Psalm  Studies

Hymns from Moses’ times    Asaph Psalms

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint Lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

14 January 2012

           Asaph is the contributor of no less than 12 psalms in the Psalm corpus. As to the question who he was, scholars are speculating. Our understanding is that he was a contemporary of Moses according to 2 Chronicles 20:14. This important verse has escaped many good scholars. Even in the critical Encyclopaedia of the Bible of Cheyne vol. 1 (1899), this verse is overlooked. It is the most important verse regarding Asaph since it reads: Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation. If the date of the event is ca. 850 BCE then the five generations earlier would place the death of Asaph around 1350 BCE or earlier. He could have been a contemporary of Moses and a young singer for the tabernacle during the Exodus. For that matter, his Psalms are making references to Deuteronomy, Genesis, Job all books written or composed by Moses. Moses' sermons and thoughts would have been very well known to him.

Psalm 50

           Dahood says that in the tradition of the prophets, this psalm stresses the futility of sacrifice (Dahood Anchor Bible 305). The psalmist uses inverted parallellism (v. 1), synthetical parallellism (vv. 1, 2, 4), synonymous parallellism (v. 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23) and antithetical parallelism (vv. 21), chiastic parallelism (vv. 10, 15). There is a move in this Psalm from misguided worship to true worship. Asaph speaks to the godless people, asking why they come to worship (v. 16). They hate discipline (v. 17). They are connected with adulterers (v. 18). God invites people to call Him in the day of trouble (v. 15) and He will help them. God should be honored. Who? The one who offer with thanks honors God (v. 23). The military warrior image of God in Psalm 1-7 also inspired Isaiah in Isaiah 60. God will judge (v. 4 investigative aspect) and God will punish (v. 6 executive aspect). God is not interested in sacrifices but true worship (v. 7). Zion is mentioned in v. 2.

           The main message of Asaph and God is clear:

           1. In the day of trouble (v. 15), 2. call Me (v. 15a) 3. I will deliver you (v. 15b), 4. you will bring a thankoffering (v. 23), 5. you will honor Me (v. 23a), and then finally you will be My witness (v. 23c). Asaph's logic is clear as it was also with Moses: to bring offerings is useless when you are still harboring sin in your life. Thank offerings can only be brought when one is fully rescued from sin. Confessing sins, determined to give up sin and forsake it, leads to a total dedication of one's life to God Who rescues the person from all records against him/her at which time the person is so thankful that he/she wants to bring a thankoffering and at this stage the person is witnessing of the saving grace of God which is honoring God. We should not miss the connection with Job in Psalm 50:21.

           Another interesting word is in Psalm 50:17 where the word watashlech or shalach is used for casting down. It is used in other passages of the Bible for the action of God against Lucifer when he was cast down (especially Daniel 8:11 which is the action of Lucifer in the context of the actions of the antichrist or Little Horn [10 and 12], also used in Ezechiel 2:17, also Ezechiel 28:17 for Satan been cast down, in Psalm 51:13 [Hebrew] "cast me not from Thy sight" and in Micah 7:19). LaRondelle mentioned that we have concept references in Ezechiel 28:2, Daniel 11:36; 7:8-12; Isaiah 11:4 and 14 to the identification of the lawless man in 2 Thessalonians 2:4a, b and 8). Daniel 11:36 is identified by me as the USA power after 1798 deadly wound of the papacy or Holy Roman Empire's temporary end. The word is used for judgmental situations.

Psalm 73

                   Dahood thought that this Psalm is a wisdom psalm where the psalmist is thinking about the righteousness of God. He tries to connect the righteousness of God with the problems of this world. The result is that the wicked should be destroyed and the good should be taken to heaven (Dahood Anchor Bible 187). The Psalm is not easy to read and even Dahood had problems. There are many hapax legomena in the Psalm. God is truly (ak) good to Israel, to those who are pure of heart (v. 1). But, his own feet nearly made him stumble (v. 2). For a short while (m`th). It seemed to him that the wicked are very successful (v. 3). The godless people "they mock and speak with the evil one, they speak the tribulation of the uplifted one" (v. 8 which is my own translation adapted from Dahood). His people and himself have through secularization walked after the business successes.                                                                                                              Therefore true Israel is of heart (v. 1). The whole day he was tempted (v. 14). In v.16 he thought about the whole situation but it was difficult in his own eyes. However, when he came into the most holy, he understood the end of the wicked. When he saw the eschatology of the wicked he understood. In the most holy was the law and other books like Deuteronomy and when he saw the end of the wicked, he knew what his decision is suppose to be. Intellectual knowledge alone could not solve the situation for him. He had to enter the most holy. In v. 20 Asaph says that the Lord hates the evil people's images of the city. The city icons is not popular with God. In ashtownan of v. 21 we have a hapax legomenon. In v. 25 he asked "who is for me in heaven?" and this is a reference to the investigative judgment with Christ as Advocate in functioning in the Most Holy on his part. God is my portion/inheritance unto eternity (v. 26b).  There is one riddle remaining in this psalm. Asaph was not a high priest but he went into the sanctuary. In the holies, what is there that can tell him about the end of the wicked? In the Most Holy only the priest went in once a year. One can imagine that the words that only the High Priest can go in here has to do with the functions and during functions. Someone had to go in to dust it off daily. Asaph was a singer and would he go in to dust it off and next to the ark read the book of Deuteronomy? Hans LaRondelle thinks that he went into the holies and that he could see in the rites of the holies the end of the wicked. "In the smoke of the burnt sin offerings in the outer court may have revealed to him the eternal death of the sinner. In the sanctuary he saw the Lord as a God who is merciful to every repentant sinner, yet who brings all men ultimately to judgment" (H. LaRondelle, Deliverance in the Psalms [Berrien Springs, Michigan: First Impressions, 1983 171).   Just as we analysed, LaRondelle also said "Asaph found not so much an intellectual solution to his questions as a settling reassurance of God's care for him and of God's sovereign control of history".  The scholar R. Tournay seems to indicate that Asaph had a vision while he was in the sanctuary "Accepte la vision (hazon) qui parle de toi et les songes des prophetes qui s'enquierent de toi" (R. Tournay, "Le Psaume LXXIII: Relectures et Interpretation" Revue Biblique 73 [1966]: 262). The idea of a vision was also entertained by A. Schmitt in 1973. A number of scholars focussed on the wisdom in Psalm 73, J. F. Ross, J. Luyten, H. Irsigler, L. G. Perdue.                                                                                                                                       One of the great insights of this psalm by Asaph is that evil will have an end. The cyclic view of present conditions as we find in many religions, also Buddhism, is not possible. There is an end thus also a beginning. Whether the in between process is one of a straight line or spiral or combination of both, is another topic.

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