An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 112: You Can’t Beat A Bit of Bully (Psalms 81-85)

Psalms 81-85
You Can’t Beat A Bit of Bully.


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 81
“Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.”

This psalm starts with an exhortation to make a joyous noise before the lord with voices and an assortment of instruments. As given in the quote above, it celebrates some new moon feast and harkens back to the time of Jacob and of Joseph and how God helped them, then moves forward to a nod to the Exodus. After that the joy falls away. If only, the psalmist says, that the Israelites had kept to the covenant and not worshipped “strange gods”, then God would have helped them overcome everything. But they didn’t, and so all that was promised isn’t theirs after all. It gives a glimpse, in the words of Jim Bowen of “Bullseye” fame, at “what you could have won”. The effect is very anti-climactic and deflatory.

Psalms 82
“(A Psalm of Asaph.) God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.”

This is another short psalm, attributed to Asaph, but it packs in a lot. The first thing that caught my attention is that first line (obviously…), which seems to imply not that God is the only god, but merely the foremost among gods, as if full and absolute monotheism has not yet arisen. Since we know from Kings and Chronicles that there will be an ongoing reversion to Baal worship I suppose it stands to reason that the Israelites still see other gods as viable entities to worship, and not the hollow statues considered by the Christianised Roman empire.

And speaking of Christianity, much of this psalm is concerned with helping the poor and needy, even if “they know not, they walk on in darkness”. Another interpretation of the first verse presents itself next, in that the psalmist says to some hearer (the context implies the poor and needy) that they are “gods, children of the most high”. So maybe the “gods” of the first verse are those who humbly deserve praise, I don’t know. I’ve said before that it’s often that shorter psalms that provoke the most thought, and this one seems to contain some interesting philosophy to be teased forth.

Psalms 83
“O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.”

One of those psalms that calls for God to smite the enemies of the people in order to prove his power and make the various enemies afraid of the Israelites. This psalm recalls many of the historical books in that it names the enemy nations (the familiar Philistines, Edomites, Moabites and so on make an appearance and I realise that I’ve missed them cropping up every chapter to cause trouble), and recalls prior victories by the Israelites (less familiar names such as the princes Zebah and Zalmunna). There then follows some verses of fiery imagery to round it off. As with other vengeful psalms this one is not particularly interesting.

Psalms 84
“(To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.) How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!”

How amiable are thy tabernacles. A very strange turn of phrase, “amiable” implies such a mild, inoffensive kind of pleasantry, not obviously befitting the temple of an omnipotent god given to vengeful fiery rages. It’s an interesting choice from the translator, but I quite like it. The rest of this psalm is given over to telling God how wonderful He is, and how the psalmist would rather be a doorkeeper of the temple than live in “the tents of wickedness”. It’s a bit on the heavy side for grovelling flattery, but harmless enough, and as with most of the psalms there’s some nice use of language.

Psalms 85
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”

This psalm forms a sort of sequel to others that I’ve covered in this block, notably psalms 81 and 83. The psalmist asks of God how long He will stay angry at the Israelites, and asks His forgiveness so that “Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven”, a verse that I rather like. Although most psalms asking God for forgiveness tend to be coupled with troubles from enemies (either national like psalm 83 above or personal as in some of David’s psalms), this one almost feels like it is given in a time of famine because, as stated in verse 12, when God forgives “the land shall increase her yield”. Which makes sense that such a sentiment should exist and now that I see it I’m surprised that the subject hasn’t appeared more often.

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