An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 124: King David’s B-Side Collection (Psalms 141-145)

Psalms 141-145
King David’s B-Side Collection

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 141
“Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”

Another psalm attributed to David, this one calls upon God to keep the psalmist from iniquity (much as the “lead us not into temptation” line in the Lord’s Prayer. Oil and sweetness are the similes of the day for this psalm. I’m not sure about “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness” – I misread that at first as the unrighteous, which gave it an unexpected “turn the other cheek” aspect. However, upon realising that it is the righteous … it makes less sense to me. Maybe it follows on from the exhortation not to perform wicked acts, and the psalmist is saying may the righteous smite me if I do, as it would be right and proper for them to do so. That makes more sense.

Psalms 142
“(Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave.) I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.”

Oh, another maschil of David, wherein he recounts how he called out to God for help when he was on the run from Saul. I don’t think by this point there’s much need for yet another psalm on this theme, it really doesn’t add anything to those that have gone before. Some of them were David calling out directly in distress, some were where he recounts how God helped him in distress, this one doesn’t get around to God’s answer, which is unusual. It makes it seem, as with some other psalms, like a work in progress rather than a finished article, but that it became included because it was written by David and therefore considered worthy of publication (like a collection of B-sides and out-takes in an expensive collector’s box set for a particular musician).

Psalms 143
“For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.”

Having come up with the image of David’s B-side collection I can’t shake it for this next psalm either (although the expression “B-side” hasn’t meant anything for a very long time – when was the last time singles were released on a vinyl 5-inch?). But this is more of the same, and at this point I finally come to see the perspective of Graham Chapman’s Voice of God from Monty Python and the Holy Grail about “miserable psalms […] forgive me this and forgive me that and I’m not worthy”. Once again depressing old David offers up his complaints to God about those who oppress him and how full of woe his life is. Today I’m really not feeling it.

Psalms 144
“(A Psalm of David.) Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight”

David has got over his moaning now, and he is fired up with religious zeal once more. God gives him strength, and he calls upon God to bring down mountains with his lightnings, and to deliver him from “strange children”, whom I presume are the worshippers of other gods. “I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.” Well, no, David, there’s nothing new about this song that you haven’t sung before, it’s the same old “God, you are great, now kill my enemies for me” theme you keep returning to. That said, this is quite a good one on that theme.

Psalms 145
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.”

A psalm of praise, from David. It’s quite a good one, and some of the language, talking of the kingdom of God and His “tender mercies” is a lot more NT once more, one of the many instances in this book that it seems that Jesus has drawn heavily on the ideas of David. This psalm did help me clarify something that has been nagging in my mind, particularly about the hymns of praise; there is a certain vagueness to the language that almost leads to circular argument – God is great because He is so great – it makes it a bit unsatisfactory but also reminds me of pulp horror writing in the style of HP Lovecraft, where things are all “terrible, indescribable, horrible” in a lazy use of adjectives. For the psalms this could be an issue with the original material lacking a wide vocabulary (and so the writers are actually doing well with what they have), or it could be poor choices on behalf of the translators, which is why the language in some flows much better than in others.

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