What the "Assembly" is "About in the Psalms: Special Attention to Ps 95

In Scripture a Spiritually minded worshiper comes to the assembly (i.e. gathering) of the People of God desiring five things:

1) The worshiper desires to come into the Presence of God (cf. 27.4,8; 42.1-2; 63.1;

  73.25)

2) The worshiper desires to experience the forgiveness of God (32.1-5; 51.10-12; Isa. 6.1-7)

3) The worshiper desires to give God a gift (Deut. 16.16; Ps. 69.30-31; 107.21-22; Heb. 13.15)

4) The worshiper desires to promise God something (Ps. 116; 119.57-64)

5) The worshiper desires to edify fellow worshippers and to be edified him/herself (Ps. 22.25; Heb. 

    3.12-13; 10.25)

From Psalm 95 we learn a way of structuring the assembly/gathering.  This structure helps to highlight the themes listed above:

1) Invitation/Call to Worship (Ps. 95.1)

Here “we” invite others to join in the worship of God. This is not responding to the Gospel but responding to the mandate to worship God.  This begins the gathering/assembly.  Songs like “O Come Let Us Adore Him”; “We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise;” and “O Worship the King” fall could be used in this section of worship.

2) Engagement (Ps. 95.1b-2)

             

Here the service turns from calling others to worship to focusing upon God himself. This phase of the gathering contain songs about God.  His greatness, grace, love, etc, are themes for this phase.  Songs like “Awesome God”; “Thank You, Lord”; “Our God He is Alive” contribute to this theme.

3) Exaltation (Ps. 95.3)

             

This is similar to #2 but nuances it by “placing” God on the throne.  In this movement we are in essence proclaiming God’s Lordship.  Songs like “Majesty”; “Mighty Is Our God;” “We Exalt Thee”; “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.”

4) Adoration (Ps. 95.6)          

            

 Adoration is generally quieter, slower, reflectiveor meditative.  Songs that could contribute to this movement are almost exclusively in the first person addressing God directly with “I” or “we.” “On Bended Knee”; “We Bow Down”; “Christ, We do All Adore Thee.”

5) Intimacy (Ps. 95.7b)

            

 Here we express our love for, our longing to do God’s will and our desire to be with him.  Songs like “Abide with Me”; “I Want to be Where You Are”; “As the Deer”; “I Need Thee Every Hour.”

Read More

Paul and the Unquestioned Authority of the "Old Testament"

This is a revised and slightly expanded version of a "note" I had placed on my Facebook. May it bless you as we wrestle together with the significance of the canon of Scripture for our faith. We need to remind ourselves that the "Old Testament" makes up more than 76% of the Christian Bible. To functionally take it our of canon for doing Christian reflections is equivalent to the government taking 76 pennies out of every dollar you earn; you having four out of five words of a letter blacked out from your wife; of living 100 years but only being "awake" once every five years.  You get the picture.  Willfully ignoring and minimizing 76% is a huge loss and makes actually understanding very difficult.  To the revised note ...

I grew up in a religious tradition with a "love-hate" relationship with the "Old Testament." In our debates with "the denominations" we would frequently undercut the argument of our opponent by denying the authority of the Old Testament for Christan faith and practice.  Our approach to the Old Testament was therefore mostly reactive to what we perceived as false practices and beliefs in "the denominations" or among the "apostates." Thus when Christian Church folks would defend the use of instrumental music from numerous Old Testament texts it was easy to dismiss the entire argument by asserting that the Old Covenant was "nailed to the cross and done away with."  When a person would argue for the authority of tithing/sabbath, etc among Christians we resorted to the same tactic. 

The result of denying the authority of the OT in our polemics convinced the "denominational" world that "we" in Churches of Christ "do not believe in the Old Testament."  This was a frequent characterization of "us" by others in my growing up years in Churches of Christ in North Alabama.  We of course denied that.  We believe in the inspiration of the OT. But our polemics bore poisonous fruit.  We rhetorically said we believe in the OT but practically and dogmatically denied our rhetoric.  Yes the OT was inspired but we never actually used the OT for anything relating to Christian faith ... except for appeals to Noah's "gopher" wood, Nadab and Abihu getting fried, Uzzah being toasted for touching the ark and Moses for striking the rock.  From time to time there were moral lessons drawn from the stories of Joseph and Hannah.

But the sad fact remains for most in Churches of Christ the Old Testament is simply irrelevant to their faith.  Outside of the sermons I have personally preached or lessons I have taught I know of only a handful of sermons in my life from the first 76% of the Bible. I know of no preacher/elder among Churches of Christ who cites the Old Testament as his scriptural authority for 1) believing something or 2) doing something.  Indeed when such takes place it is shot down with - I have personally witnessed it - these words "that is the Old Testament;" or "we are not under the Old Testament."  This just does not jive with our rhetoric to believe in the Old Testament. 

Growing up, I had no idea how absolutely, and completely, contrary to the apostolic example of Paul our contemporary practice was regarding the "Scripture" (Paul never uses the phrase "Old Testament").  Paul's entire framework for understanding God, Christ, the Gospel, redemption, faith, and yes even the church/people of God comes from the "Old Testament."  My initial journey down the road to realizing the NT itself does not see itself as 1) supplementing or 2) outright replacing the "Old Testament" came in 1988 through reading a dry tome called New Testament Interpretation edited by Howard Marshall in a Stephen Broyles class at IBC. The chapter, "How the New Testament Uses the Old Testament" (pp. 199-219), made me put on a new pair of glasses. There are better places, I now realize, to begin thinking on this matter than that essay but at the time it was a real eye opener. Paul is more saturated with the "Old Testament" than a sponge fresh from the sink!

When Paul has a question he naturally turns to the Scriptures (not the Old Testament) for the answer. Rarely does Paul say "I" declare this by the authority given to me as an apostle.  Paul simply does not do that.  Paul uses, and argues from, Scripture for everything.  Just a few interesting statistics to tickle your fancy and as an effort to just show how frequently Paul does resort to the 'Old Testament."  In many English translations it is hard for the reader to know that Paul is not using his own words but those of the first 76% of the Bible.  It would be helpful if a modern translation put every direct quotation in a different font or italics.

In the epistles with Paul's name on them, however, there are more than 180 quotations or references to the "Old Testament" by the apostle.  That is a lot but even that does not give the full extent of the story.  The single book of Paul's that many preachers assume shows that Paul is doing away with the Old Testament, Romans, has the highest number of references with 84.  The second highest is the one that some preachers still believe Paul wrote (but didn't) is Hebrews which has 83 quotations or references to the "Old Testament."   Beloved that is a lot of Old Testament.  Certainly way more Old Testament than what I am exposed to in most restoration or evangelical pulpits. When was the last time you heard a sermon with 84 quotations from the "OT?"  First Corinthians (if I am counting right) has 26. Galatians has 14 and Ephesians has no less than 12.  Craig Evans in his Noncanonical Writings and New Testament Interpretation lists 31 pages of quotations, references, and allusions to the OT, what Protestants call the Apocrypha and related writings in the NT ... that is 31 pages! (see Appendix Two, pp. 190-219).  That is a lot of information Paul and the other writers of the NT are using and expect their readers/hearers to know.  Even if one argued with the validity of this or that reference the sheer cumulative evidence demonstrates that Paul, and the rest of the "NT" writers assumed that their readers/hearers would catch a large number of ideas that simply go unnoticed by us today ... its like having only one out of every five words not blacked out to us! We get so used to only seeing every fifth word that we actually begin to think it makes sense. 

