|
[1] C.S.
Lewis did not seem to understand how God’s grace leads to righteousness, Every attentive reader of the Psalms
will have noticed that they speak to us severely not merely about doing evil
ourselves but about something else. In
26,4, the good man is not only free from “vanity” (falsehood) but has not
even “dwelled with”, been on intimate terms with, those who are “vain”. He has “hated” them (5). So in 31,7, he has “hated” idolaters. In 50,18, God blames a man not for being a
thief but for “consenting to” a theief…Almost comically the Psalmist of 139
asks “Don’t I hate those who hate thee, Lord?...Why, I hate them as if they
were my enemies!” (21,22). Now obviously all this –
taking upon oneself to hate those whom one thinks God’s enemies, avoiding the
society of those one thinks wicked, judging our neighbours, thinking oneself
“too good” for some of them (not in the snobbish way, which is a trivial sin
in comparison, but in the deepest meaning of the words “too good”) – is an
extremely dangerous, almost a fatal, game.
It leads straight to “Pharisaism” in the sense which Our Lord’s own
teaching has given to that word. It
leads not only to the wickedness but to the absurdity of those who in later
times came to be called the “unco guid” [rigidly righteous]. This I assume from the outset, and I think
that even in the Psalms this evil is already at work. But we must not be Pharisaical even to the
Pharisees. It is foolish to read such
passages without realizing that a quite genuine problem is involved. And I am not at all confident about the
resolution (Reflections on the Psalms,
66f.). Psalm 25 and 26 present a
godly and, by definition, biblically balanced view of grace and law. |
|
[2]
The Hebrew
word for “lovingkindness”, Ḥesed, occurs some 245 times in the OT, of which slightly more than half
(127) are found in the Psalter (The Anchor Bible Dictionary). |
|
[3] The phrase “lovingkindness and truth”
occurs some 35x in the OT; 24x in the Psalms (Gen.24:27; 32:10; 47:29; Exod.
34:6,7; 2 Sam. 2:6; 1 Ki. 3:6; Ps. 25:10; 26:3; 36:5; 40:10,11; 57:3,10; 61:7; 69:13; 85:10; 86:15; 88:11;
89:1,2,14,24,33; 92:2; 98:3; 100:5; 108:4; 115:1; 117:2; 138:2; Prov. 16:6;
20:28; Isa.16:5; Hos.4:1; cf. Psalm 119:59-60). |
|
[4] Wonder(s) (פֶּלֶא
[pele˒]) occurs 84x in the OT, 37 of which are in the Psalms. |
|
[5] The plea ḥonnēnı̂,
“be gracious to me,” appears nineteen times in the Psalms. (TWOT
302). It is probably rooted in God’s
statement to Moses, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and
will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”
(Exodus 33:19) and the Aaronic benediction, “The LORD make His face shine on
you, And be gracious to you” (Numbers 6:25). |
