The experience of God
1. THE EXPERIENCE OF GOD EXPRESSED IN THE PSALMS
A century ago the Psalms were studied as individual compositions express- ive of personal piety and devotion. Today the psalms are recognized as part of Israel’s collective worship. Indeed, quite like worship hymnals today, they originated over a lengthy time period; single pieces were collectively as well as individually composed. Just as a worship hymnal contains different types of songs intended for various occasions, so also the book of Psalms contains three major forms: lament, thanksgiving song, and hymn.
Together these forms describe the full range of a people’s experience with God.
a. The lament
Difficult situations and frustrations were as common for ancient Israel as for us. Extended drought jeopardized the food supply. Epidemics brought fear, misery and sorrow. Marching armies from the east or the south threat- ened Israel’s security, even her future. Individuals suffered reverses or were the victims of family or neighbourhood intrigue. People fell sick. Such situ- ations of desperation brought the pious in Israel, collectively or indivi- dually, before Yahweh. In studying the Psalms, scholars have identified the lament form as appropriate for such times.
The lament consists of several standard components and is basically a stereotyped format into which the supplicant could pour his specific com- plaint or request; or, equally likely, existing laments became the ready vehicle for the troubled man as he made his prayer.
The lament psalm begins with a word of address, often with the vocative,
‘0 LORD'. The specific complaint is then detailed: an enemy is threatening havoc, or is already tormenting the supplicant. There follows a prayer for help or deliverance. This may be as brief as ‘LORD, save me,’ or it may be an extended,petition, documented with reasons for God to hear and pleas for his early intervention. Next follows a statement of confidence, e.g. ‘The LORD does not bypass those who are humble and contrite of heart.’ The psalm concludes with a word of praise to the LORD.
To the modern reader the praise feature appears out of character con- sidering the immediately preceding sketch of the petitioner’s plight. Schol- ars have conjectured that in a worship ritual the supplicant would appear before the LORD in the temple area and officiating priests would give a word IS9
God’s design tested: the era of the monarchy
of divine promise to the troubled person. Hannah’s experience illustrates the point; her earnest prayer, though at first misinterpreted by Eli, who thought her drunken, brought a divine assurance from God through Eli:
‘Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have made to him’ (1 Sa. 1: 17). It seems reasonable to suppose that such a word from God, though not recorded in the lament, was the reason for the final stanza of praise.
Psalm 13 is a short but excellent example of a lament by an individual.
This lament opens with direct address, ‘How long, 0 LO R D? Wilt thou forget me for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?’ The com- plaint, in including a reference to unanswered prayer, is couched in the phrase ‘sorrow in my heart’, and more pointedly, ‘How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?’ The prayer section of the lament opens with, ‘Consider and answer me, 0 LORD my God.’ The profession ofconfidence is a bicola, a two-line statement with parallel ideas:
But 1 have trusted in thy steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation (verse 5).
The final praise section following soon upon the earlier complaint with its focus of ‘sleeping the sleep of death’, is exultant in mood: ‘I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.’ The praise word is sug- gestive of the release from burdens that is experienced in prayer. Someone has said, ‘Prayer is the place where burdens change shoulders.’
The lament form, we may note in passing is not peculiar to Israel. One ancient Near Eastern lament begins, ‘How long, 0 my Lady, wilt thou be angered so that thy face is turned away ?‘3 The similarities in wording with Psalm 13 are quite striking.
Scholars have identified approximately fifty psalms in the category of lament. Sub-classifications apart from the individual lament include the communal lament and the penitential lament.
Individual lament 3,4,5,7,9, 10, 13, etc.
Communal lament 12,44,60,94,137 Penitential lament 6,32,51, 102, 143
Lament forms also appear outside the psalms, as in the prophets and in the book of Lamentations which contains both individual lament (e.g. chapter 3); and communal lament (e.g. chapter 2). There is perhaps no more striking lament than Jeremiah 20:7-13-striking because of its surprising boldness:
Thou has deceived me and I was deceived.. . 1 have become a laughing stock all the day (verse 7).
“Prayer of Lamentation to Ishtar’, James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, L1Y55), p. 383.
1 6 0
The experience of God True to the lament stereotype, this lament concludes, despite the opening description of agony of soul, with ‘Sing to the LO R D, praise the LO R D! ' (verse 13).
An understanding of the lament form helps greatly to follow the thought sequence of a longer psalm such as Psalm 22. At first sight it appears quite jumbled. In reality the psalm closely follows the lament outline.
Complaint ‘My God, my God, why bast thou forsaken me?’ (verses l-8) Confidence ‘Yet thou art be who took me from the womb’ (verses 9-10) Prayer ‘Be not far from me, for trouble is near. . . ’ (verses 11-2 1) Praise ‘I will praise thee. . .’ (verses 22-3 1)
The lament psalms describe a specific situation, yet are not so specific that they cannot properly be the literary vehicles for other persons, even generations of later believers, to give expression to distress. When pressed into a difficult situation, who cannot identify with the writer’s anxiety and desperation: ‘I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax’ (I%. 22: 14)? Indeed, our Lord’s word on the cross, a quotation from Psalm 22, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’
may be intended, as some suggest, to be shorthand for the entire psalm as an expression of Christ’s own agony.
