Aryeh Sklar
Individual Complaint Psalm 61: The Faith and the Crown
At first glance, and at second glance and third glance, Psalm 61 seems somewhat misplaced as an individual complaint. It certainly is in the first-person. But immediately an issue arises. In examining this psalm, we have a very difficult time identifying a specific plea or petition. And that’s a problem. This is what Gerstenberger states:
Most of all it should be plain from our structure analysis that PLEA or PETITION for help, together with its negative counterpart against enemies, forms the very heart of the complaint song. There is hardly one pertinent psalm… that omits this central element. (Page 13)
So when we can’t find the plea or petition, or at least a way it can fit in as part of the genre of individual complain, then that’s a real issue.
So let’s look and find some pleas. Toward the beginning, we have a reference to asking for “lead me to a rock that is too high for me.” It is unclear what this plea exactly is. Is it for protection? We do indeed have this theme of being lifted upon rocks for protection when it comes to Psalm 27:5, “He will shelter me in His pavilion on an evil day, grant me the protection of His tent, raise me high upon a rock.” The issue in our Psalm is that there is no reference in ours to any “evil days”, or enemies that he wishes to be protected from. It is true that an enemy is referred to in the next verse, but it is in the context of praise and acknowledgment of past favors, not in the request of future favors. The speaker does not seem to be overly concerned with present enemies, since as he says, God has consistently protected him in the past. If there is a fear of future non-protection, we don’t have any indication in this psalm for this.
Later, toward the end of the Psalm, we find a strange intercession for the king’s life to be lengthened, and reign to be forever. Is this the plea? If so, how can this be considered an individual plea? It seems to be a communal concern, or a royal concern, more than an individual complaint. And we must also ask how it relates at all to the previous verses, which refer for the most part to the speaker’s wish to dwell in the “tent”, and “under the protection of your wings,” likely references to a temple or the Temple. This seems separate than the wishes for the king’s health or lifespan.
So in attempting to parse and categorize this psalm’s verses, we should first start by finding what does fit the genre of Individual Complaint. In 61:2, we have an invocation, “Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer.” And we have two vows or promises. The first is 61:5, “I will dwell in Your tent forever; I will take refuge in the covert of Your wings. Selah.” The second is 61:9, “So will I sing praise to Your name forever, that I may daily perform my vows.” We might also add 61:3a, “From the end of the earth will I call to You, when my heart faints”, but coming off the previous invocation, it could be an extension of that. Thus, we possibly have two lines of invocation, and two lines of vows.
Do we have confidence? We definitely have two acknowledgements of divine response. We see 61:4, “For You have been a refuge for me, a tower of strength in the face of the enemy.” And we have 61:6, “For You God have heard my vows; You have given the heritage of those that fear Your name.” So again, we are seeing couples. We’ll double-back to this (pun intended) later.
We can also note when it comes to 61:6 that the concept that God will answer those who fear His name has the implication that the speaker is someone who fears God’s name, and he states that he makes vows. Thus, this may fit into assertion of innocence.
Lastly, the last verse is “So will I sing praise to Your name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.” The word “ken” for “So” means that in response to God’s answering his plea (whatever we determine that might be), he will sing and fulfill his vows. This fits into the anticipated thanksgiving category.
So far what we have is this:
- Invocation (61:2)
- Invocation (61:3a)
- Plea? (61:3b)
- Acknowledgment/Confidence (61:4)
- Promise (61:5)
- Acknowledgement/Confidence (61:6)
- Plea? (61:7)
- Plea? (61:8)
- Anticipated Thanksgiving (61:9)
As we can see, the categorization of this psalm into the genre of Individual Complaint makes some sense - except what is the plea? I think we can say that this psalm is atypical when it comes to categorization. It could make sense to follow Gerstenberger’s noting of the separate genre of Royal Psalms, especially since he notes it has many aspects of the complaint song. But we need not scratch this off the list just yet. Let us explore the possible potential pleas and we might find something interesting.
The most obvious one is the request for the king to have a longer life. But, as we noted above, this is difficult to include in the Individual Complaint, since it is more communal. I was tempted to identify the sitz in leben to some birthday or perhaps convocation of the king, and the sudden intercession of the king’s life is in this context, where the speaker uses the special day as a cause for asking for his own protection and desire for worship. So the request would be the king, but for its personal benefit of God’s protection. And perhaps, at the point of verse 7, the king was crowned, or was celebrated in some way, and the wish is “Long live the king!” I felt this was far-fetched, since there is no relationship made in the psalm to the relationship between the king and the speaker, nor the relationship between God’s protection and the king.
