Year C. Psalm 17, Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, November 11, 2001
Title: “The process of becoming pure.”
It is not possible to even guess the date of this psalm, not the author or his state of life. It is a general plea for help, deliverance, justice from enemies who have falsely accused him or are unjustifiably attacking him or both. It is easy to picture this psalm being sung at a liturgy, asking for God’s protection, reminding each other of God’s characteristic, past and present loving behavior on behalf of the community and each individual in it. It is also easy to picture this psalm being prayed individually, in private, by a person under pressure, a person who has temporarily lost his sense of God’s presence because of the stresses of injustice and asking for it back. It is certainly easy to picture this psalm as the equivalent of our own present-day children’s night pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” Like most of the other psalms, this one lends itself to broader use than its original setting, be it liturgical or historical.
The structure is clear. Verses one and two, open the prayer and verses three to five, give the reason for it- an innocent person is being falsely accused. Verses six to eight, repeat the petition and verses nine to twelve, describe the pain the petitioner is in. Verses thirteen to fifteen, pray for the defeat of the false accusers and deliverance for the petitioner.
In verse one, Hear, Lord, my plea for justice: The psalmist imagines himself in a court of law with God as the judge and himself as the plaintiff.
My prayer spoken without guile: He is swearing as if under oath that he is telling the truth.
In verse three, you have tested my heart: or “if you tested… you would find me innocent.” The “heart” means the will and reason, the innermost being of a person, the center, the core. As is a person’s heart, so is the person.
Searched it in the night: Nothing can be hidden from God. There is no “night time” for him when he cannot see. Even with God’s “x-ray” vision the psalmist is confident he would be found innocent of whatever charge he is being accused of.
Tried me by fire: This could be a metaphor for the way impurities in metal are discovered and separated out or a reference to the method of determining guilt or innocence through the ordeal- if a person walked on or through fire and came out unscathed he or she was innocent; if not, guilty. The psalmist is saying that by whatever criteria God or man would use he is innocent of this charge, whatever it be.
Find no malice in me: The psalmist is not claiming blanket innocence. He is not saying there is no sin or malice at all within him, only that he is innocent of the specific charge now against him.
In verses four and five, the text has been damaged and can only be conjectured. These verses seem to repeat and expand in typical Hebraic poetic fashion the same point made in verse three. The psalmist would not claim to be perfect in his relationship with the Lord, but would claim to be “right,” in a right relationship with him, namely, “for the most part,” “in the main.” But certainly, he is innocent of whatever the charge is before, the court of, God.
Verse seven, show your wonderful love: The psalmist both reminds God, not that God needs to be reminded but the psalmist does, of his character, his nature, his fidelity, the word in Hebrew is hesed, and asks God to be faithful to himself, act in the present as he has consistently acted in the past with hesed.
Verse eight, keep me as the apple of your eye: Literally, “as the pupil, the daughter of your eye.” Metaphorically, this asks that God guard with the greatest care his servant, innocent of this specific charge.
In the shadow of your wings: Using another metaphor for protection and in poetic parallelism with the “pupil” of the eye, the psalmists compares God’s hesed, his loving kindness, to that of a mother bird. More religiously, the winged cherubim above the Ark of the Covenant, guarding the contents, may also be in mind.
Verse nine, the violence of the wicked: The wicked here are his false accusers. “Violence” may merely describe the injustice of the whole matter or it may describe the legal punishment for the crime the psalmist is accused of.
In verses ten to twelve, like lions: In an extended metaphor the psalmist compares his enemies intentions and behavior to that of lions stalking, pouncing upon and devouring their, innocent, prey. He, the victim, will need extraordinary help to survive.
Verse thirteen, Rise, O Lord, confront and cast them down: The description in verses ten to twelve, has scared even the psalmist. He forgets his up till now imaginary stance of the plaintiff in the courtroom. He is now the victim trapped in a corner. He shouts for help. He needs not merely a word of legal decision. He need someone with a sword for incision to slay the enemy right now. This need not be taken to mean the psalmist wants revenge on his enemies, although that probably crossed his mind. He wants rescue, redemption, deliverance, vindication. One cannot talk a lion out of attack. One does not reason with a wild animal. Thus, the only real way the psalmist can see for his rescue involves the necessary and very swift death of his attackers.
