June 23, 2002 -- FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST -- Proper 7
Psalm 69:8-11 [12-17] 18-20 (NRSV: 7-10 [11-15] 16-18)
Answer me, O LORD, for your love is kind. (Ps. 69:18)
Color: Green
Title: “Hope and trust”
The heading of this psalm attributes it to David, but Jeremiah could have written it, so well does it describe him. Classified as a “Lament of an Individual,” it parallels Jeremiah’s life experiences and prayers. Jeremiah suffered the mocking described in verses twelve and thirteen, had the trust in God of verse thirty-four, and prayed for God’s justice on his enemies as in verses twenty-three to twenty-nine. As verses two and three, describe, Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern, sinking in its mire as in Jeremiah 38. As in verse nine, he was rejected by his family in Jeremiah 12:6. Like verse eight, says, he certainly suffered shame and disgrace for God’s sake as in Jeremiah 15: 10-17; 20: 7-8. Whether Jeremiah composed the psalm or not and there are several other parallels between this psalm and Jeremiah, it certainly speaks for him and about him as well as describing key aspects of his message. Moreover, except for the prayer for just vengeance upon his enemies, the psalm also describes Christ. This, no doubt, accounts for it being a favorite among New Testament writers. Verse five, is quoted or alluded to in John 15:25; v.10 in John 2:17; Romans 15:3; v. 22 in Matthew 27:34, Mark 15:23, Luke 23:36, John 19:29; vv. 23-25 in Romans 11: 9-10; v. 25 in Revelation 16:1; and v. 26 in Acts 1:20.
The psalm is probably postexilic in origin, composed before or during the reconstruction of the Temple. Its structure reveals two major divisions: lament verses two to twenty-nine and thankful praise verses thirty to thirty-seven. The first section fluctuates between the statement of the lament (vv. 1b-5; 7-12; and 21-22) and a prayer for deliverance (vv. 6, 13-18 and 22-28). Vv. 22-28 can also be classified as a prayer for justice against his enemies.
In verse one, For the leader; according to “Lilies.” Of David: This heading attributes the psalm to David and gives “Lilies” as the name of the melody or tune model it is to be sung by.
Verses two to four, save me, O God: The psalmist uses imagery for approaching death in rising flood waters to describe his situation. He might as well be in Sheol. It could not be worse.
In verse five, more numerous: The metaphors of exaggeration continue. His enemies cannot be counted they are so many. Yet, they hate him without basis. He has done nothing wrong.
Must I now restore what I did not steal?: This must be interpreted as a metaphor as well. To be forced to make restitution for something one did not steal would hardly put a person in the dire straits described in verses two to five. What the psalmist means in this exaggeration is that he is innocent of whatever charges there may be against him. Nowhere in the psalm, but for this exaggerated exception, does he specify any criminal complaint against him. He chalks it all up to “zeal for thy house,” God’s house or household, that is, God’s people. The psalmist may be one of those working zealously to rebuild the Temple after the return from the exile, but more deeply he would be one committed to rebuilding the people’s zeal for God and his ways.
In verses six and seven, you know my folly: While admitting he is no saint, he prays that those who are associated with him in “zeal for thy house,” are not shamed because of real sins. Whatever his sins may be, he does not deserve the treatment he is getting. It is all out of proportion. May his religious associates not be painted with the same brush.
In verses eight to thirteen, for your sake: Of course, he notes that what he prayed for in verses six and seven, namely, that his associates in faith are not brought down with him, did not happen in his case. His claim, lament, complaint, here is that he is being pursued and persecuted, gossiped about and made mockery of precisely because of his association with Yahweh and his religious zeal. No doubt in line with Jeremiah’s plight for zealously demanding that Temple behavior, sacrifices, should be matched by extra-temple behavior, morality, the psalmist is suffering unjustly.
In verses fourteen to sixteen: The psalmist uses the same descriptive flood language as in verses two and three, to describe the cause for his need of God’s rescue from his enemies.
In verse seventeen, answer me: He asks for help, confident he will receive it because of the way God is, namely, because of his generous, loyal love and abundant mercy. This verse is at the heart of the psalm.
In verses eighteen to twenty-two: The psalmist was not only disappointed by those he would have expected to help, he was abandoned by them. They not only abandoned him but also went out of their way to hurt him.
They put gall in my food; for my thirst…vinegar: This is metaphorical language to describe how treacherous were his former friends. When someone needs consolation he or she would be invited to a meal or given a meal to help relieve grief- be it at the time of death or sickness or disappointment. That is what friends do. To describe his deep hurt, the psalmist claims that it feels like he was poisoned by a meal friends brought or bought under the guise of friendship.
