Sacramental Living

Almost everyday of the year I read a psalm.  Sometimes I read the same one over and over.  I’ve been particularly interested in a certain set of the Hebrew Psalter.  Bear with me  …

Why Psalm 1 (and 2)?

Though there is wide consensus in recent research on the Hebrew Psalter that Psalm 1 was placed as an introduction to the collection, little study investigates linguistic cues that link Psalm 1–and possibly Psalm 2–thematically with the remainder of the Psalter in order to define with any specificity why Psalm 1 is selected as the shaping psalm.[1]

Of a general nature, it is widely suggested that Psalm 1 has two main emphases intended to direct the understanding of subsequent psalms: the centrality of torah and the primacy of the righteous over against the wicked.  In the traditional understanding, torah has come to be associated with various commands stemming from the Deuteronomic history, the Levitical codes, and so forth.  The plight of the righteous versus that of the wicked has been determined in stark either/or worldview terms that propose a dichotomy of ‘two ways.’

However, there is more richness to the depth of torah, and more complex tones to the plight of humanity, than such general observations set forward.  Linguistic concepts of torah, ‘the way,’ and ‘refuge,’ give rise to a hermeneutical lens for the Psalter that is equally shaped by Psalms 1 and 2 as a launching pad for the scriptural hymnbook.

Likewise, in microcosm, this interpretive shape can be examined specifically in the Korahite Psalms (42-49; 84-85; 87-88).  What unfolds may not necessarily be two ways, but one way that allows for much movement in the God who makes room in his life for angry prayer, glorious doxology, and plenty more in between.

Part 2 to follow …

Jerome F.D. Creach, “Like a Tree Planted by the Temple Stream: The Portrait of the Righteous in Psalm 1:3,” in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly (Jan 1999), 35.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
How do you think Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 are linked?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
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Today is Ash Wednesday, and I can think of no better way to meditate and think upon this day then by doing so through Scripture. So what follows is Psalm 102:1-12 and then a few wonderings.

Psalm 102:1-12
God, listen! Listen to my prayer, listen to the pain in my cries.
Don’t turn your back on me
just when I need you so desperately.
Pay attention! This is a cry for help!
And hurry—this can’t wait!

I’m wasting away to nothing,
I’m burning up with fever.
I’m a ghost of my former self,
half-consumed already by terminal illness.
My jaws ache from gritting my teeth;
I’m nothing but skin and bones.
I’m like a buzzard in the desert,
a crow perched on the rubble.
Insomniac, I twitter away,
mournful as a sparrow in the gutter.
All day long my enemies taunt me,
while others just curse.
They bring in meals—casseroles of ashes!
I draw drink from a barrel of my tears.
And all because of your furious anger;
you swept me up and threw me out.
There’s nothing left of me—
a withered weed, swept clean from the path.

Yet you, God, are sovereign still,
always and ever sovereign.
You’ll get up from your throne and help Zion—
it’s time for compassionate help.
Oh, how your servants love this city’s rubble
and weep with compassion over its dust!
The godless nations will sit up and take notice
—see your glory, worship your name—
When God rebuilds Zion,
when he shows up in all his glory,
When he attends to the prayer of the wretched.
He won’t dismiss their prayer.

I wonder what it is like to think of all good things you receive as “ash.” I wonder who might be twittering away today. I wonder what it is like to feel like God’s furious anger is directed squarely at you. I wonder what it feels like to be a withered weed. I wonder what God will do with me when I have the sign of the cross in ashes on my forehead tonight. I wonder what it will be like to say to each person tonight, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Turn from your sins and be faithful to Christ.” I wonder how God will help me turn from my own sins.
SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
What are you wondering about today?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

As we approach Passion Sunday, the mystery that believers hold so dear — that Jesus was the Messiah who was crucified, died, and now lives — has me thinking about its many dimensions. The code of holiness that is recorded in the book of Leviticus is not simply law. We, as contemporary believers, must wrestle with this text rather than simply saying, “That’s nice . . . glad we aren’t under the law anymore . . . so this really doesn’t carry meaning for us.�?

While the instructions in Leviticus may be law in a formal sense, what is actually portrayed is a gracious offer of forgiveness from God. Listen to God’s promise throughout this text: “Your sins will be forgiven!�? (Leviticus 16.6-16). We are created by a God who freely grants forgiveness to the believer in and through sacrifice. God is freely at work in the sacrifice and is freely accepting the sacrifice as a means of grace. The sacrifice is sacramental in that it is a tangible means in and through which God acts in a saving way to forgive. We do not attempt to appease an angry God. Rather, the object of this purification is sin; it is never God. Remember, “Your sins will be forgiven!�? And the reality of Christ is that the sacrifice has now been offered by God himself in Jesus of Nazareth. The one who promises forgiveness is so gracious that he even provides the sacrifice. We then are offered the chance to engage with this forgiveness by offering our lives as a living sacrifice.

Notice that within this ancient ritual sin is not simply to be understood in individual terms. Sin is a reality that has a corporate dimension. The goat (and so Christ) is not a substitute, but a symbolic vehicle for recognizing that God has forgiven our sins. So often we claim Christ’s atonement for “me:�? “I was saved . . . Christ died for me�? and so on. Yet what if we–Christ’s Church–fully realized the vast nature of sin? Can we believe that sacrifice has been made on behalf of our sins of abortion, war, racism, genocide, oppression, and neglect of the poor? Can we join in such confession? We must. For where there is this confession there is : “All your sins are forgiven.�?