Psalm 51:8 (NIV)
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
This must be a strange verse. The psalm is famous. King David, after taking Bathsheba from her husband and being accused of the sin by Nathan the prophet, finally humbles himself before God. One of the more famous lines in the psalm is "against you, you only, have I sinned..." I can think of at least one husband (who gets sent to the front lines so that he can die and be out of the way permanently) who might quibble with that assessment.
But my concern is with the broken bones. I've often heard that God is not a God to be feared. So that wherever the Bible uses the word "fear" what is really meant is "respected." Yet, not a single Old Testament hero would have thought of the word in that manner. When they said "fear" they meant it. They meant terror. They meant the icy chill running down one's spine. They meant that which paralyzes you and makes you dumb and wide-eyed.
David says crushed bones and he means almost exactly what he says. There was punishment for what he did and it was physical. The child born to Bathsheba died. The consequences of sin are, of course, spiritual in nature. But they're not JUST spiritual in nature, I think. Say what you will about the OT God being vengeful, (different debate, different post) but what of the reaction of an OT person to that punihsment?
In a way, it seems from the poem that the bone crushing had to come before the rejoicing. It could not have come any other way. Perhaps not. Perhaps not.
This must be a strange verse. The psalm is famous. King David, after taking Bathsheba from her husband and being accused of the sin by Nathan the prophet, finally humbles himself before God. One of the more famous lines in the psalm is "against you, you only, have I sinned..." I can think of at least one husband (who gets sent to the front lines so that he can die and be out of the way permanently) who might quibble with that assessment.
But my concern is with the broken bones. I've often heard that God is not a God to be feared. So that wherever the Bible uses the word "fear" what is really meant is "respected." Yet, not a single Old Testament hero would have thought of the word in that manner. When they said "fear" they meant it. They meant terror. They meant the icy chill running down one's spine. They meant that which paralyzes you and makes you dumb and wide-eyed.
David says crushed bones and he means almost exactly what he says. There was punishment for what he did and it was physical. The child born to Bathsheba died. The consequences of sin are, of course, spiritual in nature. But they're not JUST spiritual in nature, I think. Say what you will about the OT God being vengeful, (different debate, different post) but what of the reaction of an OT person to that punihsment?
In a way, it seems from the poem that the bone crushing had to come before the rejoicing. It could not have come any other way. Perhaps not. Perhaps not.
posted by Steven at 10:19 PM
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