Year C. Fourth Sunday after Pentecost July 1st, 2001, Psalm 16
Title: ¡§When the leaders succumb to careerism.¡¨
This is a psalm of confidence. Its author shows a deep familiarity with prophetical, sapiential, and liturgical traditions, making it impossible to fix a date of composition. Although we can say that he was a Levite, most probably a priest, living in the early post-exilic period. Like most psalms - despite the fact that it may have been originally composed for and sung in the Temple - its general applicability to many life situations make it a good prayer for anyone facing a crisis of faith.
The structure is fairly easy to discern. In verses one to four, are a call for help, giving the reasons why; verses five to eight, express confidence in Yahweh; and verses nine to eleven, extol the blessings of having confidence in the Lord. Textual problems, especially in verses two to four ¡§a¡¨, have caused some variation in interpretation, depending on which textual witness is accepted. They do not, however, affect the main message in any significant way.
In verse one, keep me safe, O God: The psalmist is sure he has come to the right source to pray for protection. It becomes clear in the next few verses that he prays for two protections: 1) from an immediate threat, possibly death; and 2) from a general, pervasive threat, that is, syncretism.
In you I take refuge: The Temple was a place of asylum and the psalmist is a Levite. Yet, he resists the temptation to consider the Temple as his place of refuge. Instead, he acknowledges that it is God alone.
In verses two to four, The psalmist first addresses the general threat of syncretism. Even some Levites, people who should know better and behave differently, had introduced into their lives some idolatrous forms of worship, especially fertility rites and sexual excess ¡Vall in the name of ¡§religion.¡¨ Some falsely believed and in order to justify their sexual behavior, that the worship of Yahweh and the worship of other gods, we, today, would say ¡§values¡¨ or ¡§priorities,¡¨ were ¡§compatible.¡¨ Yahweh was ¡§good¡¨ for some things and these other gods were ¡§good¡¨ for other things. The psalmist would have none of it.
You are my only good: He affirms the first commandment. He does not need other ¡§gods or goods¡¨ as securities to fall back on if Yahweh does not appear to see things as he would like him to. There is no ¡§other,¡¨ no plan¡¨B,¡¨ when it comes to worship.
Worthless are all the false gods of the land: Many alternative translations, interpretations and emendations have been proposed for verses two to four. The translation of these verses given here is as good as any. The general sense is that the psalmist has fallen for none of the propaganda about the benefits of mixing religions. That is tantamount to ¡§watering down¡¨ the strength of belief and commitment to the one God. These ¡§false gods¡¨ cannot deliver.
They multiply their sorrows: What the psalmist says about the consequences of false worship is true of everyone, but he seems to have his fellow Levites particularly in mind. As the religious leaders and Temple officials they are supposed to set an example. Instead, they have become followers, followers of lesser gods and goods. They have even gone to the point of offering ¡§blood libations¡¨ to these false gods, something the psalmist finds especially abhorrent. They ¡§multiply their sorrows,¡¨ implying that their foolish attempts to ¡§increase and multiply¡¨ their families and the fertility of the land by engaging in fertility rites have backfired into increased misery. They have fallen into the classical trap for a religious official. Concerns with career issues and flight into sensuality to relieve the boredom involved in the repetitiveness of church work and worship have become their ¡§gods.¡¨ The psalmist, on the other hand, has neither offered sacrifice to any other god in a cultic act nor, in effect, in his non-cultic conduct. Having dispensed with the temptation to take the ¡§covering all bases,¡¨ serving two or more masters, approach to life the psalmist moves on to his own approach ¡V an affirmation of integrity and confidence in God alone.
In verses five and six, my allotted portionƒv or cup or inheritance: These are terms traditionally used to describe the distribution of the land. The Levites had no land apportioned to them. How ironic that in a culture where landed property was essential for full membership, the levitical priests possessed no property. Where there is irony there is revelation. The Levites were supposed to serve as a reminder that only God possessed the land, they were merely tenants or, as Lev 25:23 puts it, ¡§strangers and sojourners.¡¨ The other Levites are reneging on their responsibility to offer worship to God alone. Their very material livelihood is based on it. Yet, they have fallen prey to the very temptation their lifestyle was supposed to encourage the rest of Israel to avoid. When the leaders succumb to careerism and sensuality the people have even more excuse to do likewise. What was true of Yahweh¡¦s priests Numbers 18:20: I am your portion and your inheritance, was equally true of his people.
