The Dam Breaks
My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: Psalm 39:3 NASB
Hot, musing, burned– The NASB translation of this psalm adds the title, “The Vanity of Life.” The choice is probably based on similarities between Ecclesiastes and the words in verses 5 and 6. But the title distracts us from the real substance of this psalm. This verse is the turning point. David’s emotional state can no longer be contained. That doesn’t mean this is a personal and private struggle. After all, we’ve seen that David’s concern reaches into the public arena. Now it’s time to ask, “Who is his audience?”
Remember Jeduthun? These words were written for a song. The song is to be sung by the choir in the royal palace. The audience was the entourage of the royal court, the heads of the tribes, the administrators, the elders and priests. David reveals in his lyrics that he is surrounded by wickedness. He knows it. He has been silent about it up to this point. But this wickedness is infecting the whole community—and the kingdom. Now he must speak. This audience will hear the king’s words: “I know what’s happening. I have struggled to reveal this in the proper manner. But the more I withheld, the more difficult it became. Now you will hear what I have to say.”
The emotional dam breaks. The words are filled with passion. Hot—ḥāmam, musing—hāgîg, burned—bāʿar. We might expand the words like this: “My heart was boiling up, sizzling, scorching me. I rumbled, growled, muttered like an animal. The fire inside blazed like a sacrifice on the altar. I was consumed.”
David’s audience is prepared for the worst. The king has revealed his consternation. He feels as if he is being burned alive, a sacrifice. But for what? These wicked people? He can’t hold back any longer, even if it means overstepping God’s desire. But perhaps this is God’s desire, that is, that he should come to the place where the sacrifice screams, “Where is justice? Where is mercy? Why should the wicked prosper under the eye of a holy God? And why should I have to carry the burden of this evil in silence? No! No more!”
In three verses, David prepares his audience for the judgment’s blast. The tension rises. What will the king do? Will he name the perpetrators? Will he wreak vengeance upon them? You and I are in the audience. We know our guilt. We have undermined the King. We have disobeyed. We have failed to be loyal. What will this Semitic king do? What will the King of kings do? Will the fire that burns within him now lash out and consume us?
If you don’t feel the terror of the audience, then you missed the necessity of examining that tiny phrase, “To the choir director.” “Then I spoke” uses the verb dābar in the Piel—an intensive action. Something is about to happen—something terrible.
Topical Index: hot, ḥāmam, musing, hāgîg, burned, bāʿar, Psalm 39:3
As a product of the West, I duly learned that righteousness was primarily a cognitive exercise: mental assent to dogma; careful spiritual hygiene; silent moral judgment of others (comparison); private prayer and vertical orientation – careful to NEVER ‘get too close’ to others in public assembly – and certainly in the world – but also with myself, too. This way, I learned (through osmosis – example – of course) impure folks could pretend that they were righteous in private and with each other without ever having to do very much about it. The habits thus cultivated supported the illusion that ‘goodness’ was present, although no one could really point to HOW it got there!
Skip’s assertion that God is an action blew this all out of the water for me. Actions breed actions: “opposite and equal reactions” in nature, of course; but as creatures of free choice, we are capable – in areas of freedom, anyway – of precipitating action through faith. We can unhinge, as it were, from flesh reactions to previous actions (choice reality past) to pursue faith actions, which set a new direction for present and future, and, further, I am convinced, rewrite the past at the same time, too. Made in the image of God, we can understand that we are called to proactive choice: to choice that circumvents disaster, creates space for the completed will of God to operate in a corrupted world, and solves existing problems, too. We are called to be the head (precipitator of action by faith) and not the tail (reactor to action by flesh). This is a return to responsibility in creation that we lost through sin. Obedience returns us to this function as stewards of our local reality.
Action – not reaction – is the correct response of love to evil. I think David did his interior homework by clearing his flesh reaction runway before proceeding to change the current trajectory of what he saw in front of his face. He gathered his resources for that essential leap of faith: for that corrective action in reality that disfunction requires from beyond reality: for that cooperation with the reset button of heaven in a world gone to seed. Time for a Big Bang new beginning: time for the action of faith. Go, David!
Good word picture, the article brings to mind the day of atonement. Confessing known and unknown sins, we know the Lord searches the heart of all men. Why do the wicked prosper? We are all sinners in the face of an Angry God but we must lean on his Mercy. That we may come boldly into the throne of grace to obtain Mercy. Question what do we truly deserve. Growing as a believer we were taught the principle of prayer as p. A. C. T. S.
Adoration, confession, Thanksgiving, then supplication. Our requests were last on the list. Works then works now, let us consider our confessions. Thanks a. B. B.
Your words “action-not reaction- is the correct response of love to evil” are profound! A reminder to “look before I leap”. So easy to fall back into the trap of the flesh (reaction). How I can relate! Thanks Laurita.
Wow…I was following these recent posts with much difficulty, feeling like I wasn’t getting it very well…until today. Yes, I feel the terror!