I thought of an even more far-fetched interpretation, but one I think is worth exploring. Verse 7, requesting the king’s life be extended “years like generations - dor va-dor” seems parallel to Daniel 4:31, “I praised and glorified Him Who lives to Eternity, Whose dominion is an eternal dominion, and Whose kingdom is generations long - dor va-dor.” If so, this is not a request, but praise to God, who the speaker wishes will have dominion and kingship forever - a wish for the divine to have continued reign - “Long live the king!” This makes sense with the last verse, which has the speaker promising to praise God’s name forever. If so, the psalm can be a cohesive whole, an implied request of protection, a praise of God, and several promises of worship. But this is quite difficult, as I’m sure you’re thinking. We have to say that the requests for the “adding” of days to the king’s life are metaphorical, as are the request for the king to be enthroned forever. And then we are stuck with the line of “appoint kindness and truth to guard him.” But certainly, the identity of the king is ambiguous, and could take us in many different directions (think about this when we explore below of the sitz in leben of the speaker being in the diaspora).
What’s frustrating about this psalm for this assignment is that not one of the readings seemed to reference to this psalm as an example of anything. However, Gunkel opened a window when he states,
There are more than a few complaint songs that were composed a considerable distance from the sanctuary… Occasionally the complaint songs express desire for YHWH and Zion. The singer painfully misses the marvelous surroundings of the holy temple. He would like to walk there and… “be YHWH’s guest forever.” (127)
That last quote was in reference to our psalm (though an inaccurate translation). He identifies the plea as wishing to be at the Temple. The issue is, what do we do with the pleas regarding the king? And thus, perhaps there are two wishes here, two desires. These are the faith, and the crown. The first is the desire for the Temple, and the return of the sacrificial rite (whether because of his distance to it or because it had ceased to exist). The second is the desire for the king (again, whether because of his distance, or because the Israelite kingship had ceased). These are two primary aspects of Israel’s life as a nation, the political, and the spiritual, and what the speaker wants is to brought back to Israel at its prime - with a king and a temple. And we will find the coupling plays an important part of each.
Thus, the first plea is to be brought to a high rock - this could be a reference to Israel, and especially the Temple, which is at the zenith of a mountain top. The speaker is low down physically, and thus wishes to be brought to a high place. Plus when he cries out, he is at the ends of the earth, and wishes to be brought close, indicating his spatial distance. We have therefore two type of distance. We have the vertical distance of low to high, and we have the horizontal distance, of far away to close by. We have the entire gamut of space - length and height. This is a physical request - I am spatially far, I want to be brought physically closer. This is the realm of the worship of God in His physical house (ohel), and the wish to perform the physical sacrifices (which we have a hint to with regard to the speaker’s shalmei nidarai in verse nine).
The second is in the realm of time-chronology. The second set of pleas are for the king to live a long life, but there are two types. There is in verse 7 the word “yom”, but also “dor va-dor”, indicating two types of eternality - the every day type, which can be viewed as a vertical timeline, from sunrise to sunset, and the forever timeline, which can be seen as horizontal - stretching forever backward and forward in a line, past, present, and future. We see this more clearly in verse 9, that the speaker expects to give thanksgiving “la-ad”, and “yom yom,” showing these two types, the every day, and the forever. This seems to be the kingdom type of request - not of space, but of national, ephemeral, national living, which he wishes to last continually.
So we have two wishes - the crown (time) and the faith (space) should be restored. I want to give sacrifices (space), I also want to praise you (time). Just like we have two types of spatial requests, height and length, we have two types of eternality requests - laad and yom as one, dor vador and yamim as another. Daily activity, which is a height thing, from sunrise to sunset, but also lengthwise for all eternity.
I believe verse 6 is the most important in this context. It describes why God should listen now - You, God, have listened to me in the past. You have helped everyone who fears you - in the past. Notice two people here - the me individual, and somewhat ambiguous “anyone who fears you.” (So we have this coupling of communal and individual.) But also notice the vows reference, we see later is involved in the eternality, the time aspect, as well as the heritage, “yerusha,” the spatial aspect. So both contexts of promises. This is the center of the requests - the protection is the preceding two verses, and the requests of the king is the two next verses.
What we see is that there is a very intentional coupling of requests, and if previously we could not figure out what the plea is here, now we are confident there are two, faith and crown. If so, the diaspora Israelite might want to say such a complaint song at a time when he feels far away, and misses the Temple and the king of old. Or, the Israelite might wish to come to the current Temple and the king, who is located in Jerusalem near the Temple. But both are present, and both are indicated by the coupling of types of requests.
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