Psalms 83-89

Psalms 83-89

            Psalms like Psalm 83 are hard to read. Jesus teaches us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). How, then, are we supposed to pray for the destruction of our enemies? I find it helpful to make a distinction between God’s enemies in general and individual cases. That is, I think it is acceptable, even anticipated, that we would look for the final judgment, when all the forces that oppose the Lord will be condemned—from the cosmic forces of Satan and his demons to the worldly institutions and attitudes that oppose Him. I try really hard not to personalize, though, as if I knew what was going on in any one person’s heart. I think it is my responsibility to pray for the salvation of any one person, even as I long for the world to be straightened out.

            Psalm 84 reflects an attitude that I wish was more prevalent in our world today. “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere”? Too often, we act like an hour is too much! Rain keeps people away; snow keeps people away; sunshine and moderate temperatures keep people away; sports, vacations, you name it. We are not a people who honor the Sabbath much anymore!

            Psalm 85 has a collection of some of the most important words in biblical Hebrew, “Love (chesed) and faithfulness (emeth) meet together; righteousness (tsedek) and peace (shalom) kiss each other.” Each of these words carries a lot of freight, so they are hard to translate in a way that captures all their nuances. Chesed refers to the Lord’s faithfulness to His promises; it encompasses His fidelity, His faithfulness, His dedication. (The NIV translates it ‘love’ and I suppose that’s fine, even though Hebrew has another word that more exactly corresponds to what we mean by love.) I learned that emeth should be translated truth, and that can be extended to someone’s trustworthiness, so NIV’s faithfulness is, again, ok. Tsedek means righteousness, and it refers to the Lord’s rightness, that He determines what is right, and that He is the One who will eventually set all things to right. Setting all things right is contained, too, in the Hebrew notion of shalom, or peace. Peace in the Old Testament is not just the absence of war, but it refers to a condition not just in which there is an absence of conflict but also that all things are set right, maybe what we would use the word reconciliation for.

            One last note for today: Psalm 87 seems to allude to a future in which the nations are counted among God’s people. The Old Testament has several places in which the Gentile becomes part of the people of God. For instance, the Law of Moses makes several provisions for the stranger in their midst and Ruth is famously a Moabite. Still, a missionary impulse is relatively rare in the OT, so to read that Egypt (Rahab) Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Cush will be recorded among those who acknowledge the Lord reminds us that the Lord’s desire has always been for all humans to be saved.