Here are some very specific examples of Paul using the "Old Testament" as his authority for a Christian belief or Christian practice.  Again I point out that I use the word "Christian" for our sake because one of the shocks that comes to us if we actually read the NT is that Paul does not imagine himself as having converted to a new religion.  This is a serious misreading and seriously flawed assumption.  Paul, shockingly for us "Christians," never once uses the word "Christian" to describe himself or his faith in Christ. 

1) Paul roots both the practice and doctrine of the Lord's Supper in the "Old Testament" in 1 Corinthians 10. A careful study of that text pays rich rewards.  First even though most of the Corinthians converts are likely former pagans Paul places them squarely in the linage of Israel (10.1, "our ancestors").  They were "baptized EIS Moses!!" they "drank the SAME spiritual drink" (v.4).  Paul applies that history directly to the practice and faith about the communion table. We no more share in a pagan table and the Lord's table than they.  If this is not clear enough for us the apostle says - in relation to the practice of the Supper - "consider the people of Israel" (v.18).  The sacrifices of Israel are then explicitly appealed to as a model for table etiquette in the Corinthian "church of God."  We could expand on this point.

2) Paul roots the doctrine of Christian baptism in the "Old Testament" specifically to show that God has kept rather than repudiated his covenant.  Oh, beloved when we hammer out our doctrine in polemics rather than Story of God it will be seriously distorted.  Since I was a young man one of the proof texts drilled into my noggin to use on Baptists was Galatians 3.27.  I memorized that text. I quoted that text.  And I believe that text.  But I had no clue how that text functioned in its context.  I likewise did not grasp that Paul's issue and concern is not baptism but God's faithfulness to Abraham!!!  Baptism serves the "Old Testament" covenant with Abraham.  I did not know that.  It is true that Paul makes is clear that a Gentile does not have to become a Torah observant JEW in order to be God's heir.   Rather they become an heir in the same manner that Abraham himself became one.  The purpose, the goal of baptism, in Galatians 3.27 is not baptism.  It is not even belonging to Christ!!  The text declares that clearly but that is not the point of the argument.  The point of the argument is Paul's climatic declaration in v.29 aimed at Gentiles, "if you {plural!} belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring according the promise." This is the point. This is the goal.  Baptism does not simply put is "in Christ" but baptism makes us children of Abraham and God is still fulfilling the Old Testament covenant with each person who expresses faith in Christ - the offspring of Abraham - and makes them one of Abraham's own children.

3) Well we looked at two "biggies."  Let me look at a rather mundane matter.  Is it "Scriptural" to pay an individual who works in preaching and teaching?  This is a matter of "Christian" practice.  This is a concern for authority for the "church."  When this question is asked we are surely surprised by how Paul answers the question. The biblical authority for paying ministers in the "Church of Christ" is none other than the book of Deuteronomy!  "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching; for SCRIPTURE says, 'You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The laborer deserves to be paid."  Paul quotes form Deuteronomy 25.4.  Why did he not simply declare it was ok? He roots the practice of paying those who preach and teach in the Law of Moses.  This is, on the face of it, simply fascinating.

I could provide numerous other specific examples of Paul's apostolic example on using the unquestioned authority of the "Old Testament" to support his Gospel and the practice of his congregations. I have already made this musing longer than I intended so I will bring it to a close.  But we must realize that every time we read Paul we are reading his own interaction with Scripture on a multitude of levels.  His practice shows he believed the words he penned to Timothy regarding what we call the Old Testament but he simply called "Scriptures."  Our practice and his practice are as far removed from one another as east is from the west ...

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work." (2 Tim 3.14-17, NRSV).

P. S. We have not even touched what I have come to believe is even more important that explicit quotations for Paul and the rest of the NT.  That is how the conceptual world of the Hebrew Bible shapes quite literally the faith of the "New Testament."  Blessings.

Read More

Can the King be Trusted? The Vision of Psalm 73

“The book of Psalms contains not only the merry shouts of Israelites clapping their hands and making a joyful noise to the Lord. It contains also the groans and the pleas of the sick and the frightened and the dying. I had known that before. Now, I realized it for the first time.” (Stephen Broyles, The Wind that Destroys and Heals: Trusting the God of Sorrow and Joy, p. 21).

The Horizon of Psalm 73

Described as “the most remarkable and satisfying of all the psalms” [1], or a “microcosm of Old Testament theology,” [2] Psalm 73 is strategically placed within the canonical Psalter. Though hard to imagine in the face of the evidence, older scholarship virtually dismissed any notion of design to the book. Rather that scholarship focused on the origins and “setting in life” of individual psalms.  Some of that scholarship was, and is, very insightful but it dismissed the overwhelming evidence that the book of Psalms has been “put together” deliberately and purposefully. There is in fact a progression in the Psalter. When read carefully and attentively we even get the feeling that sometimes the various psalms are "talking to each other." 

The book articulates Israel’s worldview  (i.e. the biblical worldview) as powerfully, and brilliantly, as any book in Scripture. In short that worldview is 1) Yahweh is the Creator God who is the Redeeming King, 2) God has called Israel into a relationship with Yahweh as a graced kingdom of priests worshiping God on behalf of the world, and inviting the world to worship 3) that God’s kingdom is filled with justice, mercy and shalom - hesed is the law of the kingdom  4) and finally that God will defeat the challengers and usurpers of his reign (thus his law) in this world.  Israel’s worldview and faith is anything but simplistic as it is revealed in the canonical Psalter.

The journey getting to Psalm 73 through the Psalter is like a journey over the Alps and through Death Valley.  It is intense and calls for openness.  The introduction to the Psalter, Ps 1, declares a certain world confessed to be true.  I believe Psalm 1 was specifically, and intentionally, created to be the door through which the rest of the book was to be read, sung, and understood.  This means that Psalm 1 was created AFTER all the rest had been gathered and was confessed only after the storms have been weathered. Thus Ps 1 is not naïveté but a confession of faith refined in fire about how the world really is ... about what the Truth is. 

But the world God’s People live in does not correspond to Psalm 1, it is Fallen and Rebellious. We learn that as soon as we read Ps 3. There is no deception in the psalter thus there are two books of Psalms prayed through before we arrive at Ps 73.  Many do a lot of lamenting the dissonance between "out there" and "in here."  Psalm 73 shows a person, who I take to be representative of the entire people of God, who is serious about the values of Psalm 1 but had been the victim of injustice one to many times.  He/she questions whether God’s kingdom is real, whether God’s justice is real, whether having faith in Yahweh is worth the trouble.   But 73 stands at the head of Book III, almost literally the half way point in the book, and refocuses the people of God on what faith really means.  So Brueggemann is correct, I think, when he writes, “in the canonical structuring of the Psalter,  Psalm 73 stands at its center in a crucial role … I propose it is central theologically as well as canonically” [3]. It shows us how to integrate Psalm 1 in our theology.

The Psalm is structured in the following manner

I. Contested Claim (v.1)

II. The Protest and Evidence against the Claim (vv. 2-12)

III. Is it Useless to Follow the King (vv. 13-14)

IV. I Saw the Truth (vv. 15-20)

V.  Faith Refocused: Yes! God is Good and Worth Everything (vv. 21-28)

Verses 2 and 17 are the hinges of the Psalm.

