Divine invasion: the work of god in psalm 139 - ACU Blogs
divine invasion: the work of god in psalm 139A few Psalms receive repeated use by authors from all times and centuries. Psalm 139 has been a favorite for many Christians and churches. Some have abused Ps 139 and used it as a proof text for various doctrines. Psalm 139 has a type of elegance and beauty while remaining deeply theological. Pastors and exegetes have received comfort knowing that God is aware of each intricacy of life. People have taken solace in the idea that God is with them all throughout the day in their resting and rising (Ps 139: 2). However, this is not entirely the sense that the Psalm gives. This Psalm is about the forceful entrance of God into every aspect of the author’s life. Many of the omniscient attributes of God, which have traditionally given hope to people, are actually claims of discomfort and rebellion towards God. Psalm 139 records the author thoughts about moving from the place of rebellion to the place of righteousness. The author would likely not begrudge any type of hope or comfort the people have received from the text, but that was not the author’s original intension.location of psalm 139 It is notoriously difficult to determine a date and historical context for each Psalm. A few Psalms, like Ps 137, give historical clues as to their contexts, but this is not the case for most of Psalms. Psalm 139 has a prescript similar to many other psalms, which associates the Psalm with David. Traditionally churches have understood these prescripts to indicate authorship, but the Hebrew text does not necessitate Davidic authorship. The prescript of Ps 139 has the phrase “For the overseer, a song of David.” This is the tradition reading, which renders the Hebrew proposition lamed (??) as possessive when attached to David. The traditional reading is plausible grammatically, but one could easily render the text “For the overseer, a song for David.” Davidic authorship is dubious. Additionally, verse 8 contains an Aramaic loanword. While it is uncertain when Aramaic began influencing Hebrew, it was most likely after the time of David. Marco Treves believes that a likely period for Ps 139 is the second century B.C.E. There is no way to be certain of a date and historical context for Ps 139, but the themes, vocabulary and content indicate that it is from exilic or post-exilic period. analysis of the poetryWhile Psalm 139 has served a beloved liturgical piece for the church, it is a difficult Psalm to translate. Translators have frequently rendered words in unique ways for Psalm 139 to make sense of the text. Below is an original rendering of the text.1. For the overseer, a song for DavidOh YHWH, you have explored me and you know 2 You know my resting and my rising, you know my purpose from a distance3 You winnowed my path and my lying down, and you are familiar with all my ways4 For there is no word on my tongue, thus you YHWH know all of it5 You bind me up behind and before, you put your hand upon me6 Knowledge more wonderful than me, unattainable, I cannot hold on to it7 Where can I go from your spirit? And where can I flee from your presence?8 If I climb up to the heavens, you are there, if I make a couch in Sheol, behold it is you9 I will lift up the wings of the dawn, I will dwell at the end of the sea10 Also there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold on to me11 And saying, surely the darkness will bruise me, and night will shine through me12 Even the darkness will not be too dark for you, and the night will shine as day and the darkness will be as light13 For you created my kidneys, you wove me in my mother’s belly14 I praise you because I have been fearfully treated with distinction, Your works are wonderful, my life knows this very well15 My bones are not hidden from you, nor what I do in hiding, I was intricately woven beneath the land16 Your eyes saw my formlessness, and upon your scroll, all of them have been written.The days were formed and there is not one in them17 How precious are your thoughts to me, oh God, how numerous are their heads18 I will count them, they are more numerous than the sand, I have been continuously awake with you19 God, if you would kill the wicked, and men of blood turn away from me20 Who spoke evil plans about you, the one rising up vainly against your cities21 Do I not hate those who hate you? And those who rise up against you I loath22 With complete hatred I hate them, they are my enemies23 Explore me and know my heart, while leading me