Seder 126: Psalm 24---God as Creator, Holy One, and King

 Psalm 24 is a psalm associated with the first day of the week (the first day of creation) in Jewish tradition.  It begins by praising God as Creator.  God owns and rules all things because he created everything.  He brought order out of chaos, crafting a beautifully-designed universe (vv 1-2).

Because God is our Creator and Ruler, coming into his presence is not to be taken lightly.  Pilgrims coming to Jerusalem for the festivals were mindful of this, and verses 3-6 of Psalm 24, like Psalm 15, may be part of a liturgy for pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem.  For those who seek God, the goal is to live lives of integrity, where both deeds and thoughts are pure.  We should have "clean hands and a pure heart" (v 4).  

Psalm 24:7-10 pictures God the King triumphantly entering Jerusalem or the Temple.  This passage calls for the gates (of Jerusalem or of the Temple) to "lift up their heads" so that the King of Glory may enter.  Since gates do not have heads, verse 7 seems to be speaking figuratively.  (Or it could be calling for the people within the gates to lift up their heads.)  

Commentators (e.g., Tremper Longman) propose that these verses are from another liturgy, where perhaps the armies of Israel are returning from a victory.  Priests leading the way and bearing the ark of the covenant ask priests inside the gates to open them.  The liturgy praises God for giving his people the victory.  

The midrash on the Psalms associates verses 7-10 with the inauguration of Solomon's Temple.  When the ark is being brought to the new Temple, the gates initially refuse to open because Solomon has given himself too much credit for the building of the Temple (based on 1 Kings 8:13).  But when Solomon prays the words in 2 Chron 6:41-42, the gates open for the ark.  

Verse 7 refers to the gates as "ancient doors," suggesting another interpretation where the gates are the gates of either heaven or hell.  Christian tradition has long associated this passage with Jesus' ascension.  For example, Justin Martyr in chapter 36 of Dialogue with Trypho pictures Jesus arriving at the gates of heaven.  Since he bears the marks of crucifixion, the heavenly beings guarding the gates do not initially recognize him and ask who he is.  The Holy Spirit responds that this is the King of Glory, the Lord mighty in battle.  Justin, in other words, interprets this passage prosopologically, seeing more than one member of the Godhead speaking.  

Seder 18: Another Messianic Connection in Psalm 110---verse 3b

The Old Testament chapter most often referenced in the New Testament is Psalm 110.  The New Testament references are to verse 1 (about the position of David's Lord on the divine throne at God's right hand) and verse 4 (about the special priesthood of David's Lord patterned after that of Melchizedek).

Verse 3b also adds to the Messianic import of the psalm.  In the ESV, translated from the Masoretic Text, it reads: "from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours."

It's not clear at all what this means.  But the Septuagint has a definite Messianic thrust:  "From the womb, before the morning star, I brought you forth."  This translation seems to imply that David's Lord is a Son of God with ancient origins.

On the importance of the Septuagint in bringing out the full Messianic implications of the Old Testament, a good source is Michael Rydelnik's book The Messianic Hope.  In connection with Ps 110:3b, Rydelnik notes that some scholars believe the Masoretes arranged the vowel pointing in order to obscure the messianic implications of the verse.

At any rate, in the Hebrew consonantal text, there is an important word link between Ps 110:3b and Psalm 2:7:  "The LORD said to me, 'You are my Son; today I have begotten you.' "  This verse identifies the Davidic Messiah as a unique Son of God.  The word for "begotten" is common to Psalm 2:7 and Psalm 110:3.

We see a pairing of Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 in some New Testament passages---in Heb 1:5,13; Heb 5:5-6.  There is further evidence in Luke 22:69-70 that this connection was part of Jewish understanding in the days of Jesus.  For more discussion, see the paper "Hebrew-Only Exegesis:  A Philological Approach to Jesus' Use of the Hebrew Bible," by R. Steven Notley and Jeffrey P. Garcia, pp 349-376 in The Language Environment of First Century Judaea, Brill, 2014.

Ps 110:3b, as translated in the Septuagint, was important to early Christians.  For example, Justin Martyr used it to argue in Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 63, "does not this declare to you that [he was] from of old, and that the God and Father of all things intended for him to be begotten by a human womb?"

Seder 16: Genesis 18---Abraham's Mysterious Visitors

Genesis 18 begins by mentioning an appearance of God to Abraham.  Historically there have been two main interpretations of Genesis 18:1.  In one reading, the verse speaks of God coming to see Abraham, perhaps to comfort him after his recent circumcision.  According to this interpretation, three men arrive while Abraham is communing with God.  In verse 3 Abraham says to God, in effect, "Don't go away.  I need to take care of these visitors, but I'll be back."  He treats the men with great respect and rushes to prepare a banquet for them (Gen 18:1-8).

We soon learn that these are not ordinary visitors During the meal God announces again that Abraham and Sarah would soon have a son (vv 10-15), even though Sarah is past menopause.

God has a second momentous announcement to share with Abraham.  It is time to deal with the great evil coming from the nearby towns of Sodom and Gomorrah (vv. 16-21).  After this announcement, "the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD" (v 22).

Chapter 19 then begins by noting, "The two angels came to Sodom in the evening."  So two of the men are, in fact, angels.  What about the third?  One possibility is that the third is also an angel but is not needed at Sodom.  Perhaps he goes to Gomorrah instead, or on to whatever his next assignment is.  

Another possibility is that the third is the Lord who had announced the coming birth of Isaac and stayed behind to talk with Abraham.  In this scenario, Genesis 18:1 is saying that the visit of the three men constitutes an appearance of God, and he addresses one of the three men in verse 3.  

In this second reading, the third visitor's coming might have been a Christophany, an advance appearance of the Messiah.  Many Christians through the centuries have affirmed this interpretation, going back at least to Justin Martyr (c. 150 AD), who proposed it in Chapter 56 of his Dialogue with Trypho.

Those who identify the third man as the Messiah often point to Gen 19:24:  "Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven."  This verse seems to mention two "Lords", one presumably on earth and the other one in heaven.

The text does not tell us when Abraham recognized the special nature of his two visitors.  If he did not realize this at first, then his lavish hospitality is all the more remarkable.  Heb 13:2 seems to be a reference to Abraham and his visitors:  "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

On the other hand, if he quickly picked up on the fact that his visitors were more than human, then he can be credited with excellent powers of spiritual discernment.

In a sermon on July 4, 2020, David Waddle reflected on Abraham's example in Genesis 18, both his remarkable hospitality and his faithful intercession for Sodom.