Dignoscentia

Psalm 69: glimpses of divinity among human babble

This entry was posted on November 6, 2006 at 8:06 am by Raoul, and is filed under Posts. Tagged with: Bible, faith, forgiveness, Jesus Christ, law, people, praise, prayers, prophecy, psalms, truth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The prayer of a down and out man is recorded in this psalm. It is a lament, where the author recounts the injustices done to him because of his steadfast belief in God, and asks God for divine rescue, as well as retribution against his enemies. The NJB calls this a Messianic psalm, but I disagree. There are Messianic references indeed, but this psalm falls short of qualifying as a prophetic, Messianic message.

A first reading of this psalm points out why it can’t be called Messianic. The following verses stand out:

• “God, you know how foolish I am, my offences are not hidden from you.” (verse 5)
• “I mortify myself with fasting, and find myself insulted for it, I dress myself in sackcloth and become their laughing-stock…” (verses 10-12)
• “Rescue me from the mire before I sink in; so I shall be saved from those who hate me, from the watery depths.” (verse 14)
• “May their own table prove a trap for them, and their abundance a snare; may their eyes grow so dim that they cannot see, all their muscles lose their strength. Vent your fury on them, let your burning anger overtake them… Charge them with crime after crime…” (verses 22-28)

Need I go on? The language here differs greatly from real Messianic psalms, where one can almost associate the voice of the author with the voice of God. A psalm prophesying about the Son of God would not talk in the words quoted above. No, that’s nothing more than human babble, incoherent to the ages, and disliked by God.

What verses can make people think this is a prophetic psalm? They’re listed below:

• “Those who hope in you must not be made fools of, Yahweh Sabaoth, because of me! Those who seek you must not be disgraced, God of Israel, because of me!” (verse 6)
• “To eat they gave me poison, to drink, vinegar when I was thirsty.” (verse 21)

Verse 6 could almost imply that the speaker is Messiah, because other people believe in him. It’s much more likely that he was in a public position, and other believers looked up to him as he was persecuted for trying to stay faithful to God, as the rest of the verses in this psalm show. Verse 21 could be called a clincher, except you can’t build your faith on one verse. The rest of the psalm is weighty evidence against this. Yes, the vinegar mentioned above is a pretty strong reference to Jesus’ experience on the cross, but given the rest of the psalm, it’s very likely, if not certain, that this was just a metaphor, a figure of speech that expressed the author’s lament. It has prophetic undertones, yes, but nothing more.

Now, as for the glimpses of divinity mentioned in the title of this post, they’re to be found in the following verses:

• “… Yahweh Sabaoth, because of me!” (verse 6)
• “I will praise God’s name in song, I will extol Him by thanksgiving, for this will please Yahweh more than an ox, than a bullock horned and hoofed.” (verses 30-31)

Given the overwhelming evidence present throughout the Bible that Saturday is the Sabbath, or God’s day or rest, I’m surprised that other Christians still insist on Sunday. By not obeying the Sabbath, they’re willfully disobeying God’s fourth commandment. Verse 6 in this psalm adds to the stack of evidence for the Sabbath, because it addresses God as Lord of the Sabbath, or Lord of Rest. If this was a common name for God during those times (and it was, because it’s mentioned in plenty of other places), what makes us think nowadays (given God’s unchanging, steadfast nature) that He has somehow changed His mind on this subject?

A verse like verse 31 isn’t often found in the Old Testament, so it’s worthwhile to mention. It’s not often that an Israelite would say that thanksgiving pleases God more than animal sacrifice, but it’s true. It was a lot easier during those times to bring an animal to the temple and be done with it. It was, and it still is a lot harder, to really thank God for what He is doing for us, and spend time with him in prayer, asking for forgiveness. Animal sacrifices were never meant to be a substitute for a real relationship with God. They were meant to be a constant lesson of the price of sin, but people tended to rely solely on them.

In much the same way, people rely on Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross today as a substitute for a real relationship with God, and think that they can go on sinning because His divine sacrifice has saved them. When they sin, they say, “Jesus died for me, I’m forgiven.” Or, they say, “Jesus nailed the commandments to the cross, I don’t have to obey them anymore.” Is it really so? They’re sorely mistaken if they believe that. God’s Law is at the very core of our beliefs. The Bible was literally built upon them, they’re woven into the very fabric of its foundation. You find God’s Law everywhere, in every chapter of the Bible. What makes you think you have license to disobey it? Aren’t you presuming too much?