Seder 36: Isaiah 51-52: Time to Wake Up

 In Isaiah 51:9-10, God's people in exile pray, "Awake, awake," asking God to intervene on their behalf as he had in the Exodus from Egypt.  

God responds by encouraging the people to concentrate on following him, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, and not to worry about their oppressors (verses 12-16).  

God goes on to say that it is the people who need to wake up (51:17; 52:1) and have faith so that they will be ready to follow him when he takes action on their behalf.  In 51:7-13, he states that their time of punishment is over, and now their enemies will be punished.  In 52:1-12, he affirms that he will indeed rescue his people again in a new Exodus.  The whole world will see this great event (v 10).  

Seder 24: Psalm 87---Praise to Zion, Mother of Nations

Psalm 87, a hymn of praise to Zion, may be associated with Israel's pilgrimage festivals, when people from all nations came to Jerusalem to worship God.  

Verse 3 declares, "Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God."  Here the words of the prophets may be particularly in view, in passages like Isaiah 2:1-4; 26:1-2; 60:15-22; 61:1-7.  Such verses picture Zion's restoration and people from all nations coming to Jerusalem to worship the true God.  

A representative sampling of the nations from which people flock to Jerusalem are listed in verse 4.  "Rahab" is listed here as a way of referring to Egypt (see Ps 89:10; Isa 30:7; 51:9).  Rahab is the name of a mythical sea monster, and God's victory over Egypt at the Red Sea can be pictured as a victory over that sea monster and the forces of chaos.  

When people from the nations submit to the God of Israel, they are counted as citizens of Zion.  In the Septuagint, verse 5 speaks of "Mother Zion."  It's possible that Paul is thinking of this verse in Galatians 4:26 when he speaks of "Jerusalem above" which is "our mother."

At the festivals in Jerusalem, singers and dancers declare, "All my springs are in you" (verse 7). They are celebrating at the place from which living waters flow (Jer 2:13; Isa 12:3; Eze 47; Rev 22:1-5).  

Seder 3: Psalm 150---The Who, Where, Why, What, How of Praise

 Psalm 150 closes the book of Psalms with a call to praise God.  Commentator Willem Van Gemeren observes that if one embarks on the journey of fearing and following God described in the first psalm, one will be led ultimately to adoration. 

The psalm tells us 

• who to praise:  God, the Creator and ruler of all.
• where he is:  in the heavenly sanctuary.
• why and for what to praise him:  for his mighty deeds that display his greatness.
• how to praise:  with full musical accompaniment, with the participation of the entire creation.

Because of the heavenly setting of verse 1, the midrash on Psalm 150 contemplates great works that God will do in the heavens at the end of the age, judging heavenly beings that he has set over the nations (as in Psalm 82) and bringing the new heavens and new earth.  The midrash quotes passages like....

Isa 34:4:  "All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll.  All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree."

Isa 51:6:  "Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever."

Seder 94: Psalm 35---Lament and Imprecation

 Psalm 35 is a psalm of David and an individual lament.  He begins by imploring God to plead his cause:  "Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me."  Here the midrash notes that God is indeed "your God who pleads the cause of his people" (Isa 51:22).  

David uses both military language and courtroom language to call on the Divine Warrior for help (vv 1-3).  Asserting his innocence (v. 7), he prays that God will make things right by bringing his persecutors to justice (vv 4-8).  As with other imprecations in the psalms, David is not seeking personal vengeance.  Those who turn against him often are opposing the progress of God's plan, and David is seeking for God to make things right.  (Many are praying with Psalm 35 in early 2022 during Russia's invasion of the Ukraine.) 

 He anticipates publicly praising God when his deliverance comes (vv 9-10, 18, 28).

As in other laments of a righteous sufferer, Christians see in Psalm 35 a foreshadowing of the later experience of Jesus.  The malicious witnesses in verse 11 remind us of Jesus' experience on the eve of his crucifixion (Mark 14:55-59).  

Moreover, in John 15:25, Jesus said, "But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled:  'They hated me without a cause.' " Here the reference is either to Psalm 69:4 or Ps 35:7,19, and Jesus was viewing one of those two psalms as a prophecy about himself. 

Seder 81: Psalm 75---Reasons to Give Thanks

 In Psalm 75, God's people together give thanks for God's "wondrous deeds," his works of creation and salvation.  

Verse 1 contains the interesting phrase, "your name is near."  This has been interpreted in two different ways.  One is that those who call on God's name tell of his wondrous deeds.  The second is that God's name is brought near to us through the story of his wondrous deeds.  Both are true.

Verses 2-5 record an oracle from God, where he assures his people that at the appropriate time, he brings righteous judgment; and when human sinfulness unleashes chaos upon the world, he holds things together.  Those who suppose that they can impose their own will in opposition to God ultimately will not be successful.  

Asaph the seer responds to this revelation from God in verses 6-8.  He affirms that indeed, there is no earthly power that determines the future.  Instead, it is God who judges the world, and people will be held accountable for what they have done.  

In verse 8, Asaph pictures the judgment of the wicked as a cup of potent wine that they will be forced to drink.  Other prophets use the same image (Ps 60:3; Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15-16; 51:7), and so does John in Rev 14:10.

We might look at Jesus' words at Gethsemane in connection with this image.  "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.  Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done" (Luke 22:42).  Jesus at that point was looking at the prospect of bearing the world's sins on our behalf and drinking the cup of judgment in our stead.

Asaph declares that he personally will proclaim God's great works and assist him in opposing the arrogant (vv 9-10).  

Seder 63: Psalm 66---Communal and Individual Praise

 Psalm 66 begins with a call for all the earth to praise God for his power and awe-inspriing deeds.  All will bow before him, whether voluntarily or (as in the case of defeated enemies) "cringing" (vv 1-4).

In particular, God controls the seas, and at the Red Sea and Jordan River, he moved the waters so that his people could pass through on dry land, leading the Israelites to praise him (see Exodus 15).  God "rules by his might forever" (v 7), as the Song of the Sea proclaims in Exodus 15:18.

In verses 8-12 Israel urges other nations to praise God because of what he has done for his people.  God has stayed with them through trials and brought them to "a place of abundance" (v 12).  

The imagery in verse 12 is reminiscent of words of Isaiah.  "We went through fire and through water" reminds us of Isa 43:1-2, where God promises to be with his people through such trials.  "You let men ride over our heads" is similar to Isa 51:22-23, where God promises to punish those who treat his people in this way.

In verses 13-20 an individual praises God for delivering him.  He brings sacrifices to thank God for rescuing him from trouble, sacrifices that he had promised to make when he prayed during his trial.  One is reminded, for example, of Jonah praying from the belly of the great fish (Jonah 2:9). 

At the temple the individual publicly declares what God has done for him.  He says that he had come before God in sincerity, not plotting any kind of sin, and that otherwise God would not have heard his prayer (v 18).  

Verse 18 may have been the source of the statement in John 9:31 by a man whom Jesus had healed:  "We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him."