An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 123: Surveillance, Vengeance and 70s German Pop Reggae (Psalms 136-140)

Psalms 136-140
Surveillance, Vengeance and 70s German Pop Reggae.

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

Psalms 136

“O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

I said at the end of the last batch that I was hoping for something original, and here it is. Well, sort of. The subject matter of this psalm is nothing new in the psalms – it lists ways in which God is worthy of worship, from forming the world to taking the Israelites out of Egypt and helping them defeat the Ammonites and our old pal King Og. What is new, however, is the structure – every line ends with the chorus of “for his mercy endureth forever”, and the psalm is arranged into little triplets where three verses share a theme – the first three essentially give various titles to God, the next three the formation of the cosmos, and so on. This structure isn’t rigidly adhered to - you could argue for the second grouping to be four verses, not three, but it works well as the topics bleed into one another. There’s another repetitive phrase, with a lot of verses starting with “To Him that…”, which also adds some good depth to the structure of the psalm.

Finally there’s a nice little couplet to finish on, to Him that gives food to all flesh, give thanks. As I said, not totally original in its subject but it’s good to see a psalm where there has been some thought given to the mechanics of the poetry.

Psalms 137

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion”

It’s hard, nay impossible, not to immediately think of Boney M upon reading this psalm, although of course their version is just a cover of an earlier reggae song. And you can see why the words might have resonance with people of African-Caribbean heritage. The psalm looks back on the Babylonian captivity (which must make it one of the most recent psalms in the book), a memory of a race of people torn away from their homeland and taken into slavery in a distant land; well, the parallels are obvious (and hence, presumably, the Rastafarian use of the word “Babylon” to mean the police and/or other representative of oppressive authority).

As for the psalm itself, it relates a very particular incident where the Babylonians ask their captives to sing a song from their homeland, invoking sorrow and longing in the Israelite slaves. Now, free once more, they look back on their captivity and wish terrible calamity on their former oppressors including, in a rather disturbing closing verse, smashing small children to death on the rocks (Boney M didn’t include this part). So although the historical chapters ended with sympathetic Abyssinian rulers allowing the Israelites free worship and eventually to return home there’s obviously quite a lot of simmering resentment.

Oh, look, here you go. Don't say I never give you anything 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FgDles4xq8

Psalms 138

“(A Psalm of David.) I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.”

From one end of the Kings and Chronicles histories with the previous psalm we leap right back to the beginning with another attributed to David. There’s a sense of Psalm 23 about this one, with the line “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me”; not as poetic as walking in the valley of the shadow of death. It’s about how the psalmist is willing to praise God because he is sure that God protects him and has answered his prayers in the past. It also points to a future when all earthly kings will feel the same, a mixture of personal comfort and evangelism.

But what’s with the mention of “gods”, plural, in the first line? Surely in the psalmist’s world view there should be a God, and the rest are empty idols.

Psalms 139

“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.”

In this psalm, God is cast as a kind of intrusive intelligence agency, who knows all of the secrets of the psalmist’s thoughts, because he was made by Him. Distance and darkness cannot evade the knowledge of God, who is there from the womb onwards. For the most part, though, this is given a benevolent slant, an entity that watches over the psalmist as a protector and guide, less so as a moral judge. However, the psalm takes on a less benevolent slant towards the end as the psalmist (attributed to David once again), discusses his hatred of those who do not love God as he does; “I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.” So much for forgiveness and understanding.

Also of note here is one of the few instances of a supernatural cosmology; “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there” – heaven and hell up until now have not been discussed much, and if “heaven” is used at all it usually refers to the vault of the sky, the firmament, as opposed to an otherworldly dwelling place of God, including afterlife and so on. Hell is mentioned even less, the idea of a punishment afterlife not really put forward so far in the bible.

Psalms 140

“(To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;”

This is another of those psalms wishing punishment on the wicked, in this case particularly those who use violence. It kind of undermines itself by asking “Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again.” – so that’s other people who use violence, then. I find these kinds of angry, vengeful psalms unpleasant and unfortunate, an all-too-easy source for those who like a bit of hate with their religiosity. Still, at least this batch was an interesting mix.