Ascending

Usually it helps to know how something was used originally as we look at scriptures. But it may not be quite as important with the Psalms of Ascent.

The Psalms of Ascent are 15 Psalms (Psalms 120-134) which progressively draw us into worship. Some call them the Psalms of Degrees and suspect that they signify 15 steps in the temple going up from the court of women to the court of men. In that scenario, with musical accompaniment, a priest standing on each step would recite a Psalm in ascending order.

Others suggest that pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for one of the three Great Festivals of the year would sing these Psalms in order as preparation for the Festival.

However they were originally used, we can see the principle: these Psalms lead into worship.

Starting with a cry for protection from enemies in Psalm 120, the Psalms of Ascent examine different aspects of our relationship with God.

If you’ve never read these Psalms with that idea in mind, make a plan to do that. It will be a rich experience.

Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
who stand by night in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the Lord. May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.

Psalms 134:1-3

Dive In: The Audience

The teenagers almost whispered their distress: “In our spare time, we even pulled weeds to help them.”

They had returned from a week-long trip to a different culture, full of love for the children there and also annoyed with the adults who displayed none of the initiative the teens expected.

They couldn’t even pull their own weeds.

That culture did not value landscaping as we do. Their time was better spent carrying soup to the elderly, playing games with the babies, painting vibrant colors on pottery.

In not examining the culture of the people, the teens missed the values of the village. Where they might have seen beauty, they saw laziness.

In examining biblical texts, we must tread carefully. We read through our 21^st century western eyes what was written to ancient eastern people.

Last week, we discussed the author’s intent in writing. Today, we look at the intended audience.

For example, the book of Psalms is a beautiful collection of Hebrew songs. We are certain, however, that an editor gathered many poems and songs into the equivalent of a hymnal, a book to be used in worship.

There are many signs of this editor’s work. Several weeks ago we looked at the beginning of Psalm 23, where David is identified as the author. It’s probable that David did not write that about his own poem, but it was added later by an editor. Editing does not diminish the inspiration of the text. In fact, if we can accept the concept of inspiration in the writing, surely we can embrace inspiration in editing as well.

But this final text of Psalms was probably completed a couple of hundred years before Jesus’ birth. By this time, Jews had been scattered throughout the civilized world. Where once the Hebrews had worshipped as one in the temple, now they had a series of synagogues in the faraway places where they lived.

Once, the priest addressed the people in one place during festivals and ceremonies. Now, many could not return to the temple easily and instead worshipped in many places.

The Psalms were collected to provide instruction in theology and worship in the synagogues.

So the editor of the Psalms brought the poems together in five books which paralleled the five books of Moses (the Torah). In doing that, the editor communicated that this book was like the Torah, a new book to instruct the people. The Torah dealt with the law, the Psalms dealt with God’s nature.

The poems were probably not changed but their purpose was tweaked. They became part of a brilliant teaching effort. The people, many far separated from the temple and its festivals, could still learn about God’s nature – from a book rather than a priest’s lips.

Psalms was copied and distributed to many synagogues. That book helped Jews learn God’s nature and worship him with wisdom.

Knowing the original audience helps us understand the intent of the work.

Once we identify the author’s idea for his intended audience, we can make application to our own life.

When we understand that the purpose of Psalms is to introduce wisdom (notice the scope of Psalm 1 as the foreword to the entire collection), we read the psalms in a new way. We can connect worship and wisdom. If we know God’s nature, we can worship more effectively.

The Psalms were written to help early Jews worship God out of knowledge and understanding. Psalms instructs. We can take the same idea and use it in our own lives.

Part of provenance is identifying the author and the culture. Another part is recognizing the needs of the original audience. How they received the text helps us understand the ideas which may also affect our lives.

We can’t read biblical texts assuming they were written by modern authors to modern audiences. Their setting was different from ours and part of the challenge is to identify that situation.

Meaning is richer when we discover it by looking through the original lens.

Dive In: Beginning

“What are the first words of the 23^rd Psalm?” asked our Old Testament professor one day.

This sounded like a trick question and we were slow to bite. He had us open our Bibles and take a look, where we found he was using a little trickery. The first words are: “A Psalm of David.” Now, your translation may have something like “A Davidic Psalm” but you get the idea. It’s not “The Lord is my shepherd” like we assume.

