 |
|
     |
|
|
|
The Four: A Survey of the Gospels
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
Israel, heaven and earth, the islands are to “rejoice and be glad” in Yahweh (Psalms 14:7; 16:9; 31:7; 32:11; 97:1, 8). The combination of terms is used in liturgical contexts; rejoicing and being glad is an act of worship.
Then Proverbs 23:24-25: Father and mother rejoice and are glad in a wise son. Father and mother offer a kind of “liturgical” praise to their wise children.
And so in the fellowship of the Trinity. The Father rejoices and is glad in the Son, and “mother” Israel joins in the Father’s praise. The Son is the chief liturgist of the church, bring the church to worship the Father. But there’s a reverse movement too, as the church joins in the Father’s eternal praise of His beloved Son.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at 5:26 am
In a 1985 article in Theology Today, James L. Mays notes how in Psalm 22 David is first surrounded by a demonic, bestial community to a community of friends, God-fearers, afflicted, and lowly, a group that is qualified as the “seed of Jacob”:
“the group who celebrate his deliverance with him have a theological spiritual identity. They are not simply family, friends, and neighbors, a company constituted by natural and accidental relations. They are brothers (v. 22) in a religious sense. All the different designations refer to this fraternal company: ‘fearers of the Lord’ (w. 23, 25), ‘seekers of the Lord’ (v. 26), ‘the lowly’ (Hebrew ‘ânâwîm, RSV ‘afflicted’ or ‘poor,’ v. 26), ‘descendents of Jacob/Israel’ (v. 24). This last designation does not mean that Israel as a nation is the lowly, but rather that the lowly, seekers, fearers are the true Israel, the real congregation who live by the praise of the Lord.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 2:24 pm
On the cross, Jesus is surrounded by “strong bulls of Bashan” with mouths that open like the jaws of lions (Psalm 22:12-13, 21). Why lions and bulls?
Jesus on the cross is one like the Son of Man, triumphing over the beasts.
Jesus on the cross is the temple, flanked by cherubim.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, March 5, 2010 at 7:07 am
1 Peter 3:10-12: He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”
Pastor Sumpter’s sermon text closes with a quotation from Psalm 34. In the Psalm, David praises the Lord for delivering him from his troubles. “This poor man cried and Yahweh heard Him,” he says, and he rejoices because the “angel of Yahweh encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 7:42 am
Idols have noses, but can’t smell (Psalm 115).
That means, for starters, they can’t breathe in the aroma of sacrifice. So what’s the point of turning animals to smoke?
It also means that they are not to be feared. If their noses don’t breathe in, they can’t breathe out either. Yahweh can breathe life into Adam; idols can’t. Yahweh’s nose burns against disobedient Israel; idols noses can’t burn, nor can they breathe out smoke and fire.
Therefore: Do not fear them.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Athanasius points out to Marcellinus that the Psalms cover every “eventuality.” They are a mirror of the soul because they are a mirror of human experience – of suffering, of desperation, of exultation, of thanksgiving, of prosperity, of adversity, of garden and wilderness, of isolation and communion, and on and on. They are a mirror of the soul because they are a mirror of our emotional life, including every permutation of passion.
More than mirror, though: Through singing the Psalms, the diverse passions of the soul, Athanasius argues, are trained and harmonized. Praising God “in well-tuned cymbals and harp and ten-stringed instrument was again a figure and sign of the parts of the body coming into natural concord like harp strings, and of the thoughts of the soul becoming like cymbals, and then all of these being moved and living through the grand sound and through the command of the Spirit so that, as it is written, the man lives in the Spirit and mortifies the deeds of the body.”
In short, by “beautifully singing praises, he brings rhythm to his soul and leads it, so to speak, from disproportion to proportion.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 11:12 am
No one would dare, Athanasius writes to Marcellinus, to take the words of the patriarchs, or Moses, or the prophets as his own. No one would dare imitate the prophets by saying “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand today.”
The Psalms are different. When someone reads, hears, chants, sings the Psalms, “he recognizes [these words] as being his own words.” He is “deeply moved, as though he himself were speaking, and is affected by the words of the songs, as if they were his own songs.” Thus, the words of the Psalms “become like a mirror to the person singing them” to enable us to name and perceive the “emotions of the soul.”
Scripture is sufficient – not only in telling us what to believe or in telling us what to do. Scripture also is sufficient in modeling the proper response to its affirmations, and in training us in those responses.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 11:07 am
The Aaronic blessing promises the “face” and “countenance” of Yahweh, and places the name of God on the people of God (Numbers 6:27).
