David Lee looks at Psalm 119, a meditation on the human idea of law, which the psalmist sees as an expression of the nature of God, a vision of how the human community ought to be.
Joseph Cardijn’s tomb at Laekken In a previous article (sof 70 March 2005, The Biblical God as a Human Creation) I discussed the proposition that there are many parts of the Bible that accord with the idea of God as a human creation. Among the examples I offered were the changing image of God in different historical situations, the understanding of dreams as the voice of God, and the Biblical concept of Wisdom. In this article I suggest that the psalmist identifies God with the human idea of law.
Those who are familiar with the psalms from their use in the liturgy will know that Psalm 119 is composed of 22 sections corresponding to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the verses of the first section begin with the first letter aleph, the second with beth, and so on. The commentators describe the psalm as an alphabetic acrostic.
It is difficult for those who, like myself, only read it in translation to appreciate the poetic beauty of the original form 1. Some commentators complain about the ‘weariness and boredom’ of reading the sections of the psalm which contain so many repetitions and such a lack of developed argument 2. That is to miss the point; the psalm is a meditation on the glory of the law 3. The psalmist has the vision of how the human community ought to be. He thinks of this as God's word to him. The psalm itself does not explore the content of law or word, but verses 84-88 would suggest that he has a clear idea of the disorder which results from those who do not heed God's law.
As with other meditations, the psalm’s value is in pondering upon a single idea, looking at it from different angles, becoming deeply aware of its subtleties and nuances, and spending time doing this. Consider the following:
I will meditate on thy precepts: and I will give heed unto thy ways. (v 15) Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: and so shall I meditate on thy wondrous works. (v 27) I wake before my night-watch cometh: that I may meditate on thy words’ (v 148)4 While it is the primary purpose of the psalmist to glorify the law there is a secondary purpose which becomes more and more important as we go on. The psalmist sees the law as an expression of the nature of God. The psalm is a presage of the Scholastic saying that for God essence and attributes are one. In other words to the psalmist God is what he does:
Thou art good and thou doest good: O teach me thy statutes. (v.68) The various terms representing the law are inseparable from the nature of God. This is not just an academic point, the psalm reflects the intense religious feeling of the psalmist; his feelings are focused upon aspects of the law as upon the Lord himself:
And my delight shall be in thy commandments: which I have loved exceedingly. (v 46) Mine eyes long sore for thy word: saying ‘O when wilt thou comfort me?’ (v 82) I see that all things come to an end: but thy commandment hath no bounds. (v 96) But thou art nigh at hand O Lord: for all thy commandments are true! (v 151) Of the various terms, which the psalmist uses to denote the law of God, the most frequently used is that of ‘word’ or ‘words’, which appear 38 times in the Revised Psalter translation, as compared with the 25 times that the word ‘law’ appears.5 The psalmist has in his mind a God who communicates with him and to whom he responds:
O remember thy word unto thy servant: wherein thou hast caused me to put my trust. (v 49) Mine eyes long sore for thy word: saying ‘O when wilt thou comfort me? (v 82) O how sweet are thy words unto my tongue: yea sweeter that honey unto my mouth. (v 103) The word communicates the law to the community which, in due time, formalises it into statutes and commandments.
An example of this process is the figure of Moses holding the tablets of stone containing the original Ten Commandments. The psalmist delights in these things, but he also sees the challenge they present to the people:
To the psalmist God is what he does.
The piety of the psalmist brought him into conflict with his community and resulted in suffering on his part. A section of the psalm tells the story:
How many are the days of thy servant: when wilt thou execute judgement on them that persecute me? The arrogant have digged out pits for me: they walk not after thy law.
All thy commandments are true; they persecute me falsely, O be thou my help. ( vv 84-86) Some commentators see in this a foretaste of the complacency of the Pharisees about which Jesus had much to say in his teaching. However there can be no doubt that the psalmist is very much a part of his community; he does not write from an ivory tower, removed from the challenges and difficulties of everyday life.
In the meditation of the psalmist, we may ask how he understands the reality of God. He uses the term ‘the Lord’ and none other. God is not called Almighty, Heavenly, Glorious, Merciful or any of the other titles we normally associate with a supernaturalist image of God. Of course the psalm does not contain any philosophical argument, we deduce the psalmist’s position from an analysis of the text – a devotional and lyrical extended poem. It can be argued that the psalmist was a critical realist. Consider the following:
Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: O give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments. (v 73) This assertion of God as Creator may be understood as the classical position of the critical realist. Apart from this one verse his comprehension of the divine is very much determined by a set of human categories. ‘The Lord’ is understood as the personification of law, word, statutes, judgments and so on.
My delight shall be in thy statutes: and I will not forget thy word. (v 16) O teach me true understanding and knowledge: for my trust hath been in thy commandments. (v 66) The critical realist is one who believes in a transcendent Real – ‘there is something out there!’ – but sees that it can only be comprehended in the context of and in the language of a particular culture. This is the position of Bishop Richard Holloway:
Critical realism would hold that there is that which we call God, but that it is encountered by humans in ways that are relative to their place in the universe. In other words, for the critical realist, religious experience is an experience of the Real, but it is always mediated in forms that are not necessarily ‘real’ in the hard empirical sense.7 The theological non-realist rejects the position of the critical realist. There is nothing ‘out there’. This is an outsideless universe. Nevertheless religious language has its uses, references to God serve to affirm the seriousness of the human condition. This psalm focuses our minds upon the idea that law begins with an inner vision of how the human community ought to be, a vision of order and peace and justice. This vision expresses itself in human society in the form of written laws, commandments, precepts and so on.
The application of these things in actual situations gives rise to the challenges and failures of imperfect human beings and their systems.
Nothing can be more important than the continual struggle to apply and improve our laws and rules.
Religious language and ideas uphold and strengthen those who are involved in this struggle, remembering all the time that God in this situation is a human creation, and is not absolute and immutable. The difficulty we have with the idea of an objective, absolute God is that those who serve such a God tend to put themselves beyond human challenge and criticism. Psalm 119 does not lead us along that path. To the psalmist the glory of the law is that it has the power to restore or maintain peace and order in an imperfect world, and, it seems, this is one with his vision of God. 1 The translation of The Psalms used here is that of the Revised Psalter authorised for use in the Church of England, 1981. 2 See The Psalms A Commentary by W O E Oesterley. 3 See Liberating the Gospels by Bishop John Spong, page 113.
The author explains that Psalm 119 was originally intended to be used in the vigil of Pentecost in the Jewish liturgy. 4 Spong (ibid) indicates that this verse shows that the psalm was part of a vigil meditation and that different parts were used at different times. 5 Psalm 119 does not use the word wisdom. However the psalms are thought of as one of the Wisdom books of the Old Testament. In particular, Psalms 120 to 134 are called Psalms of Ascent or Wisdom Psalms. One of the rare uses of the word is in Psalm 105 v 22: ‘That he might instruct his princes according to his will: and teach his counsellors wisdom.’. This suggests a rather practical definition of the word which nevertheless comes from God. 6 See The Psalms – A Commentary by Artur Weiser, pages 740,741. 7 See Doubts and Loves: What is Left of Christianity Richard Holloway, page 27.
Law begins with an inner vision of how the human community ought to be, a vision of order and peace and justice.