The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Psychology and the Psalms

Studies Poetry
#101

Hi Dick,
In the first part, the Psalmist is confident and unafraid having seen the LORD having helped him conquer his enemies. In the second part he is insecure, alone and seems to be holding on to his faith in God by his fingertips despite adversity and his enemies apparently getting the upper hand.

The order of the two parts is not what I would expect…I would expect a gradual strengthening of faith as the Psalmist sees God helping him, but here it’s reversed.

P. S. Just saw your post above, but I’ll leave this…

#102

HI Steve. Yes, it’s a very interesting technique - puzzling at first. I think we start with objective reflection on a troubled scene in the serene present. Then we go back and feel the existential anguish of the original scene. That seems to me to be what is happening .

#103

I suspect you’re right, Dick. :smiley: I do wonder, though, if there could be a Job-like narrative going on. A righteous man set up by God who is later shaken by misfortune and the apparent triumph of his enemies…

#104

The one thing that makes me think slightly differently is the use of tenses here. The first section is past and future (but speaks of exactly the same situation as the second). The second is present tense but with

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.

The present tense is revealed to be the ‘historic present’ in which we speak of the past as if it was happening now to give immediacy. Storytellers often uses this technique - they tell a story in the present tense and then at its conclusion add ‘this all happened long ago and in a far off country’ to bring us back to reflection now.

I’m going with this interpretation - because it seems compelling to me (but I could be wrong). If I am right this Psalm is encouraging in showing us that exhortation to trust in the Lord and not fear evildoers talk about real struggle and are not simply glib sound bites of moral sadism from the too prefect.

#105

Ah, yes…I’m now convinced. :smiley: Interesting structure for the Psalm. It certainly makes it more compelling.

#106

Steve I’ve had a look at a Jewish commentary on this Psalm which tells me that the penultimate line is actually unfinished -

This is the NKJV

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.

But it seems the original Hebrew means something more like
*
Had I not believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living…*

That leaves us to fill in the rest and contemplate a possible spiralling down into despair. So the contrast painted between the two sections is even more stark and dramatic in the original than our translations suggest.

#107

There are lots of examples of parallelism in this Psalm (called ‘thought rhyme’ in Dave’s hand-out quoted by Cindy in the OP)

*Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident *x2 parallels

*Teach me Your way, O LORD, - And lead me in a smooth path *x2 parallels

Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger; [You have been my help]; Do not leave me nor forsake me, x3 parallels

Any thoughts on the imagery of the poem (the whole poem and not just the lines I’ve quoted here)? Any striking images that grab you?

#108

Here are a couple images that I find striking…

The enemies seem sub-human or bestial even. :confused:

And this from the second part…

God loves us even more than our parents who are human and fallible. He is the ultimate parent or “Father”. :smiley:

References to the “face” of God also reinforce the image of parent and child as the face of its mother is what every child wants to see–what comforts and reassures the child.

#109

Just real quick here – I have to take my mom to a Dr. appointment.

Cole,

I think what you’ve said is pretty much what I meant by that comment about shame. In my experience, once the sin is confessed before brothers and sisters and repented of – if the brothers and sisters are what they ought to be – then shame goes. I have a friend who recently was caught by his wife viewing porn on the internet. It was hard for him to fess up to their pastor and ask for counseling, but once he did, the door was open for him to be helped – for him to recover and overcome his addiction. So the “shame” part is, to me, having anyone else know. It was bad enough that his wife found out, but then it was hard all over again to have to tell the pastor. Once that was over though (ie: once he had borne his shame) then he could put it at the foot of the cross (figuratively speaking) and the door was opened for him to become free.

There is certainly another, much darker and bleaker side to shame, where others shame us and we shame ourselves and nothing is healed in the process. I should have been clearer that this is not what I meant at all. I’ve experienced that too, and it’s absolutely crippling. Jesus’ blood was good enough. We don’t have to atone further by carrying around a burden that He’s already carried.

Love you, Bro
Cindy

#110

That’s very true Cindy. Confession does help. The Bible says to confess your sins so that you may be healed. Bill Wilson based A.A. on that scripture along with “examine yourself to see if Christ is in you”. Thank you for clarifying what you meant. Your response was very helpful. Love you too my sister in Christ.

#111

:smiley: ^^

… and Steve I’d agree that those two images in the Psalm a very powerful indeed. The Lord gets 13 mentions here; the repetition gives a structural unity to the poem and hits home that He must be our refuge. Does this Psalm take on new meanings in a Christian context (as the others have all done to some extent)?

