Thursday, April 19, 2012

Psalm 5:2 (KJV)

"Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to You I will pray."

There are many of the psalms that start with essentially the same claim on God's attention, and it is a strange thing to ask of a God, no? I mean, wouldn't God know your troubles before you cry them out to Him? In fact, wouldn't he know them before you know them?

Perhaps, but then the relationship between God and man is exactly that. A relationship. And in a relationship, we relate. We tell things. I tell my wife I love her. I've told her for twenty years. And she responds. "I know," she says. And she does. Still I say it and still she responds. It's a relationship.

Crying out to God (and I've done my fair share in recent months) makes a demand on His attention of course, but it also makes a demand on our own attention. There are a thousand little problems I don't decide to bring to God everyday. I handle things on my own. In essence, the prayer I make for His blessing, for his assistance, is a product of prioritization, no? "Here's the stuff that I can't handle on my own. Here's what troubles me most." This is, I think, the meaning of the last segment of the verse. "for to you will I pray." That is, "I'm bringing this issue to you - other issues, I'll take elsewhere or handle in other ways."

Central in the verse, "my King and my God," is key. There's the possessive nature - "my" - and there's the sense of allegiance being paid. "I am your subject and your..." What is the commensurate term? Subject is to king as _____ is to God. Worshipper? Servant? Creation? All of the above? And more?


Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Psalm 14: 1a (RSV)

"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'"


Of course, the Bible would say that, but what exactly does the phrase mean? Robert Alter says, somewhat enigmatically, that it's not a theological statement. Hard to swallow that one. Clearly it is theological - if the author didn't want it to be theological, they might have left out the word "God." That would have helped.

But what type of theological statement is it? Is it about the existence of God? About the quality of fools? Both?

The rest of the psalm talks about the quality of fools: "They are corrupt..." is what follows the clip you've been given above. And God looks down at them. Then we move away from both fools and God.

I'll stick with the quality of fools and why they say these things in their hearts. Consider the following:

Perhaps these people are fools because they say these things in their hearts, but not out loud - that is, they are dishonest.

Or perhaps they are fools, because they affirm something they couldn't possibly prove. Many non-believers do this today. Mind you, plenty of believers of all faiths affirm things they haven't bothered to prove or study - how many things are declared to be biblical, for instane, when in fact, they are merely quotes from Homer, Shakespeare, Franklin or even Mark Twain? Not that there isn't wisdom there too, but you see what I mean.

Of course, the modern non-believer, will often say that "You can't prove a negative." That is, they can't prove there is no God. They'll then say the burden of proof lies with the person who says there is a God. Troubling, however, that though they can't prove a negative, they feel free to affirm it... That's a different post. Back to the verse.

How about this: the rest of the psalm is worried about the behavior of these fools. I think we no longer believe that a believer is automatically going to behave well and a non-believer is automatically going to behave badly. And the psalm doesn't seem to affirm this either. Verse 3b: "there is none that does good, no, not one." And it doesn't look like this is restricted to non-believers.

Maybe the "God" in the first verse is a reference to a governor. Not a politcal governor, but a person, a will, that rules your heart. The fool says "No one is the boss of me. I do what I please even to the detriment of others."