{"id":630,"date":"2008-08-28T16:13:39","date_gmt":"2008-08-28T23:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tgdarkly.com\/blog\/?p=630"},"modified":"2008-08-28T16:13:39","modified_gmt":"2008-08-28T23:13:39","slug":"texts-of-scripture-psalm-1831","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/2008\/08\/28\/texts-of-scripture-psalm-1831\/","title":{"rendered":"Text(s) of Scripture: Psalm 18:31"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the third in the “Text(s) of Scripture<\/a>” series between Thomas<\/a> and yours truly.<\/p>\n

Our present text is Psalm 18:31:<\/p>\n

As for God, his way is perfect;
\nthe word of the LORD is flawless.
\nHe is a shield
\nfor all who take refuge in him.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thom:<\/strong><\/p>\n

This God\u2014his way is perfect;
\n\u00a0\u00a0 the word of the LORD proves true;
\n\u00a0\u00a0 he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
\n\u00a0\u00a0
\n“Prove It!”<\/p>\n

That’s what a nine year old says to another nine year old when a boast has been made or a bluff is waiting to be called.\u00a0 Even if something is proven, the person who is right still might need to take refuge from the more powerful or the bully.\u00a0 Spun out into a cosmic game of good versus evil, where spears are being thrown at harp players and prophetic words seem weak when confronted with the sword, proving right over might seems impossible.<\/p>\n

In this psalm of David, he is declaring once again that the word of the LORD proves itself true, because it has been witnessed in his own life.\u00a0 He has seen God’s prophecy and law prove its worthiness and perfection.\u00a0 He has seen his life spared. He has seen the wisdom of the Proverbs play itself out in real life.\u00a0 He has heard God’s true prophets say “this is the word of the LORD” and then seen the fulfillment of this word.<\/p>\n

God’s word is his covenant to us.\u00a0 It is his agreement, his oath, his desire, focus, and pleasure.\u00a0 He speaks and the earth shakes.\u00a0 He speaks and Creation becomes.\u00a0 He delights in the fulfillment of his Word, the heirs of his coming kingdom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Christians live on the dawn of the last days.\u00a0 We have seen the light cusp the horizon, and we prepare for the sunrise.\u00a0 But it hasn’t come yet.<\/p>\n

But it has!\u00a0 Christ is risen each Easter morn, in each soul that follows his way, in each mouth that is fed, heart warmed, cold body clothed, and orphan adopted.\u00a0 His Word, though tempted and suffering, even death on a cross, has been proven.\u00a0 It was the same in the time of David.\u00a0 It will be the same forevermore, until the Kingdom dawns.<\/p>\n

Dave:<\/strong><\/p>\n

What does it mean that\u00a0the “word of\u00a0the Lord\u00a0is flawless?”\u00a0\u00a0I think this is a\u00a0kind of relational, experiential\u00a0term:\u00a0 God’s ways are perfect and his “word” is “tested” or “tried and true” — a more accurate translation of the Hebrew here than “flawless” (the Hebrew root refers to the purification and smelting of precious metals).\u00a0<\/p>\n

David here is referring specifically to the benefits of keeping the Torah, the Law.\u00a0 He claims in verses 18-24, for example, that<\/p>\n

For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And have not wickedly departed from my God.\u00a0
\n\u00a0For all His ordinances were before me,
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And I did not put away His statutes from me.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0I was also blameless with Him,
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And I kept myself from my iniquity.
\nTherefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes.<\/em><\/p>\n

David celebrates his fidelity to Torah and attributes his success over his enemies to superior keeping of Torah.\u00a0 In fact, this Psalm is recorded essentially verbatim in 2 Samuel 22, after David has consolidated his rule over Israel after bloody conflict with Saul and civil war against his own son, Absalom.<\/p>\n

David’s claim to be “blameless,” however, is something of a rhetorical and literary device.\u00a0 In fact, David repeatedly violated God’s law in serious ways.\u00a0 Absalom was the son of David’s unlawful\u00a0tryst with Bathsheba, which David tried to cover up through the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah (2 Samuel 11-12).\u00a0 As another example, David took a census of Israel, which\u00a0he later acknowledged to be sinful, and which resulted in a judgment of pestilence against Israel\u00a0(this census was sinful probably because it involved increased taxation, conscription and forced labor) (2 Sam. 24).\u00a0 David, who ultimately repents for his violations of the Law, is “blameless” only in comparison to those who disregard the Law entirely.<\/p>\n

The claim here, then, is that those who follow God’s ways will not be disappointed.\u00a0 There is also an implied lesson, I think, that\u00a0when we fail to follow God’s ways we should turn back to Him and that He will receive us.<\/p>\n

God’s “word” — His Law — His definition of the “good life” — is\u00a0“tried and true.”\u00a0 Many heroes of the faith — even highly flawed heroes such as David — have listened to God’s word and have found God to be faithful.\u00a0 And many others have obstinately turned aside from God’s ways, to their ultimate destruction.<\/p>\n

So\u00a0is this passage a proof text for a particular doctrine of scripture?\u00a0 Yes and no, I think.\u00a0 Yes, in that God’s precepts and commands, which fundamentally concern appropriate respect for God,\u00a0self, and others,\u00a0always lead to a\u00a0“true” life for those who follow them.\u00a0 No, I humbly submit, in that it\u00a0isn’t really connected to our\u00a0modern\u00a0meticulously phrased, logically systematic statements about how the human and divine aspects of scripture as a whole relate to each other in general, or about how scripture “measures up” to modern ideas of historiography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the third in the “Text(s) of Scripture” series between Thomas and yours truly. Our present text is Psalm 18:31: As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. Thom: This God\u2014his way is perfect; \u00a0\u00a0 the word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-texts-of-scripture","category-theology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p824rZ-aa","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}