He deals with us carefully, tenderly, reasonably, patiently.
When he does get angry—and when he should get angry,* he does—he doesn’t stay that way forever (Ps 103.9). When his justified anger has accomplished his purpose, he calmly sets it aside.
His dealings with us are underproportioned (Ps 103.10). He doesn’t give us the negative things we deserve.

He is merciful—filled with mercy, the attribute that stops punishment or consequence well short of what is truly called for.

And why is that?

Well, for starters, that’s who he is, and he always acts consistently with his nature.

But the Psalmist highlights another reason: he has a relationship with us; we are his people (Ps 103.11-13).

We fear him, reverence him, recognize his fatherhood over us (Ps 103.11).
He has removed our transgressions from us (Ps 103.12), as far as the east is from the west. I’ve traveled to the other side of the world both by going east and by going west, and I can tell you that they never meet. Why has he done this remarkable thing? Why has he unburdened us of the guilt of our sin? From the Psalmist’s perspective, he’s done so because Israel is his people, his special flock, and he’s given them the grace of forgiving their sins when they offer the specified sacrifices at the specified place. We who are not physical Israel know that those sacrifices prefigured another sacrifice, a greater, perfect sacrifice, offered by God the Son through the eternal Spirit unto God the Father. God has forgiven us because our sin debt has been paid, and we are now cloaked in the righteousness of Christ.
He is our Father, and we are his children (Ps 103.13). That’s a significant relationship, a permanent one, one that calls for love and patience and loyalty and provision and protection.

So it’s not just that God’s a nice person, nice to all the human persons in a beneficent sort of way. No, we his people are corporeal, a body, a flock, and we have a relationship with the God who created and redeemed us. He’s good to us for reasons far deeper than the need to help a beggar on the street or an accident victim on the highway.

We’re family.

And we’ll always be family.

* There are times when anger is the only appropriate response. If you see a child being sexually abused, you should get angry, and you should put a stop to it. Injustice should make us angry and spur us to action. Imminent threats to the well-being of those we love should make us angry. They make God angry, and that is a virtue, not a weakness or a flaw.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Reasons to Celebrate in Hard Times (Psalm 103), Part 1: God Is Good to You and Me

August 15, 2022 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

We live in unstable and unhappy times. Lots of people are complaining—and there’s a lot to complain about. But we all know that living in a spirit of complaint isn’t good for us, and we also know that we tend to magnify our difficulties and minimize our joys.

I’ve been spending extra time in the Psalms lately, and I’ve found that time to be well invested. It’s good to be around happy people—though not all the Psalms are happy, certainly—and it’s good to be reminded that our time is not substantially different from what lots of other people have endured, and over which they have triumphed.

Psalm 103 is a simple meditation on good things, encouraging things—and better yet, eternal things. According to its superscription, it’s Davidic—by David, or perhaps for him or in his style; the Hebrew preposition can mean a lot of things. It begins and ends with a call to praise, first by the author himself (Ps 103.1-2) and at the last by all of creation (Ps 103.20-22). In between, the Psalmist considers some of the reasons why we should praise God—and along the way there’s a hint that his life hasn’t been all sunshine and roses.

We’ve all heard the children’s prayer at mealtime:

God is great,
God is good;
Let us thank him
For our food.

This psalm appears to pray that prayer on a much grander scale.

The Psalmist begins—after the initial call to praise—with God’s goodness (“his benefits,” Ps 103.2), and specifically his goodness to the Psalmist himself as an individual. He lists those benefits in two categories.

First, God has delivered him (and you, and me) from many of the negative things about life:

He forgives all your sins (Ps 103.3).
- We’re defeated by an enemy far greater than we are; we’re at the mercy of sin, and we even find ourselves being attracted by it. We’ve sinned ourselves so deeply into slavery and brokenness that there seems to be no hope for us.
- But God has stepped into our misery and has rescued us, applying Christ’s righteousness to us and forgiving the depraved things we’ve done. Further, he’s cast them into the sea (Mic 7.19), as far from us as the east is from the west (as we’ll see later in the psalm).
He heals all your diseases (Ps 103.3).
- Is this line an indication that the Psalmist has just come through hard times? He seems to speak from experience.
- We find that often physical healing is available to us in answer to our prayers; but I think, given the close reference to forgiveness of sins, that we should consider our healing from spiritual sickness and death (Ep 2.1-7) here.
- And further, we anticipate the day when there will be no more disease—physical or spiritual—because God has brought history full circle and returned us to the “very good” state in which we began (Re 21.4).
He redeems us from destruction (Ps 103.4)—that is, he sets us on a path to life instead of death.