The lament psalms suggest that Israel, whether collectively or as individuals, experienced God as one who was involved in life with them.
These psalms depict a people who believed their God to be present, ready to help. He was there for them. The personal, even intimate dimensions of the relationship are significant. The confidence statements are a study in intimacy, for they consist of confessional statements about God and testimonies to past experiences with him, Perhaps the most striking fact of all is that while one third of the psalms are in lament form, all but one (Ps.
88) end in praise.4
6. The thanksgiving song
Closely allied to the lament form is another recognizably distinct form, the thanksgiving song. It too reflects the way in which Israel experienced God.
Here, too, scholars have distinguished a communal form (e.g. Pss. 75,107, 124) and an individual form (e.g. Pss. 18,30,34,118,138). The thrust of a thanksgiving psalm is to render thanks to Yahweh for his help in a specific incident in life. For his deliverance, Israel’s fitting response, like Jonah’s, is:
‘But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to thee’ (Jon. 2:9).
The thanksgiving psalm has three parts. In an introduction, the worship- per states his intention to give thanks: ‘I will extol thee, 0 LORD, for thou
%ee Claus Westermann, ‘The Role of the Lament in the Theology of the Old Testament’, Interpretation 28 (1974), pp. 20-38, and other articles in that issue devoted to lament.
161
God’s design tested: the era of the monarchy
hast drawn me up’ (Ps. 30: 1). The main section usually describes deliver- ance from a distress. The conclusion frequently contains a vow to give praise: ‘0 LORD my God, I will give thanks to thee for ever’ (Ps. 30: 12). It is a characteristic of this type of psalm that its main section outlines a relatively concrete situation, such as illness or war, from which the LORD has granted deliverance. Psalm 30 is illustrative: !I cried to thee for help, and thou hast healed me.’ Not only has the writer been ill, however; he has fallen on hard times: ‘Thou hadst established me as a strong mountain; thou didst hide thy face’ (I%. 30:7). Dismayed that his religion was inoperative, the man prays and argues from the standpoint of profit and loss that were he to die, God would lose a worshipper, much to God’s disadvantage.
The thanksgiving form also is not unique to Israel. A votive stele from the fifth century BC shows the king before the goddess with a libation cup. He addresses the goddess Ba’alat, the female counterpart of Baal: ‘Yehaw- milk, king of Byblos, to my lady, Ba’alat of Byblos; for when I cried to my lady Ba’alat of Byblos then she heard me and showed me favour.” Israel claimed that her rescue came from Yahweh and not a Baal.
A communal thanksgiving psalm such as Psalm 107 is helpful in illumi- nating Israel’s experience with God. First, it exhibits a marked enthusiasm;
Israel was joyful about her God.
0 give thanks to the LORD, for be is good. . . Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
whom be has redeemed from trouble (verses 1-2).
Secondly, Israel knows God as active in a people’s life. God is real; he has concern for the welfare of his people. The threatening circumstances are itemized: refugees were in severe straits (verses 4-9); prisoners were apparently doomed (verses 10-16); an illness brought extreme nausea (verses 17-22); and mariners at sea were caught in a terrifying storm (verses 23-32). But in each instance God came to the rescue. Thirdly, Israel cele- brates the power of God. In each circumstance God turned the situation from evil into good. He is the God of the great reversals. Israel revels in the transformation which God brings about.
He turns rivers into a desert,
springs of water into thirsty ground.. . He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water (verses 33,35).
Finally, as is evident from the way in which the psalm is bracketed by references to God’s kindness, Israel celebrates the covenant love (hesed) of Yahweh.
(Quoted in Bernard W. Anderwn, Out ofthc Depths (Ph~lndrlph~a: Westminster, 197(j), p. X6.
162
His steadfast love (besed) endures for ever. . .
The experience of God
Whoever is wise, let him give heed to these things;
let men consider the steadfast love (besed) of the LORD (verses 1,43).
Israel responded in thanksgiving to God in recognition of his redemption, his concern for a people in a ‘down’ situation, his transforming power, and his covenant loyalty. Their response, expanded in the laments but touched on also in the thanksgiving songs, took into account the pain of God’s hid- denness and the distress of feeling his absence (Pss. 13:l; 44:23). All the more forceful then are the thanksgiving anthems which, subsequent to God’s distancing, celebrate God’s presence and provision in a time of need.
c. The hymn
A third psalm form is the hymn, which, like the thanksgiving psalm, is in three parts. The shortest psalm, Psalm 117, exemplifies the hymn in its most abbreviated form.
Introductory summons: ‘Praise the LORD’ (verse 1)
Main section: ‘For great is his steadfast love is toward us’ (verse 2) Summary summons: ‘Praise the LORD’ (verse 2)
Each of these three parts can be greatly expanded, as can be illustrated by the hymns in Psalms 103-104, Habakkuk 3:2-19 and Exodus 15:1-18.
In Psalm 113, the summons to praise is expanded to three verses (l-3).
