Psalms 11 and 12; "I will now rise up” says the Lord!

Psalms 11

1 For the end, for the eighth, A psalm by David

2 Save me, O Lord, because a pious one has failed.

Because the truths from the sons of men have decreased.

3 Each one spoke vain things to his neighbor, 

Deceitful lips are by the heart and they spoke by the heart.

4 May the Lord completely destroy all the deceitful lips

and boastful tongues, 

5 Who said, “We will make our tongues great, 

Our lips are ours, 

Who is our lord?”

6 “From the misery of the poor, 

and from the groaning of the needy, 

I will now rise up” says the Lord, 

“I will appoint myself in salvation, I will speak boldly in it.”

7 The sayings of the Lord are pure, 

Silver refined by fire in the ground without alloy,

having been cleansed sevenfold.

8 You, O Lord, will guard us, 

and will keep us from this generation and forever.

9 The ungodly wonder around in a circle;

According to your height, you care greatly for the sons of men.

***

Psalms 12

1 For the end, A psalm by David

2 How long, O Lord, will you utterly forget me?

How long will you turn your face away from me?

3 How long will I place motives in my soul, 

and miseries in my heart daily?

How long will my enemy be lifted up over me?

4 Look on me, listen to me, O Lord my God.

Give light to my eyes, lest I will sleep unto death, 

5 Lest my enemy say, “I prevailed against him.”

Those who oppress me will rejoice, if I’m shaken.

6 But I hoped in your mercy, 

My heart will rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord who shows kindness to me, 

and I will sing a psalm to the name of the most high Lord.

***

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring the Greek Psalms that are headed by Εἰς τὸ τέλος (for the end) to see just how eschatological they were to the eyes of the New Testament authors and the our early christian brothers and sisters.  Let’s see if these two fit the bill so to speak.

Psalms 11 seems to be a prayer of a person who is devoted to God, but has succumbed in some way to the deceits of people who have persuaded the Psalmist to stray from the ways of the Lord.  But this prayer is not as much asking for forgiveness as it is asking for God to destroy all of these deceitful people who are deceiving the Lord’s people.

The Psalmist contrasts what the deceivers “sayings” are compared to the Lord’s “sayings”.  The deceivers speak deceit from the heart, but the Lord’s sayings are pure.  The deceivers say their tongues are great, but the Lord’s sayings are like silver.  The deceivers say they are their own masters over what they say and they have no lord over them.  But the Lord’s sayings will prevail because they have been refined in fire sevenfold.

That gets us to our main passage in this Psalm which is verse 6.  There we have the Lord himself speaking:

6 “From the misery of the poor, 

and from the groaning of the needy, 

I will now rise up” says the Lord, 

“I will appoint myself in salvation, I will speak boldly in it.”

What should be noted at first is that the Psalmist makes clear before now that the “deceivers” are the ones who are causing the the poor to be miserable and the needy to groan or sigh.  But what will the Lord do?  He will “now rise up”.  The verb here is ἀναστήσομαι, the future middle indicative of ἀνίστημι which is used much in the New Testament as “to resurrect”.  The nuance of the middle voice in Greek suggests that the person who is performing the action of the verb is doing it “for himself” or “to himself”, although not all verbs are like this.  If that is the intention here, then the Lord “will rise up by himself”.  That nuance is also found in the very next middle voiced verb τίθημι (I will appoint myself).

What could that mean to the the New Testament authors?  How could they have seen this verse?  How about like this: 

6 “From the misery of the poor, 

and from the groaning of the needy, 

I will now resurrect myself” says the Lord, 

“I will appoint myself in salvation, I will speak boldly in it.”

If the New Testament authors and early christians saw this verse in this way, you can see how powerful it was for them and for us!

This verse in this Psalm represents the “sayings” of the Lord that are pure as the finest refined silver what has been refined sevenfold.  We know that “seven” represents “completeness” in the New Testament, especially in Revelation.

And the Lord will guard and keep us, from the current generation we live in now and all future generations.  The ungodly are going nowhere fast as they “wonder in a circle”, but the Lord cares for his people and will deliver them.