In verses seven and eight, I will bless the Lord who counsels me: It is not of the literal possession of the land that the psalmist speaks, but of divine counsel which has led him to so bounteous an experience of life and which makes him bless God. And it is counsel, not coercion
I keep the Lord always before me: He is in constant, conscious contact with the Lord, especially through the remembrance of his ¡§counsel¡¨ or word.
The Lord at my right: This is the preferred spot either in battle or banquet.
I shall never be shaken: This general reflection on the goodness of God and life is now applied to a concrete situation facing the psalmist. It is either death or death threatening. It is more immediate than his battle with syncretism, involving his very body. The fact that the Lord is in front of him and protecting him gives him both confidence arising from hope and joy arising from conviction.
In verse nine, my body also dwells secure: A recent song based on this psalm translates the meaning quite well, ¡§Even my body trusts in you.¡¨ In the mind of the psalmist this refers to some physical affliction, perhaps impending death, and his confidence that God will deliver him. The early church applied this verse and the following to Christ and saw in them a prophecy of his resurrection.
In verse ten, you will not abandon me to Sheol: On the immediate level, this would express the psalmist¡¦s confidence that God will deliver him from an untimely death or from the danger of death during his allotted life span. On another level, it may well express the hope that his fellowship with God would not come to an end, even if he die. This latter meaning would suggest resurrection. This verse is quoted in Acts 2:27 and interpreted in 2:31 to refer to Christ¡¦s resurrection.
Pit: When this psalm was translated into the Greek after 200BC, the word, shahath, for ¡§pit¡¨ was read as the word for ¡§corruption.¡¨ Thus it became much easier for Christians to see in it a prophecy of Christ¡¦s resurrection, since they read the Old Testament mostly in Greek.
In verse eleven, you will show me the path to life: or ¡§the path of life.¡¨ This refers to the ¡§counsel¡¨ God has given him above, its content. While it clearly refers primarily to this life and not the afterlife, the ¡§path of life,¡¨ God¡¦s counsel, followed in this life will surely be the same path to the afterlife. ¡§Counsel,¡¨ then, pertains to a whole course of life and not merely some momentary oracle that comes in a vision. The contrast is not so much between life and death as between life with God and life without him.
Abounding in joy in your presence: ¡§Presence¡¨ would, especially for a Levite, include the Temple, but would not be limited to it. The fullness of life here and now is enhanced by the accompanying joy it produces, emerging from awareness that it is happening. Humans are always in the presence of God. But when they are aware of it, it produces joy as its first fruit.
The dictionary defines ¡§syncretism¡¨ as ¡§the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.¡¨ A lot of what we do as Christians is, in fact, syncretic. We try to unite people who are opposed. We try to ¡§baptize¡¨ ideas and practices of our culture where they are compatible with our faith. However, there is a limit. There are some ideas, practices, and unfortunately, people that are simply irreconcilable with our faith, especially the worship of the one and only God. The psalmist had come to terms with this fact. He knew that much of what his compatriots and priestly confreres were doing was really trying to have it both ways. They believed in God, yes, but they would take out their insurance policies on other ¡§gods¡¨ just to be on the safe side. Not the psalmist! His refuge, his asylum, his security was in God alone. Verses one to six, hammer home this single-mindedness. He has chosen to throw in his lot with God in the realms of his own security in verse one, welfare in verse two, associates in verse three, worship in verse four, and ambitions verse five.
Having taken his stand in the face of the vacillation of others, the psalmist turns his attention to the ¡§blessings¡¨ that derive from it. He enjoys the great and good counsel or advice that comes from listening to God¡¦s word in verse seven. He enjoys stability in the face of trouble because he beholds the face of God in the midst of it, verse eight. He enjoys life, which is stronger than death in verse nine. Finally, he enjoys joy itself in verse eleven.
The people the psalmist is talking about or against were not avowed pagans. They worshipped Yahweh. It is just that they also worshipped other things. They used Yahweh when convenient, but wanted to keep their options open. It seems like a smart thing to do until one looks at the results. The psalmist puts it well: they multiply their sorrows. Many gods means many bosses, telling us what we must do to be acceptable and accepted. If our god is ¡§How-we- look,¡¨ then we must obey and worship fashion designers, shoe manufacturers, hair stylists, etc. If our god is ¡§money,¡¨ then we enter the Temple of Wall Street and its pantheon. The list goes on. In fact, it ¡§multiplies¡¨ and our ¡§obligations¡¨ abound. Not so, with the one God. First, he boiled down his commandments to ten, then two, which, in fact, is only one - like himself.
