An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 96: The Month of Psalms Begins. AKA Dear God, Please Punch My Enemies In The Mouth, Love David (Psalms 1-5)

Psalms 1-5
The Month of Psalms Begins. AKA Dear God, Please Punch My Enemies In The Mouth, Love David.

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 1

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

So. Psalms. I approach this book in trepidation, because not only is it the longest book in the bible in terms of the number of chapters (even if many of them are short like this one), often I don’t think there’s going to be a lot to say. Not only are they in a poetic mode, but I suspect the content will be quite similar. My only prior knowledge, however, of most of the psalms, is from Monty Python. First, in Holy Grail, where the voice of God complains about “those miserable psalms […] forgive me this, and forgive me that, and I’m not worthy”. The second is from Meaning of Life and the school prayer – “Dear Lord, ooh you are so big, gosh, we’re really impressed down here, I can tell you” and so on.

In all honesty I have no problem with that kind of content; they are hymns of praise after all so one should expect that kind of thing. But reviewing 150 of them is probably not meant to be the way it’s done even for the most devout worshippers. Oh well, here goes anyway.

Psalm One seems simple enough – the righteous will prosper and the ungodly will perish; much as we were told (against evidence) in Job. The phrasing of the opening line is kind of strange with its negative – Blessed is the man that doesn’t listen to the ungodly. Well, makes almost tautological sense, really, but the line might have felt more strong if it gave what the blessed man does, rather than does not, do.

Psalms 2

“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”

Here’s an interesting one. The writer says that heathen kings have set themselves against God and his anointed one, but that the king in Zion, the Son of God, will punish them by God’s will with an iron rod. What makes this interesting to me is that the anointed king of Zion and God’s Son is pretty much likely to be talking of David (the text even addresses it from the first person “I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee”, and David is assumed to be the author of most of the psalms. But plainly this could be read to mean Jesus, if desired, and certainly the commentator does. However, this kind of synthesis is bound to occur when someone uses the title of Messiah – anointed one – for themselves.

Psalms 3

“Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.”

Ah, see, I knew I wasn’t imagining it. This psalm has an accreditation to David (when fleeing from Absalom). David cries out that his many enemies beset them, but that he is not afraid because God is with him (and will punch them in the mouth, apparently). This psalm also introduces the mysterious term “selah”, which I had to look up. Theories seem to vary if it is a musical instruction, or a term telling the reader to pause and consider. Since it is the last word in this psalm it seems strange if it means a pause in the singing, but similarly its appearances in the body of the psalm don’t come after any particularly profound passages, so, yes, it is mysterious.

Psalms 4

“Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.”

Another accredited psalm, and this time addressed to the chief musician on Neginoth, whoever that might be. This one does cover what I think to be typical psalm territory – don’t be bad, turn to God, and you will find peace.

Psalms 5

“Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.”

This is the second time that David speaks out against “leasing” (the first was in psalm 4). According to modern translations this is evidently a KJB term for “lying”, and not anything to do with rentals, which makes more sense to me as a source of iniquity. This psalm is half violence wished upon the liars, and half blessing wished upon those who give themselves to God, in roughly equal measure, which makes a change from some earlier OT books where the vengeance and violence far outweighed the peace and blessing. Thinking back, there is a change in attitude towards God in the reigns of David and Solomon. After this, of course, there is all of the mess of civil war, invaders and resurgences of Baal worship, and I wonder if the developing complexity of Yahweh worship is what drove people back to relatively simple sun/moon/nature worship. Okay, so I’ll admit that I was wrong for now – there’s still plenty of food for thought even in short psalms.