In verses twenty-three to twenty-nine: The psalmist prays that everything that happened to him- what his enemies did and the hurt he feels- will happen to them. This is not raw revenge but the consequence of the belief that “what goes around comes around.” The Jews and other ancients, believed, I believe rightfully so, that whatever injustice one either planned or did to another actually happened to the perpetrator, at least, in the end. I believe this is supported by, Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” The psalmist has described his predicament, now he prays that it reverses course and redounds onto his enemies. In a world that does not believe in an afterlife, justice can only be done in this way. The psalmist would know of no other possible way for God to answer his prayer than for God to do unto them what they did unto him. As he was deprived of food and fellowship (vv. 21-22), so may they be (v. 23). As he lost his physical faculties and strength (vv. 4 and 21), so may they (v.24). As he was abandoned by family and deprived of home (v.9) so may they be (v26). May they be deprived of God’s mercy in the same degree that he is confident he will receive it. May justice be done to them as mercy is given to him.
In verses thirty to thirty-five: The psalmist summarizes his situation in v. 30 and asks for God’s help. He is so confident of it he breaks out in thanks and praise, putting aside his plight and behaving as though his prayer were already answered. The idea of song is dominant here, as v. 32 indicates by referring to the “song” and “thanksgiving” as more pleasing to Yahweh than an ox sacrificed. The Hebrew word for song is shir and for ox is shor. This is a play on words to indicate that the ox, which stands for animal sacrifice, of thanksgiving is inferior to the “song,” of thanksgiving, which expresses the authentic underlying attitude of gratitude. If this psalm were composed after the exile but before the rebuilding of the Temple, animal thanksgiving sacrifices would not be possible. Therefore, song would have to do. The psalmist is saying that is better anyway because it is interior rather than the showy expression of sacrificing an expensive ox. This echoes the prophetic viewpoint on worship. Likewise the other verses in this section echo the best of the Psalter regarding praise, thanks and God’s loving kindness toward the “poor,” the faithful, humble folk, the `anawim. The intervention of God into the life of one person gives hope and joy to all the faithful servants of God.
In verses thirty-six to thirty-seven: In verses thirty to thirty-five, the mood changed from complaint to thanksgiving. Here the context changes from the individual to the community, the nation of Israel. It is set in the larger context of Yahweh’s saving-work on behalf of all his people. Typical of all thanksgiving found in the psalms, it transcends the individual. Yahweh’s concern for but one person has cosmic significance in that his cosmic and historical plans include each individual. In rebuilding the cities of Judah after the exile God will rebuild the fortunes of the innocent sufferers, the “anawim,” “those who love God’s name.”
Sermon
Psalm 69 stands beside Isaiah 53 and Psalms 22 and 118 as Old Testament sources for understanding the innocent suffering of Christ. And through Christ we can understand better our own innocent suffering for the sake of and in the cause of Christ. Christ meditated on these texts, as well as the rest of the Old Tesyament. He saw in them his own life experiences as God interprets them. He saw in them God’s way of interpreting those experiences. He saw in them a means to strengthen rather than weaken his confidence in his Father’s love and protection. So should we. Trust and hope are never more threatened than when we are suffering- innocently or deservedly. Hope and trust are never more needed. How can we actually strengthen them when we are under attack? Psalm 69 is one of those Old Testament texts that can help us. It helped Jesus. Why not us?
The movement from complaint about an almost intolerable, if not actually intolerable, situation to prayer for deliverance is natural enough. But the movement from prayer for deliverance to thanksgiving for it, even before it happens is a triumph of confident faith. The psalmist does not really know the details of what deliverance would involve. He just knows it will happen. As verse fourteen, puts it, it will happen in God’s good time, the acceptable time, when God sees fit. This awareness of God’s sovereignty prompted Jesus to wait until his “hour.” And even though in verse eighteen, the psalmist asks God to “hasten to answer me” he, like Jesus in Luke 22: 14-15, recognizes that “haste” for God is of a different order than human speed. What to us may seem like “waiting for the Lord,” is really waiting on the Lord, that is, being his servant, letting his judgment overrule our own. He will answer, no doubt about that. When and how is another story. That the evil machinations of our enemies, in so far as they are also God’s enemies, doing things opposed to God, will be visited upon them is simply a fact of divine justice. How long that takes and how that happens is part of God’s will. It is not ours to determine. Nor should we take any joy or delight in it. Christ did not. He did not pray for his enemies to suffer what they inflicted upon him, although he knew it would be even worse for them, he prayed they would realize what they had done, relent and repent and do so before divine justice cancels out divine mercy. That is the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The difference is not that people will not punish themselves by their own designs, but that their victims do not wish it, pray for it or delight in it. The victims of injustice, like the Lord, work to obliterate the injustice, not punish it. Only then can we be truly free of all that sin brings in its wake. Injustice is truly conquered by forgiving it rather than punishing it. Forgiveness takes the fun out of injustice. The unjust perpetrators, who are prone to pile on once their “opponent,” is down, eventually lose interest in their attacks when it fails to even get a rise out of their victims. That failure- to get a rise out of their victims- constitutes their victims’ success- they rise above it and are free from it.
