Let’s sing a protest song, a song about justice. But what
song shall we sing? O, I’ve got one. [Begin singing “This Land is Your Land.”]
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking / I saw a sign there
And on the sign it / said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side / it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple / I saw my people,
By the relief office / I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, / I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
You didn’t know about those verses did you? We didn’t sing
them when I was in elementary school. We like the beauty of vss. 1 and 2 but
want to lop off the parts that aren’t as pretty. Or, at least not teach them
because they speak of ugliness and injustice. And we generally want worship to
be the same way. We love to sing beautiful songs and encouraging melodies. We
like songs that move us. But do we imagine that what we do here is also a form
of protest? Do we sing the other verses, like Psalm 82.
Woody Guthrie and the Psalmist understood that Biblical
spirituality demands protest songs. He remarked that Christianity was an “every
day fight” and a faith that “had to be lived” on a daily basis. And singing the
hard verses – and praying them- is the only way to live what is true and to
believe what can truly sustain us.
In the Psalms, “How long?” is typically a protest addressed
to God but it can also be a protest and rebuke uttered by one human being to
another or by God himself. This is the song that we are beckoned to sing. And
right off the bat such songs reveal that the Bible isn’t a “do what you’re
told” sort of book or an “obey or else” sort of word but that ringing
throughout its pages is the divine mandate to question authority and protest
against injustice. Here’s what we need to know:
1. I
don’t care about the [elohim]. Sing justice
anyway!
This Psalm probably has more controversy and has received
more scholarly attention than any other psalm because of the strangeness
associated with the Elohim of vs. 1 [God vs. gods]. The verse reads: Elohim
presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the Elohim.
Elohim is a plural noun in
Hebrew [literally “gods” and yet it is often used of Yahweh, the only God. So who
are these B-league divinities that God judges?
A quick summary of three possibilities:
1. Human judges or rulers– For instance Exodus 21:6 and Exodus 22: 8-9 use the
Hebrew word “elohim” for human judges understood as visible representatives
of God upon earth. Likewise, ancient kings were thought to reflect
divinity and the divine in ways that others didn’t. “Son of god x…” was a way
of describing that. Israel had the same ideology, as Psalm 2 makes clear
enough: at the king’s coronation, he is “begotten” of God and “becomes” God’s
“son.” Martin Luther, and most Reformers, favored this interpretation and noted
that “every prince should have [this psalm] painted on the wall of his chamber;
on his bed, over his table, and on his garments.”
2. Angels
or some spiritual entities belonging
to the Heavenly court or council, c.f.
Job 1:6ff, 1
Kings 22:19. In this view, “elohim” are actually referring
whom God has appointed in heavenly places to rule
over the kingdoms of this world. So “gods” refers to an assembly of divine
beings ruled by God, who is their creator and sovereign. These divine beings
were appointed by God to be responsible for the just rule of the nations, as in
Deuteronomy 32:8, “When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided
humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of
the gods.”
3. Finally,
the third option (potentially associated with Jesus himself, c.f. John 10:35)
was the Rabbinic interpretation of Israel’s chosenness which understood the
“elohim”
as the Jewish community who received the law at Mount Sinai. In that
context, “you are gods”
is not a prooftext that Israel was “divine” but a nod to ancient ideology of
election, and what Israel’s God expected of the entire community.
Where do you land? Show of hands. How many think it’s #1,
#2, #3? Well, the right answer is . . . I don’t care. On the one hand, we can and
should carefully analyze this text, argue over its features, puzzle over its
points. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s often important and can even be
fun. On the other hand, we must take one step back and recognize this Psalm for
what it is - a song of protest against forces of authority that have failed to
fulfill their God-given mandate to bring justice. The song reveals that the
characters are less important than the its purpose. The message could not be
more clear: Those with power in the one world that is both physical and
spiritual—must use their power to help, save, and deliver the powerless. God
does not tolerate the neglect or oppression of the poor and God will take all
the same action against any who do such things or who fail to stop them. God
puts them down (vs. 7).
Let me offer an analogy: Imagine that as I leave the house I
shout to my children that “X should feed the dog.” And children, being
children, say to each other, “Who did he say?” They then begin to argue over
the “who” and can’t actually come to a conclusion. When I get home – how would
I react to the response: “We didn’t feed the dog because we couldn’t figure out
who you asked.”
Here’s my point. The message doesn’t change
based upon whatever category of character you pick for the “gods.” Neither are
there exemptions for others that don’t get picked. If you believe that it’s
angels, for example, that doesn’t mean that kings or judges, or you, are not
called to exercise proper justice for the poor and needy. God doesn’t say, “O,
sorry, you aren’t an angel. This doesn’t apply to you.” And maybe the ambiguity
can serve another purpose. I recognize that right now we are in a bewildering
cultural and political moment. It’s hard to see things well. It’s hard to know
which characters to preach at or to.