Psalm 12 is a prayer to God for deliverance from a person’s own doing and from the doing of his enemy who possibly has influenced him in the wrong way.

In the opening verse, we see Ἕως πότε (How long?) which reminds me of Revelation 6:10 when the martyrs cry out:

…”How long (ἕως πότε), O Master, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood from those who dwell on the earth?”

The enemies are prevailing!  They think they have won!  But no!  The Psalmist has hoped in the Lord and the Lord will renew his spirit which is probably what the idiomatic saying (Give light to my eyes, lest I will sleep unto death) means.

The Lord will deliver!  As a result of the absolute future action by the Lord, the Psalmist will sing to the Lord and sing a psalm to his name!

Can you feel it?  Can you see it like our earliest christian brothers and sister could see it?  

You can see how this could have been seen as eschatological to the first century christians.

Psalms 8; What is man or the Son of Man?

Psalms 8

1 For the end, for the wine presses, a Psalm by David

2 O Lord our Lord, how marvelous is your name in all the earth, 

because your majesty has been lifted up far above heaven.

3 From the mouth of infants and nursing babies you prepared praise for yourself for the sake of your enemies; 

to destroy enemy and avenger.

4 Because I will see heaven, the works of your fingers,

the moon and stars, which you founded.

5 What is man, that you remember him

or the son of man, that you are concerned about him?

6 You made him lower than the angels for a little while, 

You crowned him with glory and honor.

7 And you appointed him over the works of your hands, 

You subjected all things under his feet,

8 All sheep and cattle, 

and furthermore, the animals of the plain,

9 The birds of heaven and the fish of the sea, 

the things passing through the paths of the sea.

10 O Lord our Lord, how marvelous is your name in all the earth.

(My Translation, LXX)

This Psalm is one that stands high.  It is a Psalm to God for what God has done.  The Psalmist marvels at what God has made as he looks up into the sky.  It is much quoted and alluded to in the New Testament, which is where we will spend most of our time today.

When I was a kid growing up in the ’80s, one of the youth choir songs that we sang was based upon this Psalm.  It was a praise song written by Michael W. Smith.  That song was so popular, it is still sung today in churches.  So, every time I read this Psalm, I think of singing that song.

Besides being a Psalm that’s recognized because of a song was written about it, it will also be recognized by those who read the New Testament.  As I stated in the last message, the heading Εἰς τὸ τέλος (for the end) may indicate the Psalm is eschatological in nature.  Remember, eschatology begins with Jesus. 

With that said, we must look at “HOW” this Psalm was quoted in the New Testament.

The first part of verse 2 is directly quoted by Jesus in its Greek (LXX) form in Matthew 21:16.  Here are the comparisons.

Psa. 8:3 ἐκ στόματος νηπίων καὶ θηλαζόντων κατηρτίσω αἶνον (LXX)

Psa. 8:3 From the mouth of infants and nursing babies you prepared praise for yourself

Mt 21:16d ἐκ στόματος νηπίων καὶ θηλαζόντων κατηρτίσω αἶνον

Mt 21:16d  From the mouth of infants and nursing babies you prepared praise for yourself

You can see that this is an exact quote from the LXX.  The “for yourself” is the nuance of the 2nd Person Aorist Middle verb κατηρτίσω.

But in what context was this used in Matthew?

Jesus has come into Jerusalem in triumph as the people sang praises to him:

ὡσαννὰ τῷ υἱῷ Δαυίδ·

εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου·

ὡσαννὰ ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις.

Hosanna to the son of David

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord;

Hosanna in the highest.

Jesus cleanses the temple and then heals blind and lame people. After that, the High Priests and Lawyers (scribes) hear and see all of this and they come to rebuke Jesus for letting the crowd sing to him!  Jesus’ response to them is this quotation from Psa. 8:3.  

So what makes it eschatological?  Jesus quotes the passage and applies it to himself!  He is the one who “prepared praises for himself”, and I will add, “for the sake of his enemies”.