Psalm 44 explains these words of blessing. Yahweh’s hand drove out nations and planted Israel in the land (v. 2) because He shone the “light of [His] countenance” on them and was “gracious” to them (v. 4). Israel did not win by her own strength but bythe “name” of Yahweh drop down enemies.
To be sent out in benediction is to be sent out to battle and victory, armed with the name of Yahweh.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Psalm 105:28-36 lists the plagues. Some of them. But not in the order they happened.
Instead of the ten plagues of exodus, there are only seven (darkness, water to blood, frogs, flies/gnats, hail, locusts, firstborn). Seven strikes a chord, as does the fact that the summary begins in darkness (reversing the first day of creation) and ends with the death of firstborn sons (reversing the sixth day of creation). Psalm 105 tells the story of the plagues as a reversal of creation, a sevenfold judgment that leaves Egypt in darkness and in dust.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Psalm 115:4-8 is as ironic a blason as Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130. Like many of the descriptions in the Song of Songs, the Psalmist begins from the head and moves to the feet, but instead of celebrating the beauty of the idols of gold and silver he focuses on their incapacity at every point. They are un-creations, seven-fold nothings, possessing impotent mouths, eyes, ears, noses, hands, feet, and throats.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, April 13, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Why are women the first witnesses to the resurrection. Psalm 68:11-12 might provide a clue: “The Lord gives the command; the women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host. Kings of armies flee, they flee, and she who remains at home will divide the spoil!”
Women announce the good tidings of a great victory, the flight of all the kings of the earth before the King of kings.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, March 23, 2009 at 11:42 am
Psalm 89 explicitly tells us that Yahweh entered into a covenant with David (v. 28), which makes David the firstborn over the kings of the earth (v. 27) and promises a perpetual seed and sonship (vv. 26, 29).
The Psalm as a whole, however, is about an apparently broken covenant. No sooner has the Psalmist repeated Yahweh’s promise to preserve David’s seed as the sun and moon (vv. 36-37) than the Psalmist suddenly protests that Yahweh has in fact cast off HIs anointed, broken covenant, and cast his crown to the ground (vv. 38-39). And the protest doesn’t let up through the rest of the Psalm. The only hope is that Yahweh will remember (vv. 47, 50), but the Psalm ends with enemies still mocking Yahweh’s anointed (v. 51).
The Psalm places David on the cross, and doesn’t let him off. In that respect, the Psalm is a summary of the history of the Davidic house: Yahweh promises a perpetual seed, but the promise doesn’t appear to hold. So Israel waits for Yahweh to remember and raise up the seed of David, the one who calls Yahweh Father, the firstborn of the kings of the earth.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 4:20 pm
INTRODUCTION
Hope is a spring of human action. We do what we do because we hope to accomplish something by our actions, and when we are truly hopeless we do nothing at all. Scripture teaches us that we raise our children in hope, as well as in faith and love. But what should we hope for in our families?
THE TEXT
“Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. . . .” (Psalm 128).
STRUCTURE
The Psalm is structured in two panels. Each begins with a reference to fear of Yahweh (vv. 1, 4), then continues to describe the blessing that comes on the one who fears Yahweh (vv. 2, 5a). Verse 3 begins with a reference to the man’s fruitful wife, and verse 5b extends this to the bride of Yahweh, Jerusalem. And each section ends with a reference to children (v. 3b, 6a). The Psalm ends with a pronouncement of peace upon Israel.
FEARING GOD
Psalm 128 describes blessings that the Yahweh brings to a home. But the presumption of these blessings is stated in verses 1 and 4. These blessings are not for everyone, but for the man who fears Yahweh. Proverbs tells us the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). Fearing Yahweh means turning from evil (Proverbs 3:7; 16:6) and walking in uprightness (Proverbs 14:2) without envy for the wicked (Proverbs 23:17). The Lord promises to reveal His covenant to those who fear Him (Psalm 25), and also promises life (Proverbs 14:27).
FRUITFULNESS
The main blessing promised to the man who fears Yahweh here in Psalm 128 is fruitfulness in his home. He will prosper from the labor of his hands, with no one plundering or taxing away his goods. His wife is fruitful, and fruitful like a vine, which produces grapes that produce wine. A wife at the heart of the house is like having a feast of wine at the heart of the house. His children are olive shoots, flourishing young trees that will grow into productive fruit-bearing trees. Olive oil is used for burning; children like olive trees are lights in the world. Olive oil is for anointing; children are priests and kings in training. The overall portrait is of the home as an orchard, a restored garden. The man who tends his garden in the fear of Yahweh will enjoy its produce. And in verse 5, the Lord extends the promise to Jerusalem. If Jerusalem and Zion fear Yahweh and walk in His ways, they too will prosper, flourishing like a garden.
