Seder 68: Psalm 141---Prayer for Deliverance, Wisdom, and Vindication

Psalm 141 has been classified as an individual lament.  The psalmist (traditionally David) begins with an urgent plea for deliverance (vv 1-2).  

He then asks God for protection from evil in speech, thought, and action (vv 3-5c).  This part of the prayer reminds us of a line from the Lord's Prayer:  "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Mt 6:13).  

Those who tempt us to sin are often wealthy, powerful, and influential (v 4).  A good policy is to depend on God and avoid bad company.  It is better to spend time with the righteous, who tell us what we need to hear rather than what we might want to hear (v 5).   

David prays for God to judge those in high places who do evil.  Then others may listen to David and hesitate to follow the wicked (v 6).  In verse 7 he quotes a proverb that commentator Willem Van Gemeren paraphrases this way: "As the famer breaks up  the soil and brings up the rocks, so the bones of the wicked will be scattered without a decent burial."

Through his prayer David's faith is strengthened; he knows that the Sovereign LORD can save him.  He prays that God judge the wicked and vindicate him (vv 8-10).

 During the Second Temple period, Psalm 141 became associated with the evening sacrifice at the Temple, based on  verse 2:  "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!"  Incense was seen as symbolizing prayer, and people often prayed at the time when incense was being offered at the Temple (Dan 9:21; Lk 1:9-10).  

In the book of Revelation, incense offered in the heavenly Temple is identified with the prayers of the saints (Rev 5:8; 8:1-5).  Since the prayers in Rev 8:1-5 are followed by judgments on the wicked, the implication is that the saints were praying for God to make things right, as David was doing in Psalm 141.    

Seder 29: Genesis 30, 1 Samuel 1-2---Rachel and Hannah

 After about seven years of infertility, Jacob's wife Rachel gave birth to a son, Joseph.  We are not told what use she might have made of the mandrakes she obtained from her sister.  The implication is that this detail is irrelevant.  Genesis emphasizes that it was God who "opened her womb" (Ge 30:22).  

Joseph is one of a series of special sons, miraculously given to couples struggling with infertility, who have important roles to play in salvation history.  Others include Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist.  

These sons were answers to prayer.  Genesis 30:22 notes that God "listened to" Rachel.  In the case of Samuel's mother Hannah, we are given some details about one of those prayers.  Hannah vowed to God that she would dedicate a son to his service "if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me..." (1 Sa 1:11).  Her language is very similar to that of Exodus 3;7, where God states, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people."  Hannah asked God to deliver her from infertility as he had always delivered his people.

When Hannah brought young Samuel to the tabernacle, she gave a beautiful prayer of thanksgiving (1 Sa 2:1-10).  Walter Kaiser, in his book on great prayers in the Hebrew Scriptures, divides the prayer into three parts:

• In verses 1-3, Hannah expresses her great joy and praises God's greatness and incomparability.  In verse 3, when she says, "Talk no more so very proudly..," we can imagine that she has her personal tormentor Peninnah in mind, but the word for "your" in this verse is in plural form. 
• In verses 4-8, Hannah describes how God watches out for those in need, stepping in to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.  "The barren has borne seven," she declares in verse 5, and she would go on to have at least six children in all (verse 21).  
• In verses 9-10, Hannah looks ahead to the culmination of God's plan, when God will judge the world and send his Messiah.  Samuel would later anoint the first two kings of Israel, contributing to the fulfillment of this prophecy.

Her prayer expressed the thanksgiving of all the barren women who had been granted children.  It also became a template for future songs of praise.  Mary's prayer in Luke 1:46-55 has similiar structure and content.  A psalm of David recorded in both 2 Samuel 2 and Psalm 18 has several parallels with Hannah's prayer:

• In verse 1, Hannah says that God exalts her "horn"---that is, lifts her up and gives her strength---as does David in Psalm 18:2.
• In verse 2, Hannah refers to God as her "rock," as does David in Psalm 18:2.
• In verse 10 Hannah pictures God "thundering," as David does in Psalm 18:13.  In Hannah's case God answers the taunts of Peninnah.  In 1:6, the verb for thundering is used to describe Peninnah "irritating" Hannah.  
• Hannah ends her prayer with an assertion of God's faithfulness to his anointed king, as does David in Psalm 18:50.  

Seder 88: Malachi 4:2---Rediscovery of a Messianic Hyperlink

Malachi 4:2 has long been recognized by Christians as a messianic prophecy:

"But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings" (NIV).

In particular, this verse may be in view in Luke 1:78, which speaks of the sunrise visiting us from on high.

One detail of this verse's connection to Jesus is not so widely recognized, however, outside of the Hebraic roots/Messianic community.  As Lois Tverberg explains in Chapter 11, footnote 8 of Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, the Hebrew word for "wings'' in Mal 4:2 (kanafim) also refers to the "corners'' of a man's garment, to which tassels (tzitziot) were attached.  And so when people received healing by touching the "hem" of Jesus' garment (Mark 6:56), they were being healed by his "wings".

I first learned about the connection between Malachi 4:2 and the tzitziot of Jesus in 1998 from Dwight Pryor's Our Hebrew Lord teaching series.    