The last citation that we will deal with is in Hebrews Chapter 2.

What is fascinating about Hebrews is that it was written to Hebrew Christians who were flirting with the idea that it would be better for them to return to Judaism than to stay in Christianity.  There also seems to be some sort of controversy over angels, but that’s for another day.

The author of Hebrews starts out by reassuring that Jesus is who they’ve said Jesus is.  The author quotes many Old Testament passages (from the LXX) for proof that Jesus is the one to place their trust in.  He talks about how Jesus is the one whose act cleansed us from our sins (crucifixion) and how he is superior to angels.  Angels don’t get to be God’s son.  Angels don’t get to inherit God’s throne. Angels worship Jesus.  Jesus, on the other hand, is God’s son, inherits God’s throne, and is worshipped by angels.

Salvation was communicated through Jesus to the Apostles and the people will do well to remember it!

The world will not be under the control of angels, but it will be under the control of Jesus, the son of God.  This leads us to our quotation from Psalms.  First off, let’s compare them.

Psa. 8:5 τί ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος, ὅτι μιμνῄσκῃ αὐτοῦ, 

ἢ υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου, ὅτι ἐπισκέπτῃ αὐτόν; 

6 ἠλάττωσας αὐτὸν βραχύ τι παρ᾿ ἀγγέλους, 

δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ ἐστεφάνωσας αὐτόν· 

7 καὶ κατέστησας αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὰ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν σου, 

πάντα ὑπέταξας ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ (LXX)

5 What is man, that you remember him

or the son of man, that you are concerned about him?

6 You made him lower than the angels for a little while, 

You crowned him with glory and honor.

7 And you appointed him over the works of your hands, 

You subjected all things under his feet,

Heb 2:6 διεμαρτύρατο δέ πού τις λέγων·

τί ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος ὅτι μιμνῄσκῃ αὐτοῦ,

ἢ υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ὅτι ἐπισκέπτῃ αὐτόν;

7 ἠλάττωσας αὐτὸν βραχύ τι παρ᾿ ἀγγέλους,

δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ ἐστεφάνωσας αὐτόν,

8 πάντα ὑπέταξας ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ.

Heb 2:6 Now it was testified somewhere saying, 

What is man, that you remember him

or the son of man, that you are concerned about him?

7 You made him lower than the angels for a little while, 

You crowned him with glory and honor.

8 And you appointed him over the works of your hands, 

You subjected all things under his feet.

Note that the quote is exactly like the LXX.  The author has applied this quotation to Jesus.  He even goes farther.  Jesus was made “lower than the angels for a little while” in order to be that sin offering.  Jesus was made “lower than the angels for a little while” in order to experience death for everyone!  But now, Jesus is crowned with glory and honor because he experienced that death and will eventually be ruling over everything even though we may not see it now!  So, he is now superior to angels!

Note the “now, but not yet” of the passage.  Jesus reigns now in heaven and all things are under his feet in a spiritual sense, but soon, he will physically reign and all things will physically be under his feet.

You can see how powerful the writer of Hebrews has made this passage!

One final note on translation.  Many of us who grew up reading the KJV would read this passage as 

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?  7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:  8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.(KJV)

“Thou madest him a little lower than the angels” is a mis-translation.  βραχύ τι denotes time.  See below from BDAG (A GREEK - ENGLISH LEXICON of the NEW TESTAMENT and other EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE)

2. pert. to being brief in duration, brief, short, of time: β. (τι) for a short time (Ael. Aristid. 13 p. 276 D.) Ac 5:34; Hb 2:7 (quotes Ps 8:6, which refers to rank; in Is 57:17 β. τι denotes time), 9; μετὰ β. a little later Lk 22:58.

“βραχύς,” BDAG, 183.

