Today’s Scripture
Reading (May 31, 2016): Psalm 89
The context of our words are everything. It is one of the reasons that I really don’t like
text driven communication. There is too much communication that is not done
with our words, but rather with our expressions and body language. It is spoken
with timing. Such was the case after Game 3 of the 2016 NBA Eastern Finals. The
Toronto Raptors Bismack Biyombo was asked about the finger wag that he gave to
the Cleveland Cavaliers in a game that, unlike to the two previous games, was
dominated by the Raptors. In an interview, Biyombo insisted that the retired
Congolese great Dikembe Mutombo gave him permission to use the finger wag that
he had once used on his opponents. The two men are good friends and Congolese
brothers, they speak to each other often and seem very proud of each other. But
then Mutombo is caught by some reporters and asked if he did indeed give
Biyombo permission to use the finger wag. Mutombo smiles and simply says that
he doesn’t remember when that happen. And then the headlines hit “Dikembe
Mutombo denies giving Bismack Biyombo of Toronto Raptors permission to use
finger-wag celebration.” Ah, now we have what we want – controversy. Except
that the words convey a different story when we watch the video. In the video,
it seems that the whole conversation is done with tongue firmly planted in
cheek. Is Mutombo upset that Biyombo used the finger-wag?
No, Mutombo simply says “he’s making me famous.” But reading the facial expressions
and movements of the retired star, you get a slightly different message than
when just read the words. In the video of the conversation you can almost hear
Mutombo saying, “come on guys, it’s a finger-wag, this is my brother Biyombo’s
time to shine. I shone yesterday.” But context is everything.
For many of the Psalms, we simply don’t know enough
context to know specific details or even when the Psalm was written. This psalm
seems to be one of these. And part of the problem circles around the mention of
Rahab. We know that we are not talking about the prostitute of Jericho. The Rahab
mentioned in this passage is … well, that
is the question. The answer is most likely either the multi-headed sea monster
that was involved some of the ancient Middle East creation stories, or a code
name for Egypt herself.
So what is the context of the word? The preceding verse
indicates that God rules “over the raging sea,” a comment that would seem to
indicate Rahab the Sea Monster. It would probably also indicate a fairly early
authorship of the Psalm. The message is that the Creation of God is mightier
than that of Rahab, or the he is the God who rules over creation.
But there are those who argue that this is written not
around the time of David, but at the time of the Babylonian Captivity. The ending
of the Psalm seems to strongly suggest that this is true. But that would not
seem to change the meaning of Rahab. The message remains that my God is
stronger than yours! My God can defeat,
dismember, and kill the multi-headed sea monster that you seem to believe made
the world. And even though Israel has long since disappeared and Judah has been
carried into captivity in Babylon, our God, the defeater of Rahab, is still on
the throne.
But still others argue that Rahab is not the
sea-monster here, but a metaphor for Egypt. If that is true, then it would seem
that the context and the time of writing is
very late – maybe even later than anything else in the Old Testament. The image
of an Egypt that was crushed didn’t really match Egypt in the sixth-century B.C.E or Egypt at the time of the
exile. Egypt was still believed to be a power then, and some had even hoped
that Egypt would be able to come to the defense of Israel in their struggle
against Babylon. But over the next couple of centuries, the power of Egypt
would be crushed and the once mighty nation would be a shadow of herself. By
the mid-fourth century, Egypt’s power was
totally gone and the nation never regained its worldwide
prominence. Then, these words regarding Rahab who was crushed would be totally
appropriate being applied to Egypt.
And so we are left with the questions over context. Does any of this change the main
message that we are to take from the Psalm? Maybe not. It changes places of
writing and maybe the enemy in view and the circumstances, but the message
remains the same – whatever the problem is that we face, God remains firmly on
the throne.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: Psalm 1
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