Then the Psalmist considers how he has replaced those negative things with positive ones:

He crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies (Ps 103.4)—that is, he pours out his loving loyalty and his compassion on us. He is a gentle and committed shepherd.
He feeds us well, nourishing us for strength (Ps 103.5). I think it’s interesting that God made food taste good. He could have made it all a tasteless grey paste, just something we have to choke down every so often to keep our strength up. But he didn’t do that; he made food really good. Salty, sweet, sour, bitter, meaty. Cold, hot, and in between. Crunchy, smooth, creamy, crispy. It’s all good.

There’s a lot more that God does for each of us that demonstrates his goodness; the Psalmist has given us just a sampling. We can profitably meditate on the much longer list. And as we’ll see, the Psalmist is just getting started.

Next time.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Jesus Is Jehovah, Part 9: “Your Years Shall Not Fail”

September 6, 2021 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

In the previous post we noted that Hebrews 1 begins the author’s task of demonstrating the superiority of Christ in all things by demonstrating his superiority to the angels. He does this by citing a series of quotations from the Hebrew Scripture, what we Christians call the Old Testament. We looked last time at a quotation from Deuteronomy in Hebrews 1.6.

Just a few verses further we find another Old Testament YHWH passage (Ps 102.25-27) cited and applied to the Son:

“In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands; ¹¹they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like clothing; ¹²like a cloak you will roll them up, and like clothing they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never end” (He 1.10-12).

The author of Hebrews, as is his custom, is quoting not the Hebrew Old Testament but its Greek translation, the Septuagint, which was in very common use in the first century. In verse 10 the Septuagint has the word “Lord” (Gk kurie), and consequently the Greek of the verse, and the English translations, have it as well. It’s proper to note that the word does not occur in the Hebrew text, having been added by the Septuagint translators. (I noted last time that the Septuagint is of uneven quality.)

So the word “Lord” (in Hebrew, either Adonai or YHWH) does not in fact occur in Psalm 102.25. But “YHWH” does occur earlier in the Psalm; in fact it occurs 8 times in 28 verses (Ps 102.1, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, and 22). As you might suspect from the frequency and extent of the appearances, the entire psalm is addressed to YHWH. And for good measure, the name “God” (Elohim) appears in verse 24.

Beyond the name statistics, however, the context—the entirety of Psalm 102—makes the impact of this application all the more impressive.

The psalm is addressed as a plea prayer, requesting deliverance (Ps 102.1-2)
- From extreme physical ailment (Ps 102.3-5);
- From psychological torment (Ps 102.6-7, 9, 11);
- From powerful enemies (Ps 102.8);
- From the wrath of the addressee, God (Ps 102.10).
The psalmist is confident that God can deliver him from such a complex, multifaceted problem because
- He is a mighty king (Ps 102.12a);
- He has an eternal reputation (Ps 102.12b);
- He is compassionate (Ps 102.13a, 14);
- He keeps his promises (Ps 102.13b);
- He does infinitely impressive works (Ps 102.15-16);
- He cares for the downtrodden (Ps 102.17-20); and
- He is the kind of person whom it is right and reasonable to worship (Ps 102.21-22).

The Psalmist climaxes his prayer by contrasting his temporality (“do not take me away at the midpoint of my life”) with God’s eternality (“you whose years endure throughout all generations”) (Ps 102.24)—and then comes the closing stanza, a hymn to the eternality and power of the Almighty and the security those who trust in him, most of which is the portion quoted in Hebrews:

²⁵Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. ²⁶They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You change them like clothing, and they pass away; ²⁷but you are the same, and your years have no end. ²⁸The children of your servants shall live secure; their offspring shall be established in your presence.

