Skip to main content

Psalms 49-52



Psalm 49 mentions Sheol once again. This raises the question: why did the ancient Jews not have any significant belief in an afterlife? C. S. Lewis gives this answer:
It is surely, therefore, very possible that when God began to reveal Himself to men, to show them that He and nothing else is their true goal and the satisfaction of their needs, and that He has a claim upon them simply by being what He is, quite apart from anything He can bestow or deny, it may have been absolutely necessary that this revelation should not begin with any hint of future Beatitude or Perdition. These are not the right point to begin at. An effective belief in them, coming too soon, may even render almost impossible the development of (so to call it) the appetite for God; personal hopes and fears, too obviously exciting, have got in first. Later when, after centuries of spiritual training, men have learned to desire and adore God, to pant after Him “as pants the hart,” it is another matter. For then those who love God will desire not only to enjoy Him but “to enjoy Him forever,” and will fear to lose Him. And it is by that door that a truly religious hope of Heaven and fear of Hell can enter; as corollaries to a faith already centred upon God, not as things of any independent or intrinsic weight. It is even arguable that the moment “Heaven” ceases to mean union with God and “Hell” to mean separation from him, the belief in either is a mischievous superstition; for then we have, on the one hand, a merely “compensatory” belief (a “sequel” to life’s sad story, in which everything will “come all right”) and, on the other, a nightmare which drives men into asylums or makes them persecutors. (Reflections on the Psalms)
At the same time, there is an issue raised in Psalm 49 that is only answered by the New Testament. The psalmist says…
Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life,
there is no price one can give to God for it.
For the ransom of life is costly,
and can never suffice,
that one should live on forever
and never see the grave.

This is a true and important realization on the part of the psalmist. In fact, it is one of the most important realizations one can have in life. However, if we stop here, the path leads only to despair. We need to move on from this realization to the reality that a ransom has been paid for our lives so that we can live forever. That ransom has been paid by Jesus Christ.

The heading of Psalm 50 says it was written by Asaph. He was one of three Levites commissioned by King David to be in charge of singing in the tabernacle. What I find most interesting about this psalm is that Asaph speaks against the main work of the tabernacle: sacrifice.

I will not accept a bull from your house,
or goats from your folds.
For every wild animal of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the air,
and all that moves in the field is mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and all that is in it is mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?

The answer to the final rhetorical questions is, of course, no. God does not eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats. Therefore, what does God want according to Asaph? He says in the next verse….

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and pay your vows to the Most High.
Call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.

Of course, according to the logic of the psalm, these are the words of God. However, they seem to me to reflect Asaph’s sentiments. Is it not fascinating that in a psalm written by the one in charge of singing in the tabernacle, he has God say: “I do not want your animal sacrifices”? Rather, according to this psalm, God wants a sacrifice of thanksgiving—precisely the thing that Asaph is offering. This psalm makes me wonder what kind of competition was going on in the tabernacle in David’s time between the Levites who offered sacrifices of animals and those who offered sacrifices of praise. Perhaps not much has changed in religious institutions over the millennia. Once again, we see that we have one Bible with many voices.

Psalm 51 is probably one of the most well known psalms after Psalm 23. According to the heading, this is the psalm David wrote after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan about his sin with Bathsheba. Out of all the psalms attributed to David, this one seems to me to be the one that was most likely to have been written by him, and perhaps even written on the occasion noted in the heading. It fits. How interesting that here too there is a denial of the value of animal sacrifice. “For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.” (51:16) Therefore, what does God want, according to David? “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” What is important is not our outward religious acts, but change in the heart.

Psalm 51 contains a number of other important features. It is a psalm often cited as teaching the doctrine of original sin. “Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.”

“Purge me with hyssop,” is an interesting line. The hyssop branch was used to sprinkle the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and lintel during Passover. Later, it was used in the ritual of cleansing for leprosy and other ritual purification rites. Significantly, a hyssop branch was used to lift a sponge to Jesus for his last drink upon the cross.