Knowing that ultimately justice will be done, either here or in the hereafter, is one of the most powerful truths Scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament attests to. The power of that truth allows those who suffer innocently to avoid committing the sin of resentment or the sin of revenge. The one who suffers innocently leaves the matter of retribution in the hands of God. Just as the psalmist acknowledged that he was not completely innocent of all sin and committed many himself, he knew that he was innocent of the particular accusation at hand, whatever that may have been. Though the psalmist does not expressly say so in this psalm, the rest of Scripture attests to the retributive and redemptive power of innocent suffering. It allows the sinner to make amends for the sins he or she actually committed, especially sins of injustice against others, even others of whom he or she is not specifically aware. After all, how does one make amends for inadvertent or forgotten injustices? And amends are part and parcel of sincere repentance. However, amends are not always possible, so innocent suffering can be endured in the confident hope that they “even the score,” in cases where it would be otherwise impossible. Jesus took this truth and the truth that one can suffer vicariously for others and brought it to its highest level in his own innocent, completely innocent, suffering, suffering for us.
We are most aware of our constant need for help from a power outside ourselves when a situation seems hopeless.
The past behavior of God, in the history of the world and our own personal history, is our basis for hope.
Hope itself is a gift from God that does not depend on our being completely innocent of sin and folly.
God’s help is immediate when necessary, but may be delayed for God’s greater purposes. We may think we are drowning, that the water is too deep, when all we need do is stand up.
Revenge is unnecessary. Justice will be done eventually, in God’s time.
Self-imposed Suffering: A good bit of human suffering is self-inflicted. It arises from unrealistic, unrealizable and or unjustifiable expectations. The remedy for this is simply to revise our expectations. If we expect that a person will call us and the person does not, we suffer disappointment, maybe even temporary despair. However, if the person never promised to call us, let’s say after a date or while in the hospital or when we return home, during a crisis, etc. and we merely expected that person would, all we need do is change our expectations. We are disappointed not because the person failed to keep a promise but because we imposed upon that a person an obligation the person did not commit to. That’s self-imposed suffering. If we expect that it will not rain on our parade or picnic, we may be disappointed in God or the weather or life in general. However, if no one, including God, promised us good weather, all we need do is recognize that fact and the self-inflicted suffering of disappointment goes away. If we expect that another person emotionally love us as intensely as we love him or her, we will suffer emotional pain. However, expecting someone else to feel what we feel is unrealistic, and, in some cases, unrealizable. The remedy for that pain is simply to recognize that our expectation is unjustified, no matter how strong it might be. So much of life’s pains, disappointments, stresses and distresses come from our own expectations. Revising them or reforming them when called for is the simple remedy to reduce unnecessary pain. Self-imposed suffering is certainly unintentional, but it is not really innocent suffering as this psalm defines it.
Accidental Suffering: Some suffering is simply accidental, being in the wrong place at the wrong time through no fault of our own. A lot of car accidents and their aftermath of pain, a lot of falls and crashes, a lot of twisted ankles, bumped shins, broken bones can be recognized as no one’s fault, including our own. While this may be, strictly speaking, innocent suffering, it is not what this psalm is referring to.
Innocent Suffering: When a person is accused of a crime and claims to be innocent or even declared “not guilty,” it does not mean that the person is necessarily innocent of all crime. Theoretically, at least, a person might have committed ten murders, but not the specific murder he or she is accused of. When we claim to be innocent of a particular accusation, we are not necessarily claiming that we never did what we are accused of, only that we did not do that particular deed. We do not have to be absolutely innocent of sin in order to be innocent of a particular one. However, religiously faithful people, Christian and non-Christian, are particularly vulnerable to false accusations, big and small, criminal and non-criminal, from people with a vested interest in bringing their good name into question, if not downright disrepute. That is the suffering of which this psalm speaks. It is suffering because, because one is fundamentally and generally good and does good for others. People under the influence of evil are as repelled by goodness as people under the influence of good are repelled by evil. Knowing that God knows this and will ultimately right all wrongs helps the good person relax in the face of accusations, knowing he or she is innocent. Such a person thanks God for being innocent and lets God take care of the matter, no resentment, no revenge. Amen.