But the pay-off, here and hereafter, is multiplied exponentially! Our lives are sheltered because God is near and we are aware of that. Our lives, even our physical lives, are girded round by the present God. In the midst of death, all that separates us or would separate us from God, we are encompassed by life. As we keep our focus on him we experience joy, fullness, and a sense of protection. It feels so good we, like the psalmist, must sing it out, in song, yes, but also in living our lives with his music playing in the background. It makes us dance to music others cannot hear. We appear foolish, though gracious, to them, as much as they appear deaf and stiff to us.
The ¡§path of life¡¨ is both the goal and the living life as well. Jesus put this way: ¡§I am the Way the path and the Truth, and the Life.¡¨ This ¡§path¡¨ is all the advice God gives us in and through his word. It is unique advice in that the power to follow it comes along with it. As we accept that we ¡§rise¡¨ above the imposed circumstances of life, even death, as Jesus did. The psalmist stared down death and succeeded for a while. Jesus entered into it and conquered it forever.
The Lord protects us even without our knowing it, but when we do know it our sense of security is heightened.
We do not need to hedge our bets and have ¡§back up¡¨ gods or securities, for the Lord never fails.
If we learn to be content with our lot in life we will want the things we have rather than striving to have the things we want.
The only abiding joy in life is knowing the Lord is always there if we walk in his way.
If the Lord is eternal and we stay with him then we will live eternally also.
Abandonment: Most people, if not all, have abandonment issues. Abandonment has become a rather technical term in psychotherapy for both the fear of and the feeling of being left alone, especially left alone by a significant other. In infancy it begins when the parent leaves a child¡¦s presence, if only for a few moments. The baby cries because even before a baby can think. It realizes what psychology calls, for the want of a better term, ¡§object permanence.¡¨ After about six months of life the baby realizes that its mother is physically detached from itself, a separate entity, which may or may not come back. The baby cries and soon learns that crying usually works. It brings mother back into the room or makes mother pick it up and bring it with her. The fundamental fear and feeling might over time subside in its intensity but it never really goes away. Odd, isn¡¦t it. The very impulse that causes us to cry physically or psychically when people go away never goes away. Except! Except when we are in the mindset of what the psalmist is praying over in this psalm. The awareness that the Lord also never goes away becomes more powerful than the fear of abandonment and trumps it. That awareness is the only thing powerful enough to override and overrule a feeling so basic that it has been with us since infancy. Knowing that the Lord will never let go of us unless we refuse to walk in his ways, allows us to let go of everyone else and everything else! It allows us to detach from the enslaving dependencies that abandonment fears set up in our hearts and lives. Awareness of the Lord¡¦s constant love frees us to continue to love the people and even things, we have emotionally detached from but to love them now in such a way that they are free from us and we from them. We might only have one umbilical cord when we are born, but once that is cut we go on to grow other ones, cords attached to all sorts of people and things. These cords, invisible to the naked eye, limit where we can go and prevent us from entering into and onto the ¡§path of life.¡¨ We grow them so that we will always be attached to someone or something, believing they will keep us from ever being abandoned or alone. In fact, the opposite is true. They prevent us from being free to love in a freeing way.
Other gods: The psalmist recognized that just because people believe in God it does not prevent them from believing in other gods, even gods of their own making. He saw the religious people of his day, especially the religious officials, giving lip service to God but actually worshipping other things like money, sex, power, prestige. Oh, they did not bow down ostensibly, at least, in most cases. Yet, their behavior made it clear that they were attached, nailed to, much lesser ¡§gods,¡¨ much more demanding gods ¡§multiplying sorrows¡¨ that the one and only true God. These other gods today we would call them ¡§addictions,¡¨ ¡§obsessions,¡¨ ¡§compulsions¡¨ force an obedience to them. Once we are in their clutches there is no ¡§deciding¡¨ to walk in their ways of death and slavery or not. Our free will is weakened so much that we, in effect, have no choice but to comply with the demands of these demanding gods or should we say ¡§demons¡¨. At first, these gods deliver every time-drink that drink and you¡¦ll get high, shoot that needle and you¡¦ll get ecstatic, have that sex and you¡¦ll get pleasure, eat that cake and you¡¦ll calm down. Once they capture the human heart then they demand more of the substance before delivering the goods and eventually stop delivering- true abandonment! Amen.