The Contested Claim: The King is Good to Israel

“Surely God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart” (v.1)

The RSV/NRSV repoint the Hebrew text to yield the reading “God is good to the upright” rather than “Israel.” Westermann argues this is necessary because the Psalm is about an individual but that is a mistaken understanding in my view [4].

But verse 1 is the thesis and conclusion of the Psalm.  It points back to Psalm 1 and affirms the truth of that worldview.  But it is a conclusion that that has been arrived at only through the valleys of the next several verses and the previous 70 psalms.  It is not naïve faith but tested and tried. The King is good to Israel.  Israel is not just an ethnicity here but is nuanced by “those who are pure in heart” likewise tying in to Psalm 1. Purity of heart means that the inner attitude actually coheres with the outward word or action. Jesus said his amen to this (cf. Mt 5.8).

The Protest and Evidence against the Claim

Israel’s faith has mettle. Israel’s is honest faith. The gathered people of God acknowledge that what they claim and what they experience is in profound tension.  No not tension, they are in conflict! In fact the next several verses are a full scale attack upon naive faith.  The world claims that God is not King, his will does not rule, and that he is irrelevant at best.  The experience of people “out there” does not cohere with the Faith confessed.  That is the crises! The verses, 2-12, recognize and confess the conflict and its power on the believing community.

“But as for me, my feet had almost stumble;

my steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious/jealous of the arrogant;

I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (vv. 2-3)

Clearly echoing the language of Ps 1, and contrasting its claim, the wicked are so prosperous that those serving God are “jealous” or “envious.” To the point of even “slipping” away so as to join them. The disciple has nearly fallen away because (as we shall see) the wicked have it so well.   This is “protest” language. Our faith is shaken in the justice and, therefore, the reign of God. They have it made.

The “wicked” described here, it must be noted, differs markedly from laments regarding the ubiquitous “enemies.” There is nothing in the psalm to indicate that the original writer is being attacked.  The language of verses 2-12 is that of observation, experience and even meditation.  Almost like in Ecclesiastes ...

“They have no pain;

their bodies are sound and sleek.

They are not in trouble as others are …

People turn and praise them

and no fault is found in them.

And they say, ‘How can God know?’ …

Such are the wicked;

always at ease, they increase in riches. (vv 4, 5, 10, 12)

These are the reasons for the confession and protest in v. 2.  We almost stumbled asking ourselves the real question: Is it useless to serve God with a clean heart? What is the point of “being on God’s side?” The counter story affirms that it is just not worth it.

These observations are so realistic. Any Christian that claims that walking by faith is either “self evident” or “easy” is a false teacher and a deceiver.  Biblical faith acknowledges the struggle and the challenges of living by faith.  The Holy Spirit honors that honesty by “canonizing” it!

Is it Useless to Follow the King?

The testimony of countless suffering disciples bears heavy upon Psalm 73.2-12.  The nature of the evidence to subvert the claims of v.1 seems “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Case closed.  God is unreliable. Or he is just not there.  When “we” (i.e. the people of pure heart, the people of God, those actually seeking to live what is claimed) see the “facts of the case” – none of which are in dispute – the temptation to throw in the towel is powerful indeed (v.2). Thus the community, through its representative, does in fact sing in guttural tones …

“All in vain have I kept my heart clean

and washed my hands in innocence.

For all day long I have been plagued,

and am punished every morning.” (vv. 13-14)

What!? We thought the righteous were planted like a tree and the wicked were like “chaff!” To live a life in view of the Kingdom of God is an absolute waste of time. Contrary to Ps 1 it is in fact the wicked who are at peace and it is the righteous who are blown away like so much waste. 

Again I want to call attention the anguished honesty.  This is in fact lamentation. It is mourning. It is confession that the world is absolutely messed up and contrary to the torah of God.

If we do not embrace the honesty of the faith of Israel then the power of these Spirit words will be lost on us.  

"I" Saw the Truth

Beginning in verse 15 we have a turning point. The reason for the turning point is given in v.17.  Just when we see the people of God ready to renounce allegiance to the King, to walk away from faith and join the wicked, something amazing happens. The psalmist confesses the power of being identified with the church.  The power of belonging! Identity is found with the group and the beginning step of resistance to the Story of the World is being firmly rooted in the community of believers.

“If I had said, ‘I will talk on in this way,’

I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.”

The sense of belonging is a powerful motive.  It is in, and among, the “circle of your children” that the dawn of just what Truth really means begins to set in.  The wicked really are chaff. They really are nothing but hot air. They really are destined for the garbage heap.  How did “I” come to see this truth?

The truth was seen and ascertained through the memory and the participation in worship with that circle. Worship confronts the false claims of the counter story.  Worship pulls the veneer off the face of wicked. Worship refocuses the eyes of God’s People in order to see “the rest of the story” [5].  The people of God confess clearly the ground for renewed faith. 

“it [thought of the wicked] seemed to me a wearisome task,

UNTIL I went into the sanctuary of God;

there I perceived their end.”

Sometimes we disciples have very narrow tunnel vision. Scripture is replete with exhortation to have “eyes to see” and “ears to hear.” The training for such seeing and hearing is before the throne of God in prayer and praise.  Worship, like the canonical Psalter, is functionally eschatological. Psalm 1 is true because we know the End! Psalm 73.1 is true because we know the End (by eschatology we do not mean just denying the claim of premillennialists!). The book of Psalms, as Walter Brueggemann observed, in its “final form” is “highly eschatological in nature. It looks forward to the future and passionately yearns for it.” In worship the circle of children experience the future in the present.  The Hebrews Preacher testifies to the eschatological nature of the assembly in 12.18-29.  Worship is not simply a matter of songs sung, instruments played or not played, or those mundane things we expend such great energy upon.  Rather worship is about what the community discovers in Psalm 73 – communion with the King.  In worship we have something that the wicked cannot dream of or imagine.  They are excluded from it by the very nature of things.  Only the “pure in heart” can “see God.” Verse 17 is the saving moment in the life this disciple.  He did not find the answer to the problem of the wicked rather he found fellowship with God among his people. Communion changes what we deem to be "the Truth."

Faith Refocused: Yes! God is Good and Worth Everything

The last section of the psalm the community confesses its dismay over almost falling for the “truth” of the false counter story. The psalm confesses that in our jealousy and bitterness that we had actually become a “monster with you” (v.22). Bitterness is devastatingly revealed in its ugliness. The believers had assumed a monstrous disposition toward the King. God the King is truly merciful. Some of the most powerful and poignant words in all the Bible flow from the person enmeshed with the communities worship …

“Nevertheless I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me with honor.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I

desire other than you,

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever.” (vv 23-26)

These are among the “most powerful, daring and treasured” words in the whole “Old Testament” according to Brueggemann. So radically altered is this person’s (i.e. = church) worldview because of the encounter with God in worship that all the old problems of the wicked, the claims of the world, and his own weakness (his flesh is still weak unlike the wicked!) are judged to be nothing.  No riches. No health. No position. No prosperity. Nothing at all! All that is required is God himself.  He is the only necessity of life. The Truth, the real Truth, has been embraced.  This is the renewed faith of the psalm.

