An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 107: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Psalmist (Psalms 56-60)

Psalms 56-60
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Psalmist.

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 56

“(To the chief Musician upon Jonathelemrechokim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.) Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.”

As I recall, I think a “michtam” was a kind of lament or song in a sad mode. And this is another of those familiar themes, where the psalmist is calling upon God to save him from the enemies that beset him. In this case, the enemies are very real and specific, the Philistines that have taken him captive. This has the usual mix of the psalmist throwing himself on God’s mercy, having faith that God will save him and also calling upon God to punish the enemies. There’s nothing very exciting or novel in the poetry used for this particular psalm that really makes it stand out from the other michtams that we’ve had so far. I had to look up “Jonathelemrechokim”, which seems to be more properly rendered “jonath-elem-rechokim”, meaning something like “the silent dove in distant places”, possibly a tune. A tune with that name ought to be quiet and melancholy, I think, and probably the psalm would have more impact and pathos when sung – song lyrics are not generally that impressive when taken in isolation, after all. I like the idea of musical styles having names like a made-up kung-fu move – “Your Silent Dove In Distant Places is no match for my Cobra Striking From Long Grass” (badly dubbed).

Psalms 57

“My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.”

This is another michtam, in this case set upon the occasion of David hiding in a cave from Saul’s wrath. This one, however, has a higher percentage of glory compared to misery and revenge. Although the psalmist laments his current situation, as usual for a michtam, he ends on a triumphant note as his heart is uplifted by praising God, and he vows to rise early to sing God’s praises. This is another psalm with a probable melody given in the first verse – given as “altaschith” in the KJV, more properly rendered “al-taschith” meaning “destroy not”, which does sound more triumphal than a quiet dove singing far away.

The imagery used to describe the troubles/enemies in this psalm is quite a striking mix of metaphor, evoking a flaming lion wielding a sword. Out of interest I did a Google search for images of this; I got a lot of tattoos, some references to the prophecies of Azor Ahai from A Song of Ice and Fire, and various old Persian flags (which actually feature a sun, a lion and a sword, not the lion on fire itself).

Psalms 58

“Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.”

This psalm is also set to the tune of “al-taschith” and also carries a strong element of triumphalism; it’s all about smiting the wicked in a variety of metaphors. Although the scansion is different to psalm 57 (which, as a translation, it is likely to be), it does have the same number of verses which suggests to me a tune of a certain length. It doesn’t seem mournful in the slightest, so I went back and looked up “michtam”; turns out I was wrong, it literally means “golden”, and is thought to either refer to a musical style or mode, or perhaps to something worthy of note. Most likely the first, since the word appears in the instructions to the chief musician in verse one for all of them and, to be honest, other psalms are better than these.

Anyway, some very vengeful imagery in this particular psalm, with the un-righteous being cut to pieces, melting away, shredded by whirlwinds; there are references to stillbirth and poison, and washing feet in blood. Charming stuff.

Psalms 59

“Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?”

So much for my theory about recognising a psalm set to the “al-taschith” tune – this one has seventeen verses, not eleven. It is another michtam psalm, set when spies of Saul came to find David and watched the house where he was staying. It is a mix of enemy-cursing and gaining strength from faith, in roughly equal measure. I think there’s an opportunity missed here – the psalmist asks God not to kill his enemies, but to make an example of them so that people do not forget His vengeance. He writes that the enemies “make a noise like a dog”, in this case perhaps not literally but as a metaphor for their uncouth manner of speaking and the things that they say, and later calls upon God to “let them make a noise like a dog” and to “wander up and down for meat”. It would have been a neat bit of supernatural influence if the enemies were either turned into dogs, or ended up as men who thought they were dogs. But perhaps that’s more Graeco-Roman in style than Middle Eastern.

Psalms 60

“(To the chief Musician upon Shushaneduth, Michtam of David, to teach; when he strove with Aramnaharaim and with Aramzobah, when Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand.) O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again.”

I had to quote the title of this one – it reminds me of the absurdly long captions to early cartoons from Punch and the like; it’s certainly very specific. There’s an odd reversal in this psalm – it starts with the Israelites having been defeated because of God’s displeasure (and made to drink the “wine of astonishment”), but very quickly this is turned around to a victorious note; I guess because just as God can grant defeat He can also grant victory just as easy, and the psalmist fully expects this to happen now that the displeasure is out of the way.

There was one other line here that tickled something in my brain “Moab is my washpot”, which I knew was the title to somebody’s autobiography. A quick Google search later shows that it was Stephen Fry. It’s a strange line but the imagery is that the psalmist (possibly speaking as Joab here?) is saying that he will wipe his feet on the Moabites, or more precisely make them his servants to do the lowly job of washing his feet. I don’t know what that has to do with Stephen Fry’s life, though.