Glory and craft

In English, Psalm 19:2 is arranged in a neat parallel structure:

A. The heavens
B. tell
C. the glory of God.
A'. The firmament
B'. proclaims
C'. the work of his hands.

In Hebrew, the verse is chiastic:

A. The heavens
B. are telling
C. the glory of God.
C'. The work of his hands
B'. announcing
A'. the firmament.

Let's think about this.

In some ways the second half of the verse is odd. The firmament is one of the works of Yahweh's hands, so how can the firmament "announce" (ngd) his handiwork? Does it announce that it is His handiwork? Does the firmament announce something about the handiwork of God.

Perhaps we can make some progress in understanding this by noting that in both the English and Hebrew arrangement, the glory (kabod) of God is parallel to the product of his hands (ma'aseh yadaw). Can we identify the two? Can we saw that the glory of Yahweh is the product of His hands? That would be true in one sense: The creation is His handiwork, and is the created effulgence of His eternal glory.

But of course God is glorious in Himself, and didn't begin to display glory when He formed creation as a product by His hands? Or is there some sense in which even God's eternal glory can be described as His "handiwork"? Perhaps: If we follow Cusa in thinking of the Son as the eternal "art" of the Father, the "image" eternally painted by the Father through the Spirit, the Father's eternal poiema breathed forth and chanted in the Spirit, and if we mix in the NT's clear claim that Jesus is the "glory" of the Father, then we can identify handiwork and glory even in the eternal life of God.

This gives a specific, Christological, focus to the Psalm: The heavens are telling about the Seed of Abraham, which is Jesus, who is the glory of God; Jesus the handiwork of the Father is the nagid, the "announced One," of the firmament. No wonder that as soon as the Handiwork of the Father is made flesh, the firmament announces Him with a star.

And it also suggests, perhaps, an anthropological conclusion: That human glory is also about the products of our poetic action. Glory is not merely reputation, not merely lodged in persons, but is manifested in the cultural products with which a person is surrounded. A man's house is his glory, a woman's children are hers.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 08:07 AM

Permission is given to use material on this site, provided the source is cited, blog entries are republished in full, and the author is notified in advance.