An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 101: Another Zombie Apocalypse (Psalms 26-30)

Psalms 26-30
Another Zombie Apocalypse.

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 26
“(A Psalm of David.) Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide.”

This psalm is ever so slightly self-righteous, I think. The psalmist is telling God how he’s been good and avoided the company of the vain, liars and bribe-takers. It’s at odds with the theme of previous psalms which have tended towards abnegation, posing the psalmist as a worm before God and so on. I can’t help but think that playing up how righteous you have been comes pretty close to pride; also is it necessarily a good thing to avoid the company of more venal people? Only if you allow their actions to tarnish your own, I think – could it not be seen as more worthy to mix with these people and try to help them better themselves?

Psalms 27
“When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.”

From the quote this would seem to be the psalm for help in a zombie apocalypse, when faced with stumbling flesh-eating enemies. Actually it’s more of a general prayer of protection, asking God to gather the psalmist into His tabernacle, and to grant sanctuary against the psalmist’s enemies. Quite a few of these psalms so far have been about a person beset by enemies; perhaps written during, or inspired by, the time David was on the run from Saul. It does give them a slightly paranoid feel, though.

Psalms 28
“(A Psalm of David.) Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.”

A familiar theme for this psalm as well – the psalmist asks God to hear his prayer and to grant him strength, also to not confuse him with evil-doers. There’s a similar sentiment in the Lord’s Prayer, as I recall, which puts the same ideas in a more direct and succinct fashion – this psalm is more poetic about it but expresses very similar thoughts. In tone it’s a lot more humble and less paranoid than the last two have been.

Psalms 29
“The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.”

Of all the psalms so far, this one has the most obvious poetic device, a kind of question and answer in each line concerning the power of God (or more specifically, the voice of God which is mentioned the most). At heart it’s an exhortation of the omnipotent powers of God, shaping the winds, waters, fire, earth and beasts, and sitting as king over all. But I like how the rhythm and structure lend the words more emphasis and reinforce the idea.

Psalms 30
“Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;”

This one is a hymn of thanksgiving, a kind of flipside to the likes of psalm 27 – the psalmist has come through his difficult time and life is good again, therefore he thanks God for helping him through his troubles. I quite like some of the phrases used here, including the quoted verse; also “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” is a good way of expressing that troubles don’t last forever, even though it may not seem it at the time. The first verse says that this is a psalm for the dedication of the house of David, so perhaps the earlier ones were written when on the run from Saul, and now that David is king and building temples and palaces he is giving thanks for that. Makes sense to me.

So that’s one fifth of the way through the month of psalms, and I’m still finding some things to say about them. This batch is pretty representative of the kinds of sentiments expressed in general, but each one is different in its own way – “I’m really good”, “Protect me from my enemies”, “Give me strength to resist my enemies”, “God’s really powerful”, “Thank you God for saving me”. I imagine with another 120 psalms yet to go I’ll see these themes repeated, individually and admixed in a single psalm. I wonder what else will crop up.

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