Just as in Job there is no solution offered. What is offered is Presence. What is offered is God himself. What the psalmist discovers in the assembly of the children before the throne of God is simply communion with God. Everything else is trivial in perspective. God is good because he gives Israel himself!God is good to the faithful because he brings them, through his grace, into fellowship with him. Reorientation and refocusing takes place through communion with God in worship. Here the truth that the world cannot fathom, appreciate, understand, or even “see” is given freely and graciously to Israel. Resolution consists not in answers but in Encounter, not in rationality, but in letting ourselves to unravel before him. 

As noted above these rich verses take on power precisely because they were not, and are not, arrived at without going through the heat of Death Valleys. This is the confession of the people of tried faith, of people who have faced the mocking, jeering crowd. It is the faith of those who have heard the evidence but have been with God.  It is the faith of those who have chosen to bear the scandal of the King. 

Taking It All In, the Scope of Ps 73

The placement of Ps 73 is hardly accidental. Opening up Book III it provides sort of a summary what the community has learned through the first 72 psalms. What is that lesson? Blessedness is not material prosperity (though that at times comes) but with the assurance of God’s gracious Presence in the midst of his community and in our lives. Israel shall not be moved precisely because it is rooted in the Presence of God. [6]

Psalm 73 affirms what Paul confesses in Romans 8.37-39

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors  through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

In the light of the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah - who read, breathed and prayed the psalms, including Ps 73 - our faith is victory because of his faithfulness.  Psalm 73 calls us to have a faith oriented to the “End.” That is the goal of God’s creative and redemptive work.  Through our worship, celebrating the Lord’s Supper is but one example, we begin to live the “End” in the present.  Through this orientation we do indeed confess the truth of Psalm 73 and the whole Psalter ...

1) God does in fact Reign.

2) We do in fact belong to God.

3) No experience separates us from the reality of God’s Presence.

4) Blessedness means to live in dependence upon God and in community, not upon ourselves.

5) Renewed faith and correct “seeing” come through Encounter with God in Worship.

6) Yes! Got is Good to Israel!! He can Be Trusted!!

Notes:

1] Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (Augsburg, 1984), 115

2] J. Clinton McCann, Jr, “Psalm 73: A Microcosm of Old Testament Theology,’ in The Listening Heart (ed. Kenneth Hoglund; JSOT 1987), 247-257.

3] Walter Brueggemann, “Bounded by Obedience and Praise: The Psalms as Canon,” JSOT 50 (1991), 81.

4] Claus Westermann, The Living Psalms (Eerdmans 1984), 134

5] Brueggemann, “Bounded by Obedience and Praise,” pp. 85-86.

6] John Goldingay, Psalms Volume 2: Psalms 42-89 (Baker Academic 2007), 417-419.

Read More

The Psalms, The Reign of God, and Jesus the Messiah

"O precious reading of the psalter, which for this alone deserves to be called the book of life!" (Richard de Bury, The Philobiblon, p. 24)

Wading into the Deep Waters

Jesus is a Jew. According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was born to an impoverished but faithful, and full of faith, Jewish family.  His mother, Mary, was obviously a gifted singer and prayer warrior as we see in her Magnificant (1.46-55).  From the time of his birth, he was so deeply immersed in the Jewish faith that his family made the arduous journey "every year" to Jerusalem for the Passover (Lk 3.41).  The stories of God with his people were constantly with him. The worship of his Jewish family would mold him inside and out. One part of his prayer life and worship was immersion in the book of Psalms. His family knew how to pray, his people knew how to pray and those prayers, those cries of faith, those longings he heard and sang as a child became part of the fabric of his mind.

Since the Psalms were so deeply enmeshed in his family life, it is not surprising to find that the ministry of Jesus in so many ways is sort of a mirror of the concerns, theology, and often the very words of the Psalms [1]. Communion with God. Importance of truth. Anger at injustice. Disgust at hypocrisy. Celebrating the flood of God's gifts. Trust that leads to freedom. Gratitude that expresses itself in humble obedience. And above all the kingdom of God.

 YHWH MALAK

The Book of Psalms discloses, as much any section of Scripture, the radical unity of the Testaments. Grace, faith, creation, redemption, the fellowship of the saints, the presence of God, worship, and the proclamation of that the God of Israel is King and the glory of his reign are unbreakable chains that tie the Testaments together through the Psalms. It is a surprising, yet common, misunderstanding among Evangelicals and restorationists that the kingdom of God was an idea introduced by Jesus of Nazareth.  But Jesus did not introduce the reign of God into Jewish piety.  Jews knew, believed, and preached that God was/is King.  Jesus did too, every time he prayed and sang the Psalms. We do know that the central proclamation of Christ was the kingdom ... but it was an "Old Testament" doctrine.

Yhwh Malak! This is the central theological claim of the canonical book of Psalms. It is the center on which all faith and "topics" in the Psalter depend.  This declaration can be translated as Yahweh reigns, or the LORD is King (NRSV), or "the LORD has become King" (REB). The first translation views the kingdom as an activity, the second as a role, and the third as an event.  Here is the kicker, all three are grammatically possible.  So I embrace them all without denying the accuracy of any.

The Lord, the God of Israel, is King. This is, according to James Luther Mays, is the central theological claim of the canonical Psalter [2].  My own study of the Psalms indicates that Mays is not far from the mark, if at all. God's reign is explicitly stated and lies behind the major metaphors for Yahweh in the book as we shall see. I want to encourage my readers to meditate upon all the following Psalms: Pss 24, 29, 47, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 104, 145, and 146.  When you are reading through the rest of the psalms note phrases like the Lord "sits enthroned" or "rules the nations." It is a theme that is not hidden.

Why Yahweh is King?

The Psalms declare the kingship, and thus the kingdom, of God from two directions.  The first is that Yahweh is the "maker of heaven and earth."  Psalms such as 8, 19, 29, 33, 93 and 104 show the Lord overcoming the forces of chaos (anti-creation and anti-life) in order to establish a dwelling in which his creatures can thrive in his presence. Because Yahweh is the Creator, all other powers of whatever nature are subject to him. It is for this reason the Psalms repeatedly exhort, and even command, "all the earth" to acknowledge and submit to the Reign of God. It is the reason that "all creation" declares his glory.  The Loving King creates.

The second direction the Psalms come from to proclaim the reign of Yahweh and his kingdom is through his astounding, and unprecedented, act of pure grace in redeeming the most insignificant (Deuteronomy 7.7) of people to his very own treasured possession - Israel.  The Exodus is the Gospel in the Hebrew Bible. Such psalms as 47, 68, 98 and 114 all bring the Gathered People back to the fact that Yahweh is King because he rescued, redeemed and saved Israel.  God is King because he is the Redeemer! These texts all bring us back to the central Story of Israel - the Exodus from certain death in Egypt.  These psalms recall the very first time in the Bible that God is declared to be King.  In Exodus 15, after the great miracle of grace in the Exodus, the prophets Moses and Miriam lead the people in worship. In worship they declare, "The LORD will reign forever and ever" (Ex 15.18).

These two ways of declaring the kingship of Yahweh are intertwined in numerous Psalms.  Creation and Redemption are never that far apart in the Bible.  Such powerful mingling of these occur in psalms such as 33, 136, 146, and 147.  Sometimes within a single psalm these themes are brought together in the corporate prayers of God's people.   Look at Psalm 74

"Yet God my King is from old,
working salvation in the earth.
You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the dragons 
in the waters.
You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food for the for 
the creatures of the wilderness.
You cut openings for springs and 
torrents;
you dried up ever flowing streams.
Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you established the luminaries and 
the sun.
You have fixed all the bounds
of the earth;
you made summer and winter."
(74.12-17; see also 89.5-14)

The classic example of the bringing of these themes together in the Psalms is the majestic hymn to the King's  HESED in Ps 136.  The psalm thunders between the congregational leader and the response of the gathered people declaring God has shown steadfast love in creating the world and for redeeming Israel in that world.

