Packaged Deal
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also. Psalm 31:9 NASB
Distress– Now comes the plea.
David’s psalm begins with acknowledgement of God’s character. He praises the Lord for constancy, faithfulness, and a genuine desire to rescue. He alludes to God’s covenant relationship with Israel. He proclaims God’s righteousness and strength. He recognizes God’s guidance and heart-felt instruction. He declares his personal opposition to idolatry. He extols God’s ḥesed. After properly setting the stage with an exegesis of God’s goodness, David makes his request. “Be gracious to me.”
Of course, the plea has been implied in all that precedes it. Now it is explicit and it centers around the same psychological concern—distress. This time David uses a different term: tsarar. But just like the previous descriptions of confinement and restricting spaces, this term conveys the picture of a tied up package. The NASB dictionary demonstrates how many different translations are used to capture its metaphorical sense:
afflicted(1), besiege(3), besieges(1), bind(1), binds(1), bound(3), bring distress(1), cause them distress(1), cramped(2), distress(6), distressed(6), frustrated(1), impeded(1), mended(1), oppressed(1), shortened(1), shut(1), small(1), trouble(1), wrapped(1), wraps(2).[1]
David has established that God created a world that reflects His character. Now he asks that this fact be applied to his personal circumstances. David Lambert’s book, How Repentance Became Biblical, makes that case that this sort of appeal is based on the ancient Middle Eastern view of cosmic order. It isn’t right that enemies prevail or that the oppressed have no justice. The universe suffers when the divine system is disrupted, and as a result, God’s very name is insulted. This poem is part of the divine drama, an appeal for God to correct what is out of place. And David’s role in this drama is to highlight how much the cosmic system has been disturbed by the situation affecting him. It’s a play with enormous consequences. If God doesn’t act, the whole world will return to chaos. No one will believe in a God of righteousness. There is much more at stake than the rescue of one of God’s chosen.
We typically read a poem like this for its personal application. We feel like David, hemmed in, frustrated, unfairly treated. We ask God to intercede on our behalf. But we don’t recognize the dramatic implications of the ancient Middle East, the cultural environment of David’s appeal. The reason David goes to great lengths to establish the character of God before he initiated his appeal is based in this Middle Eastern view. The world, as the expression of God’s handiwork, should be what God intended. Wherever it does not model the characteristics of its Creator, it must be repaired and restored. And God must do it. If He truly is the Creator God, if He truly is righteous and just, then He must act to fix the damage and restore the proper order. That’s what David believes—and so do we.
And that’s the problem, isn’t it? Where is the order-making, righteous, just God in this world? Why does chaos, cruelty and contempt seem to prevail? What are we to say about a Creator who has let the world slip into such a state of affairs? Many have decided that this God is either useless or non-existent. How are we to combat this conclusion? That is the biggest question of our day. The world is falling apart. Where is God?
Topical Index: tsarar, distress, cosmic order, Psalm 31:9
[1]Thomas, R. L. (1998). New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek dictionaries : Updated edition. Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc.
It’s the question I get asked quite often. Due to the internet. Being able to view horrible things in real time everyday is mind numbing.David saw this in just a small portion of what was the known world then. Imagine what he would think today. As humans,when most of us decide to have children or have a family,we don’t say no because they might be disobedient The risk is worth it.,maybe God thinks that way also.To be God’s imagers we have to have free will just as God does. God is a risk taker and so are we. He risked everything with Yeshua and we are asked to do the same. Yeshua once said greater are they who have not seen but believe. Maybe if the pillars of faith were alive today they would be amazed at the faith of God’s children in times as these and we still are in the game running the race. The total plan of redemption and restoration are yet to be. How God does that is his business. I believe it. Life is more than 75 years and a hole in the ground no matter how bad things are. As In the tale of two cities,” It was the worst of times,it was the best of times” Selah
Pam,
Tell me how there was any element of doubt or risk in Yeshua, or for that matter in anything God does. I thought Yeshua was a sure thing. If you know better please let me know. I’m not being confrontational here, just want to know where you’re coming from.
Good question it’s not confrontational. I didn’t use the word doubt though. Past history has shown that it has come down to one righteous man. Noah,how about moses,when God said he would destroy Israel and start all over with him.Since being righteous or obedient is not forced upon us it just seems a risk that he works within the boundaries of man’s free will.Sure he could wipe us all out and start over but that’s against his nature and he wouldn’t be God. Maybe calculated risk sounds better.Yeshua had free will also.
“Where is the order-making, righteous, just God in this world?”
The only answer I have to this question is to open wider the lens through which one is looking. Maybe to see what else is happening elsewhere in the world where He is showing Himself faithful, just and true, but definitely to look backwards to see what happened in the past. Then we can see that He is in the same place He has always been in when chaos, cruelty and contempt seemed to prevail then.
