Psalm  Studies

Hymns from Moses’ times  The Asaph Psalms 2

 

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint Lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

19 January 2012

 

          Asaph is the contributor of no less than 12 psalms. He dates from the time of Moses.

 

Psalm 74

           In this psalm, Asaph started with a lamentation to God why His people has been forsaken? (v. 1-2). The congregation was purchased by God before (qedem). They are the rod of His inheritance whom He has redeemed after the Exodus in 1450 BCE (v. 2). The people are a mount Zion which He has dwelt on (v. 2c). This is a very interesting concept. It is not "the mount" but "a mount". The context is His people not this place or that place.

           Asaph is praying that the Lord causes to raise up His calves of His feet to the desolation, all the enemy made evil in the sanctuary (v. 3). As long as Satan is on this world sharing space with the remnant of God, there will be foxes in the vineyard. Asaph is aware of that.

           The enemies of the Lord is roaring in the midst of the congregation of the Lord (v. 4a). There are bad apples spoiling the good ones belonging to the Lord. They set up their signs [as] signs (v. 4b). God has His signs of the times in the prophetic charts, but these people reinterpret God's plan their own way by setting up their own signs as signs.

           "It is known like someone who went out to raise hoes [rn = hoe in Late Egyptian = Hebrew qardumot] in a thick tree" (v. 5). This verse was very difficult for translators to translate in the past.

           "And time [my vocalization is different than in the Masoretic Text but keeping the consonants intact as it was in the original also] its portal together with an ax and hammers they will smite down" (v. 6). These two verses are very difficult to understand. It is not reality since it says in v. 5 "it is known like . . .". It does not say it is but it is just like the reality of an event. The event not actually there. Maybe Asaph wants to portray the progressive problems of evil. They placed their own signs as signs in the place of God's signs in His tabernacle and the result of that is that their actions will become violent like people who want to fell a tree with the result they may even eventually destroy the portals of the House of God with hammers and an ax.

           In vv. 7-10 that follows, Asaph is using jargon that we find in Daniel the prophet. Of course, Daniel lived centuries after Asaph.

           "They let go with fire in Your sanctuary" (v.7). Instead of burning down the sanctuary as some translations read it, we wish to see the opposite. The sanctuary is not burned down but the fires involved there are done away with. They change the rites in the sanctuary.

           "They have defiled from the tent of Your name to the earth" meaning that they wish to exchange worship of God for the worship of the theology of evironmentalism, or "to the earth" (v. 7b). "They said in their hearts, lets greet them [nyny in Middle and Late Egyptian = salutation or greeting] together, they burnt all the gathering places of God upon the earth" (v. 8). These people are two-faced. They come with salutations but actually burn down the gathering places of God upon the earth. It is not in a specific country, it is a wide phenomenon.

           "We do not see [visionary seeing] our signs, not is there any longer a prophet and not can we know our sign: Until when?" (v. 9).    This verse is very insightful. Daniel also used this jargon by Asaph in his psalm, in Daniel 8:14. The "until when" genre was actually well known in the Ancient Near East in hymns. It was normally connected with the fall of a temple or fall of a city: Uruk, Larsa, Ur, Babylon, Tyre, Sidon, hymns that all wanted to know how long this destruction will last and when the gods will come back to restore them. It is the ad matay genre. Since there is no longer a seer therefore Asaph said there will be no one to say the until when sayings. Deterioration in the sanctuary leads to an absence in the prophetic understanding. Asaph do not want this to happen.

           "How long o God, will the adversary sink/submerge [hrp in Late Egyptian = sink and submerge] will the enemy announce/proclaim [nỉs in Late Egyptian = announce/proclaim/formulate/invite/call forth] Your name to pointed speech [ns in Late Egyptian = pointed speech which is also the idea of Moses in 1460 BCE composing Job 34:36 "Job ought to be tried unto pointed speech" whereas modern translations read 'to the limit' or 'unto the end') (v. 10).

           "Why do you withdraw your hand and your right hand. From the inside of your embracement/bosom destroy [kalah]" (v. 11).       Asaph is not happy with evil in the tabernacle of God and in the places of gatherings for God elsewhere. He wanted an end to this evil.

"God is my king from before. He did deliverance in the midst of the earth" (v. 12).

           From vv. 13-17 Asaph wants to sing about His God and he uses "You are . . .".

           "You have divided the sea with your strength" (v. 13a) which was during the Exodus in 1450 BCE. "You broke the heads of the Memphis earthgods [t3-nn = tatjenen in Egyptian, see Gardiner 599] upon the waters" (v. 13b) during the Exodus in 1450 BCE when Pharaoh drowned. "You crushed the heads of the Leviathan [fɛtn Egyptian for snake on Pharaoh's head] you gave them food, to the people, to the wilderness" (v. 14a and 14b where there is a reference to manna as food in the wilderness). "You broke open fountains and a stream [providing water through Moses to people from touching rocks], You dried up rivers and streams" (v. 15a and 15b). The context is all during the Exodus in 1450 BCE. "To You is the day, also to You is the night. You have prepared the light and the sun" (v. 16a and 16b referring to the provision of the light or column of fire during the night so that they could move). "You have established all the boundaries of the earth, summer and winter, You have formed them" (v. 17a and 17b a word also in Akkadian as ȇȇru). The involvement of God with the history of man is linked to His power to create. Events of history and events of creation are linked here. Salvation is linked to creation in vv. 13-17 and the pronoun second person singular is used 7 times. There were seven days of Creation and seven used here by Asaph may have a link to that.

In verse 18 Asaph asked the Lord to remember "Remember this, the enemy has sank/submerged o Lord, and an empty people have pointed speech your name". We are translating here with Egyptian loanwords in the text. The modern dictionaries like KB relies sometimes too much on Arabic as an understanding of the original. This is unlikely or not the perfect methodology. Asaph is more likely to have an ancient Egyptian understanding of the word than an Arabic one.

           Asaph then prays for the remnant of God. He prays for the true believers. "Do not give the soul of your dove to the wild beasts" (v. 19a). "The life of your afflicted, do not forget unto pointed speech" (v. 19b). The last word is the same technical term in verse 10 supra and we kept to this rendering. It means in a court setting, when the enemy wants to prove us wrong, do not forget to be our Advocate in the Investigative Judgment. That is the pointed speech. All words focused just on one person, the one they want to attack.

           "Consider unto the covenant. For full are the dark places of the earth of habitations of violence" (v. 20).

           "Let not return the oppressed dishonored. The afflicted and needy may praise your name" (v. 21).

           "Stand up [probably in the Time of Trouble of which Daniel 12:1 also spoke] o God, plead forcefully your case [at the end of the Investigative Judgment so that the door of Mercy closes] remember how he submerge You, out of foolishness, all day" (v. 22). Not giving recognition to the Creator of all is to be foolish and that is submerging or sinking the proper perspective of the Almighty in subordinates and dependents minds.

           "Do not forget the voice of the Your adversaries, the uproar of Your upstanding goes up continually [tamid]" (v. 23). With the Investigative Judgment done, the High Priest Jesus receiving kingship from His Father, the Lamb of God changes into the Lion of Judah and roaring here refers to that. He stands up as Daniel also foresaw and Eternity fuses with history when He resurrected the dead and takes them to eternity. The upstanding of Christ or Michael is cataclysmic throughout the universe.

 

If you want to be biblical, you cannot embrace deviations from it