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For my weekly quiet time this Sabbath, I will blog about Psalm 21.
The Book of Psalms is not just about individuals needing God's help and giving God thanks once they receive it. There is a bigger picture. In Psalm 21, the Israelites talk about the king---how God strengthens the king for battle against Israel's aggressive enemies, gives the king his heart's desire (which could be victory in battle), prolongs the king's life (probably by preserving it on the battlefield), glorifies the king, gives the king blessing, and makes the king happy through God's presence. The king trusts in the LORD, and God's love for him is not shakeable. Scholars (such as Peter Craigie) have speculated that the setting for this Psalm was a celebration of the renewal or anniversary of the king's coronation.
The king is a hero to Israel. He fights on behalf of the people, which is for their well-being, since the nation probably wouldn't be too happy if her enemies could ransack her land and enslave her to foreign tyranny. And so, in a sense, the king's well-being is the nation's well-being. But the king still gets good things for himself out of the deal: glory, long life, blessing, God's presence and love. Being rather selfish, I can read this Psalm and wonder why I should care whether or not the national leader is glorified---just so long as the leader is serving my needs. But God wants me to think beyond myself. The national leader, when he's doing his job right, is bringing blessing to the entire nation, which means that I am benefiting. And yet, the national leader deserves at least some credit and blessing for himself for fulfilling this role.
Moshe Weinfeld makes a similar point in his Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School. On page 33, Weinfeld states regarding the creed in Deuteronomy 26:3-10:
"It would have been more in keeping with the circumstances if the farmer presenting the first crops of his soil had expressed his gratitude to Jahweh for the fecundity and bounty with which his plot had been blessed. Instead he is ordered to repeat a set form of thanksgiving recalling the great religio-historical events (the Exodus and the inheritance of the land of Canaan) in Israelite history, in which the blessing of the farmer's produce, there being ceremonially offered, receives but scant attention."
According to Weinfeld, Deuteronomy wanted the farmer to look at a bigger picture than his crops when he offered his firstfruits. Deuteronomy desired for the farmer to direct his attention towards God's interaction with Israel as a whole---the foundational elements of Israel's national story.
In my opinion and the opinion of others, it's for the same sort of reason that the Lord's prayer is structured as it is: the first part is about God and God's purposes---the sanctity of God's name and God's plan to conform the earth to his righteous will---whereas the second part concerns God meeting our physical and spiritual needs (i.e., food, forgiveness, avoidance of temptation, deliverance from evil). Indeed, the first part (God's agenda) can benefit us, for the sanctity of God's name and the spread of God's kingdom can coincide with righteousness and justice, plus we should remember that we're not asking an abstract deity to sanctify his name and to spread his kingdom, for the prayer is directed to "our Father". But the sanctity of God's name and the spread of God's kingdom are much larger than us, and they entail the glorification of someone other than ourselves. Moreover, it's important to note that, when we pray the Lord's prayer, we are speaking in the first-person plural: "Our Father", "Give us", "Forgive us", "Lead us not". We do not say "my", "I" or "me", but "our", "we", and "us". The prayer exhorts us to remember that we are not the only ones who need God's help, for God is concerned for his entire creation, and there are other people besides us who need food and spiritual guidance.
Psalm 21, Deuteronomy 26:3-10, and the Lord's prayer call me to look above and beyond myself as an individual, and to remember the bigger picture of what God is doing, as God desires the well-being, not only of me, but of his entire creation. That's why some Christians prefer to replace the Romans Road method of witnessing---which emphasizes individual repentance and God's forgiveness of individuals---with the Colossians Road method, which focuses on God's cosmic work of reconciling all of creation with himself and how God wants people to become a part of that.
On this holy week, we celebrate God as a hero: Jews remember that God humbled the pride of Egypt and delivered his people from oppressive slavery, demonstrating to the nations that he is God. Christians reflect on how Jesus Christ died on the cross to deliver us from sin, and rose from the dead to defeat death and to give us new life. It's good for me to admire someone who, not only wants to help me, but also seeks to help all of creation. On holy week, I look beyond myself on one whom I consider to be admirable, God the Father and Jesus Christ.
I really enjoyed my reading of the medieval Midrash on the Psalms, for, in its treatment of Psalm 21, there was talk about the Messiah. The Messiah was presented as one who would deliver Israel and smite her enemies (such as Edom), which gave Jews hope as they suffered in the Diaspora. But there was also a larger vision: that the Messiah would teach the nations thirty commandments (the six commandments given to Adam, along with twenty-four others, including the booth, the palm-branch, and tefillin), as God himself teaches Israel the Torah (Isaiah 11:10; 59:13); that the Messiah will punish the wicked with the words of his mouth, for he will have the authority to command the angel of death and to summon locusts.
While Judaism does not regard the Messiah as God, I did see in Midrash on the Psalms the view that God will share his glory with the Messiah, for Psalm 21:6 says that God places honor and majesty on the king. And, according to the Midrash, God has done the same sort of thing for other biblical characters. He called Moses by his own name, saying that he will make Moses God to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1). He calls the throne of Solomon the throne of the LORD (I Chronicles 29:23). He let Elijah ride in his own chariot (II Kings 2:1). Similarly, the Messiah will reign as God's representative, and he (and also Jerusalem) will be called by God's name (Jeremiah 23:6; Ezekiel 48:35). Many Christian apologists look at passages about the eschatological Davidic king in the Hebrew Bible, see divine characteristics, and conclude that the Hebrew Bible predicted that the Messiah would be God. But certain Jewish interpreters have a different approach: they believe that the Messiah will share God's glory, but will not be God himself.
In a sense, the faith with which I grew up---Armstrongism---looked at the bigger picture of God perfecting the cosmos and solving national and international problems. We looked for the intervention of the Messiah, whom we regarded as Jesus Christ. But, in my opinion, that sort of eschatology encouraged its adherents to devalue the present world---while sitting back and waiting for God to come and fix things. My impression was also that there wasn't a great deal of emphasis on God loving each person individually. I'd like to have a balanced faith---one that acknowledges God's love for me on a personal level, while also remembering that God loves the cosmos.
