I will sing of faithfulness and justice; I will chant a hymn to you, O Lord. Psalm 101 (from the Jewish Publication Society translation of the TANAKH)
When I was in college, I was taking a science class of one sort or another – I forget if it was Biology or Oceanography – but I was taking a class where the professor was talking about the balance of nature and then, suddenly, stopped. He stumbled forward as if falling, catching himself on the edge of a nearby desk. After a moment, as he beheld the class holding its collective breath, our professor stood up ramrod straight and said, “There is no balance of nature. Predators eat up the prey, and when the prey disappear, you get an overabundance of predators, so they starve for lack of prey, which then bounce back for lack of predators, and nature cycles up and down like that. Nature is always in a state of imbalance!”
Me too. I stepped out of the shower the other day and noticed a fairly decent-sized bruise on my forearm. I didn’t remember doing anything to injure myself, but I did recall stumbling through an open doorway, so I’m sure that’s when it happened. I don’t drink or do drugs, so I know I wasn’t lolling about the house like a beached Beluga waiting for the tide to come get me. I am convinced the home’s portals expand and contract with the weather, and I just happened to catch the doorpost while it was on the squeeze.
Speaking of imbalance, I was reading the psalm quoted atop this column and discovered that the word translated “faithfulness” there is rendered “mercy” by some translators, and “loving-kindness” by still others. I’ve learned that when there’s a discrepancy like that, either the Hebrew original is unclear, or it is far too rich to be condensed into one English word. The fascinating point, though, is that the psalmist doesn’t identify whose faithfulness (or mercy) and justice are being sung about. Is it his, or is it God’s?
A cursory glance reveals a very egocentric song. It is almost an ode to the author’s own goodness and holiness: “I will sing a song … I will study the way of the blameless … I will live without blame … I will not look at anything base … I will know nothing of evil …” and finally, “... I will destroy all the wicked of the land ... etc.” Being a psalm of David, that seems a pretty daring claim coming from one who is both an adulterer and a murderer.
When I was a young lad, I’d get excited at the idea of God smiting bad people. There was Noah and the flood, Moses versus the Egyptians, David and Goliath, not to mention all the smitings in the books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. I would have revised Luther’s tune: A Smighty [sic] Fortress is our God. I loved the idea of God as Zeus or Thor (only bigger and badder).
As I matured, though, I began to notice that Jesus never smited* anybody (although he did get a little rough on the money-changers). James and John never smited anyone (although they wanted to, at least once – Jesus told them that wasn’t their call to make). Peter never went on a smiting tour. Neither did Paul and Silas (although Paul was a smiter before his conversion). If God was addicted to smiting, then Jesus was “God, a smite-o-holic in recovery!”
The psalmist comes across as though he’s “tough on crime,” but he’s missing something immensely important. The mercy, loving-kindness, and faithfulness of which he should be singing is God’s! Humans lost Eden because we wanted to be like gods, knowing good and evil, right and wrong. Humans are home-sick for Eden, and it turns out the way home is not through Smite Alley, but Highway One: The Mercy Highway.
Maybe God’s way was once a tollway, but now it’s a freeway. God doesn’t collect a toll; God’s paid the toll in full – out of God’s Treasury of Mercy! That’s why I choose to chant this hymn, rejoicing in the faithfulness and justice of God here in this, our valley.
* Note: The proper word is “smote” (past tense of smite), but the author is exercising poetic license here and throughout the paragraph.
Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of newly released: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available through Amazon in Print and e-book)
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