The main body of the psalm, characteristically given to reasons for praise, offers two reasons for praise to God. First, God’s majesty: ‘The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens!’ (verse 4). Rhetorically the writer can ask, who is higher than God? Secondly, Yahweh’s condescen- sion: ‘He raises the poor from the dust’ (verse 7). In a domestic reference that is almost out of character with the earlier mention of God’s grandeur, the psalm concludes, ‘He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children’ (verse 9). In strange and rapid succession the writer moves from the glories of the universe to ash-heaps and children: he affirms that God is an exalted God over nature and nations, and yet one who takes note of a barren woman. What response is appropriate to a God of the heavens whose interest includes the happiness of a household? Answer:
praise (verse 9).
Other psalms point to God’s work in history as sufficient reason for praise. One such psalm recalls God’s people, the plagues in Egypt, and the role of Joseph and Moses in delivering God’s people, the plagues in Egypt, and the abundant water supplies in the desert (Ps. 105). Others celebrate the
‘creation’ of Israel (e.g. Pss. 111,114,149). Numerous reasons are offered in the hymns for glorious praise to God.
Like the lament and the thanksgiving psalm, the hymn form is also found 163
God’s design tested: the era of the monarchy
among Israel’s neighbours. The celebrated Egyptian hymn to the god Aton is not unlike Israel’s hymn:
How manifold it is what thou hast made.. .
Thou didst create the world according to thy desire. . . Thou settest every man in his place,
Thou suppliest their necessities.
The Aton of the day great of majesty.6
But such features as God’s covenant with Israel and his promises to his people are peculiar to Israel’s hymnody.
Psalm 8 is an important hymn because it regards people as the occasion for praise and, incidentally, explains the basis for the possibility of a person’s experience with God. The psalm is divided into three parts:
An ascription of praise verses 1-2 (‘0 LORD, our Lord, bow majestic is thy name. . .‘)
Reflection verses 3-8
Questions verses 3-5 (‘What is man, that thou art mindful of him?‘)
Answers verses 5-8 (‘Thou bust made him little less than God. . .‘)
An ascription of praise verse 9 (‘0 LO R D, our Lord, bow majestic is thy name.. .‘)
The central question is a query about the worth of human beings. While the context for the question, namely rapture in beholding the heavenly bodies of moon and stars in the heavens, might lead to an answer emphasizing human insignificance, the actual answer is the opposite: persons are of great worth. The author plots the place of man with reference to God and his cre- ation. If one were to imagine a scale of 1 to 10 with living creatures such beasts at 1 and God at 10, then, so high is the writer’s estimate of man, one should have to put him at 8 or 9. ‘Thou hast made him little less than God.’ It is God and not animals who is man’s closest relative. But man does not have equality with God. The psalmist is not a humanist. Nevertheless, men and women are creatures crowned with glory and honour. Human beings are persons with dignity.
Human beings are also persons of responsibility. God has called human- kind to rule over the works of God’s hands, including domestic and wild beasts, birds and fish. C. S. Lewis remarked at the coronation of Queen Eli- zabeth in 1953 that ‘the pressing of that huge, heavy crown on that small, young head was a symbol of the situation of all men. God has called huma- nity to be His vice-regent and high priest on earth.” Human beings are
The Hymn to Aton’, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p. 371
164
The experience of God persons of dignity because of their affinity with God and persons of respon- sibility because of their role in relation to creatures.
Two comments are pertinent to our topic. First, it is man in his person, quite apart from his performance, that gives him dignity and gives rise to the paean of praise. Despite human fallenness, human beings are prime exhibits of God’s majesty. Reflection on man evokes praise to God: ‘0 LORD, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth’ (Ps. 8 : 9). Not only the won- derful world of nature, nor alone God’s acts in history, but human beings as human beings offer reason for praise to God. Second, experience of God is possible because human beings are God’s next of kin. Experience of God is premised on this affinity between God and man. Made in God’s image, human beings are in a position to engage in dialogue with God, this hymn declares. The praise of God, for whatever reason, brings gladness. The hymn, along with the cult festivals, underscores the joyous element in Israel’s religious experience. The frequent references to song and musical instruments (e.g. Ps. 150) emphasize the jubilant character of her worship.
The imperatives to praise given in the plural, together with the exhortations for all people to take up the praise song, emphasize praise to God as given in a collective setting. The congregation praises God. Not a lone, isolated voice, but choirs and large assemblies lift up a chorus of praise (cfi Pss.
1 4 6 - 1 4 9 ) .
An examination of the psalms from the point of view of Israel’s expres- sion of its life with Yahweh forces the conclusion that God is not marginal but a vital reality in Israel’s life. The Old Testament does not contain lengthy philosophical or theoretical essays about God. We hear about Israel’s God not from the essayist but from the worshipper. An enunciation of his at- tributes, even, is almost always in the context of prayer or praise.
To be sure the vigour of a relationship with God as examined in the psalms is not uniformly characteristic of all Israel, and certainly not for all of her history, otherwise prophetic judgment speeches would have been un- necessary. Before we turn to this genre, however, we shall examine another range of literature that indicates the way in which Israel understood her re- lationship to Yahweh.