Now for all you KJV only folks who combat such a treachery, note that the author of Hebrews understands that βραχύ τι denotes time.  Otherwise, Jesus couldn’t be superior to angels if he was still “a little lower than angels”.  No, he was made to be lower than angels for a short time in order to carry out his mission of being a sin offering for us.  The author of Hebrews even makes this argument in his/her (Thanks Bro. Kozar!) context after she quotes the passage from Psalms 8.  I’ve even consulting my Hebrew friends who have also confirmed that the Hebrew behind βραχύ τι also denotes time.  Now, there is no more excuse.

O Lord our Lord, how marvelous is your name in all the earth!

Psalms 5; An Eschatological Prayer?

Psalms 5

1 For the end, for her who inherits (this music to play?), a Psalm by David

2 Give ear to my words, O Lord,

understand my cry, 

3 Pay attention to the voice of my prayer, 

O my King and my God, 

because I will pray to you, O Lord.

4 In the morning, you will listen to my voice.

In the morning, I will present myself to you and I will look on.

5 Because you are not a God who wants lawlessness, 

nor will one acting wickedly live beside you.

6 The lawless will not continue before your eyes;

You hated all who work lawlessness.

7 You will destroy all who speak the lie;

The Lord detests blood-thirsty and deceitful men.

8 But I, by the abundance of your mercy, will go into your house, 

I will bow down to your holy shrine in fear of you.

9 O Lord, lead me in your righteousness for the sake of my enemies,

make your way straight before me, 

10 Because there is no truth in their mouth, 

Their heart is empty, 

Their throat is an opened grave, 

They were deceiving with their tongues.

11 Judge them, O God!

Let them fall away from their own plotting.

Expel them according to their multitude of impieties, 

because they have provoked you, O Lord.

12 And let all who hope in you be glad;

They will rejoice forever, and you will settle among them, 

and all who love your name will boast in you, 

13 Because you will bless the righteous, 

O Lord, you have crowned us with a shield of favor.

***

I would like to note that this Psalm is a prayer to God.  Not only that, but it is a prayer to be delivered from enemies or from those who are persecuting or speaking against David.  We’ve all been through that.  Whether a bully when we were kids, friends picking on us, family members, work bosses, you name it, they’ve done it.  Either by physical abuse or verbal abuse, they've done it.

There are some Scholars who think that Εἰς τὸ τέλος (for the end) refers to the eschatological nature of a Psalm.  In other words, it is a line that that was added in the title to state that the following Psalm is addressing the end times in some way.  Let’s see if that can hold up as we look at this Psalm.

Perhaps verse 3 is one of those “end time” indicators with the use of ὁ βασιλεύς μου καὶ ὁ θεός μου (O my King and my God).  

2 Give ear to my words, O Lord,

understand my cry,

3 Pay attention to the voice of my prayer, 

O my King and my God, 

because I will pray to you, O Lord.

Jesus is the eschatological King who reigns from on high.  He was to “come into his kingdom”.  He was called by the Romans in a mocking way, “the King of the Jews”.  But here, we have David praying to “my King”!  Is this perhaps prophetic in nature that a new King will come?

In verse 4, we will see something familiar; “In the morning”.  We as humans always see the dawn of a new day as a fresh start to the bad day we just had.  So did ancient people.  

4 In the morning, you will listen to my voice.

In the morning, I will present myself to you and I will look on.

Kαὶ ἐπόψομαι (and I will look on) is a figure of speech that means that “I’m waiting on a reply”.  It’s very similar to the expression in this dialog.

Person 1: “Can you help me?”

Person 2: “Let me see.”

Here, “Let me see” means “Let me find out if I can help you or not”.

In verses 5-7, we see why God should listen to this prayer.

5 Because you are not a God who wants lawlessness, 

nor will one acting wickedly live beside you.

6 The lawless will not continue before your eyes;

You hated all who work lawlessness.

7 You will destroy all who speak the lie;

The Lord detests blood-thirsty and deceitful men.

The prayer is from a righteous person before God.  God will not put up with lawlessness.  He will destroy all of those lawless people.  If this Psalm is eschatological, then this is referring to the end.

But David will bow down in the holy shrine before God and pray.

8 But I, by the abundance of your mercy, will go into your house, 

I will bow down to your holy shrine in fear of you.

