My Lonely City

Psalm 4 seems rather disjointed to me. Of course, it’s 6:13 in the morning, and the menu at Tarahumara’s would probably confuse me as well. Anyway, it just seems like the poem/song takes several disparate themes and and places them alongside one another, but doesn’t necessarily relate them to each other. … Upon reading this again, I think I was wrong. ¶ Okay, let me back up. A few years ago, when I was studying in Wellington, New Zealand, I took a Greek Mythology class during which we had a visiting lecturer who spoke briefly about Biblical mythology. Among the many interesting things that professor said, he discussed that the structure of many Biblical, and especially Old Testament, texts use a structure somewhat different than the Western plot structures that most of us were used to: instead of being structured around conflict or tension building to a climax, and then a denouement, they are arranged like a funnel-shape, with both the beginning and the end in some sense ‘leading up to’ the center; they are arranged symetrically so that the most emphasis is placed on the middle. ¶ He used the story of Adam & Eve in the garden, and eventually out of the garden, as his example, saying that the emphasis in the text according to this structure is not on, as we assume, the Fall (a term which does not occur in the actual text) or even on the Creation, but on the period in the center, when Adam & Eve are living in the garden and walking & speaking with God. ¶ Anyway, reading Psalm 4 again with that in mind, it does indeed seem to peak at the words of instruction in the center. The beginning, where the speaker implores God to “answer [him] in [his] distress,” is indeed answered in the final verses, where the speaker’s “distress” has been replaced by “joy”, “peace” and “safety” (Psalm 4:1 & 7-8). The “men [who] love delusions and seek false Gods” in the next segment are revealed later to be “asking, ‘Who can show us any good?’” – to which the speaker now knows to respond not with fear or anger, but by seeking “the light of [God’s] face” (vs. 2 & 6). ¶ The next three verses constitute the core of the text, the wisdom the speaker has gained and that will inform the way in which he responds to his former questions: “Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;/ the Lord will hear when I call to him./ In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. (Selah)/ Offer right sacrifices/ and trust in the Lord” (vs. 3-5). But see, even to discuss that interpretation, I rewrote it in the structure with which I am familiar. I can’t wait to get to Heaven and be able to view the world through the language of the one who created it. (And it’s now 6:45.)