know my disquieting thoughts24 See if there are any faulty ways in me and lead me in the ancient wayThe most distinguishable feature of Hebrew poetry is the Hebraic parallelism. Parallelism is replete throughout this Psalm. The first verse says, “you have searched me and you know” This may be a case of heightening parallelism, because knowing is a higher level than searching, but there are few examples of clear intensification in Ps 139. Verses 5, 10, 20 and 21 possibly have parallelism that intensifies with the second verset, however few of these are clearly intensification. There are more verses with parallelism, which do not intensify the action. Verses 1, 6, 7, 13, 15 are clear parallelism, but do not ad intensity to the action. The author frequently uses opposite images or antithetical parallelism. Antithetical patterns, such as resting and rising, dominate the poetry. Verses 2, 3 and 8 employ this type of parallelism. The antithetical parallelism contributes to theme of God’s omniscience. These antitheses represent the margins of the psalmist’s life and imply that God is present everywhere between them. Verse 23 forms an inclusio with the first verse. The same two verbs that are in the first verse are also in verse 23. The major grammatical difference between the verbs from the beginning of the poem and the verbs in 23 is the verbs at the beginning are in the perfect tense, and the verbs in verse 23 are in the imperative. The poetic move in the psalm is that the author has moved from a state of resentment towards God to a state of eagerness. Readers of the poem have often considered the mood early in the Psalm to be positive, but the language employs words with negative connotations. In Verse 7, the author thinks about escaping from God, but the psalmist realizes that fleeing God is futile. One may read the beginning of the Psalm as the psalmist conceding God’s presence in his or her life, but he or she does this with a regretting attitude. However, the end of the Psalm is an invitation for YHWH to continue the work, which he already has done.It is the inclusio of verses 1 and 23 that is the strongest evidence for the inclusion of the final few verses in the Psalm. One may easily see the dramatic change in tone beginning in verse 19, and one may argue that the final section fits better with the following Psalm. However, the inclusio in verse 23 and the echo of the idea of the path in verse 24 make in nearly certain that these verses belong with Ps 139. There has been no corruption of the breaks in the text signifying a new Psalm. There is also no textual history of a different division for these psalms. The evidence for the literary unity of Ps 139 far outweighs the evidence against it. If Psalm has a different tone in the last two verses from the first few, there must be a turning point. The turning point occurs somewhere between verses 12-13. The darkness’s inability to conquer God may signify the shift in the poetry, but verse 13 moves the imagery to decisively positive imagery. Verse 15 holds the first true expression of praise to God. “I praise you because I have been fearfully treated with distinction.” In verse 13, the psalmist depicts God weaving him or her in the womb and creating his or her kidneys. Hossfled breaks the Psalm at verse 13. The threads of rebellion have disappeared from the Psalm. The imprecatory section of Ps 139 fits in a progression of the author’s thoughts. Verses 1-12 describe the author trying to rebel or flee God, but 13-18 describe the author accepting God’s presence. Hossfled breaks verses 1-12 into two parts, separating 1-6 and 7-12. However, these ought to be one section, because 1-6 set up the futility of fleeing from God and the reason for it. If YHWH did not omnisciently plague him or her, there would have been no reason for the author to try to flee God. The final verses (19-24) describe the author as trying to participate with God. The call for the end of God’s enemies may represent a high degree of agreement with God and his plan, thus a further progression towards righteousness for the psalmist. The imprecatory section may not seem like a movement towards greater righteousness to twenty-first century, western readers, but it is consistent with Jewish ideas about what God wanted. intertextuality of psalm 139Intertextuality is key to the interpretation of Ps 139, and it employs similar themes to Jeremiah, Amos and Job. The parallelism of Ps 139 and Job demonstrates the negative force of the imagery in the first six verse of the