God is King! This is not new with Jesus, rather it is the foundation of Israel's faith. As we read, pray, and praise our way through the Psalms we see many other "titles" for God's activity.  But these are royal in nature in the Ancient Near East even if at times we in the modern west misconstrue the nature of the images [3]. It is as King that the Lord is warrior, judge, refuge, and shepherd. These roles are all kingly roles and all proclaim the kingdom of God in the Psalms. Prayers of appeal and lament, as well as hymns of praise are based on the belief that Yahweh is in fact the King of the Universe and King of Israel in particular.

Dimensions of God's Kingdom

Worship is such a radical enterprise. Israel was "literally" the backwoods of the ancient world. Yet they made "grandiose" claims.  Mt. Zion is a pathetically small hill and yet Israel declared it to be the greatest and grandest of all mountains.  In fact Zion is the sort of the "navel" of the world.  These claims are nearly laughable from the perspective of the rebellious world and its "empirical evidence." These statements are all true though because Israel had gone to worship. In worship a reality is disclosed, the Psalms declare it to be so, in which the rebellious creation is turned on its proverbial head! What is "out there" is mere counterfeit.  God is King. His Kingdom will fill the whole earth. His dwelling is the center of all creation.   Israel knows these truths not through observation but through faith and worship. Jesus believed these truths he learned as a child singing and praying the Psalms as a faithful and liturgical Jew.  Israel makes three claims (if not more) about Yahweh and his kingdom.

First, the Psalms declare that God's kingdom is transnational and universal.  Israel is the manifestation of God's kingdom but God's kingship is not limited to the boundaries of Israel. He is King of all the earth.  Israel knew this because Yahweh defeated the faux king named Pharaoh (Ex 8.2, 9:14, 16, 29).  The "Old Testament" proclaims the kingdom of God is universal.

"They shall speak of the glory of your
kingdom,
and tell of your power,
to make known to all people {nations} your
mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your
kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom,
and your dominion endures
throughout all
generations"
(Ps 145.11-13)

Israel is the "type" of the church in the Hebrew Bible.  Israel does not correspond to any nation states such as the USA, Germany or Japan.  Israel corresponds to the church. In fact the "church" is the Israel of God. No. Gentiles have not "replaced" Israel of old rather Gentiles have been grafted by God's amazing grace into the one People of God stretching back to Abraham.  Thus Israel is God's kingdom made visible in the world, just as the "church" is the kingdom made visible.  But God's kingdom is greater than both and never reduced to some nation state.  It is universal.

Second, the Psalms declare that God's kingship is redemptive in its function. Celebrating the King is an act of faith done in worship.  The declaration Yhwh Malak is made within hymns in the Psalter.  Declaring Yahweh to be King is not something the wicked perceive, that the nations acknowledge (anymore than they think Zion is greater than Mt. Everest!). It is something proclaimed through worship and lived because we know it to be true. In the kingdom of God specific values are inculcated and enjoined because they flow from the King's nature. These values turn the world, again, on its head.  Note these texts,

"righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne" (97.2)

"The King is mighty, he loves justice, you have established equity,
you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob" (99.4)

"The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
The LORD is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made" (145.8-9, see vv. 14-20)

"He upholds the cause of the oppressed 
and gives food to the hungry.
the LORD sets the prisoners free,
the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD." (146.7-10)

It is difficult to read these few excerpts and not hear the voice of Jesus in the Gospels saying virtually the same things. Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God is so "Old Testament." His preaching molded and shaped by the faithful worship of his mother Mary and his step-father Joseph. The kingdom has a redemptive thrust. Compassion is the value of values. In the kingdom we imitate God. We love what he loves, we do what he does.  The reality of the kingdom cannot be "spiritualized" into some "heaven" or privatized as my own secret walk with God.  It is the aligning of our entire life, in every way thinkable, to the redemptive will of God.  We are the vessels of God's will being done "on earth as it is in heaven."  God's kingdom is in the world as salt, light and leaven to undo the vandalism of shalom throughout creation.

Third, the Psalms reveal that God's kingship and his kingdom have an eschatological dimension. One cannot read in the psalms with any degree of sympathy and not come face to face with the cold fact that we live in a world that is completely alien to the kingdom of God. The world we proclaim in gathered and private worship is so contrary to the world "out there." God's people are often as flawed as the "wicked" and "enemies." Those who are specifically designated to safe guard the powerless aliens, widows and poor become the very instrument for crushing them. These kinds of huge gaps are dealt with in the Psalms themselves and also in the prophets of Israel.  In worship we confess that we do not place trust in human powers of any kind.  We have learned that we are easily seduced by the "dark side," that is by the corrosive and toxic appeal of the fallen world.

So the Psalms proclaim that the King is coming! The coming King is reason for celebration, rejoicing and the ground of all hope.  So worship itself is a form of prayer in which God's people call for the kingdom to be fully and completely manifest "out there." This, by the way, is not simply so the wicked will go to hell.  Rather when the King comes to "judge" (as it is often translated) the notion is not simply that he is coming to condemn.  He will deal with gross evil though.  Rather the main point of the Hebrew is that the King "will make things right."  All will be well when the King arrives.  This eschatological theme pervades a number of psalms.  The coming is Good News of great joy,

"Shout for joy before the LORD, the King.
Let the sea resound and everything in it;
the world and all who live in it.
Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy;
let them sing before the LORD,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity."
(98.6-9)

Creation bursts into joy because of the King is coming to put the world back together again.  You may want to compare this train of thought in Ps 98 with Paul's in Romans 8.18-25.  The king is coming.  That is something we look forward to. This eschatological look to the kingdom is what gives such potency to Jesus' proclamation that the "kingdom of God is at hand."

Wrapping Up

The notion of the kingdom of God is a fundamental theme in the Story of God.  It binds the Testaments together down to the DNA.  In the Psalms, this belief in the Sovereign God smashes directly into the human notion of Sovereign Self. The Psalms call us to confess that the Lord is King because he is Creator of all things in heaven and earth.  The Psalms call us to confess the King because he has redeemed by his own grace a people out of rebellious creation.  The Psalms call us to drink deeply the faith and values of the King and live them as missional people.  The Psalms call us to recognize the universal and cosmic nature of the kingdom of God and to be the people of redemption.  And the Psalms call us to recognize and pray for the King to come.

When we look at these themes, just mentioned, it is not hard to see why Jesus' ministry in the Gospels looks the way it does.  Jesus' ministry is a mirror of the prayers, the worship, and the faith of the minstrels of Israel who sang about the Glorious God - Yhwh Malak. 

Notes:

1] For a brief overview of how Jesus' life and the Psalms "mirror" one another see J. Clinton McCann, Jr, A Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms: The Psalms as Torah (Abingdon, 1993), 163-175.

2] James Luther Mays, "The Language of the Reign of God," Interpretation 47 (1993): 117-126

3] See Othmar Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World: Ancient Near East Iconography and the Book of Psalms (Crossroads, 1978), 244-306.