David obviously wanted to feel, in his physical body, that he had been cleansed of his sin. I believe that is why he mentions his desire to be cleansed with hyssop. As human beings who are both spiritual and physical, we all need to feel what David wanted to feel. Perhaps that is why God has given us the sacraments.

Psalm 51 also notes the importance of contrition to forgiveness. The Catholic Church emphasizes the importance of contrition to the rite of reconciliation as well. We need to be sorry for our sin.

The story is told of a Catholic priest attending a person who was dying at the scene of an accident. The priest asks the dying man, “Son, are you sorry for your sin?” The man answers, “No Father, I am not sorry for my sin.” The priest thinks about it for a moment and then asks, “My son, are you sorry that you are not sorry for your sin?”

If we are honest with ourselves then we must admit that sometimes we are not sorry for our sin. However, if we are sorry that we are not sorry, perhaps God can begin from there to work with us. After all, real contrition is God’s gift, not ours.

Psalm 52 contains two technical terms we have already seen in the psalms that require comment. The heading to this psalm says it is a Maskil of David. I have already mentioned how some of the psalms are more like proverbs; they impart wisdom. That is precisely what a maskil is; it is a psalm specifically written to provide wisdom.

The other term that is important to define is Selah. This word occurs at many points in the psalms and is written in the margin of many versions of the Bible today. Selah indicates a point in the psalm where there was to be an interlude, either for music or silent meditation. We would probably do well to use these indicators as an invitation to silent meditation when we read the psalms today. It is good to pause in our reading and to really think deeply about the meaning of the words and the application for our lives today.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

C. S. Lewis on Homosexuality

Arthur Greeves In light of recent developments in the United States on the issue of gay marriage, I thought it would be interesting to revisit what C. S. Lewis thought about homosexuality. Lewis, who died in 1963, never wrote about same-sex marriage, but he did write, occasionally, about the topic of homosexuality in general. In the following I am quoting from my book, Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C. S. Lewis . For detailed references and footnotes, you may obtain a copy from Amazon, your local library, or by clicking on the book cover at the right.... In Surprised by Joy , Lewis claimed that homosexuality was a vice to which he was never tempted and that he found opaque to the imagination. For this reason he refused to say anything too strongly against the pederasty that he encountered at Malvern College, where he attended school from the age of fifteen to sixteen. Lewis did not rate pederasty as the greatest evil of the school because he felt the cruelty displa

Fact, Faith, Feeling

"Now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes. I know that by experience. Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods 'where to get off', you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion. Consequently one must train the habit of Faith." Mere Christianity Many years ago, when I was a young Christian, I remember seeing the graphic illustration above of what C. S. Lewis has, here, so

C. S. Lewis Tour--London

The final two days of our C. S. Lewis Tour of Ireland & England were spent in London. Upon our arrival we enjoyed a panoramic tour of the city that included Westminster Abbey. A number of our tour participants chose to tour the inside of the Abbey where they were able to view the new C. S. Lewis plaque in Poets' Corner. Though London was not one of Lewis' favorite places to visit, there are a number of locations associated with him. One which I have noted in my new book,  In the Footsteps of C. S. Lewis , is Endsleigh Palace Hospital (25 Gordon Street, London) where Lewis recovered from his wounds received during the First World War.... Not too far away from this location is King's College, part of the University of London, located on the Strand, just off the River Thames. This is the location where Lewis gave the annual commemoration oration entitled The Inner Ring  on 14 December 1944.... C. S. Lewis occasionally attended theatrical events in London.

The Shepherds' Perspective on Christmas

On December 21, 2015, the following headline appeared in the International Business Times: “Bethlehem Christmas 2015 Cancelled”. To be fully accurate, religious celebrations of Jesus’ birth went forward last year in Bethlehem, but many of the secular celebrations of Christmas that usually surround it were toned down due to instability in the area. Looking back a decade, there was even one year when Christian Arabs canceled community celebrations of Christmas in support of the Palestinian uprising. However, the Jewish government would have no part of that, so the Israeli military sponsored its own holiday celebrations in the area. It is also interesting to note who celebrated the first Christmas and who didn’t. The first Christmas was not celebrated by the emperor Caesar Augustus, nor Quirinius, the governor of Syria, nor was it celebrated by the lowly innkeeper. But Christmas was celebrated by a few lonely shepherds along with Joseph and Mary and the angels of heaven. How

A Prayer at Ground Zero

Does the Bible mention treating animals with kindness?