- So if you’re confused, or bewildered, or worried, that’s
fine. Sing justice anyway!
- If you wondering how to handle partisan politics, sing
justice anyway!
- If you feel trapped by mean-spirited rants, sing justice
anyway!
- If you don’t know who the elohim are, that’s okay.
Sing justice anyway! And feed the dog!
2. Justice
isn’t the issue. It’s rescuing and defending people – the poor and oppressed,
the weak and the needy.
My wife and I were traveling in Los Angeles when a driver
zoomed in front of us, causing me to slam on my brakes barely missing the car
which would have been a terrible accident. My wife screamed, “What a humdinger!”
She then smiled awkwardly at me and asked, “Did I say that right?” I giggled
and said, “I don’t know, what century are you from? What do you think it
means?” She then proceeded to explain in terms that are hardly acceptable for a
sermon or for a pastor’s wife. So I chuckled and told her that she was
absolutely right. Just kidding. Maybe you know what "humdinger" means but what
about justice? What is Biblical justice? Do you know what it means?
So often we imagine that justice is punishment. Or that it
means equal treatment for all people. But the two most common verbs in the Old
Testament used with justice are neither punish nor having to do with equality but
are “rescue” and “save”. We imagine that justice is best administered by an
unbiased judge who is impartial, giving people only what they deserve. Such a
perspective is envisioned by the statue of lady justice - a blindfolded woman
with scales in her hands. Such a view is not totally inappropriate (vs. 2
accuses the elohim of partiality) but fails to capture the dominant view
of justice in the Bible. In the Biblical context and Psalm 82, God is not a
blind judge but one who sees very clearly the difference between people –
especially the difference between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the
powerless, the privileged and the defenseless. Justice then focuses on particular
people and reflects God’s desire to create a community which experiences his
love and loves one another. It’s about making right, restoring of fortunes,
particularly for the most vulnerable. It’s not so much a “getting what you
deserve” but being given what you need. The Psalms’ justice is a justice “for .
. .” – for the poor, for the needy, for people rather than issues.
Justice is about people who should be looked after not
issues that must be protected. Have you ever noticed that Psalm 82 and the
Bible doesn’t so much talk about poverty, for example, it talks a lot about the
poor. How do we not fall into the trap of these elohim who prefer to
“walk in darkness?” How do we “rescue” and “save” real people? Two things seem
important: First, we must refuse to walk in darkness ourselves, we must not
allow ourselves to be ignorant about facts and their implications for people.
Getting our facts right is a community obligation. Second, if you don’t want to
be in the dark, if you want to face injustice, then you must learn about what’s
going on in people’s real lives by speaking to them directly face-to-face. So
don’t walk in the dark – shine the light, have a meal, listen well – welcome a
face.
3. Come
on, God! You have to sing too!
Finally, Psalm 82 once again astounds us by making God himself
an object of protest. There is implicit a moral logic to the Psalmist’s
protest: “if God does not respond to the prayer and establish the justice for
which the psalmist prays, God will have proven that God has no more right to authority
than the other gods.”
We must recognize that justice is not something that we can
merely arrive at on our own. It must be something that we ask God for. God
wrote the lyrics and melody. We need God to sing justice too. That’s what we’re
going to do now.
We ended the service with the song:
With the following prayer offered during the verses:
Lord, shine
the light, and teach us to sing
Give us the
courage to sing in public spaces
For the
hungry and the homeless
For the
bullied and the beaten
For the
different and the despised
Help us to
stand up for those who are too weak to stand for themselves
Help us to know
them by name, to sing justice by creating friendships
Make “rescue”
and “defend” words that are always on our lips
Cause the
poor and the needy to always be in our midst
Motivate us
to real acts of compassion, to practical works of mercy
Rise up and
shine O God! Rise up and sing!
Lord, shine
the light, and teach us to sing
Give us the
courage to sing to ourselves
Forgive us
for defending the unjust
Forgive us
for showing partiality to the wicked
Forgive us
for being too fearful to talk gently with one another about difficult things
Help us to
live truly as sons and daughters of You
Help us to
chant with love, to march with hope, to protest with joy
If justice
rolls like water, Lord
Push us in
to roll with it, to ride its current, to move with its rapids
And when it’s
hard, when the waters feel scary and loud, help us sing justice anyway.
Rise up and
shine O God! Rise up, heal us, and teach us to sing!