Read More

Image of the Invisible God: Meditations on Col 1.15-20, Pt 2

for in him were created All Things
in heaven and earth
things visible and invisible
whether thrones or dominions
whether ruler or powers
All Things have been created through him and for him.

There are a lot of THINGSin the universe. Galaxies. Stars. Planets. Moons. Comets. Meteors. Lions. Tigers. Bears. Men. Women. Rainbows. Flowers. These are just some of the visible THINGS. There are also atoms, neutrons, protons, quarks, radio waves, angels, spirit beings. These are just some of the invisible THINGS.  

The Apostle Paul had memorized Genesis 1.1 just as you have from his infancy: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But in Colossians 1.16 he makes the astounding assertion that one of the IMAGES of Christ is none other than God actually used the Messiah (i.e. Christ) to do the creating. This speaks to the supremacy of Jesus.  He does not stand behind anyone in all creation in rank.  Paul, like you, could think of a lot of THINGS. Let your mind wander across the universe and Paul dares to claim the person we know as Jesus made those galaxies, stars & planets. Think about those THINGS that cover the world. Paul dares to claim Jesus made those things. But Paul knew the universe has THINGS in it that no eye has ever seen: your spirit, the angels, the invisible stuff the apostle claims Jesus is greater than all them too because he created them. The words “thrones” or “dominions” “ruler” or “powers” refer to the non-material spiritual realm.  Paul tells the Colossian disciples that one reason they have no fear of the evil forces in the world is that Christ, the IMAGE of God, is incomparably superior to them in every conceivable fashion. We live in confidence because Jesus is on our side.

Paul does not say everything in the universe is friendly but he does say that everything will sooner or later serve Christ.  The Universe was created both by Christ and for Christ. We exist for him.

MUSINGS: Read Psalm 104 and note the magnificent diversity of “all things” that are visible that have been created.  Note how “all things” are in God’s visible world are objects of his steadfast love.  Marvel at those things … what does this say about “God.”?

Prayer

End your time praising the Lord for the security we have in him.  Praise him for his creativity and the beauty he has placed in the visible realm. Praise him that one of the THINGS he has created, in His own Image, is YOU.  Ask him to help you grasp that truth.

Read More

Image of the Invisible God: Meditations on Col 1.15-20 #1

For the next few days I will be offering a series of short meditations on the Christ Hymn in Colossians 1. It is my prayer that they be helpful ... 

He is the IMAGE

of the invisible God

the firstborn of all creation (1.15)

Facebook. YouTube. Pinterest. Tumbler. Instagram.  How many followers? How many “likes?” Ours is a culture, more than ever before, that is obsessed with the word “image.”

We all post on at least one of these social media outlets most of us more than one, and some probably all of them. We want people to see that we have an interesting life.  That we have it together. That we have our mojo on. That we have our game together. What we do not do is post bad pictures of ourselves.  We avoid those certain angles.  We untag ourselves in those pix that a friend graciously put online that are funny but uncomplimentary.

The Bible tells us that God is just as concerned about his “image” as we are of ours. The images that so many have of him do not actually come from his own Facebook account. People often tag him in a status or picture that is not him at all.   The false pictures show up repeatedly in the “Old Testament” when people would create images of God.  God calls such false pictures idolatry.  Thus Israel was forbidden making images of the Lord in any fashion or any form.  We did not listen and kept making false pictures of God.

God’s reply to all humanity is this: If you want to know who I am, if you want to know what I look like, if you want to know how I think … here is the “image” of myself so you can know.  That image is Christ. 

He is the IMAGE of the invisible God.  When God took his iPhone or Droid and took a picture of himself and posted it on FB, or istagram, what was uploaded was Jesus. What this means is that what you know about Jesus you also know about God. Jesus, as the Image of God, tells you what God is like.  Pictures of Jesus are “images of God.”

Musings: Recall the IMAGES of Jesus that you know.  Write down those images.  What do those images tell you of God? 

  

PrayerThought

End your time this morning thanking God for the Images of himself that he has given us in Jesus.  Commit to the him that you will spend more time looking at his Facebook, Instagram, Tumbler and Pinterest accounts.  They have the names: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Read More

God's Christ in Roman Asia: A Review of Richard Oster's Seven Congregations in a Roman Crucible

A person is often identified as a fool for entering waters he or she knows nothing about. That could very well be the case here.  I am not a scholar by any means, much less a scholar on on the book of Revelation, Roman Asia or the various issues surrounding the hermeneutics of that mysterious book. But N. T. Wright is not Bob Dylan either, yet decides to pick a guitar and sing (I do too) so perhaps I can slide by.

Revelation is one of those books, for better or for worse, that has always been on the select list of favorites in the Bobby V "canon within a canon" (Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Job, Psalms, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes,  Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, Jonah, Habakkuk, Tobit, Sirach, Prayer of Manasseh, Matthew, Romans, Ephesians, 1 Peter, Revelation)  I took an undergrad Revelation course with David Underwood back at Heritage Christian University and later one of my first grad courses with Dr. John Harrison (now at Oklahoma Christian University) while I lived in New Orleans. Recently one of my profs, Dr. Richard Oster (multiple courses), published a commentary on Revelation 1-3.  I will follow the basic IDeA (Identify, Describe, Assess) format that professor Carisse Berryhill encouraged us to use back at Harding School of Theology.

Reading Seven Congregations

Seven Congregations in a Roman Crucible: A Commentary on Revelation 1-3 (Wipf and Stock, 2013) is the fruit of Dr. Oster's mature scholarship.  Oster is widely recognized as an authority on Christianity in Asia Minor, Artemis, numismatic windows on the NT, he often corrects scholars not as grounded in the soil of history and, for former students, he is the master of all footnotes.

Seven Congregations covers the "Seven Churches," or the first three chapters, of Revelation in  two
hundred and seventy-six pages covering ten chapters and three appendices. The commentary is supplemented with one hundred "figures" most of which are photographs of illustrative coins, monumental architecture and iconography (more on these below). 

Chapter one, the Introduction, is the longest being forty-eight pages.  Rather than beginning with the ubiquitous discussions of authorship, date, and genre, Oster begins by noting the cultural influence of Revelation on such diverse people as Columbus, Luther and Newton. Further in the Introduction space is devoted to needed corrections of popular misunderstandings of the book (i.e. Antichrist, 1000 yr reign, rapture).  Believing that these concerns are foisted upon John's Revelation rather than mined out it. Oster offers his interpretive methodology that follows in large measure the historical-critical method of coming "within earshot" of John's authorial intent (p.6).  Oster could have quoted Alexander Campbell's seven rules for coming within "understanding distance" of the biblical author.

Oster is open to seeing a canonical (he does not use that word) coherence between the Revelation and the rest of the Story of God.  As I read through Seven Congregations twice, and parts more, it became obvious that Oster believes that the foundational bedrock for understanding John is the deep inkwell of the Hebrew Scriptures preserved in their Greek translation in the LXX. I appreciate his not merely citing illuminating texts but quoting them in full most of the time.   Second is the wider Second Temple literature of Judaism which would include the rest of the LXX not in the Masoretic Hebrew canon (Apocrypha), the Dead Sea Scrolls and some Pseudepigraphal materials. Finally the wider Greco-Roman culture is significant for understanding the text.  Oster is lavish in his quotations and references to all of these sources. This is one of the great strengths of Seven Congregations.