When I solicited questions to be addressed in this series, a member of the congregation wrote this to me: “Animals are mentioned in the Bible as beasts of burden and sacrificial animals.  Is there any mention of treating animals with kindness?” The short answer to that question is: yes. However, it is important to note that what the Bible says about caring for animals comes in the midst of a great narrative. It is a narrative of  Creation, Fall, and Redemption.  Let’s look at these three great acts in the narrative play of world history one by one. First, let’s look at creation. Creation At the very beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verses 26 through 28, we read this: Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the

Christmas Day Thought from Henri Nouwen

" I keep thinking about the Christmas scene that Anthony arranged under the altar. This probably is the most meaningful "crib" I have ever seen. Three small woodcarved figures made in India: a poor woman, a poor man, and a small child between them. The carving is simple, nearly primitive. No eyes, no ears, no mouths, just the contours of the faces. The figures are smaller than a human hand - nearly too small to attract attention at all. "But then - a beam of light shines on the three figures and projects large shadows on the wall of the sanctuary. That says it all. The light thrown on the smallness of Mary, Joseph, and the Child projects them as large, hopeful shadows against the walls of our life and our world. "While looking at the intimate scene we already see the first outlines of the majesty and glory they represent. While witnessing the most human of human events, I see the majesty of God appearing on the horizon of my existence. While

C. S. Lewis on Church Attendance

A friend's blog written yesterday ( http://wesroberts.typepad.com/ ) got me thinking about C. S. Lewis's experience of the church. I wrote this in a comment on Wes Robert's blog: It is interesting to note that C. S. Lewis attended the same small church for over thirty years. The experience was nothing spectacular on a weekly basis. For most of those years Lewis didn't care much for the sermons; he even sat behind a pillar so that the priest would not see the expression on his face. He attended the service without music because he so disliked hymns. And he left right after holy communion was served probably because he didn't like to engage in small talk with other parishioners after the service. But that life-long obedience in the same direction shaped Lewis in a way that nothing else could. Lewis was once asked, "Is attendance at a place of worship or membership with a Christian community necessary to a Christian way of life?" His answer w

Sheldon Vanauken Remembered

A good crowd gathered at the White Hart Cafe in Lynchburg, Virginia on Saturday, February 7 for a powerpoint presentation I gave on the life and work of Sheldon Vanauken. Van, as he was known to family and friends, was best known as the author of A Severe Mercy , the autobiography of his love relationship with his wife Jean "Davy" Palmer Davis. While living in Oxford, England in the early 1950's, Van and Davy came to faith in Christ through the influence of C. S. Lewis. Van was a professor of history and English literature at Lynchburg College from 1948 until his retirement around 1980. A Severe Mercy tells the story of Davy's death from a mysterious liver ailment in 1955 and Van's subsequent dealing with grief. Van himself died from cancer in 1996. It was my privilege to know Van for a brief period of time during the last year of his life. However, present at the White Hart on February 7 were some who knew Van far better than I did--Floyd Newman, one of Van&

Glenmerle

Glenmerle in the 1950s In 2013 I published a biography on one of my favorite authors, Sheldon Vanauken. If you are interested, you can learn more and/or purchase a signed copy here:  Signed Copy  or an unsigned copy here:  Amazon . One of the things that got me writing the book was my search for the location of Glenmerle, Vanauken's childhood home, so lovingly described in his book, A Severe Mercy . A visit to Van's alma mater, Staunton Military Academy, alerted me to the fact that Van grew up in Carmel, Indiana. Then, with the help of a local historian, we identified the location of Glenmerle.  Because Van had suggested, in my first conversation with him, that Glenmerle was destroyed, I naturally assumed that the house no longer existed. However, another one of Van's fans recently contacted me to let me know that she believed she had found Glenmerle still in existence. I was able to look up the house on a real estate web site and compare current interior photos o