Verse fourteen, while the text has been damaged and it is impossible to say for sure what the original words were, this verse seems to continue and fill out the metaphor of lions devouring or about to kill and devour, their prey. The psalmist is aware and makes God aware that unjust people, lions, get fat by eating the just alive. Their children benefit as well, for they share in the spoils and inherit the wealth when the “fat cats” die.
Verse fifteen, I am just- let me see your face: Seeing God’s face was a way of saying being aware of his presence and enjoying the benefits thereof. The psalmist is claiming righteousness, that is, innocence of the charges against him, not blanket, across-the-board innocence of all sin. Thus, he wishes God, the judge, to smile, look kindly, decide justly, declare him what he knows himself to be. If that involves the punishment of his false accusers, so be it.
When I awake: This is usually interpreted to mean that the psalmist spent the night in prayer in a sanctuary and hopes upon awakening in the morning to find his prayer answered. This interpretation, of course, would presume that this piece of poetry was written then and there, in the sanctuary, in the dark of night God can see in the dark, but humans? More likely, the phrase means what we would mean by it, namely, “May I wake up from this nightmare.” Or, “Tomorrow is a new day.” Or “Let morning come.” The psalmist wants to treat this ordeal as though it were a bad dream. He asks God to make it go away, to fix it, to do justice by his innocent servant.
Let me be filled with your presence: The charges against him, even though false, have created a distance between him and God. God must now sit in judgment upon his friend. This, more than the charges and the pain, has disturbed the psalmist. He wants it all resolved so he can get back to enjoying the friendly, hesed, presence of God.
Sermon
As we pray this psalm we have no problem identifying with its sentiments until we come to the last part of verse three, which claims that God “find(s) no malice in me.” Verses four and five, are even more difficult for us to pray honestly because they claim an innocence, exaggerated by the psalmist, to be sure, that no one but Christ could claim. Claims like “My mouth has not transgressed as humans always do” and “My feet have not faltered” seem impossible to pray with any measure of honesty, let alone truth.
When we remember that verses four and five, have been reconstructed from a corrupt original text and are largely conjecture, we can ease up a bit and presume that maybe the scholars, if not the psalmist, are overstating the case. Also, we need to remember that there is a legal procedure behind many prayers of lament and this psalm would be classified as a Lament psalm. Since we do not know exactly what the accusation is against the psalmist, we have to conjecture here also. In Old Testament times when there were no actual human witnesses who could testify at a trial against the accused person, no one who actually saw the crime, there was only one recourse left. The accused would take an oath to God, claiming innocence of the crime and leaving the judgment up to God. If nothing bad happened to the accused as a result of this oath it was presumed he was innocent. If that is the case here, then the psalmist is simply claiming innocence of a crime he was falsely accused of, but doing so in an exaggerated way. It is just too hard to believe that a person would pray to God and claim total, flawless fidelity to God’s law without exception or reservation. The psalmist is speaking of this specific accusation, though we do not even know what that accusation was, and claiming total innocence regarding it, not total innocence over an entire lifetime.
Having said all that, it is still difficult for us to pray these words. They are just not true, at least as they are stated. Perhaps, that is why the verses are omitted in the liturgical text. Indeed, this is the only time this psalm is used for a Sunday Liturgy. However, when we identify with the only person who could honestly and truly make this claim, namely, Christ, a whole different vista opens up. As a member of Christ’s body, as one in union and communion with Christ, we always pray “in Christ” and “through Christ” and “with Christ.” With that awareness we can pray these words before our heavenly Father. We do not make the claims as though they were true in our own case, but we pray in corporate union with the only one who can. We pray as corporate personalities, standing, if we can imagine it, behind Christ who makes this claim to his, and our, Father, encouraging the Father, to see in us what he sees in Christ.
Even better than that, if we can imagine anything better, is the power this truth can give to us to actually cooperate with Christ so that one day the claims will be truer of us than they are right now. Realizing that we always pray in union with Christ is a powerful motivation to look less like an unfaithful servant and more like our brother, Christ, the ever-faithful one. There is no malice in Christ and there never was. He was tested by fire and found pure, innocent of anything other than the purest motivation. There is still malice in us, but one day will not be, thanks to Christ. We are in the process of becoming pure, but even in that process, we can see the end result and claim, honestly claim, a purity of heart that we do not now possess but are in the process of entering because Christ has already done so for us and before us. This psalm, prayed with this awareness, reminds us that Christ is our intercessor before the Father. We never pray as an isolated individual. His Spirit is our Advocate.
