This is the third part of a continuing post. Read Part 2 here. Read Part 1 here.
WARNING: Academic content ahead …
This one way of torah is called “the way of the righteous” (Psalm 1.6). The way–derek–is the “means by which one lives and moves and has one’s being.”[1] By negation in verse 1, it can be assumed that the righteous are to walk, stand, and sit somewhere. But if the way does not lie with the wicked, or sinners, or scoffers, then where? The location must be an all-consuming place of completion. This is suggestive by the attempts of the psalmist at completion: “walk,” “stand,” “sit;” “day,” “night.”[2] The derek metaphor, and its synonym ‘orach–‘path’–, are pervasive throughout the Psalter. Psalm 1 is brilliantly making a match between torah and derek.
Torah is the one way, the one path, for the righteous who would live life in delight. The preponderance of laments in the Psalter would seem to squelch this delight of living life in the path of torah. Yet, the delight is not so much a happy outlook, but rather an assurance that life is contained within the life of YHWH. The dichotomy of either/or melts away. God makes room in his life for much struggle, pain, grief, anger, and fatigue while the righteous journey on the pathway. Co-mingling with torah as the pathway there can be this paradox, because of the concept of ‘refuge.’
‘Refuge’ does not appear in Psalm 1, many might declaim. Indeed. However, here we find the link from the pathway of torah in the first Psalm to ‘seek refuge’–chaseh–in Psalm 2. The link is nestled in the last two verses:
Serve Yahweh with awe; reverence and worship him, or he will grow angry, and you will die in the way; for his consuming fire quickly kindles. Happy are all who seek refuge in him. (Psalm 2.11-12 orig. trans.)
Chaseh is the verbal form of mahseh. That the verbal and not the nominal form appears in Psalm 2 connecting the idea of pathway is significant. This is the major point of departure for the present work from current study on metaphor in the Psalter.[3] The idea of chaseh is to be active within refuge: “Happy are all who are refuging in YHWH.” Such a verb-ifying of the noun ‘refuge’ seems to render the most accurate understanding of the Psalter’s intent in assigning Psalms 1 and 2 as prelude to the Psalms. Thus, God is not a static, impassable being that is the goal of seekers longing for refuge. Torah does not serve as simply a direction toward God-as-refuge implying “destination and permanent residence.”[4]
In sum, there is a way. That way is the one way. It is a pathway called torah. The righteous are those who delight in the story of God that YHWH has initiated and invited all to be active participants in. Much activity takes place within this story. The story is a journey wherein worshippers are seeking refuge–‘refuging’–in the openness of YHWH’s life.
[1] William P. Brown,
Seeing the Psalms (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002),32. The remainder of this discussion concerning ‘pathway’ is heavily dependent on Brown, 31-53. Though major differences will be spelled out here, Brown has done significant work in linking the metaphors of
torah and
derek.
[2] James L. Crenshaw, The Psalms: An Introduction (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2001), 58.
[3] Particularly see Brown, Seeing the Psalms,18-53.
[4] Ibid., 32.
SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
Do you see the verbage playing out this way?
——
Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
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