one

some platitudes around psalm 10 … i don’t like my tone in some spots … “we” in places sound royal and officious … it’s actually tremulous … i’m not preaching … i’m muttering … banalities but … just talking to myself …

bold is the nab, italic beneath is the kjv …

Why, LORD, do you stand at a distance and pay no heed to these troubled times?
Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

suppose god-talk makes you squirm … suppose you hear an easy religiosity … too easy … a treacly piety … in this language … is it there in the psalm or is it there in your head (which is to say your life … the whole path you’ve come) … then that’s all you can hear …

or suppose you hear a human voice … just that … stripped bare even … or the utterly vulnerable voice of a community under seige … as if any community could cry out … confused, losing, and lost in the shambles of the moment … well … to one degree or another we’ve been there …

Arrogant scoundrels pursue the poor; they trap them by their cunning schemes.
The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

it’s easy to spot the bad guys, right? we think we know who’s hurting us … we know the cause … the source … and we simply have to kill it … cut it out like a bad spot in the apple

sometimes … sure … but the tendency to fall to that duality … them v. us … maybe even a paranoid duality … this tendency fails the more honest blur … solzhenitsyn: “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being” … sure … in this light the psalm is talking about us as well as them …

(there’s a wild contrast in the two translations here … the nab seems just to repeat the sense of the first clause … the poor are trapped by the wicked … the kjv in the second clause calls down a judgement on the wicked … the wicked will be done in by their own plots)

The wicked even boast of their greed; these robbers curse and scorn the LORD.
For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.

them wicked … them wicked … them bad bad wicked … them … and us … and me …

In their insolence the wicked boast: “God doesn’t care, doesn’t even exist.”
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

that we’ve got trouble with the notion of god … that one can’t see it … that it’s such a tenuous (im)possibility … just a hopeful (?) notion floating here and there round and about this most complex physical space of the world & our lives in it … knowing that the name of god has been misused and abused … to manipulate and confuse … to serve the dark purposes of Power … that’s our lot … we’re stuck with that knowledge … what will anyone make of it?

just yesterday somebody said: “i know any number of people who say they don’t believe in god, but they’re out there working harder than i am for the welfare of their neighbor - making a real difference in the quality of others’ lives” … and we know it … and bless them … that they have trouble with the notion of god is no fault … unless it’s all our fault … life is messy … and understandings about the big questions just as messy … peace to all people of good will …

Yet their affairs always succeed; they ignore your judgment on high; they sneer at all who oppose them.
His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.

They say in their hearts, “We will never fall; never will we see misfortune.”
He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.

we used to say, “i’ve got mine, jack” … or was it just me who said it? … you can’t talk about sin these days - or god’s judgment - without sounding like the worst kind of hypocritical bible-thumper … without sounding like a moron … unless yr being all hip and ironical … but anybody with half an open eye can see that things aren’t all right with us … and there must be some reason(s) for that … and some people choose to call it “sin” … but that language - for many - may not be viable … for good reasons … but it’s still important that people of good will call out rotten behavior when they see it … and it’s more important to do this for corporate bodies & cultures than for individuals (who deserve as much mercy as can possibly fall from the rest of us because our time will come, too) … because those groups have no soul

Their mouths are full of oaths, violence, and lies; discord and evil are under their tongues.
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

seems a pretty good argument for silence … the less you say, the less chance of saying something stupid or arrogant or deceitful or destructive … just shut up … i should take to heart more often …

They wait in ambush near towns; their eyes watch for the helpless. to murder the innocent in secret.
He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

as one who knows he doesn’t do this … has never & will never do this … i can feel not superior to but confused by those who do … because we know they’re out there … and we don’t understand … why …

They lurk in ambush like lions in a thicket, hide there to trap the poor, snare them and close the net.
He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

The helpless are crushed, laid low; they fall into the power of the wicked,
He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.

if this is how it is … the powerful and the helpless … well … which side are we on? the psalmist hopes us onto the right side … just as jesus will do in his time … messed up as we are … let’s not be any part of those who crush the helpless … let’s not … but how not?

Who say in their hearts, “God pays no attention, shows no concern, never bothers to look.”
He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

Rise up, LORD God! Raise your arm! Do not forget the poor!
Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.

we’re not waiting for any thunderbolt today … but we hope in justice … that enough will in time choose what is just over those who go on choosing what is unjust … that it works itself out through our choices … and if not … well … we know we’ll get (have already gotten) what we’ve earned as a (soulless) group … and we hope that we’ll get (have already gotten) what we’ve earned as individuals …

Why should the wicked scorn God, say in their hearts, “God doesn’t care”?
Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.

But you do see; you do observe this misery and sorrow; you take the matter in hand. To you the helpless can entrust their cause; you are the defender of orphans.
Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.

if evil intentions can have their way with the world, so can good ones … why not … enough good will … unsolicited concern … vigilance … can tip the scales back … well … we practice hope … we get to work

Break the arms of the wicked and depraved; make them account for their crimes; let none of them survive.
Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none

break their legs, too … and fingers and toes … and … poke out their eyes and … yikes … it’s important to note that this is a job for god … not for any of god’s human critters … who … once they feel they’re the agents of god’s wrath … are capable of the most ungodly acts … so history teaches

The LORD is king forever; the nations have vanished from God’s land.
The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.

the nations are soulless … not of god … nations? … heathen? … i wonder about that translation … i’d prefer to read this as a continuation of the critique of kings and kingdoms that we get back there in the samuel and saul narrative … otherwise this line can be read merely as condemnation of “the other” … those guys out there who aren’t as good as us … i’d prefer to read this as recognition of an intrinsic problem with people in consort … we tend to go soulless

You listen, LORD, to the needs of the poor; you encourage them and hear their prayers.
LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

ah … faith and hope in the efficacy of prayer … it may be … but it is almost certainly not whatever we think it is … i think

You win justice for the orphaned and oppressed; no one on earth will cause terror again.
To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

make it so … through us … as you will … maranatha …

(for a richer reflection (with pictures) on similar ground go [[here]] to paula’s house)

Link: USCCB - NAB - Psalm 10.

Link: King James version - Psalm 10