Psalm. The author of Job uses the same image of God’s hand being on him. While it may have been slightly ambiguous whether the imagery is positive or negative in Ps 139, it is decisively negative in Job. “Distance your hand from me!” (Job 13:21) Job attributed his suffering to the hand of God. While there is no suffering in Ps 139, the author borrows a clearly negative image. The author of Ps 139 would probably like to utter the same cry, “Distance your hand from me!” as Job. Another close corollary is Job’s desire to hide in Sheol (Job 14:13). The psalmist contemplates the same thing, but as the authors of Ps 139, Job and Amos 9 are keenly aware, it is futile to flee from a God who can reach Sheol. Further themes that link Job and Ps 139 include the darkness’s inability to overcome God and the inferiority of man compared to God.The poem opening Amos 9 uses similar language to Ps 139:7-10. However, the imagery in Amos is for the destruction of people whom God pursues. It is difficult to determine which text precedes the other, but literary dependence is likely. From an external viewpoint, Amos likely has an early authorship date than Ps 139. Themes and vocabulary of Ps 139 contribute to likely hood of a later date, indicating it is more plausible that Ps 139 borrows from Amos 9. If one accepts Treves’ hypothesis of second century B.C.E. authorship for Ps 139, it is newer than the latest redactions to Amos.1b None from them will escape, there will not be a survivor delivered from them2 If they dig into Sheol, from there my hand will pluck themIf they ascend to heaven, I will bring them down3 If they hide on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and pluck themIf they hide away from my eyes on the floor of the sea, from there I will command the dragon and he will bite them...4b I will set my eye upon them for evil and not for good(Amos 9:1b-3, 4b)This passage casts Ps139 in slightly different light. It specifically uses the images in common with Psalm 139 of descending to Sheol, ascending to heaven and hiding at an extreme location related to the sea. Additionally, fleeing from the presence of God in Ps 139 and God’s eye in Amos 9:4 may be corollary. One might argue that the imagery from Ps 139 is positive, but Amos 9 shows that presence of God is not always comforting. The sense that Ps 139 gives is that the author could not hide from YHWH in order to commit sin, but the sin never happened. While this is positive overall, at the time, the author does not consider it good and the psalmist was contemplating fleeing from God. Amos 9 is completely negative for the one God pursues. Reading the text in light of Amos 9 demonstrates that author of Ps 139 did not want to be like the pursed ones from Amos 9, which is primary reason he pursues righteousness. themes of psalm 139Psalm 139 describes God in an omniscient way. God knows all the thoughts and words of the author prior to their occurrence. This stands in slight opposition to the early parts of the Hebrew Bible. At places, the Hebrew Bible portrays God as neither being all knowing, nor omniscient. Apparent examples of God’s lack of omniscience are in the Exodus narrative. Moses persuasion of God not to destroy the Israelites twice is not congruent with common understandings of an omniscient God (Ex 32:11-14, Num 14:11-12). It may be surprising that the psalmist believed that God’s omniscience reached Sheol. Christian understandings of hell do not completely correlate to Sheol, but it may still have been surprising to an ancient reader that YHWH would be in Sheol (Ps 139:8). To other ancient Near Eastern people, the chief gods, Baal, El and Marduk, being in Sheol would be perplexing, but this is consistent with other passages in the Hebrew Bible. Amos 9:2 depicts God reaching into Sheol, and Job 26:6 depicts Sheol as being naked before God.Sheol is not the only place subterranean location in Ps 139. The author says that God wove him beneath the land (Ps 139:15). This imagery is a blending of metaphors. The primary metaphor is that of a weaver. God created a masterpiece, as the Psalm references in verse 14. The metaphor that runs throughout the section is a mother’s womb. “Beneath the land” represents being in the mother’s womb. The weakest metaphor is the metaphor of a seed. The author was beneath the land like the seed of a tree but has sprouted forth. The theme of God’s seeing the author in every situation and the author’s inability to understand God are the unifying pieces to the middle section (vs12-18). God sees