Verses thirteen and fourteen, also present problems, prima facie, for a Christian. The psalmist seems to be asking God to slay his enemies “with the sword,” in a way that Christ would not approve. Again we must allow for the psalmist’s exaggerated expression. He clearly leaves “vengeance,” to God where it belongs. He also knows that justice demands that those who live by the sword die by the sword, meaning that what we do against others come back to haunt us. When we recognize both the exaggeration and his rather “eye-for-eye-tooth-for-tooth” theology of justice we can read these words as metaphors for God’s justice being ultimately done and we can pray these words as a rather graphic version of “Thy kingdom come,” a day when all wrongs will be righted.
God’s past actions give confidence that he will act similarly in the present and future.
God’s believing children are always under attack or under threat of attack from God’s enemies.
Hurting God’s children is evil’s way of trying to hurt God.
Only God is powerful enough to protect us against his and our enemies.
The worst thing that could happen to us is to be separated from the presence of God.
Under Attack: Evil is out to get us because evil is out to get God and we are God’s. Since we have free will, evil has a chance of luring us over to its side. It can promise us all sorts of things and we might fall for it. Thus, many times we are easy prey for evil. It uses the lure as its tactic. In some it works every time, but in others, and hopefully we are among those “others,” it does not work. In such case, in cases where evil encounters a person who stubbornly remains faithful to God and good and right, evil has to turn up the heat and go on the offensive. Lures become traps. Lures are rather like persuasive arguments. They get us one degree at a time and before we know it we have bought the farm. Traps are subtler. They are hidden, waiting to spring on us by surprise. Evil lays them everywhere, like landmines on a beach. We can be blindsided by a caustic remark, a conspiracy of “friends,” an outright accusation of wrongdoing or and this is the effect of the successful “lure” on other people, the spread of gossip about us. There are many ways in which evil attacks us. The first thing we must recognize is that if evil must go on the outright attack, come out of the closet, so to speak, then we must not be as easy as others for whom the mere lure works, like a charm. When evil cannot find anything solid to accuse us of, it will make stuff up and plant it in the minds and on the mouths, of people it has easily lured into accepting its imaginary reality, buying into its false and empty and undeliverable promises. Since the easily lured are so gullible to evil’s enticements, they will magnify small defects in a righteous person, repeat them in exaggerated, and often piously righteous, tones until they are believable and then eventually believed. Thus, the righteous person is almost always under attack and when not is forced to be on the lookout for landmines, traps, everywhere. Now, a believing child of God could become rather paranoid, were it not for God’s promised and delivered protection. We can now understand why the psalmist did not specify exactly what accusation he was charged with. It really did not and does not matter. Evil will not stop trying and the more God’s children resist it, the harder it tries. God’s believing children do not claim that they have never played in evil’s yard, have never strayed, only that they have not stayed strayed. We do not have to be perfect before we are protected by our Father. Jesus himself did not say “Blessed are the perfect” but “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” We want to be righteous so much that we are like a person dying of hunger and thirst, not that we actually are righteous right now. We are in a right relationship with our Father because our big brother always tags along when we talk to him and paves the way, softens any rough spots and lets us in, gets us in, to God’s throne room, even though we ourselves are unworthy. Evil takes unfair advantage of our awareness of being unworthy and tries to convince us that our quest for righteousness is doomed because we are too flawed. Jesus, on the other hand, recognizes that evil has a point. In fact, it is true. We are unworthy and quite flawed. However, he is righteous and we can identify with him so much that he will protect us from evil at all times and in all places because he is always with us.
The Presence: The final verse of this psalm is “Let me be filled with your presence.” It is when we try to be good and do right on our own power that we fail. Evil knows this. So did the psalmist. Evil’s attempts to get the psalmist to jump ship were all distractions, designed to get the psalmist to forget that God is always there. When we forget that truth then we are vulnerable to evil. A return to awareness of God’s presence fills our emptiness with his powerful love and allows us to destroy the enemies without also destroying those who defected from God. There is still hope for them too. Amen.