Once in this Psalm the writer calls this person God, and 8 times he calls him YHWH.

The writer to the Hebrews calls him Jesus.

Part 10: Other Possibilities

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Jesus Is Jehovah, Part 7: “The LORD Will Come in Fire”

August 30, 2021 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Isaiah is, in many minds, the premier Old Testament prophet. He writes to a nation facing imminent invasion from Assyria: in a few years Sennacherib’s forces will take all the leadership of the Northern Kingdom into exile, effectively decapitating their status as a nation. Surprisingly, Isaiah spends much of his prophecy looking beyond that to another invasion, this one by Babylon, whose Nebuchadnezzar will similarly decapitate the Southern Kingdom in three waves, the last and most devastating one bringing the complete destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 586 BC.

Isaiah justifies God’s devastating plan by cataloguing Israel’s sins, North and South. From the beginning God offers to reason with his stubborn people (Is 1.18), but they only harden their hearts to further stubbornness. The first section of his prophecy is dark indeed.

But Isaiah, reflecting the God for whom he is a spokesman, does not leave his people in darkness. The second part of the book begins with comfort (Is 40.1) and promises that Judah will return through the wilderness to their ancestral homeland (Is 40.3), given them by this very God and promised to them, as Abraham’s descendants, for all time. Isaiah even names Cyrus, decades before his birth, as God’s instrument to return his people to their homeland—and yes, I believe that Isaiah wrote those words (Is 44.28-45.1). This good news is to be proclaimed from the high mountains, so that all can hear and rejoice (Is 40.9).

God is just, and he is good (Ps 89.14). In wrath he remembers mercy (Hab 3.2).

The best of the news is that God’s Servant will one day die for the sins of his people (Is 53.4-8), meeting God’s justice in a way that allows mercy without compromise. What a remarkable promise the prophet pictures.

At the very end of his book he wraps up the story by promising that the mighty God will restore his people to peace in their land (Is 66.12-14) and destroy these powerful enemies that have abused and exiled them; God will rush upon the enemies with an overwhelming power, infinitely greater than even their fearsome armies:

¹⁵For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. ¹⁶For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many (Is 66).

This didn’t happen in Isaiah’s time. Oh, Judah returned from captivity (Ezra 1-5), and at the command of King Cyrus (Ezra 1.1), predicted by name decades before. Messiah did die for the sins of his people (Ro 5.12, 19; 2Co 5.21). But YHWH did not come in flames of fire to incinerate his enemies.

Yet the story is not done.

Paul the Apostle writes to one of his first European churches, in Thessalonica, words that must have surprised a good number of his readers—

It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; ⁷And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, ⁸In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: ⁹Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; ¹⁰When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day (2Th 1).

Who is coming in flaming fire, to take vengeance on his enemies? YHWH, as Isaiah promised all those centuries ago? Yes, indeed; Paul calls him “Lord” three times in this passage. But not just “Lord,” the OT YHWH; he calls him “the Lord Jesus Christ.”

YHWH, the eternal and omnipotent one, is Jesus.

Part 8: “Let All the Angels of God Worship Him” | Part 9: “Your Years Shall Not Fail” | Part 10: Other Possibilities

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Jesus Is Jehovah, Part 6: Excursus—Descent into Hell

August 26, 2021 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: “Prepare Ye the Way” | Part 3: “I Have Seen the LORD” | Part 4: “Call upon the Name of the LORD” | Part 5: “He Ascended Up on High”

As I noted last time, Ephesians 4.9 says that Christ “descended first” (that is, before his ascension) “into the lower parts of the earth.” This passage serves as one proof text for the so-called “descent into hell”—that Jesus’ spirit went to hell while his body was in the tomb. This view is held by various groups across the spectrum of broad Christendom.

I don’t buy it.

First, a little exegesis in this passage. The key to the verse is the phrase “the lower parts of the earth.” What is that?