As we dive into the design of Bible passages, we have to look at the beginning. In the case of the 23^rd Psalm, we learn the genre: a Psalm (also known as a song or a poem. The book of Psalms was the hymnbook for the Jews.)

We need to know the genre. It makes a difference in our understanding if we realize we’re reading a poem or a genealogy, a narrative or law. There are many kinds of genre in the Bible and we analyze the text differently depending on the genre.

A quick note: a book is not necessarily only one genre. Look at Ruth, which is mostly a narrative with a genealogy at the end. (Some suggest that the genealogy was added later but I would suggest that it is vital to the meaning of the book. I will discuss that with you at some point.)

But let us return to Psalm 23. Because we know this writing is a poem rather than a genealogy, we analyze the design of the material in that light. We want to look for repeated words, phrases, images because Hebrew poems used those extensively.

You might want to print out a copy of the Psalm, so that you can underline and mark it.

• Underline all the first person pronouns: me/my/I, etc.
• Now circle “Lord” and “he.”
• Now draw a box around the second person pronouns: “you.”

We want to notice the location of these repetitions in the Psalm. Do you see how the “self” pronouns are scattered throughout the Psalm while “Lord” and “he” are in the first part only? “You” is used in the second half of the Psalm.

We quickly see a transition from referring to God as “he” to addressing God personally: “you.”

We learn that through the repetition of the pronouns, noticing what kind of pronouns they are. David writes about God in the first half of the Psalm and writes to God in the second half.

Is that important?

I’m going to go through this quickly for now – although it deserves a much richer study at some point. In the first half of the Psalm, notice that the imagery is of shepherds, fields, grass, valleys. There’s a strong agricultural motif to those verses.

Hospitality is more of the theme in the last half of Psalm. We see a table, anointing, a cup, a house. Our scene has moved from the field to the home.

That may imply a change in relationship, moving into closer intimacy as we move from an outside scene to one inside the home.

Notice the very middle line of the Psalm. Count the lines (don’t count “A Psalm by David”) and you’ll see there are 19 lines. In Hebrew writing, often the very middle of a text is very significant. For example, if you look at the exact middle of Exodus, you’ll find the 10 commandments.

Here, the very middle is the point of the Psalm: “for you are with me…”

That’s the point of the 23^rd Psalm: God, you are with me. You protect me and comfort me because you are with me.

This week, I would like you to begin to examine the design of a poem or a song. Psalms is a good place or you might look at other songs, such as Miriam’s song or Hannah’s song. There are many.

We’ve studied three steps so far and I want you to experiment with them on your text, to see if that opens some meaning.

The steps of design we studied today:

1. Start at the beginning. Read carefully. What can you learn from the beginning?

2. Search for repetition. Do you see an image, a word, a pronoun repeated? Do you see a motif – like the pasture setting in Psalm 23?

3. Check the very middle of the text. Is there anything significant there?

If you choose to share your findings on your own blog, please enter the specific blog post below so that others can share. We’ll look more at design next time.

The purpose of roots

They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

Psalms 1:3 (NRSV)

I grew up on a farm and one of our summer chores was to pull weeds in the sugar beet fields. There was something deliciously satisfying to grab a tall fat weed and extract it from the soil with the long spidery roots intact. I knew that weed was dead and gone.

A weed is tenacious in its one goal: to reproduce. A weed shot down roots, sent up leaves so that it could produce seed. A weed’s fruit was its seed.

I have seen weeds with one tender slender root still gripping the soil, alive and growing. I’d have thought that slicing off most of the roots would slay that weed, but I learned the value of strong roots.

We were fighting weeds because they tenaciously stole the moisture and nutrients from the crops we had planted. But while we fought weeds with one hand, we nurtured the sugar beet plant with the other. What we battled in the weeds we encouraged in the beets.

We wanted strong roots and fruit in its season.

In Psalms 1:3, I am reminded of the same principle, the importance of roots in producing fruit. I think we often are satisfied with the image of sinking our roots into the streams of water. Spiritually, we want our life to soak in the living water of God, the nourishing of his presence.

How do we know we have allowed our roots to go deep? Because we are producing strong leaves and fruit. If it isn’t yet the season for fruit, the fruit is coming.

Our purpose, like that tenacious weed or sweet sugar beet, is to produce fruit. The roots are only means. Am I committed to reproducing, to producing fruit? Or only sending my roots deeper and deeper?

Even a weed knows the purpose of roots is to turn out fruit.