Wisdom

Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31 (May 30, 2010)

1) The Text

Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?
2On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
4“To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.
22The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.
23Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.
25Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth—
26when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil.
27When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
29when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, 31rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.

2) The Context

A proverb is a pithy statement expressing some truth in a striking way which is easy to remember. Most of this book is instructions given by a scholar (or father) to a student (or son) on how to lead a moral life, with proper respect for God. Life involves choices; it is important that one be informed, trained and persuaded to make the right ones. The objective of life is attainment of wisdom, i.e. integrity in God's eyes. Wisdom brings rewards: 22:4 says: "The reward of humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honour and life". 9:10 says "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." Put another way, 1:7 says "The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honour." The opposite of being wise is being a fool; "fools despise wisdom and instruction."

It is difficult to date Proverbs. Sayings and poems appear to have been formed into an anthology after the Exile (in the 400s BC), but some of the sayings probably date back to Solomon's time. Solomon was known for his wisdom. Some of the sayings are known in other ancient Near East cultures; they have been acculturated to the Jewish tradition.

3) Interpretation

Wisdom, “understanding” is personified as a woman in this seven-stanza poem. Vv. 1-5 are the first stanza, and vv. 22-31 are the fifth and sixth. She “cries out” (v. 3) to all people everywhere (“all that live”, v. 4). Her message is primarily to young people. She speaks “utter truth” (v. 7) – she is absolutely reliable. She is completely opposed to anything dishonest or insincere. Her message possesses integrity and makes sense, to those who understand (v. 9). Her “instruction” (v. 10) is superior to all material goods. She offers “good advice” (v. 14) and “sound wisdom” with “insight” and “strength”. She guides those who rule justly (vv. 15-16). She reciprocates the love offered to her; she is found by those who “seek me diligently” (v. 17). While walking with great integrity, she brings material prosperity to all who listen to her (vv. 20-21).

Vv. 22-31 tell of her relationship to creation. God “created” (i.e. generated) her as “the first of his acts” – before he created, i.e. before “the beginning of the earth” (v. 23), before he created the “depths” (v. 24), etc. She was “brought forth”: the Hebrew word presents an image of birth, as in begot or formed. Vv. 24-26 use Canaanite mythological motifs (“depths”, “springs”, shaping of “mountains”) to say that wisdom existed before creation began. Again, v. 27 tells us that she pre-existed the world: she was present at creation, as a witness. She came to know God’s secrets in creating the heavens and the earth (e.g. in limiting the extent of the sea, v. 29.) She was “beside him” (v. 30) at that time. (Later authors, those of Sirach and Wisdom, show that she had an active role in creation.) Either she was “like a master worker”, a craftsperson, in creative acts, or the Hebrew can mean little child: a notion which fits well with “brought forth” (vv. 24, 25) and with the rest of v. 30. She was God’s “delight” and she delighted in his creation of humankind; she rejoiced both in God and in those created. When later trans-culturated into the Greek world, Wisdom becomes logos, the pre-existent divine Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”; he “became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:1, 14).

Theologically, there is an overarching belief in retributive justice that runs through Proverbs. Wise choices lead to life, while foolish choices lead inevitably towards death. It is not so much the view that God punishes the wicked directly, as that the very fabric of the universe is woven so that good follows the good, and evil, the wicked.

The Proverbs passage concludes with a sense of delight in the dance of creation, as wisdom was ‘daily [his] delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race’. Again, there are overtones of a (female) partner in creation, something that would have been more imaginable in the other wisdom cultures of surrounding nations. Feminist scholars such as B. Lang and C. Camp have proposed the possibility of Woman Wisdom as a repressed archetype of the feminine, surfacing amid the turmoil of the profound social reconstruction in the years following the exile. Alongside this, there is also the recognition by many scholars that in pre-exilic days there may have even been a goddess seen to accompany Yahweh. This was likely the case at the level of popular theology, that is, what people believed privately and not necessarily as promoted by the Jerusalem Temple. Woman Wisdom could well be another manifestation of this phenomenon. There is also a sense of a bridge between humanity and God being formed by the person of wisdom.

4) Thought Exercise

What are your sources of wisdom?

How has your faith grown as the result of both your wise and unwise choices?

