An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 99: Almost as good as Carl Sagan (Psalms 16-20)

Psalms 16-20
Almost as good as Carl Sagan.

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 16

“The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.”

This psalm is a bit of an odd one. It seems, basically, to be David putting all his faith in God to guide him, but includes some various other nuggets, such as turning away from other gods and not offering “their drink offerings of blood”. I don’t quite understand verse 2, in which the singer’s soul says that its “goodness extendeth not to [God]”, but to the saints in the earth. Presumably this means that the singer thinks he cannot be as good as God, but hopes to emulate the saints (note that there has not been prior reference to “saints” as such; holy men have been termed prophets up until now. It sort of feels like it covers a lot of bases, this psalm.

Psalms 17

“Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.”

This psalm seems to be mainly a prayer for God to keep the singer on the path of righteousness, and particularly appears to address dreams, since it mentions God visiting the singer in the night and “proving” (in the sense of testing) his heart; also the singer will awaken with the memory of God’s likeness which will satisfy his needs for the day. Seemingly this is contrasted with people who have children and pass on inheritance to them; it’s not clear but it appears that these people are being classed among the wicked for some reason, perhaps some arch-asceticism going on here. Some other points; Verse 7 mentions “lovingkindness”, all one word. I thought this might have been a typo on the website, but alternate translations include it as well. Also, wicked people are “inclosed in their own fat” apparently. Possibly metaphorically, possibly the psalmist doesn’t like overweight people.

Psalms 18

“In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.”

This is a real tour de force, apparently written by David upon being delivered from Saul. David calls out to God for help against his enemies, and gets it big-time. Rains of burning hail, earthquakes, God descending on the back of a cherub (here probably the shedu style cherubim as depicted in the temple), thunder and lightning, enemies scattered before Him. The psalmist goes on to praise God in typical psalm style (“It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect”), with some nice repetitive lines about God dealing with everyone according to his attitude (mercy to the merciful and so on).

I find it somewhat amusing, however, that the psalmist says “thou has delivered me from the violent man” after such lines as “I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet” and “Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me. They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the LORD, but he answered them not. Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.” Yeah, good thing you’re not a violent man yourself, right? I can see how this would link to the earlier section where everyone is dealt with according to their desserts – if these people had not been violent in the first place they would not have been met with violence, but there’s still a certain level of irony going on there!

Psalms 19

“(To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”

I was sure that this verse was used as a quote at the start of a chapter in Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, but when I fished out my old copy it wasn’t there (but he does use a couple from Job). So, I wonder where I’ve read it before, because it is familiar, and a great line. The rest of this psalm is fairly typical in topic, where the psalmist praises God for being great and perfect, and humbly asks that he may recognise his own faults that God can forgive them, but it’s got some good poetry in it, and verses 6-10 do a good rhetorical job of discussing God’s finer points with a repeating formula (before breaking out of it), which makes for some good poetry.

Looking up Cosmos, however, did give me a chance to return to that book and although its over 30 years old it (and the series that it is based on) is a masterpiece of science writing, taking in everything from vast cosmic events, the formation of life to the human stories behind the great astronomical discoveries. Reading it makes one aware of how utterly insignificant we are in the face of deep space and deep time, but also how utterly unique and unlikely we are, and how we have the ability to understand the workings of the universe. Also Sagan, unlike some more strident rationalists like Dawkins, doesn’t pitch science vs. religion as some kind of struggle (except, perhaps, in the personal stories of the likes of Galileo, Kepler, Newton and Darwin who had external and internal battles between religious authority and their theories), but rather sees religion as a step on the human journey towards understanding. The same sense of utter insignificance and its dissonant sense of uniqueness could easily be experienced by someone looking up at the stars in the Jordanian desert three thousand years ago, leading them to conceive of a God both ineffable yet involved in human affairs.

Psalms 20

“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”

This seems a little odd, since it is attributed to David, but it appears to be a psalm to be sung to a king, praying that God will protect him from harm, grant him victory in battle and guide his wisdom. I say odd, because presumably David must have written it for other people to sing to himself, although I guess it could have been written for Saul when David was soothing him with lyre playing.