assaults on God

Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-211 Sunday 02 Dec 2001

Reading: PSALM 89 – CLAIMS FOR GOD, ASSAULTS ON GOD

(From ‘Encounter with God’ Bible Reading Notes)

‘It is when we refuse to recognise and welcome tensions which are life-giving that we fall a prey to tensions which are death-dealing’ (Harry Williams, Tensions).

Last Sunday we reflected on the almost unrelieved distress of Psalm 88 and recognised it as encouraging us to be real with God. Psalm 89, which closes the third book of the collection of Psalms, is a more ambiguous and tension-filled reflection on the relationship between God and us.

Up to verse 37 this hymn is a full throated celebration of the covenant faithfulness of God to King David and his successors. The theme word in Hebrew is hesed, steadfast, faithful love or mercy (vs 1,2,24,28). Up to verse 37, this is a psalm Onesimus might happily have turned into praise as Philemon welcomed him back to the transformed relationship Paul proposed: ‘Yes, Lord, your faithful love, your hesed, has indeed been with me, my Father, my God, the Rock my Saviour’ (vs 24,26).

But suppose Philemon rejected Paul’s proposal? The abrupt shift of verse 38 is the kind of bump in the terrain of Scripture which we often seek to smooth over. It makes us uneasy. But yes, this is an expression of deep suspicion, of complaint towards God and the promises he has made, of hurt at being abandoned (vs 50,51). This is the response to God that the exile provoked (Ruth 1:13,20,21; Lam 5:19-22) and the crucifixion provoked (Matt 16:21-23; 1 Cor 1:18,23) and that the ‘pit’ experiences of our own lives will provoke.

‘It is an act of faith to enter into the suffering that gives the lie to theological triumphalism. In such a practice that does not need to protect God and does not fear to enter into the texts that voice protest, we may become more responsible … people who know about strength and weakness, about new life out of death’ (Brueggemann, Deep Memory, Exuberant Hope, Augsburg, 2000).

‘Lord, forgive us when we do not recognise your presence and activity when we experience brokenness and seeming failure.’

– Pauline Hoggarth

Copyright Scripture Union, 2001

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