Probably one of the most interesting parts of the Introduction for the contemporary reader unfamiliar with the Roman world is the discussion of what Dr. Oster calls "fictive globalism."  The ancients did not think the world was flat and frequently depicted the earth as a sphere in art and monumental architecture. I believe this imagery is part of Roma's self proclamation and self promotion ... a Roman "Gospel" if you will.  Dr. Oster clearly shows that the language is not necessarily literal in intent thus John when he uses it does not necessarily mean the entire planet  (pp. 27-43 and Appendix C). This lengthy discussion highlights the value of the historical background of the book for understanding and points out  what is often simply ignored in many approaches to the book, even by NT scholars.  (The Romans, btw, did not believe they literally ruled the entire globe, though their ideology proclaims that. Nor did the Romans believe the world was flat. And it will probably surprise a good number of people that the Empire had established sea trade routes with the civilizations of Asia).

Chapter two reveals to us that the Seven Congregations is really about God's Christ in Roman Asia and not simply the churches. While we learn that John is a prophet (he may or may not be the Apostle) in the spirit of the great prophets of the Hebrew Bible, the focus is upon the Christ of God who has a counter claim to Rome and demands exclusive covenant loyalty. There is a two fold thrust of the sword of Jesus.  The message of Revelation is "insider language," that is, it is intended for believers or Christians.  Thus the one side of the sword cuts at the claims of the fake Caesar and his idolatrous claims and the other side functions as a frightening warning to believers who have sought some kind of accommodation with the Roman Gospel. The Jesus revealed in Revelation 1 demands discipleship ... perhaps he was not kidding about taking up a cross and following him (Oster does not make that comparison but I think it fits with his exposition). The audience or hearers of John's Revelation are not new converts as may often be assumed.  Rather some of them may be up to third generation members of the Christian movement. Oster makes the fascinating reference to the "grandparents" of the Laodicean disciples reading Paul's letter to the Colossians (p.185).  Perhaps this helps explain why Jesus does not talk to these believers as if they are mere babes in the faith.

Perhaps one of the most important interpretive contributions Oster makes here is the emphasis on the Christophany, or appearing of Jesus, in 1.12-18 (pp. 72-89).  A basic suggestion (the rule of context) of reading the book from front to back, beginning to end, means that the Churches in chapters 2-3 hear, and see, THAT Jesus speaking to them not the slain Lamb who is not introduced until chapter 5.  This picture of Jesus is woven into all of the Letters except Laodicea, the last, and most condemned, congregation (pp.184-185). The Jesus knocking at the door waiting to have a gracious fellowship dinner (Rev 3.20) is the frightening Christ of God that made John fall down as if he was dead! Maybe that is why they did not open the door. 

Perhaps John begins with this frightening, even militaristic, picture of Jesus to the Seven Congregations because judgment begins with the household of God and not the world. And that is what Jesus does with these congregations he demands that they repent from selling out to the Roman Gospel.

Another especially enlightening feature of Seven Congregations is Oster's discussion of the "synagogue of Satan" and "Jews who are not Jews."  His exposition, solidly rooted in the earthiness of the late first century and not contemporary political sensitivities, brings to light the complex matrix of Jewish opposition to the nascent Jesus movement and its collusion with pagan power structures of the time. He likewise shows how this language is hardly anti-semitic within its historical setting showing that the question of who was a "real" Jew was a burning question for Jews of all strips after the Fall of Jerusalem and  perhaps even dating from the crises of the Maccabees (see pp. 118-125 and pops up in other places as well).  For more on Jewish "bashing" of Jesus and Christians see the recent study by Peter Schafer, Jesus in the Talmud (Princeton University Press, 2009). John's criticism of the "synagogue of Satan" and "those who claim to be Jews but are not"almost certainly implies that he sees himself and the followers of Jesus as the true synagogue and therefore are the true Jews (the word "Christian" never occurs in Revelation).  Far from being anti-Jewish he is, in his mind (it seems to me), pro-Jewish.  The warfare between ethnic Jews and emerging Rabbinic Judaism and the Jesus Movement that was (again in my view) akin to the Hatfields and McCoys ... so deadly precisely because of the family ties. The scars of this battle probably shape Christianity, as we know it, as much as anything in the "New Testament" itself.  Oskar Skarsaune traces both the inter-change and the conflict that shaped Christianity in his rich work, In the Shadow of the Temple: Jewish Influences on Early Christianity pp 209-276. This whole book should be required reading for every serious Bible student and editor(s) of the Gospel Advocate ;-)).

A unique feature of Seven Congregations, at least among the commentaries known to me, is the wealth of photographs and illustrations from the largely unknown wider Greco-Roman world. I love this feature.  It reminds me of Othmar Keel's groundbreaking work The Symbolism of the Biblical World: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Book of Psalms.  This book has not left my desk in probably ten years. The "material culture" of Rome opens up powerful windows of understanding into John's world and early Christianity (see the use of Pompeii as a historical laboratory for hearing Romans as a mid-first century Roman in Peter Oaks Reading Romans in Pompeii: Paul's Letter at Ground Level.  Here Oaks reconstructs the people who likely read the epistle from information known from Pompeii). From these kinds of remains we learn that divine rulers (like the fake Caesar) were often presented with rays of light emanating from around their head or body (John's uses this to communicate a direct challenge to Roma). Or that the number seven was regarded as divine by nearly everyone. And that temples just might have pillars in the shape of human beings. Likewise material remains document the influence of Judaism in Roman Asia to the extent that even some coins were minted with Noah and his wife on them.  Some of the illustrations present information that has never been presented to students of Revelation before and are thus of even more value (Figure 97 for example).

The illustrations are unevenly distributed through Seven Congregations.  The Introduction and chapters 4 & 5 are the most lavishly graced.  Chapters 7-10 have far fewer basically one or two each.  The photographs, most of which are taken by Dr. Oster himself during his travels to the sites, are reproduced well.  The details we need to see are clearly visible (sometimes not the case in books reproducing photos).  All the photographs are in black and white in the Commentary, however, Dr. Oster is making them available in color at this location: Color Photos for Seven Congregations. See this link as well: Color Photos for Seven Congregations in Roman Crucible.

Seven Congregations pulls the reader into hearing Jesus' call for discipleship.  Some of these calls are quite challenging for the contemporary American church. The Prophet John, after all, was not interested in producing a work of scholarship but in conveying the message of the "one I saw like a Son of Man" to God's people caught in a dangerous crucible. Assimilation is a constant threat and ever a challenge for American Christianity just as it was in Rome.  In many ways the USA is just as idolatrous as Rome and every bit as enticing to those who live in her and off of her.  It is not referred to as the American Empire for nothing. The Jesus of Revelation is not simply counter cultural  when it comes to Roman culture but he is as radically as counter cultural when it comes to present Evangelical church culture. Thus we read in Oster,

"From first to last the Christ of Revelation is an ecclesiastical Jesus, a Jesus for the congregations of God ... the Jesus Christ that John knows and proclaims is one for the collective people of God, the congregations of Roman Asia ... Christianity outside the 10/40 Window would do well to abandon some of its individualism, perhaps repent, and confess that Jesus is not a parachurch Messiah" (p. 89).

Other than the fact that some readers will not know what the 10/40 Window refers too, this flies in face of so much that passes for "Christianity" in North America. (The 10/40 Window refers to North Africa through the Middle East and across Asia or between 10 and 40 degrees north of the Equator. Luis Bush coined the term in 1990).