HOPE
But this is not always the way it seems. Teeming with small screaming needy children, a home doesn’t always appear to be a garden. When your wife is frazzled at the end of a long day, she doesn’t appear to be a fruitful vine in the heart of your house. A man who gets testy at his kids doesn’t look like the man who fears the Lord. This is where hope comes in: The Lord gives us a portrait of a flourishing home, and we are to muck around in the mud in hope that the Lord will produce a harvest. Persevere, and he will.
HELP FOR HOPE
The older, established families at Trinity have an important opportunity for ministry to the many younger families here. You have been through it. You’ve had the bad days; you’ve dealt with the discipline challenges; perhaps you’ve felt despair that your kids are going to come out OK. But you also have seen the Lord fulfill His promises. You are living illustrations that hope does not disappoint. Look for opportunities to encourage the younger families in hope.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at 6:48 am
The following is largely inspired by Jon D. Levenson’s Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel.
In his novel, The Death of Ivan Illych, Leo Tolstoy tells the story of the life and death of his title character. Ivan Illych is a government lawyer who has devoted his life to advancing his career. He lives, he thinks, just as he should, doing everything that he is supposed to do, living life correctly. That doesn’t mean he’s happy. He’s not. He married in order to advance socially and vocationally, but soon after his wedding virtually abandoned his wife for work. As his wife became irritable and demanding, he made his work more and more the center of gravity in his life. But he still believes he is doing everything just the way it should be done – devoting himself to work, pursuing a prestigious transfer to St Petersburg, periodically redecorating his home.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, April 8, 2007 at 2:11 pm
INTRODUCTION
Twice in Acts, an apostle uses Psalm 16 as a proof text for the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:25-28; 13:35). Psalm 16 is an Easter Psalm.
THE TEXT
“Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You. I said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.’ As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.. . . .” (Psalm 16:1-11).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, April 2, 2007 at 8:47 am
Dahood takes “righteous” in Psalm 118:15, 19 as “victory.” The joyful shouting is heard from the tents of the victorious, and the gates are the gates of victory. He cites Isaiah 41:2 and 49:24 as other texts where this nuance of ZDK comes to the fore.
The meaning could be: a) Victory is vindication. When God grants victory, He publicly demonstrates that His people are in His favor, in the right, having a righteous status before Him.
Or b) That the victory is an act of justice. The tents of the victors are the tents of the righteous because they have put the world right by defeating the wicked.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 9:45 am
More notes, taken from or inspired by Michael Dahood’s Anchor Bible commentary.
1) Dahood makes good sense of the entire Psalm by assuming that it moves from a place of battle and victory (vv. 5-14), to the victory celebration in the tents of the war camp (vv. 15-18), and then the army returns to the city (v. 19) and the temple (vv. 26-27). This also makes sense of the connection of this Psalm with Palm Sunday: Jesus has been in confinement, surrounded by enemies, but His Father has delivered Him and brought Him to Jerusalem, where the crowds greet Him in a triumphal procession.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 9:26 am
More or less random notes on Psalm 118.
1) The Psalm has an interesting, clumpy, arrangement. It begins and ends with the identical exhortation to “give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good, for everlasting his lovingkindness” (vv. 1, 29). The opening four verses are linked with the repetition of the refrain “everlasting His lovingkindness.” Verses 5-7 are linked wtih the repetition of “Yahweh is for me,” and verses 8-9 are identical apart from the final word (v. 8: ADAM; v. 9: NADYB, “noble ones”). Verses 10-12 all end with the identical clause “In the name of Yahweh I truly will cut them off.” Verses 15-16 repeat the phrase “the right hand of Yahweh” three times, and both verses 17 and 18 speak of death.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 7:16 am
INTRODUCTION
On Palm Sunday, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem as the King, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9-10 (Matthew 21:5; John 12:15). But the gospel writers mention Psalm 118 in this connection as well (Matthew 21:9, 42; Mark 11:9; 12:10; Luke 19:38; 20:17; John 12:13). On Palm Sunday, Jesus is the “One who comes in the Name of Yahweh” (Psalm 118:26).
THE TEXT
“Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let Israel now say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’ Let the house of Aaron now say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’ Let those who fear the LORD now say, ‘His mercy endures forever. . . .’” (Psalm 118).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, March 26, 2007 at 10:54 am
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.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 8:07 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.