and people do not. God sees the bones of the author in 15 and the author’s formlessness in 16. Nothing can hide from God.Jeremiah and psalm 139Palm 139 speaks about God knowing the author in the womb, which is similar to Jeremiah’s prophetic call (Jer 1:5). This gives Jeremiah special election to be YHWH’s prophet to the nations, but there is no explicit mention of special election in Ps 139. Traditional readings of the Ps 139 have understood that God has searched out each individual and known each individual in the womb. Jeremiah 17 discusses the concept of God searching a person as in Ps 139:1. Jeremiah 17 gives credibility to the traditional readings of Ps 139, as it describes God as giving “to each man according to his ways.” (Jer 17:10) Both texts describe God’s search a person as judging or purifying a person.Poem ends with the theologically rich term, ?????? (forever). The term is difficult to translate, and context always plays a major role in its translation. The term can be forever, eternal or everlasting. The fascinating aspect of this usage is its connection to ?????? (path). Few translators have rendered this phrase “ancient path,” but this is a likely understanding of the phrase and draws an interesting connection to Jeremiah. Twice Jeremiah uses the phrase “ancient paths,” to talk about “good paths,” (Jer 6:16) or a path of righteousness. In both cases, the author of Jeremiah uses a different word for path than the one in Ps 139, but the word in Ps 139 for “path” is present in both verses disconnection to ??????. Psalm 139’s repeated use of themes and ideas in Jeremiah make it highly plausible that the author of Ps 139 attempted to convey a similar idea. This indicates that Ps 139:24 asks God to lead the author in the ancient path, or the path of righteousness, rather than in the path forever.conclusionPsalm 139 has been one of the favorite Psalms of the church for good reason. It is deep, complex and insightful. It is a fine example of high quality Hebrew poetry. While the language about the omniscience of God is not as positive as traditional readings have claimed, the end of Ps 139 brings author to a place of harmony with God. The God from whom one cannot hide assists in walking in the way of righteousness, but is frequently discomforting to those who resist his will. This Psalm is not about comforting people; it is about the discomfort that God brings. The presence of God is not an optional thing. God forcefully breaks into every aspect of life. This Psalm relates to the sequence of the life of faith. The author moves from a position of rebellion and resentment towards God to being in harmony with the will of God. Many people encounter the same type of sequence and movement from rebellion to obedience. This is a far more powerful statement about the life of faith than traditional understandings of the Psalm.bibliographyAllen, Leslie. Psalms 101-150, Volume 21 in Word Biblical Commentary, Edited by John D. W. Watts. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2002. Alter, Robert. Art of Biblical Poetry, New York: Basic Books Inc., 1985.Booij, TH. “Psalm CXXXIX: Text, Syntax, Meaning.” Pages 1-19 in Vetus Testamentum 55 (2005). Brown, Francis S. R. Driver and Charles A Briggs. Hebrew and English Lexicon, Peabody: Hendrickson, 2003. Gunn, David M. “Reading Right: Reliable and Omniscient Narrator, Omniscient God, and Foolproof Composition in the Hebrew Bible” Pages 53-64 in The Bible in Three Dimensions, edited by David Clines, Stephen Fowl and Stanley Porter. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990.Hossfeld, Frank Lothar and Erich Zenger, Psalms 3: A Commentary on Psalms 101-150, Hermeneia, edited by Klaus Baltzer, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011. Mazor, Yair “When Aesthetics Is Harnessed to Psychological Characterization: Ars Poetica in Psalm 139.” Pages 260-71 in Zeitschrift Fur Die Altestamentliche Wissenschaft 109 (1997). Premnath, Devadasan. “The Book of Amos,” Pages 135-41 in Vol. 1 of The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, edited by Katherine Doob Sackenfield, 5 vols. Nashville Abingdon, 2009.Treves, Marco. The Dates of the Psalms, Pisa: Giardini, 1988.Wachter, Berlin L. “Sheol,” Pages 239-48 in Vol. 14 of The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, Edited by Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Riggren and Heinz-Josef Fabry, 15 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992. ................
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