God Reigns

Psalm 97 (May 16, 2010)

1) The Text

1The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! 2Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3Fire goes before him, and consumes his adversaries on every side. 4His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. 5The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. 6The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory. 7All worshipers of images are put to shame, those who make their boast in worthless idols; all gods bow down before him. 8Zion hears and is glad, and the towns of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O God. 9For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. 10The Lord loves those who hate evil; he guards the lives of his faithful; he rescues them from the hand of the wicked. 11Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. 12Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!

2) The Context

Recent scholarly work on the book of Psalms has focused considerable attention on the collection to which Psalm 97 belongs – Psalms 93, 95-99, the enthronement or God-reigns psalms.

The shape of Books I-III (Psalms 1-89) reflects the rupture of exile, especially by way of the positioning of Psalm 89 that concludes Book III (see especially Ps 89:38-51). In response to this crisis, which involved the loss of land, temple, and monarchy, Book IV opens with the only psalm attributed to Moses, who led the people before they had a land, a temple, or a monarchy. In keeping with the reality that the people of God looked to God as their king during the Mosaic era, Book IV's major feature is the collection of God-reigns psalms. It is these sorts of observations that led Gerald Wilson to conclude that Psalms 93, 95-99 form "the theological 'heart'" of the Psalter.1

In terms of the shape of the enthronement collection itself, Marvin Tate suggests a close relationship between Psalms 96 and 97, which he calls "twin-psalms."2 Psalm 96 concludes with the announcement that God "is coming" (verse 13), and Psalm 97 seems to portray the effects of God's arrival. These effects involve "the earth" (verses 4-5), as the language and imagery of theophany (which means "God appearing") suggest in verses 3-5 (see similar descriptions in Exodus 13:21-22; 19:6-20; 20:18-21; 24:16-17; Psalms 18:7-15; 50:3; Micah 1:4; Hebrews 3:3-12). The storm-language – "lightnings" and thunder ("the earth . . . trembles") – bespeaks the awesome power of God, before which even the "mountains melt," an observation that connotes not destruction but yielded-ness to God's sovereign claim.

The effects of God's arrival also involves the human community, as suggested by the mention of "righteousness and justice" in verse 2. This vocabulary also links Psalm 97 clearly to Psalm 96, which concludes with the affirmation that God "will establish justice (in) the world with righteousness and (among) the peoples with his faithfulness" (verse 13; my translation). This vocabulary also appears elsewhere in the enthronement collection (see Psalms 98:9; 99:4) – in short, as monarchs, both human and divine, are supposed to do (see Psalms 72 and 82), God is coming to set things right in the world over which God is "the Lord" (verse 5).

3) Interpretation

Psalm 97 is the psalm not only for the seventh Sunday of Easter, but also for Christmas Eve/Day. Reflecting on the use of Psalm 97 at Christmas, Walter Brueggemann offers the following conclusion: “In Christmas the Church does not simply celebrate the birth of a wondrous baby. Through that birth we celebrate the cosmic reality that God has entered the process of the world in a decisive way that changes everything toward life. The entry of God into the process of the world is the premise of the poem in Psalm 97.”

Brueggemann's mention of life also suggests the appropriateness of Psalm 97 for the Easter season. Whatever else it might mean, the resurrection is a validation of what Jesus was born to do, what he lived to do, and what he was killed for doing – that is, proclaiming and embodying the reign of God in a ministry aimed at setting the world right.

The whole sequence of birth, life and ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection contains the recognition that Jesus' proclamation and embodiment of the reign of God did not go unopposed. Despite the affirmation that the cosmic elements respond positively to God's reign (see verse 4 where the "mountains melt" and verse 5 where "The heavens proclaim his righteousness"), and that "Zion hears and is glad" (verse 8), Psalm 97 also clearly recognizes that the reign of God does not go unopposed.

In particular, the concluding section of the psalm recognizes that there is "evil" in the world perpetrated by "the hand of the wicked," from which God's "faithful" will need to be rescued (verse 10). The first line of verse 10 is better translated as an admonition, "You who love the LORD hate evil." When heard as such, this admonition is capable of addressing the readers of Psalm 97 in every generation, including us.

More particularly, when heard during the season of Easter, we are reminded, in the language of Psalm 97, that the resurrection represents God's deliverance of Jesus from the power of evil, and God's shining of light into the darkness of a wicked world (verse 11; see Mark 16:2; John 1:4-5). As for us, the resurrection – an affirmation of God's reign – is what gives us the courage to hate and to oppose the evil that clearly still exists in our world, as an affirmation and manifestation of our love for God. As James L. Mays concludes concerning Psalm 97: "The psalm's proclamation of God's reign offers the righteous hope in their opposition to evil. When the kingdom of God is proclaimed, the righteous take courage."