#112

I think it does, at least to me. The whole second part of the Psalm could be Christ’s anguish in Gesthemene. In the first part, “He shall set me high upon a rock.”-reminds me of Christ as the Rock of our salvation and the parable of the wise man building his house upon the rock. Also in the first part,“The LORD is my light and my salvation” echoes Christ saying he is the light of the world.

#113

This is the one thing that I cling to. Sometimes the Beauty is so strong that I’m filled with ecstasy. Christ’s love is agape but there is also this bond one has with Christ like the way one would have with their husband or wife. It’s like the experience one has when they first fall in love. It has happened to me after severe emotional suffering. Insecurity is what creates the desire or void. Christ then fills this void with love and beauty for the heart, truth for the mind, and hope that gives meaning to life. Falling in love with Jesus brings a change in ones life. You cannot fall in love if you are satisfied with what you have or who you are. Falling in love originates in an extreme depression. The symptom of the predisposition to fall in love is not the conscious desire to do so. It is the profound sense of being worthless and of having nothing that is valuable and the shame of not having it. It’s when you are unsure of your worth and ashamed of yourself. This is God’s arrow piercing the heart creating the desire for Himself.

#114

Excellent :smiley: - and I think in the context of the Psalm the rock is not only a firm place but also a high place. It is a vantage point from which the speaker could see the manoeuvres of his enemies free from fear of surprise attack and ambush. Perhaps it alludes to the fortified sacred hill of Mount Zion. So the meaning has changed slightly for you with the Christian associations.

#115

One last thought here about the context and relationship between the two parts (and I get the feeling there is no definitive answer). Perhaps these parts do address different situations. The first is about safety from external military enemies. But the second is about the violence of ‘false witness’ about slander in the court (and false witness against the king - if David is the author - is the beginning of factionalism and civil war - a situation more perilous and heart-breaking than war against external enemies).

I seem to remember that David experienced both situations at different times in his life.

#116

That’s really excellent, Dick, and I really think you may be right. :smiley:

#117

My LXX version is prefaced with the notation: A Psalm of David Before He was Anointed. If this is true, I assume it refers to his coronation, as his anointing by Samuel was so far as we know entirely unexpected. If that’s the case, I expect he’s talking about the rigors of his 15-17 year long flight as a fugitive from King Saul, as well as the seven and a half years of turmoil preceding his final ascension to the throne of Saul. At the first he reigned over Judah (the southern kingdom) only, and Saul’s son Ish-Bosheth reigned over the much larger northern territory of Israel, as more or less a puppet of Saul’s general, Abner.

After 7.5 years of intrigue and treachery and tears and blood (all of which reputedly happened around David, but of which David had no part or foreknowledge), David emerged as the ruler of both kingdoms. It sounds as though this is the anointing as king the psalmist is prefacing. The whole intermediate period reads as a sorry, sordid affair – and rings more true because of the unvarnished account (imo).

The part that upsets me most is the retrieval of Michal who had been David’s wife (though no choice of her own) and is then taken from him by her father Saul (when David falls out of his favor) and given to another man, to whom she bears children and who apparently comes to treasure and love her dearly. David insists on her return to him even though he’s already collected somewhere around a half-dozen other wives, and fathered children on them. His only interest in Michal appears to be ownership. :imp: IMO, Michal is one of the most pitiable characters in the OT. I won’t say tragic, because no flaw of her own led to this treatment. It was her status as royal daughter and her rank as a female – which at the time meant chattel. But I suppose that’s another matter. It was the way things were done in the era of David, and collecting women wasn’t David’s only character flaw by any stretch.

Yet he’s called a man after God’s own heart. I wonder what that means? What do you think?

#118

:blush: Here’s the reference range for the story of David’s ascension to the throne: 1 Samuel 31:1 - 2 Samuel 5:12.

Addendum, David may not have known it at the time, but he was not only disregarding the commandment that the king of Israel should not multiply wives to himself, but in the case of Michael, the prohibition of taking back a wife who had been dismissed and become the wife of another man (given in Moses’ law.)

#119

And on that cheery note :unamused: here’s a rendition of a few verses from this psalm by Maranantha:

#120

Good song Cindy!

Here’s one I like:

youtu.be/r2bEuHo1dbs

Beauty Of The Lord