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."

Hanukkah 2020: Jesus the Good Shepherd

 John 7-10 records events from the final year of Jesus' earthly ministry, starting with the Feast of Tabernacles and continuing through Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication.  (Where the "Sukkot section" of John ends and the "Hanukkah section" begins is an interesting question.  New Testament scholar Jack Poirier has argued that the Hanukkah section may begin as early as John 8:12.  See his paper "Hanukkah in the Narrative Chronology of the Fourth Gospel", NewTest.Stud. 54, pp.465–478, 2008.)

Jesus' words and deeds that fall and winter astounded many of those who had come to Jerusalem for the festivals. Was this the promised Messiah?  Religious leaders tended to be more skeptical.  When Jesus gave sight to a man who had been born blind (John 9), the man was questioned by religious leaders and ejected from a synagogue when his answers were deemed unsatisfactory (vv. 24-34).  Those leaders declared themselves to be the legitimate successors of Moses (v 28), but John implies that they, rather than the man Jesus had healed, were the ones who actually suffered from blindness (vv 35-41).  

It is in this context that Jesus proclaimed himself to be the true shepherd of Israel (John 10:1-18).  In the background are at least three passages from the Hebrew Scriptures:

1. Num 27:15-23, where Moses asks God to appoint his successor, so that Israel would not be "as sheep that have no shepherd".  Moses' successor was Joshua, and Jesus implies that he, another man named Joshua, was the true successor of Moses. 
2. Ezekiel 34:1-23, where Ezekiel condemns the leaders of Israel for abusing and exploiting their flock and prophesies that God personally would regather his flock from exile and place the Messiah as a shepherd over them.  In John 10, Jesus implies that he, as the good shepherd, is both God and Davidic Messiah.
3. Ezekiel 37:15-24, which speaks of God's people being united under one shepherd, the Messiah.  Jesus says that his one flock would include people from the nations along with Israel (John 10:16).  

With his words in John 10:1-18, Jesus indirectly identified himself as the long-awaited Messiah of Israel.  At Hanukkah, when there was widespread hope for some successor of the Maccabees to deliver Israel from Roman domination, people in Jerusalem hoped for a more direct declaration that Jesus was such a deliverer (v 24).  Jesus did not give one, but he did repeat that he was the good shepherd who could grant eternal life to his sheep through his close relationship with God (vv 25-30).    

Some at this point accused Jesus of blasphemy.  Jesus answered that God had many divine sons, pointing to the angels placed over the nations who were rebuked in Ps 82.   That God would designate a Son to be Israel's divine shepherd was therefore not a blasphemous notion.