God’s Rollercoaster
Because of Your indignation and Your wrath; for You have lifted me up and thrown me away. Psalm 102:10 NASB
Lifted me up – As we know, the Hebrew word nāśāʾ is “used almost six hundred times with basically three separate meanings: “to lift up”; “to bear, carry, support”; and “to take, take away.”[1] “To bear” is perhaps the most familiar since this is how it is used in the most important passage in Exodus 34 as an indication of what God does with sin. He bears it away (“taking away, forgiveness, or pardon of sin, iniquity, and transgression”[2]). Of course, the word has other semantic ranges like lifting up the hand in taking an oath, lifting up the head in honor and praise, lifting up the face in favor and confidence or lifting up the heart in action and faithfulness, or simply literally carrying something. Since the psalmist chose this verb to describe God’s once-favorable relationship, we can suppose that in the past he felt not only forgiven but favored. Now things have changed.
Now his world feels like šālak. Now he is “thrown away.” It’s interesting that derivatives of this verb mean “bird of prey” and “felling of trees.” One is non-kosher (we might recall the pelican and owl), the other is a collapse of a natural condition. The theme is familiar in the Psalms. In 71:9 the author pleads that God will not “throw him away” when he is old. The combination of these two verbs tell us the story. Once this man felt God’s support and favor. Life was good, purposeful, satisfying and, most importantly, pleasing to the Lord. Now, for unknown reasons, the tide has turned. Now he feels cast off, wasted, rejected, or worse, ignored. Once his God smiled on him. Now his God is conspicuously absent.
Notice who the actor is in this drama. It isn’t the psalmist. He is the passive recipient; God is the actor. “Your anger,” “You lifted me,” “You threw me away.” Still a victim of inexplicable divine reprisals, this summary says it all. “I don’t know what I did wrong. Everything seemed to be fine—with You and with me. Now, suddenly, You have turned against me.”
All of this should sound familiar. Perhaps it is personal, but at the least, it is gospel. John 9 deals with the same emotional trauma, albeit in the story of another man. The disciples act like the psalmist. “What did this man or his parents do to deserve such punishment?” They assume that because this man’s blindness is the result of punishment, there must be some horrible sin behind it. The psalmist makes the same assumption. “My life is thrown away like trash. What did I do wrong?” The psalmist searches for some answer—and gets none. The blind man had no answer either, until Yeshua redirected the gaze from the past to the future. It isn’t about why this happened. It’s about what will result from it. Like the disciples, we want to assign blame. Like Job, the psalmist pleads innocence. The answer to the question is not blame but purpose. “Lord, I don’t know why You are doing this, but You know why and I trust You. Go ahead.” Not so easy to say, is it?
Topical Index: lift up, nāśāʾ, throw away, šālak, blame, purpose, Psalm 102:10
[1] Kaiser, W. C. (1999). 1421 נָשָׂא. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 600). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ibid.