9 O Lord, lead me in your righteousness for the sake of my enemies,

make your way straight before me,

He prays that the Lord will lead him along the right path, because his enemies are speaking against him.  He wants to be vindicated before God.

Note the poetic way that the enemies are referred to in verse 10.

10 Because there is no truth in their mouth, 

Their heart is empty, 

Their throat is an opened grave, 

They were deceiving with their tongues.

The enemies are speaking against the Psalmist.  The Psalmist wants vindication from all of these deceits.  In the last line, ἐδολιοῦσαν (they were deceiving) is in the imperfect which make the aspect “continual”.  In other words, they are continually deceiving when they speak.

And what does the Psalmist think should happen to people like this?  

11 Judge them, O God!

Let them fall away from their own plotting.

He thinks God should judge them and let them succumb to the “plots” or “devices” of their own doing.  For eventually, evils are found out.  Eventually, evils get exposed.  Eventually, a person’s evils will be their undoing.

The Lord is to “expel” them.  

Expel them according to their multitude of impieties, 

because they have provoked you, O Lord. 

By the context, ἐξωθέω (expel by force) means to “expel them from us who are ungodly and not the godly”.  “Expel them because they have caused you to become angry and let your wrath come down”!  This too may be an indicator that this Psalm is eschatological in nature.  The wicked are driven off like “dust from the face of the earth” (Psalms 1:4) and the righteous will remain.

But nothing may make this more eschatological than the last 2 verses.

12 And let all who hope in you be glad;

They will rejoice forever, and you will settle among them, 

and all who love your name will boast in you, 

13 Because you will bless the righteous, 

O Lord, you have crowned us with a shield of favor.

Note, this is perhaps after the ungodly are expelled.  The Lord will settle or live among the righteous and all the righteous will boast in the Lord.  God currently lives “up there”, but eventually, he will live with us.  Our enemies surround us on all sides, but the Lord “will drive them from the face of the earth”.

The righteous will be protected with the shield that God has provided them.

Psalms 1&2; The Eschatological "Book-end", LXX Studies

Psalms 1

1 Happy is the man who didn’t go in the counsel of the ungodly

and didn’t stand in the way of sinners

and didn’t sit on the seat of pernicious people (harmful or destructive).

2 but rather, his will is in the law of the Lord, 

and he will meditate day and night in his law.

3 He will be like the tree which has been planted along side the springs of waters,

which will give its fruit in its due time,

and will not shed its leaves;

and all things, as much as he does, he will prosper.

4 Not so are the ungodly, not so!

But rather, they are like the dust which the wind has driven away from the face of the earth.

5 For this reason, the ungodly will not rise up in judgement

nor will the sinners in the counsel of the righteous,

6 because the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

and the way of the ungodly will perish.

***

Psalms 2

1 Why did the nations become insolent

and why did the people meditate over vain things?

2 The kings of the earth stood by

and the leaders gathered together at the same place

against the Lord and against his Anointed One.

διάψαλμα (musical interlude)

3 “Let us break their bonds

and let us cast away their yoke from us.”

4 The One who dwells in heaven will laugh at them, 

and the Lord will sneer at them.

5 Then He will speak to them in his anger, 

and he will trouble them in his wrath.

6 But I have been appointed king by him, 

on Zion, his holy mountain, 

7 proclaiming the commandment of the Lord.

The Lord said to me, “You are my son.  Today, I have become your Father.

8 Ask from me and I will give you the nations as an inheritance, 

and the ends of the earth as your possessions.

9 You will shepherd them with an iron scepter, 

you will crush them as a potter’s vessel.”

10 And now, O kings, gain insight!

Be instructed, all you who judge the earth!

11 Serve the Lord as a slave with fear, 

and rejoice in him with trembling.

12 Seize instruction, lest the Lord becomes angry, 

and you will perish from the righteous way

when his wrath becomes quickly inflamed.

Happy are all who put their trust in him.

Most scholars see these two Psalms as the front “book end” of the Psalms.  This is mostly due to the fact that Psalms 1 starts with a beatitude and Psalms 2 ends with a beatitude similar to what we find in Matthew 5. 

