Do you see what I see? Reflections on Psalms 90 and 91

Today’s my fiftieth birthday. What a joy to be handed a bundle of cards from blogging friends around the globe. Thank you one and all (and thank you, Debbie, sweetheart that you are). The conversation we seek to foster in Bible blogdom forges strong bonds.

Psalm 90 is all about seeing. The psalmist knows that the gigantic God whom he worships, the fringes of whose skirt are enough to fill the entire temple (Isaiah 6:1), takes in the whole sweep of history:

כִּי אֶלֶף שָׁנִים בְּעֵינֶיךָ

כְּיוֹם אֶתְמוֹל כִּי יַעֲבֹר

וְאַשְׁמוּרָה בַלָּיְלָה

For a thousand years in your eyes

            are like yesterday gone by,

                      a watch of the night.

                                                Psalm 90:4

 

The wisdom that comes from the long view, then, is much to be desired:

לִמְנוֹת יָמֵינוּ

כֵּן הוֹדַע

וְנָבִא לְבַב חָכְמָה

To count our days

         in such manner teach,

                and we will gain a heart of wisdom.

                                                    Psalm 90:12

As Robert Alter points out, “this is precisely what the poem as a whole—with its powerful images for representing the limitations of human existence over against God’s eternal being—has achieved for its audience.”  To count our days as God counts them: this is wisdom.

With a chutzpah born of faith, the psalmist nonetheless prays that he and his generation will see the goodness of the Lord:

שׁוּבָה יְהוָה עַד־מָתָי

וְהִנָּחֵם עַל־עֲבָדֶיךָ

 

שַׂבְּעֵנוּ בַבֹּקֶר חַסְדֶּךָ

וּנְרַנְּנָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה

בְּכָל יָמֵינוּ

 

שַׂמְּחֵנוּ כִּימוֹת עִנִּיתָנוּ

שְׁנוֹת רָאִינוּ רָעָה

 

יֵרָאֶה אֶל־עֲבָדֶיךָ פָעֳלֶךָ

וַהֲדָרְךָ עַל־בְּנֵיהֶם

Come back, O יהוה, how long?

           relent, for the sake of your servants!

Sate us with your favor at daybreak,

           and we will sing and be happy

                    all our days.

 

Make us glad as many days as you humbled us,

         the years we saw evil.

May your power in action be seen by your servants,

        your glory, by their children.

                                       Psalm 90:13-16

 The psalmist also takes the long view, in the sense that his children, and what they will see, matter to him as much as what his generation will see.

Psalm 91, without a heading of its own, follows hot on the heels of Psalm 90. In some ways, Psalm 91 reads like an answer to the prayer which concludes Psalm 90. The answer is born out of a perception that life is full of danger, a vast conflict between good and evil, and so the promise received goes like this:

לֹא תִירָא

מִפַּחַד לָיְלָה

מֵחֵץ יָעוּף יוֹמָם

 

מִדֶּבֶר בָּאֹפֶל יַהֲלֹךְ

מִקֶּטֶב יָשׁוּד צָהֳרָיִם

 

יִפֹּל מִצִּדְּךָ אֶלֶף

וּרְבָבָה מִימִינֶךָ

אֵלֶיךָ לֹא יִגָּשׁ

 

רַק בְּעֵינֶיךָ תַבִּיט

וְשִׁלֻּמַת רְשָׁעִים תִּרְאֶה

You need not fear

       terror by night;

                the arrow that flies by day;

the plague that stalks in the darkness,

       the scourge that ravages at noon.

 

A thousand may fall at your side,

        ten thousand at your right hand,

               you it shall not reach.

With your own eyes you will note it,

        you will see the punishment of the wicked.

                              Psalm 91:5-8

כִּ־בִי חָשַׁק וַאֲפַלְּטֵהוּ

אֲשַׂגְּבֵהוּ כִּי־יָדַע שְׁמִי

 

יִקְרָאֵנִי וְאֶעֱנֵהוּ

עִמּוֹ־אָנֹכִי בְצָרָה

אֲחַלְּצֵהוּ וַאֲכַבְּדֵהוּ

 

אֹרֶךְ יָמִים אַשְׂבִּיעֵהוּ

וְאַרְאֵהוּ בִּישׁוּעָתִי

Because he cleaved to me, I will rescue him,

         I will set him on high, for he knows my name.

He calls me and I answer him,

          I am with him, in a tight place;

               I will snatch him away, and honor him.

I will sate him with length of days,

          grant him to see my deliverance.

                             Psalm 91:14-16

 

Way up in the sky, little lamb

Do you see what I see?

 
A star, a star

Dancing in the night

With a tail as big as a kite

With a tail as big as a kite.

Comments

[Nick Norelli]

Happy Birthday John!

