Dreaming of Perfect Balance (6.So.n.Trin. / Pentecost 7)

Psalm 85

Zankei, the son of a samurai, journeyed to Edo and there became the retainer of a high official. He fell in love with the official’s wife and was discovered. In self-defense, he slew the official. Then he ran away with the wife.

Both of them later became thieves. But the woman was so greedy that Zenkai grew disgusted. Finally, leaving her, he journeyed far away to the province of Buzen, where he became a wandering mendicant.

To atone for his past, Zenkai resolved to accomplish some good deed in his lifetime. Knowing of a dangerous road over a cliff that had caused the death and injury of many persons, he resolved to cut a tunnel through the mountain there.

Begging food in the daytime, Zenkai worked at night digging his tunnel. When thirty years had gone by, the tunnel was 2,280 feet long, 20 feet high, and 30 feet wide.

Two years before the work was completed, the son of the official he had slain, who was a skillful swordsman, found Zenkai out and came to kill him in revenge.

“I will give you my life willingly,” said Zenkai. “Only let me finish this work. On the day it is completed, you may kill me.”

So the son awaited the day. Several months passed and Zenkai kept on digging. The son grew tired of doing nothing and began to help with the digging. After he had helped for more than a year, he came to admire Zenkai’s strong will and character.

At last the tunnel was completed and the people could use it and travel in safety.

“Now cut off my head,” said Zenkai. “My work is done.”

“How can I cut off my own teacher’s head?” asked the younger man with tears in his eyes.

Forgiveness is one of the main themes of Psalm 85.

Orientation: Past Forgiveness (VV. 1-3)

1 Lord, you favored your land; / you truly turned  toward Jacob*. 2 You lifted the iniquity of your people; / you covered all their sin. Selah 3 You withdrew all your fury; / you turned back from your fierce anger.

Disorientation: Asking Forgiveness (VV. 4-7)

4 Restore us, O God of our salvation! / Break off your anger toward us! 5 Will you be angry with us forever? / Will you stretch your anger from generation to generation? 6 Will you not turn and give us life, / so your people will rejoice in you? 7 Show us your hesed, O Lord! / Give us your salvation!

Reorientation: Restored Vision (VV. 8-13)

8 May I hear God the Lord speak, /

for he speaks peace unto his people, unto his faithful ones; / but let them not return to stupidity. 9 Truly, his salvation is near to those fearing him, / for glory is dwelling in our land. 10 Hesed and faithfulness will meet; / righteousness and peace will kiss. 11 Faithfulness will sprout up from the earth, / and righteousness will look down from heaven. 12 Indeed, the Lord will give what is good, / and our land will give its produce. 13 Righteousness will go before him / and prepare a way for his steps. (NICOT)

Psalm 85 is one of the Korah Psalms (42–49; 84–85; 87) which are "assumed to have emerged from and been used at the ancient sanctuary at Dan in the north of Israel" (Craigie).

Orientation, disorientation and re-orientation -- all three of the categories introduced into psalm scholarship by Walter Brueggemann can be found in Psalm 85 (see outline above).

The first half of the psalm is characterized by a word play on the Hebrew word שׁוּב (shub; turn).

V. 1

רָצִ֣יתָ יְהוָ֣ה אַרְצֶ֑ךָ

rā·ṣî·tā  Yah·weh ’ar·ṣe·kā;

Lord, you favored your land;

שַׁ֝֗בְתָ ּ שְׁבוּת  יַעֲקֹב

šūbə·tā  šə·būt Yaaqob

you truly turned toward Jacob.*

The word שׁוּב basically means to return to a point or area where one has been before.  In V. 1, the Psalmist uses a cognate accusative to intensify the meaning of shub; literally she says, “you turned with a turning [toward] Jacob.”

When שׁוּב  came up in Seminary for the first time, we learned to translate it as "repent" and while that is one of its meanings, שׁוּב has many more uses throughout the Old Testament.  Our psalm shows off a few of them:

V. 3

You withdrew all your fury; you turned back (שׁוּב) from your fierce anger.

V. 4

Restore us (שׁוּב), O God of our salvation! Break off your anger toward us!

V. 6

Will you not turn (שׁוּב) and give us life,  so your people will rejoice in you?

V. 8

May I hear God the Lord speak, for he speaks peace unto his people, unto his faithful ones; but let them not return (שׁוּב) to stupidity.

The order in which the various shades of shub show up is important as it shows the theological "flow" the Psalmist is pursuing: "It is the ‘turning, repentance’ of Yahweh that enables the future to become the present" (Howard Wallace).

Put another way, the Psalmist looks back on the history of salvation (VV. 1-3) in order to show what is now needed (VV. 4-7): "The people’s only hope is that God will turn around ... and restore the people ... There is no explanation offered or reasons for God to turn, except God’s own history of doing so. The words are direct. The only way back to a relationship is for God to forgive." (Beth Tanner).

In the third section (beginning with V. 8), the Psalmist changes her tone. Whereas in VV. 4-7 she has pleaded with God based on the past, in VV. 8-13 she develops a grand vision of the future.  She introduces her bold dream by speaking of God's שָׁלוֹם (shalom; wholeness, V. 8), יֵ֫שַׁע  (yesha; salvation, V. 9) and  כָּבוֹד (kabowd; glory, V. 9).

V. 10

חֶֽסֶד  וֶאֱמֶ֥ת  נִפְגָּ֑שׁוּ

he·sed we·’ĕ·met nip·gā·šū;

Hesed and faithfulness will meet; 

צֶ֖דֶק  וְשָׁל֣וֹם  נָשָֽׁקוּ

ṣe·deq wə·šā·lō·wm nā·šā·qū

righteousness and peace will kiss.

And the vision continues:  

Faithfulness (אֱמֶת) will sprout up from the earth, / and righteousness (צֶ֫דֶק) will look down from heaven (V. 11).

Says Walter Brueggemann: "The use of the familiar covenantal vocabulary of steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness, and peace, however, does not remain focused simply on the relationship, but turns promptly to matters of produce, blessing, and fertility ... The practice of justice bespeaks the full restoration of the generosity of creation".

Indeed, the Lord will give what is good (טוֹב) / and our land will give its produce. Righteousness (צֶ֫דֶק) will go before him / and prepare a way for his steps. (V. 12-13).

When heaven and earth are in perfect balance, that is truly שָׁלוֹם, shalom, wholeness.

This is Matthias Jorissen's summary of the third part; the English translation in blank verse is my own.

Die Güte wird der Treu entgegengehn, 

Gerechtigkeit und Friede küssen sich. 

Du, Erde, wirst die Treue blühen sehn, 

vom Himmel schaut Gerechtigkeit auf dich. 

Gott ist uns gut und gießt Gedeihen aus, 

das Erdreich bringt den Segen uns ins Haus. 

Seht, vor ihm her geht die Gerechtigkeit, 

die unser Land mit jedem Schritt erfreut.

So goodness and truth will go to be together,

and justice draws peacefulness into a beautiful kiss. 

Then faithfulness springs from the earth with sprouts and blooms, 

while justice from heaven looks down and watches the earth.

The goodness of God will abundantly pour out his blessings,

so that our land with its produce might feed us all.

Then justice will walk before the Lord our God,

and bless our land with every step it makes.

...
* The translation of V. 1b is my own.