New Testament scholar Dale Allison has found that this connection is not a new development in Christian exegesis.  In a 2008 paper, he reported that it is mentioned in the Testimony Book of Pseudo-Epiphanius, a Christian source that has been dated to the fourth century AD.  He has also found it in the Bibliotheca of Photius (ninth century), as well as in commentaries by Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), Matthew Poole (17th century), Matthew Henry (1662-1714), H. Elsley (1745-1833), and Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885).  He has found no trace of it, however, in any academic commentaries from the last 150 years. 

As far as Allison can tell, the Hebraic roots/Messianic community has independently rediscovered and revived  the idea of connecting Mal 4:2 with Mark 6:56 and its synoptic parallels.  This is one specific example of the value of being aware of the Jewishness of Jesus.  For people who know that Jesus, as a Jew, wore tassels on the corner of his garment, it is not so hard to put the two passages together.

Source:  Dale Allison, "Healing in the Wings of His Garment:  The Synoptics and Malachi 4:2", pp. 132-146 in The Word Leaps the Gap:  Essays on Scripture and Theology in Honor of Richard B. Hays, J. Ross Wagner, C. Kavin Rowe, and A. Katherine Grieb, editors, Eerdmans, 2008.

Seder 73: Psalm 132---The End of the Ark's Pilgrimage

 Psalm 132 is the longest of the psalms of ascent (120-134), a group of psalms associated with pilgrimage to Jerusalem for festival days.  It is a psalm about the ark of the covenant being transported to Jerusalem in the days of King David (2 Sam 6; 1 Chron 15-16).

In this case the ark was not on a temporary journey to Jerusalem for a festival.  In fact, the ark was finally coming to rest at Zion at the end of a long pilgrimage.  "Arise O Lord and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might," we read in Psalm 132:8.

The psalm praises David's tireless efforts to bring the ark to Zion and asks that God remember David for these efforts (vv 1-5).  God responds that he will remember his covenant with David, a covenant that includes the promise that a Davidic king will rule forever.  

Psalm 132 includes a messianic prophecy.  Of Zion God says, "There I will make a horn sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed."  Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, refers to this prophecy in Luke 1:69.

There is another reference to Psalm 132 in Acts 2:30, where Peter mentions the oath of Psalm 132:11 in his Pentecost sermon.  And Stephen in Acts 7:46 alludes to Psalm 132:5.

On September 17, 2021, Kyle Kettering gave a sermon on Psalm 132 at Church of the Messiah.  He noted another significant theme of Psalm 132, that of God as teacher (see v 12).  "Who is a teacher like him?", Job 36:22 asks.  Isa 2:3 pictures people from all nations coming to Zion to learn from him.  

Seder 46: Psalm 103---Extolling God's Love and Forgiveness

 Psalm 103 begins and ends with the psalmist exhorting himself to praise God.  By the end of the psalm, he will also call upon all of God's heavenly host to join him.  

The psalm praises God for his forgiving nature.  God is the one "who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases" (v 3).  This verse is saying that not only does God forgive our sins, he will often graciously remove their consequences.  In context, the "diseases" here include more than medical conditions, taking in all the kinds of problems into which we get ourselves.

The mention of forgiveness in conjunction with healing reminds of Jesus' healing of the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12).  On that occasion Jesus told the man that his sins were forgiven (v 5).  When people wondered about Jesus claiming this divine prerogative, he went on to heal the man, showing that he did indeed have the authority to forgive sins.  

Psalm 103 expands upon one of the most important passages in scripture, God's revelation of his merciful nature in Exo 34:6-7.  This key passage is referred to often in the Bible--e.g., in Ps 86:15;Ps 145:8.  Psalm 103 describes God's mercy and forgiveness stretching throughout time and space---vv 11-12, 17.  It also emphasizes that God's mercy is expressed toward those who fear him---vv 11,13,17.  

Psalm 103 is referenced once in the New Testament, in Luke 1:50 during Mary's prayer of thanksgiving--Luke 1:50.  

Feast of Trumpets 2020: The Birth of Samuel

 The Bible chronicles a number of miraculous births, beginning with that of Isaac in the book of Genesis and continuing on to those of John the Baptist and Jesus in Luke 1-2.  

In between  falls the birth of Samuel, which has connections with both Genesis and Luke.  

The parallel family situations of  Abraham/Sarah and Elkanah/Hannah constitute one connection between Genesis and Samuel.  Abraham and Sarah are unable to have children, but Abraham has a son with a second wife, Hagar.  Similarly, Elkanah and Hannah are unable to have children, but Elkanah has children with a second wife, Peninnah (1 Sam 1).  

After the miraculous birth of his son Isaac, Abraham shows willingness to give up Isaac at God's command (Gen 22).  Similarly, Elkanah and Hannah willingly give up Samuel to God's service (1 Sam 1:21-28).  

After Samuel's birth Hannah's prayer concludes with a prophecy of a coming Messiah:  "The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed" (1 Sam 2:10).  Her prayer has much in common with Mary's prayer of thanksgiving in Luke 1:46-55.  Both prayers praise God for exalting the humble and humbling the proud. 