God's Christ in Roman Asia does not like "cultural Christians."  One can not be a "Christian" in the privacy of one's own home but not in the marketplace.  Those who have thus made their peace with Roma are commanded, even demanded, to repent or else (p. 142f).

Finally Oster deals with the issue of crises for John in Appendix A.  Though Leonard Thompson comes in for censure the criticism could be leveled at a number of recent scholars like Adela Yarbro Collins, Crisis & Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse (my intro to that line of thinking). The claim is that John's crises was not rooted in reality for there was no official or sustained Roman persecution of Christians. But Oster demonstrates this is a simplistic reading of the evidence.  While there really was no Empire sanctioned pogrom one is grossly naive to think that no suffering occurred. This is a needed corrective (pp. 199-204).

Reflections and Assessment

I have often called Revelation the Bible's Disney's Fantasia on steroids. My view was strengthened years ago after I read the small, but enlightening, book by James Charlesworth called How Barisat Bellowed: Folklore, Humor, and Iconography in the Jewish Apocalypses and the Apocalypse of John (Bibal 1998).  Reading Revelation is a full sensory experience and it was intended (I believe) to be so. Oster notes that Revelation "strongly appeals to the senses" (p. 76).  Thus I would have liked to see some extended discussion, perhaps an appendix, on how the intention of the author to have his message heard (not simply read silently in our minds) and experienced in the context of corporate worship affects the use of symbolism. Is it possible that not every detail of a symbol has a specific meaning but contributes to the "experience" of the vision? Fantasia shows the modern American the emotive power of symbols even without the need of any explanation of them. Do the symbols make fun of (Charlesworth's humor) of Roman power and thus defang the potency of Roman imperial propaganda? How does that oral environment impact meaning (see Paul Achtemeier's "OMNE VERBUM SONAT: The  New Testament and the Oral Environment of Late Western Antiquity" JBL 109/1 [1990] 3-27).

Dr. Oster has a very helpful overview of the Seven Letters (pp. 90-93). Here we note recurring elements in the letters and interconnections with the end of the book itself. While he confesses "This commentary assumes a holistic approach to the entire Revelation of John and to the seven letters and their integration with the remainder of the book" (p. 93). To this I am in one accord.  What remains unclear to me, however, is how the letters, and their themes, are in fact integrated into the rest of the book except the final two chapters.  I have in the past simply argued that the "apocalypse" of John does not really start until John is carried in the Spirit to the door of heaven (4.1-2) without necessarily grasping just how these parts of the book are interrelated. Perhaps in volume 2 Dr. Oster plans to provide a structural outline that helps in seeing the flow of the Revelation and the intertextuality of chapters 1-3 and 4-22.

Dr. Oster references two important artifacts from the wider culture, the bilingual inscription at the Temple of (Roma) Augusta in Ankyra Turkey and the Oracle of the Potter.  You can't have everything want the Rolling Stones sang, but it might be helpful to readers to have some insight into the content of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti.As I see it, this large inscription is the essential Gospel of Roma.  It is the public persona that Rome wanted the world to believe about itself. Rome is the very image of Virtue, Clemency, Justice, and Piety.  The text reads

When in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and P. Quintilius I returned to Rome from Spain and Gaul after settling the affairs of those provinces with success, the senate, to commemorate my return, ordered an altar to Pax Augusta to be consecrated in the Campus Martius, at which it decreed that the magistrates, priests, and Vestal Virgins should celebrate an anniversary sacrifice.

 

Whereas our ancestors have willed that the gateway of Janus Quininus should be shut, whenever victorious peace is secured by sea and by land throughout the empire of the Roman people, and whereas before my birth twice only in all is it on record that the gateway has been shut, three times under my principate has the Senate decreed that it should be shut.

 

After my victory I replaced in the temples of all the communities of the province of Asia the ornaments which my adversary [i.e. Mark Antony] in the war had, after despoiling the temples, taken into his own possession.

The whole of Italy of its own free will took the oath of fidelity to me, and demanded me as its leader in the war of which Actium was the crowning victory. An oath was also taken to the same effect by the provinces of Gaul, Spain, Africa, Sicily, and Sardinia.

I extended the frontiers of all the provinces of the Roman people, which had as neighbors races not obedient to our empire. I restored peace to all the provinces of Gaul and Spain and to Germany, to all that region washed by the Ocean from Gades to the mouth of the Elbe.

 

Peace too I caused to be established in the Alps from the region nearest to the Hadriatic as far as the Tuscan sea, while no tribe was wantonly attacked by war.”

In my sixth and seventh consulships, after I had extinguished the civil wars, having been put in supreme possession of the whole empire by the universal consent of all, I transferred the republic from my own power into the free control of the Senate and Roman people.” 

 

For the which service I received the appellation of Augustus by decree of the Senate, and the door-posts of my house were publicly decked with laurel leaves; the civic crown was fixed up above my gate, and a golden shield set up in the Julian senate-house, which, as its inscription testifies, was granted to me by the Senate and Roman people to commemorate my virtue, clemency, justice, and piety.” 

The Roman Gospel ... Virtue, Clemency, Justice, and Piety.  Roma did not have a self image problem.  Now contrast that with Revelation 17's "unveiling" of the true Rome.  Here is a direct challenge to the Roman Gospel from the Christian Gospel.

I have some lingering questions that may be helpfully answered in the next volume of Dr. Oster's commentary.  I agree that the Christophany is the controlling image of Jesus for the churches.  I also agree that this image is one that might even justly called frightening  (it did John). But this frightening Jesus tells John "do not be afraid" (1.17).  Some how the awe inspiring (indeed frightening) Christophany (like the theophanies in the Hebrew Scriptures, cf. Hab 3) are intertwined with the assurance that Jesus is still on our side.  Perhaps in a future volume Dr Oster can add some material on this point.  Related to this is the emphasis on Royal-Davidic Christology and its relation to the Lamb Christology.  What is it? There is, in my view, no doubt that the Lamb is very much woven into the structure of the Rev 5-22.  How can we affirm both? How are they interrelated? Does one interpret the other? The next volume will likely address this issue.

One last Reflection, and none of these are real criticisms but more like my wishes, has a missional thrust.  Much of the book of Revelation is anti-assimilationist and Dr. Oster brings this out forcefully at times. What might resisting the intoxicating culture look like today? John himself uses cultural idioms to convey his message of resisting the culture.  Is resistance limited to morality and meat sacrificed to idols? Probably not.  Is resistance based upon the pagan nature of the culture? Daniel is a very anti-assimilationist document as well yet the hero and his compatriots "seek the welfare of the city" to use Jeremiah's words.  So I would have really profited from a mini-theology of cultural resistance from Revelation (another Appendix!!). We are culturally enmeshed and sometimes it may be difficult for American Christians to know when their Americanism ends and their Christianity begins and sometimes we baptize the former and forget the latter.  So some guidance from a genuine NT scholar could prove helpful.  Books like Richard Horsley's Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder offer some challenging guidance but Horsley does not interact with Revelation even once.

Seven Congregations in a Roman Crucible should be required reading for anyone studying that book and even late first century Christianity in general.  You will have a much firmer grasp on the realities of early Christianity and its struggles and thus also on our own. Dr. Oster succeeds in bringing us within "understanding distance" of John's audible vision.

 

Well I think I have probably worn out my welcome so I will bring these Stoned-Campbell musings to an end. Tolle Lege & Shalom. 

Read More