He’s in the same place He was in during the chaos, cruelty and contempt of Noah’s day before the great flood.
The same place He was in during the chaos, cruelty and contempt of Abraham’s day before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The same place He was in during the chaos, cruelty and contempt of the Israelites’ days in Egypt before the 10 plagues.
The same place He was in during the chaos, cruelty and contempt of Joshua’s day before the battle of Jericho..
The same place He was in during the chaos, cruelty and contempt of Yeshua’s day before his sufferings, death, and burial.
He is seated on high, far above the earth!
For the righteous, the question may not be so much, “Where is God?”, but , “When will God deliver? When will He come in judgement?”. This is what we do not know. This is what we wonder. Until then, let us say, with the psalmist…..
“We praise You, we praise God, for Your Name is near. People declare Your wonders. ‘When I appoint a set time, I Myself will judge uprightly. When the earth wavers with living on it, I Myself hold its pillars firm. Selah I say to the arrogant, “No more boasting!” And to the wicked, “Do not be lifting up your horn. Do not lift your horn up high. Do not speak with outstretched neck.”‘ For exaltation comes not from the east nor from the west, nor even from the desert. For God is the Judge: He lowers one and lifts up another. For in the hand of Adonai is a cup of foaming wine mixed with spices, and He pours it out. Surely all the wicked of the earth will drink, draining it down to the dregs. But I—I will declare it forever, I will sing praise to the God of Jacob. I will cut off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.” [Ps. 75:2-11]
I seem to be surrounded with agnostics and pagans these days. Even those I know who profess to love the Lord seem to be living their everyday lives full of fear and inanity. All around me are people who are living as though there is no God in control. Many of them are honest enough to admit that they either cannot understand a God Who apparently is a vengeful God or Who does not care about the state of affairs. Sigh.
The only antidote I can see is to make a decision to live my life in faith and to show those around me what that looks like in a world gone mad. I cannot fix their world view: I can only show them the outcome of mine.
The only weight I have is the weight of witness. People are not convinced with words anyway. What they want is to be loved: what they want is to be understood. I think people do not understand God because they do not understand love. The only way to get anywhere, then, is to love them.
Our worldview – our paradigm – is an outgrowth of our experience of previous choices. We seek to validate those choices and experiences by confirmation bias. We see what we want to see. Our outlook only has a chance to change when our experience does, for we are limited to learning from that experience. I think David had experienced the love of God, and, out of that experience, he builds his worldview.
It is only when people can see light that they can see the darkness, and only when they have the flavoring of salt that they can taste the food. The truth is obvious only when the contrast is clear. We are called to be that contrast. It is supposed to be obvious that we are not looking at the same horizon as everyone else. At that point – the point where people want what we seem to have – that they become curious about what we are seeing.
Time to shine, then, and flavor the world! And, if necessary, use words.
Born again!
Contact with your Creator.
Opened eyes.
Freed from captivity.
Released from darkness.
A new heart, like His.
Is this possible?
Should we spread the message?
“Go and make disciples.”
Oh, thank you, Lucille! Your well-spoken words have struck a chord in us. May you be blessed.
‘The world is falling apart.’ I agree but I am not sure if we are thinking about the same things! My first thought had to do with the media and how the media is mentally manipulating people with false stories, staged shootings, etc etc. No one likes to hear that. People believe ANYTHING they see on TV or on fb or wherever. QUESTION everything is what I would say. It’s not difficult to fool prople. Hearing the same lies over and over again produces effective brainwashing.
A former KGB agent said that you can see how effective brainwashing is when people still believe the lies regardless of all the evidence there is exposing the lies. Sometimes you just wish common sense would kick in. No, men did not walk on the moon. No, the earth is not a ball. No, injecting poison into your body will not make you healthy. No, the world is not being destroyed by CO2 (so Psychopaths can use that to depopulate the world).
I am so angry at how we have been deceived on so many subjects. Getting out of a brainwashed state takes time if it’s possible at all. What’s sad is how comfortable people are in it. Is it the brain damage that has caused the most confusion? It is a big part of it. The combination is deadly. I know this post is not typical but as I have been saying in other posts, there are many problems in understanding for many different reasons.
I am thankful for people who are willing to do what they can do and need to do to stop the lies. And I am trying to do that too. Need to do more. Lies that hurt other people really bother me so I am not silent anymore. Trusting others who didn’t know what they were talking about because I thought they knew something I didn’t know is now in the past. Skip mentioned in another post how that alienates you from others but in good conscience (if there is still one left) we need to share the truth, spiritual truths too. All connected (mind and body). No, the snake is not Satan. No, Jesus is not God in the flesh. No, husbands are not ‘above’ women like we have been taught. Adultery is not the only reason you can divorce (abuse of any kind is).
The world could be falling apart as Skip ended his post but not for the reasons we see on TV. No truth there! And that’s the truth!