Such courage is why Brueggemann sees Psalm 97 as an invitation "to reflect on the transformation wrought by God and the ethical possibility offered us in that transformation." Such reflection that leads to courageous ethical action – to justice and righteousness, to the life that God intends – is certainly an appropriate conclusion to the season of Easter.

4) Thought Exercise

How does your faith give you courage?

How does this courage lead to action?

Blessings

Psalm 67 (May 9, 2010)

1) The Text

1May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

2that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.

3Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

4Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah

5Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

6The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.

7May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.

2) The Context

Psalm 67 is a Psalm of national thanksgiving. There is a hint of a harvest context in v. 6 or the references to the nations could suggest some ancient New Year festival (at such times Israel was exhorted to be joyful, cf. Deut. 16:15; Lev. 23:40) but beyond this the context is unclear. The psalm is full of petitions although of a general nature. The psalm continues themes from Psalms 65 and 66. Verse 1 recalls the Aaronic blessing (Num. 6.25) often used in Christian worship or prayer while the refrain (vv. 3, 5) may also be familiar to many. Variation in the tense of the verbs in the psalm also creates ambiguity. Verse 6a, which is in the past, stands alongside several future petitions. The psalm could anticipate ongoing thanksgiving as well as thankfulness for past blessings.

3) Interpretation

The Psalm begins in vv. 1-2 by attending not to human experience but to God and to God’s grace. It is God’s grace and presence that precedes reference to human activity. Reference to ‘his face’ (v. 1) speaks of God acknowledging ‘us’, as distinct from being turned away. It also indicates that what is normally hidden from human sight is revealed and in a beneficial way (‘shine on us’). Compare the Sinai story where Moses was not permitted to see the face of God (Exod 33:12-23). The purpose of this blessing is that humans may be agents in the world of divine blessing (v. 2). Without this deep sense of purpose, any desire of ours for blessing lacks legitimacy. We know the greatest blessing of God for ourselves when we experience being a blessing to someone else.

The fact that God not only acknowledges us but causes divine light to shine upon us meets the need of the faithful to see things as God sees them. This divine light that shines on us makes known the way of God. This ‘way’ encompasses the idea of divine ‘will’ but is a much richer notion. Life with God is far more than obeying a set of rules to please a distant God; rather it is a dynamic journey of faith in the company of God in which the way of God is made known as we go. All nations are to witness the way of God, the ‘saving power’ of God, in the journey of the faithful. We might often understand God’s saving power (v. 2) in terms of deliverance from some threat or enemy. However, we might be wise to think of this divine ‘saving power’ in terms of transforming love, as suggested by the Gospel story of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.

Out of a sense of the equity of God as judge, the psalmist is lifted up with a sense of joy in God offering and calling for praise in song (vv. 3-5). The refrain in vv. 3 and 5 encloses the call to earth to praise God who judges and guides the nations with equity. It is difficult to know whether some human experience of the community of Israel lies behind the writer’s affirmation of divine justice and equity, or whether it is only repetition of an ideal concept. For the modern reader, this affirmation raises some questions. One is whether the idea of God as judge any longer has meaning. But the notion of God as judge also brings to mind questions of what is appropriate human action, how is that determined and on what basis can anyone speak out against injustice of any kind. It establishes a point of reference outside human power and authority. In this sense the notion of God as judge not only has significance but is an imperative in our world.

Finally, in the concluding section of the psalm, vv. 6-7, the psalmist reveals what has prompted their call to the peoples to praise God and for God to bless them. God has already blessed them in terms of a good harvest, of wheat and barley, grape and olive and fig etc. (v. 6). Thanksgiving for the fruit of the earth is an important aspect of acknowledging our creatureliness and dependence in life. The parallelism in v. 6 clearly shows that the psalmist considers the increase of harvest as a divine blessing. God is to be seen in the workings of all creation, even though nature and the weather will not always produce the expected harvest. The challenge to the faithful is to perceive the blessing of God even in circumstances that are painful rather than fruitful. The hope of the faithful is that God will continue to bless in all aspects of life, all people and creatures.

4) Thought Exercise

How do you see God blessing the world?

Where have you seen the blessings of God in painful circumstances?