Church Write-Up: Class on Psalms; Psalm 23:2

The theme of the church service this morning was Psalm 23:2. The pastor also started a class on the Psalms. Here are some items.

A. The pastor said that we should not be confused when the Psalmist, David, talks about the Temple, even though the Temple had not yet been built because David’s son, Solomon, would be the one to build it. The reason is that the Tabernacle in the Torah is sometimes called the house of God, or a temple. I did a search online, and, indeed, there are cases in which the Tabernacle is called the house of the LORD (Joshua 6:24; I Samuel 1:7, 24) and the Temple (I Samuel 1:9; 3:3). The pastor was arguing against commentators who contend that David could not possibly have written the Psalms because they refer to the Temple. The Psalms also refer to exile, however, which took place long after the time of David. But traditionalists have a way to get around that: David was referring to the captivity of Israelite POWs by the Philistines or other Canaanites.

B. The pastor said that “Psalms” comes from a Greek word that relates to stringed instruments. Back then, he said, they did not have organs, which were later brought to various countries by the Romans.

C. Some of the Psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah. The pastor said that these were not literal sons of a man named Korah but were singers at the sanctuary. He dated them to the eighth century B.C.E. This somewhat took me aback. I assumed that the conventional view was that the sons of Korah were believed in the Hebrew Bible to be descended from the Korah of the Book of Numbers, the Levite who led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, long before the eighth century. Scholars have argued that those stories in Numbers reflect conflict between the Aaronides and the levitical Korahites, the sons of Korah mentioned in the Psalms. The pastor is probably basing what he said on something within scholarship. The eighth century date actually is significant because of an archaeological finding from Arad, dated to the eighth century, that refers to the sons of Korah.

D. The pastor referred to the so-called Elohistic Psalms (Psalms 42-83), which use “Elohim” for God instead of YHWH. At first, the pastor dismissed this as no big deal, since Christians today use different names for God. But then the pastor asked why Psalms 42-83 prefers Elohim, and he admitted that he has no idea. The pastor was probably responding to a Documentary Hypothesis sort of view on Psalms, which attributes Psalms 42-83 to an Elohistic school or sanctuary, perhaps from the same Northern Israelite milieu that produced the “E” source in the Pentateuch. Another view is that Psalms 42-83 prefers Elohim because it sought to protect the sacred name of God, YHWH, from becoming cheapened through overuse; such a concern is commonly dated later in Jewish history, at least to the third century B.C.E., when the LXX uses “kurios” for YHWH. Then there are traditionalists who think that “Elohim” and “YHWH” convey distinct nuances about God: “Elohim” refers to God in his transcendent majesty, whereas “YHWH” is God’s personal, covenantal, relational name. I found an abstract of a 2010 article by Laura Joffe, “The Elohistic Psalter: What, How and Why?”, which states: “The author concludes that the Elohistic Psalter is the result of highly skilled editorial activity which was unrelated to any reluctance to pronounce the tetragrammaton.” Some of those Psalms in the Elohistic Psalter are attributed to David, which could pose a challenge to the traditionalist perspective: Psalms attributed to David use “LORD,” so why would David prefer “Elohim” in certain Psalms? Could the Northern Israelites have adapted Davidic Psalms to their Elohistic sanctuaries? And why did the Northerners prefer “Elohim”? Were they seeking to differentiate themselves from the Southerners?

E. Someone in the group said that the Psalms seem very personal and he feels that he is intruding into someone else’s personal relationship with God when he reads them. His comment stood out to me because the Psalms, to me, seem personal, and I struggle to reconcile that with the scholarly views that the Psalms were formal prayers manufactured for corporate worship in sanctuaries. Not to mention that they mention extreme perils, and how many people actually experience those extreme perils at the hands of enemies? David did, though. But there are other things to consider: what are ancient Near Eastern psalms outside of Israel like? Reading through my blog’s archives, it appears that John Walton states that the biblical Psalter complains about life’s injustices far more than ancient Near Eastern psalms. But I am hesitant to take that to the bank: there are a lot of times when Christian scholars say “the Bible is distinct” in such-and-such a thing, then I find such-and-such a thing in ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman writings.

F. Someone else in the group said that he read that the Psalms can be effectively translated into various languages, unlike other poetry. Other poetry relies on rhyme, which may not translate into other languages. The Bible, however, relies on emphasis, repetition, and parallelism, which can be rendered and understood.

G. The pastor commented on the imprecatory Psalms. Reading them in light of Jesus, the pastor said, we can interpret the “enemies,” not as literal people we want God to smite, but as the Christian’s enemies, namely, the world, the flesh, and the devil. If we experience revenge, for example, we can ask Jesus to take that to the cross. The pastor said that reading the Psalms in light of Jesus is more helpful than doing otherwise. That brings me to the next item.

H. The service was about Psalm 23:2: “He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters.” The pastor talked about the pits in which sheep find themselves, and how the shepherds lead them and guide them out of that. A sheep may eat so deeply into the ground that he destroys the roots and thus deprives himself of future food. Similarly, we can find ourselves in spiritual ruts, and God wants to lead us from them. This relates to “G” because I am reluctant to trust God to deliver me from my own spiritual ruts—-sexual desire, dislike of people, extreme introversion, impatience—-so I resign myself to them, or at least hope that they can be tamed, if not defeated. Should I eagerly wait for God’s deliverance, or is that a lost cause, one that will disappoint me if I dwell on it too much?

I. The pastor said that God gives us what we need. A shepherd leads sheep beside still waters because turbulent waters will scare the sheep. That can raise “problem of evil” questions: why did God allow me to experience this horror? But does that mean that God never leads people beside still waters? God himself can be a source of peace and rest. God gives people times of refreshment and relief. One person in church was worried about cancer, but his surgery has removed that problem. What a relief.

J. Jesus in John 10:27 affirms that his sheep hear his voice. The pastor told about different sheep being placed in the same bin, yet, the next morning, each sheep knows the voice of its own shepherd, even though the sheep have different shepherds. John 10:27 has been applied to God’s personal guidance of people; I rarely experience that. The pastor seemed to relate it to God’s general proclamation of the Gospel: Jesus calls his sheep to himself by extending mercy on the cross. The pastor told a story about a woman who shied away from Christianity because of her harsh Christian father, yet she felt something in her mind and her heart that was drawing her to Jesus. I, too, have felt that pull, even though I have also had plenty of times of confusion in whatever faith life I have.

K. The youth pastor said that the shepherd rescues his sheep from dangerous situations into which they get themselves. God may not always do that for us, he said, but Jesus experienced God’s rod on the cross (or something to that effect). God can deliver us from potential peril through God’s commands in God’s word. If we, like sheep, are dumb, then does that help us, necessarily? We may misapply the word, plus God often does not seem to be as overbearing as a shepherd is: God can let us fall into dangerous traps. But do I dismiss the concept completely? God is the Christian’s shepherd in a spiritual sense, protecting one’s soul in this life and eternity.

L. The youth pastor said that the shepherd prepares the way for the sheep, looking for pastures then guiding the sheep to them. What we know about God is due to God’s revelation to us. We build on what God has already done. We participate in what God has laid out.