The phrase is rare, but it does appear twice in the OT. In Isaiah 44.23 it appears in contrast with heaven: “Sing O ye heavens; … shout, ye lower parts of the earth.” Here it clearly means the earth as distinguished from heaven; grammarians would call this a “genitive of apposition”—“ye lower parts, that is to say, the earth.” If this is the meaning in Ephesians 4.9 (and of its source in Psalm 68.18), then Paul is simply saying that the person who came to earth is the same one that returned to heaven—and the descent is the incarnation, not the time in the tomb.

The phrase also appears in Psalm 63.9—“Those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.” There’s room for debate here, but I’m inclined to think that this is a reference to the grave—a place dug beneath the earth’s surface—rather than hell. There’s no clear indication in Scripture that hell is physically beneath the earth’s surface, and the Psalmist is likely saying simply that those who want him dead will be similarly judged by dying. If this is the meaning in our passage, then Paul is saying that the person who died is the same as the one who ascended to heaven.

In neither case is there any clear statement that Jesus went to hell.

Proponents of the view also mention Psalm 16.10, the Messianic prophecy that God will “not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.” So Messiah spent some time in hell and was delivered from it.

I think not.

A key feature of Hebrew poetry is parallelism, one form of which is synonymous parallelism—saying the same thing twice in different words. An example is Psalm 2.4—“He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.” It seems clear to me that Psalm 16.10 is the same structure; “thou wilt not leave my soul in hell” is saying the same thing as “thou wilt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption.” Where does corruption—decomposition—occur? Not in hell, certainly; there “the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mk 9.44). It occurs in the physical grave. And the word for “hell” in the passage (sheol) can indeed mean “the grave” (Ps 49.14).

So what is Psalm 16.10 saying? Simply that God will not leave Messiah in the grave long enough for decomposition to begin; he will resurrect him before then. As he did.

Interestingly, both Peter (Ac 2.25-31; note esp v 29) and Paul (Ac 13.34-37) confirm this understanding. Each of them preaches (at Pentecost and at Pisidian Antioch, respectively) that Psalm 16.10 was fulfilled when God raised Jesus from the grave, thereby preventing the “corruption” that certainly occurred to David’s corpse.

If any doubt remains, I’ll note that from his cross Jesus told the repentant thief, “Today you will be with me—in paradise.” It’s pretty clear where Jesus’ spirit went when his body was (briefly) in the tomb.

Part 7: “The LORD Will Come in Fire” | Part 8: “Let All the Angels of God Worship Him” | Part 9: “Your Years Shall Not Fail” | Part 10: Other Possibilities

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Jesus Is Jehovah, Part 5: “He Ascended Up on High”

August 23, 2021 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: “Prepare Ye the Way” | Part 3: “I Have Seen the LORD” | Part 4: “Call upon the Name of the LORD”

Our fourth example of a YHWH / Jesus pair of passages is interesting on several levels; there are at least two other significant interpretational issues in the OT citation. But first to the issue at hand.

Paul discusses spiritual gifts in the church in several places in his letters: Romans 12.4-8; 1Co 12.4-11 and 27-31; and finally Ephesians 4.7-16. I’ve written on those passages before.

Paul begins his final discussion by speaking of the church as the body of Christ (Ep 4.4), as he has in his earlier discussions. In Romans 12 and 1Corinthians 12 he emphasizes the diversity of function of the body’s parts, but the unity of the body itself. Here he emphasizes the benefit to the body when all its members perform their diverse functions as they should. He begins with a citation from the Old Testament that speaks of gift-giving (Ps 68.15-21).

The Psalmist is writing a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to God. This brief paragraph uses a broad range of God’s most common names: God (Elohim), Psalm 68.15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 (2x), 21; Lord (Adonai), Psalm 68.17, 19, 20; and, significantly, LORD (YHWH), Psalm 68.16, 18, 20 (there translated “GOD”).

There is no doubt who is being discussed—and addressed—in this passage. And Paul selects just the first part of one verse, verse 18, from the middle of the paragraph:

When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men (Ep 4.8).

Who ascended up on high? Well, Jesus, of course. And the man Jesus, who, after physically living and dying and being resurrected, ascended in a physical body from earth to heaven, is, in Paul’s thinking, the one being addressed in the Psalmist’s paragraph. Elohim. Adonai. YHWH.