Psalms 1 serves as an instructional Psalm while Psalms 2 is a Royal Psalm as it deals with the King of Israel (David).  We will hit the highlights, but I really want to focus on the eschatology of these Psalms that, perhaps, really show they go together and “book end” the front of the Psalms.

As I stated before, the first line of Psalms 1 and the last line of Psalms 2 are beatitudes.  Both line begin with the Greek word Μακάριος which means “blessed” or “happy”.

The first part of the 1st Psalm shows why a man is happy while following the way of the Lord, but the 2nd part describes what happens to the “ungodly”.

In 1:4, the Hebrew text doesn’t have ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς γῆς (from the face of the earth).  This either represents a reading from a Hebrew text that no longer exist, or it was an interpretive add that makes the passage eschatological (See footnote 10 on pg 59 of “The Book of Psalms” NICOT, deClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, Tanner).  Not only will the ungodly be blown by the wind, they will also be wiped from the face of the earth!

There are other ways that show how the NT writers could have seen this Psalm as eschatological.

In 1:5, the Greek verb ἀνίστημι is used.  Generally, this means to “rise up”, but it also can mean “to resurrect” as it does in many cases in the NT.  The idea of “not resurrecting in judgement” possibly means that the ungodly will not have their day in court in order to defend themselves for their actions.

That this passage could really be eschatological, shouldn’t be a surprise.  In Matthew 12:41, Jesus alludes to this very verse.

Matt. 12:41 Ἄνδρες Νινευῖται ἀναστήσονται ἐν τῇ κρίσει μετὰ τῆς γενεᾶς ταύτης καὶ κατακρινοῦσιν αὐτήν, ὅτι μετενόησαν εἰς τὸ κήρυγμα Ἰωνᾶ, καὶ ἰδοὺ πλεῖον Ἰωνᾶ ὧδε.

Matt. 12:41 The Ninevite men will rise up/resurrect in judgement with this generation and they will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, there is one greater than Jonah here.

In this case, the Ninevite men will be able to defend themselves in court, but the current generation of Israel (the Scribes and the Pharisees) will not.  From the language, you can see how the New Testament writers could have seen this Psalm.

So, does the New Testament see this judgement happening at the resurrection?  I would say “yes”!

Although Psalm 2 is a royal Psalm about David, it was seen as an eschatological Psalm about the coming Christ.

In 2:2, “the Anointed One” is the Χριστός (Christ).  

In 2:7, we have Υἱός μου εἶ σύ, ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννηκά σε (You are my son.  Today, I have become your Father).  This verse is alluded to in Romans 1:4 and cited in Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; 5:5.

In 2:8, δώσω σοι ἔθνη τὴν κληρονομίαν σου (I will give you the nations as an inheritance).  Most of the time in the NT, ἔθνη means “gentiles”.  If you look at Daniel 7:14, we have:

Dan. 7:14 καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ ἐξουσία, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη τῆς γῆς κατὰ γένη καὶ πᾶσα δόξα αὐτῷ λατρεύουσα· καὶ ἡ ἐξουσία αὐτοῦ ἐξουσία αἰώνιος, ἥτις οὐ μὴ ἀρθῇ, καὶ ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ, ἥτις οὐ μὴ φθαρῇ.

Dan 7:14 And I will give authority to him, and all of the nations (gentiles) of the earth according to race, and all glory were worshipping him.  And his authority is eternal, which will never be taken away, and his kingdom, will never be destroyed (or “corrupted”). (LXX)

You can see how the NT writers would have seen this as scripture related to the coming Christ.

2:9 is quoted and alluded to in Rev. 2:27; 12:5; 19:15.  An iron scepter (ῥάβδῳ σιδηρᾷ) for King David, but an iron rod for the Shepherd Jesus.

Get a grip, O kings of the earth.  The real King is coming.  Seize the Lord’s instructions, lest you suffer his wrath when he comes.

Happy are all who put their trust in him.