An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 105: Singing, Zionism and New Testament Ideas (Psalms 46-50)

Psalms 46-50
Singing, Zionism and New Testament Ideas.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Psalms 46

“Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;”

This psalm tells how God is a source of refuge and safety for His worshippers, rather like the theme of psalm 23 (The Lord is my shepherd). This one uses more dramatic imagery, of roaring waters and mountains falling into the sea – amidst all this chaos the true worshippers are kept safe. There’s a nice little device where the line “The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah” is repeated like a refrain. Other elements of note are verse 8 “Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth” which carries a note of fear and awe for those who are not within the refuge of God, and also verse 9 that discusses the ending of wars, breaking of bows etc.. Finally the psalm also speaks from the point of view of God, which is unusual. I like this one, it has some good body to it.

Psalms 47

“Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.”

Simple in message – God is great, praise him with lots of noise (basically). But some good poetic devices again, with repetition of phrases, and being short it carries its theme across succinctly. There’s not a lot else to say for this one, but the exuberance of worship it conveys is quite infectious and sounds more fun than sombre prayer.

Psalms 48

“Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.”

This is a new topic for the psalms – it’s a celebration of the city of Jerusalem, blessed for having the dwelling place of God, bulwark against enemies and so awe-inspiring that it gives kings pregnancy pains. By extension it can probably be applied as a metaphor for the “kingdom of God”, for the Israelite covenant as a whole (and I note that later commentators try to make it represent the Christian church. As I mentioned last time, it could do I suppose, but I doubt it was written with it in mind given the enormous pre-dating).

Psalms 49

“They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him”

I’ve had to quote two verses above to be able to convey the message of this psalm, which is that earthly riches may be nice to have but you can’t take them with you. Only, as it says in verse 15, God will redeem a person’s soul after death. This is another one of those psalms that obviously influenced Jesus, it’s very “on message” for His kind of preaching; the more I read through psalms the more I’m sure He was a big fan of them. It’s interesting that this psalm doesn’t seem to condemn earthly riches, as I read it. Verses 16-18 seem to imply that a person should not fear being rich (as if it would somehow eliminate them from God’s grace), but also not to assume that that is all there is to life. At least, as I say, that’s how I read it.

I like the opening verses for this one as well, where the singer calls people to listen to him and says that he is going to tell a parable – it’s a fun rhetorical device, much like “Are you sitting comfortably?”

Psalms 50

“(A Psalm of Asaph.) The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.”

This is the first attributed psalm for a while. Asaph, as I recall, was one of the temple singers and so it makes sense for him to be a psalmist. The psalm starts with glorification of God as scary maker of all things, then goes on to take God’s voice, addressing first the righteous worshipper and then the liars and the wicked. To the latter the psalmist has God offer salvation if they “ordereth their conversation aright”, otherwise they will be torn to pieces. To the former, God seems to be telling them not to make animal sacrifices. “I will not reprove thee”, He says, for doing so, but will not take a “bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of the fold”, for God owns all the animals anyway, but has no need to eat or drink. Offer thanksgiving and pay vows, and God will answer.

This, if I’m reading it right, is very interesting and puts a new slant on the events on Kings and Chronicles. Recall that pretty much every king after Solomon “did wrong by God”, and the implication throughout was that they worshipped, or allowed the worship, of Baalim. But perhaps they were following the old sacrificial rites which were no longer required (this psalm being a kind of divine support for an edict). I’m sure I’m wrong here, but it’s an interesting thought.

So, one third of the way through Psalms, and I’m impressed that they are still throwing up discussion points. Overall I’m still enjoying them; there’s something a lot more human about the poetry and the different expressions of worship that keeps them quite fresh and readable, certainly moreso than the dry facts of Numbers or the unrelenting misery of Kings.