Unless Paul is mistaken—and he’s not—Jesus is YHWH.

As I noted earlier, there are two—or more—other significant interpretational issues in this passage. The first is one you may have noticed in the citation above. Paul changes the verb, and thus the direction of giving, in the key verse. The Psalmist says God “received gifts for men”; Paul says he “gave gifts to men.” Can Paul do that? Is that a mistake?

The history of the interpretation of both Psalm 68 and Paul’s citation of it here is … complex, to say the least. Of several proposed explanations for the “inaccurate quotation,” I prefer the simple idea that Paul changed the wording intentionally to fit his theme. He does that elsewhere, as when he famously alters Habakkuk 2.4 in Galatians 3.11 and Romans 1.17, and when he alters Deuteronomy 30.12-14 in Romans 10.6-8.

Can he do that? Isn’t that dishonest?

I don’t think so, for the simple reason that Paul is inspired by the Spirit of God, who inspired the earlier texts and, as the original author, is free to modify his earlier wording for any purpose he wishes. In a similar case, Jesus himself changed the wording of Deuteronomy 6.4-5, the “Shema,” or, as he labels it, the “Greatest Commandment,” by adding a fourth descriptor, “and with all thy mind” (Mk 12.30) to the three originally included.

The second issue is in the verse that follows in Paul’s letter. Paul writes that the Christ who ascended also “descended first into the lower parts of the earth”—and that phrase has caused all sorts of discussion throughout church history. It’s the basis for the idea that while his body was in the tomb, Christ “descended into hell.” The line even occurs in the Apostles’ Creed.

Because this is such a significant idea—and because I think it’s both biblically and theologically unfounded—I’m going to take the next post to look at it more closely.

Part 6: Excursus: Descent into Hell | Part 7: “The LORD Will Come in Fire” | Part 8: “Let All the Angels of God Worship Him” | Part 9: “Your Years Shall Not Fail” | Part 10: Other Possibilities

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

The Eye of the Storm, Part 2

March 25, 2021 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1

Let’s take a closer look at Psalm 11, where we find ourselves faced with a stark choice as we deal with troublous times.

Stanza 1 includes verses 1-3. David’s advisors, having done a SWOT analysis, present him with what appears to be the only logical choice: “Run! Run for your life!”

Flee as a bird to your mountain!

And they give solid reasons: you have enemies, and they are preparing for action, which includes hidden threats to your very life. With weapons. Bad ones.

For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.

They also note the consequences of inaction.

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?!

This is, as we say these days, an “existential threat.” The consequences are world-shaking. What we’re facing is the end of all we know and love. Oblivion.

That’s their case.

Now David presents his.

I note that he doesn’t deny the truth of their facts. He’s not careless, disengaged, distracted, or apathetic. “There are no threats; no one’s after me; you people are a bunch of paranoid freaks.”

No. Accepting their major premise—that there’s a real threat out there—he presents rather a different perspective on it.

He brings in a variable that they haven’t mentioned. There is another actor on the battlefield; his name is YHWH, the ever-present and unchanging one, the one who keeps covenants. David views this God from three different perspectives.

His Person

David begins his response with a statement about who God is, what he is like:

The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven (v 4).

What is he like? Well, for starters, he has a temple—he’s God—and it’s “holy,” or unique. He’s not like everybody else; he’s in a class by himself. Adding him to the scene changes everything.

Second, he has a throne. That means he’s a king. And if he’s holy, then he’s not like any other king. He’s bigger, and stronger, and smarter, and better at kinging than any other king.

There’s a third factor. That throne is in heaven. That means, at least, that he’s above the battlefield and has a broader and clearer perspective on what’s going on down below. The high ground is militarily significant for many reasons, and one of them is the advantage that its perspective gives for strategic planning.

And heaven, of course, is not just any ordinary high ground. It’s the highest ground of all, the home of him who never loses.

So this is who the fearful have left out of their equation. A fairly significant oversight.

His Perspective

David also considers where God is looking—where his attention is focused. He actually bookends his thoughts—what scholars call an inclusio—with this idea.

His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men (v 4).

His countenance doth behold the upright (v 7).