There are also a number of parallels between Samuel and Jesus and their families.  Like Mary and Joseph, Hannah and Elkanah made regular pilgrimages to worship God (1 Sam 1:3; Luke 2:41).  Samuel as a young boy served under Eli the priest (1 Sam 2:11), while Jesus discussed aspects of the Torah with teachers at the Temple in Jerusalem when he was 12 years old (Luke 2:46-47).  Luke seems to emphasize the connection between Samuel and Jesus when he writes in Luke 2:52 that "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men," an apparent reference to 1 Sam 2:26.  

According to David Daube (The New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism, pp 13-14), there is also a rabbinic legend that the boy Samuel once corrected Eli on a technical point involving sacrificial regulations.  If this story was extant in the first century, it could further explain why Luke saw Samuel's boyhood as typical of Jesus' boyhood. 

Seder 19: Ps 106---God's Faithfulness Versus Man's Fickleness

Psalm 105 and Psalm 106 are two major Exodus psalms.  Both rehearse the history of God's mighty deeds on behalf of his people, but they have distinct emphases.  Psalm 105 emphasizes God's faithfulness and sovereignty, while Psalm 106 contrasts God's faithfulness with the fickleness of his people. 

Psalm 106 is a psalm of repentance.  Sins from Israel's history are confessed, including 

• Israel's lust for meat in the wilderness (Num 11);
• the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram (Num 16)
• the golden calf incident (Exod 32);
• the Baal Peor incident (Num 25)
• Moses' sin at Meribah (Num 20)
• Israel's failure to fully conquer Canaan.

The psalm was written at some time after the exile of the house of Judah in 587/586 BC, since it recalls God's mercy to his people in exile and prays for the restoration of the nation (vv 40-47).  

Psalm 106 has several New Testament connections.  Verse 20  ("They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass") uses language taken up by Paul in Rom 1:23 in discussing the human tendency toward idolatry.  Verse 37 ("They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons") is referred to in 1 Cor 10:20, where Paul affirms that the gods of the nations are demons (see also Deut 32:17).  Also interesting is the statement that the decisive intervention of Phinehas at Baal Peor "counted to him as righteousness" (v 31), another example of faith demonstrated by works---see also James 2:14-26.  

The language of Ps 106 also appears several times in Zechariah's hymn of rejoicing at the birth of John the Baptist in Luke 1:68-79.  Verse 68 uses the language of Ps 106:48, verse 71 refers to Ps 106:10 (LXX), and verse 72 refers to Ps 106:45.  The birth of John the Baptist is example of the love and faithfulness of God extolled in Ps 106.

Seder 8: Psalm 107---A Call to Give Thanks

Psalm 107 is a Psalm of thanksgiving.  The first three verses imply that it was written after the return of some Israelites from exile.  Verses 2-3 urge those to give thanks whom God has "gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south" (ESV). 

A few verses earlier, in Psalm 106:47, there is a prayer:  "Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise."  Psalm 107:1-3 suggests that this prayer was answered.

Psalm 107 praises God's "wondrous works to the children of man'' (v. 8) including

• guiding those lost in the wilderness (vv 4-9);
• freeing prisoners who cry to him for help (vv 10-16)
• healing the sick (vv 17-22)
• protecting those who go to sea (vv 23-32).

The implication is that no place or situation is beyond the scope of God's love. 

The psalm calls upon those whom God has rescued to "extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders" (v. 32).  And it advises us to consider and learn from the many examples of God's steadfast love so that we will grow in wisdom and faith (v 43).

One verse in this psalm (verse 9) is quoted in the New Testament, in Luke 1:53, where Mary testifies, "He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty."  Mary praises God for raising up the lowly and judging those who exalt themselves, as this Psalm does in vv 33-42. 

Verses 23-32 remind us of Jesus' calming a storm (Matt 8:23-27).  We think of Noah as an example of one rescued by God who then proceeds to give thanks (Gen 8:20-22). 

Seder 6 Sermon: He Remembers

Several wisdom Psalms are traditionally associated with the biblical account of Noah.  Wisdom Psalms, like the book of Proverbs, contrast two ways of life and their consequences.  We also see such a contrast starkly portrayed in Gen 6-9.

In his Seder 6 sermon,  Kyle Kettering looks at the description of the righteous man in Psalm 112, highlighting several characteristics:

1. The righteous person is the one who fears God.  (This does not mean the person is sinless, so we should not be hesitant to use this biblical word.)
2. His descendants (i.e., all those whom he influences) grow mighty.
3. He is remembered forever (by God, in particular).
4. He is not frightened by the news.
5. He lends and gives to the poor.
6. He thrives as the wicked perish.

Two examples that Kyle considered in his sermon are Noah and Zechariah, father of John the Baptist.  He urged us to exemplify the characteristics of the righteous during the current epidemic, being confident that God will remember us as he remembered Noah and Zechariah.  He concluded that

1. Being frightened is unbecoming of the righteous (see 4 above).
2. Trust and faith are the posture of the righteous.