[Peter Kirk]

Happy birthday, John! May your next 950 years not seem to yourself too much "like yesterday gone by, a watch of the night".

[Doug Chaplin]

Well, many happy returns, my friend.

[Bob MacDonald]

2 score years and 10 ! happy birthday. I don't know how to use trackback - I have responded to your psalm 90-91 pair here

[J. K. Gayle]

Happy Birthday!

[Kevin P. Edgecomb]

Happy Birthday, John! I didn't put those actual words in the card, but the thought is there. Many more years to you!

[Iyov]

Happy birthday! And, er, welcome to AARP membership.

[Lingamish]

Happy Birthday, John. I missed your birthday since I'm at the beach but I'll send some sunshine your way soon.

[Suzanne]

Happy Birthday! I hope you blew out all the candles at once.

[JohnFH]

Betta spent the whole day making a birthday cake, with 50 chocolate swirls, so 5 candles were enough on the cake. She and Anna also invented a new birthday song. Anna was too embarassed to sing it, though she had practiced long and hard, but she didn't mind dancing like a ballerina while Betta sang.

I really like the poems Wayne Leman sent, the creative card Eclexia crafted, Charles Halton's amazing awilum stationary with Sumerian on it, and Rich Rhodes' hopeful comment: 50 is the new 30. I can live with that.

Every card and email I received, and they were many, touched my heart.

Thanks everyone.

[ElShaddai Edwards]

Happy (belated) Birthday, John! I've never been good about cards and such, but please accept greetings and salutations from us here in Minnesota, along with warm wishes for the next 50 years!

[JohnFH]

Thanks, El Shaddai. I too am a wide receiver when it becomes to b-day cards. At 50, it's easier to see why it might make sense to imitate #4 and get off a a b-day card now and then.

[dave b]

happy birthday (belated), John. hope you had a good one.

[eclexia]

Thank you for the translation and insights you give for Psalm 90 and then the connection with Psalm 91. It's taken me a few days after reading it to comment, although the post moved me deeply from several angles when you first posted it. Verses 14 through 16 in both chapters have gripped me powerfully as I keep rereading them here.

I think those verses in 90 impact me as a prayer, longing, hope, even as a blessing as I start a new day--there's more than what I see that awaits me in my (at times frightening or overwhelming, sometimes both) days. The prayer of 90:14-16 infuses hope, and out of that, anticipatory joy which spills over into present joy, no matter what I'm facing today.

As for Psalm 91, I guess it's that I hear it as a response to the one thing (sometimes the only thing) I've been able to do through some of the darkest days: cling/cleave/hang on tight with an almost defiant (defiant against my circumstances as well as against my own doubt and weakness), "Yet will I trust him." With Habakkuk, I cling to him, sometimes with gritted teeth, not sure if I'll even be able to keep clinging or hanging on or if I'll survive. That cleaving and clinging has been such a desperate and yet intimate and deep thing for me, and I have found God to be faithful and even tender in his care during some very untender circumstances.

I am not in such a daily desperate place anymore. But that desperate reality is not so far gone that I've forgotten what it feels like. Your translation of 91:14-16 makes sense in that context and resonates with those feelings and memories and brings tears of comfort and joy to me as I celebrate with thankfulness what God's faithfulness to me as I cling to him looks like.

I'm glad your birthday was so happy. The cake, the song and dance from your creative daughers all sound lovely!

[ElShaddai Edwards]

John, here's a late birthday present:

A man goes to the Chicago Bear ticket office and inquires about purchasing play-off tickets. The ticket teller replies that there weren't any tickets for sale because the Bears did not make it to the play-offs.

The following day the same man goes to the Chicago Bear ticket office and inquires about purchasing Bear play-off tickets. The ticket teller politely replies that there weren't any tickets for sale because the Bears did not make it to the play-offs.

This goes on for an entire week. The man goes to the Bear ticket office inquiring about play-off tickets and the teller says none are for sale because the Bears did not make it to the play-offs.

Another week of this goes by and the man still is asking the ticket teller about Bear play-off tickets. Finally the ticket teller in a loud voice says, "I'VE TOLD YOU FOR THE LAST 2 WEEKS THERE WERE NOT ANY TICKETS AVAILABLE BECAUSE THE BEARS DID NOT MAKE THE PLAY-OFFS."

The man replied, "I know. I drive all the way from Green Bay every day just to hear you say that!"

HT: Mikey's Funnies

[JohnFH]

The Packer story making the rounds right now tells of a Packer fan from Australia who moved to Green Bay out of love for the team. I don't know whether it's true, but it could be.

[ElShaddai Edwards]

Best line I've read this morning:

"It was one small step for the Pats, one Giant leap for Manning-kind."

[John Hobbins]

It was quite the game, even if it did not end the way people around here hoped.