This powerful God, this master general, this unmatchable force, is paying attention. His eyes are focused like a laser on his people; he knows what’s going on, and his hands are poised on the armrests of his throne as he prepares to move against any and all threats to them. His silence is evidence not of distance or distraction, but of concentration.

The storm in which we find ourselves has an eye, a place of calm. And the eye belongs to God.

His Plan

God has plans for every actor on the battlefield.

God’s plan for the righteous is to strengthen him not by avoiding the exertion of battle, but by enduring it.

The Lord trieth the righteous (v 5).

We all know that athletes don’t become great by lying on the couch. They become great by building endurance through physical challenges—wind sprints, road work, scrimmages seemingly without end. And they build dexterity and skills by constant repetition at the blocking sled or doing layups or punching the timing bag.

They get tired.

But they get great.

That’s God’s loving plan for us through the dark days, through the frightening challenges (Ro 5.3-5).

God also has plans for those who threaten his people.

The wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. ⁶Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup (vv 5b-6).

They won’t prevail. They won’t even survive.

The foundations, in the end, cannot be destroyed. The battle may well be strenuous, and we may well pick up some Purple Hearts, or maybe even a Congressional Medal of Honor, along the way.

But the outcome is certain.

Fear not.

Photo by NASA. That’s Tropical Cyclone Eloise coming ashore in Mozambique on January 22, 2021.

The Eye of the Storm, Part 1

March 22, 2021 by Dan Olinger 1 Comment

I’ve been meditating lately in Psalm 11, as part of my effort this year to memorize a few key Psalms. (So far, 1, 2, 8, 11, and 14; next is 19, d.v.)

Psalm 11 is most well known for its third verse: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

I’ve heard that verse used as a call to action against evil—typically, social or political action against evil policy proposals, national or regional. Some years ago I even spoke at a Christian-school conference that had chosen that verse as its theme.

But I’d like to suggest that those friends and others have taken this verse to say the very opposite of the intended meaning.

Here’s the whole Psalm—

¹ In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain! ²For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. ³If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?!”

⁴The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. ⁵The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. ⁶Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. ⁷For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

I’ve modified the punctuation of the KJV text just a little: I’ve added quotation marks; I’ve changed the question mark at the end of verse 1 to an exclamation point; and I’ve added an exclamation point to the question mark at the end of verse 3.

It appears to me that the KJV translators viewed the quotation as ending in verse 1; that’s why they put the question mark there. (Note that there was no punctuation in the original manuscripts or in the early copies. All punctuation in the Bible is a later editorial decision.) What basis do I have for extending the quotation through verse 3?

Well, the first consideration in any such decision should always be the context. The contrast between verses 3 and 4 indicates a significant change of perspective—which is why all the major English translations that show paragraph breaks put one there, and all those that include quotation marks end the quotation at the end of verse 3. The fear and frustration expressed in verse 3 seems much more in tune with the quotation in verse 1 than the response in verse 4.

Since it’s always a good idea to run your ideas past experts, the next step is to check the commentaries. Of the technical commentaries I have at hand, Faussett, Keil & Delitzsch, Lange, Kidner (Tyndale), Futato (Cornerstone), Longman (Tyndale), and Motyer (New BC) all agree that the major break is between 3 and 4—in other words, that verse 3 belongs with verse 1.

Thus the psalm consists of two paragraphs, or more properly, two stanzas. In the first, David announces his life principle (“In the Lord do I put my trust”) and then questions those who question him. The words “what can the righteous do?!” are not David’s, but those of his questioners, his self-appointed advisors, who see the world as a much more frightening place than he does. They are words of fear, not of faith.

The second stanza is David’s reply to his fearful advisors. He answers calmly and logically—theologically—and gives reasons for his faith. The reasons are rooted in God’s person, his perspective, and his plan.

And in the face of that, the alarmed have nothing more to say.

I think this Psalm is timely for these days.

In the next post we’ll take a closer look at the words of both the fearful and the faithful. And then we’ll get to pick a side.

Part 2

Photo by NASA. That’s Tropical Cyclone Eloise coming ashore in Mozambique on January 22, 2021.