Psalm 67 This psalm is a flat out song of thanksgiving (and just what I needed this morning while feeling somewhat despondent about my latest medical issue.) It begins with those same lines we read not too long ago in Numbers 6, here as an invocation rather than a benediction: “May God grant us grace and bless us, may He shine His face upon us.”
This is also one of those psalms that reminds us that God is the God of all creation and of all humankind, not just Israel: “To know on the earth Your way, among all the nations Your rescue.” (2) There is even a feeling of the final throne room scene in Revelation where “Nations acclaim You, O God, all peoples acclaim You. Nations rejoice in glad song, ” (3,4a)
Just to make his point–the psalmist repeats verse 3 at verse 5: “The nations acclaim you…” In one sense this is a “missionary psalm,” and must certainly have been on Jesus’ mind when he gave the Great Commission. How could the nations acclaim God if they did not know that it is God who “rule[s] people rightly and nations on earth You lead?” (4)
But it is also a stark reminder that no matter how far the nations have strayed from God–and they have certainly strayed far these days–it is God who will bless us and at some point, “all the ends of earth [will] fear Him.” (Fear in the sense of awestruck worship.)
Numbers 9:15-10:36 Now that it is set up and good order established, the Cloud shows up and hovers over the Tabernacle. The movement of the cloud/nighttime fire is the commanding signal for the ongoing journey of Israel. And there is a certain unpredictability as how long the cloud–and therefore Israel–would stay at any one location. The key point is that Israel followed the Lord’s leading: “By the LORD’s word they would camp and by the LORD’s word they would journey onward.” (9:20)
I’m sure all of us have wished for such a definite sign from God when it comes to the decisions of life: that we would know when to camp and when to move on. But the cloud also reminds us that it is God who should be leading our own lives in terms of the choices we ultimately make. At a more pragmatic level, though, this passage about the cloud sets up the narrative that will follow the peregrinations of Israel in the remainder of this book. All is ready for the journey.
In another one of those passages where we are impressed by the level of detail in which God involves Himself, the basic signaling devices–two silver trumpets–are fabricated and then the meaning of various signals is set out. Again, details that point to the historicity of the wilderness journey. Mere fiction would not take the time to lay out the precise order of march, including where the groups carrying the pieces of the Tabernacle fit in, nor would the meaning of the various signals sounded on the silver trumpets, including the call to battle, “you shall let out a long blast with the trumpets and be remembered before the LORD your God and be rescued from your enemies.” (10:10)
And a reminder to us that God never forgets, but always remembers us, too.
Israel leaves the foot of Sinai and we hear the Song of the Ark (or as Alter suggests, perhaps only the opening lines of that song):
“as the Ark journeyed on, that Moses would say, “Rise O LORD, and Your enemies scatter, and Your foes flee before You!”
and when it came to rest, he would say, “Come back O LORD to Israel’s teeming myriads.””
Mark 12:35-44 Although the scribes are afraid to ask him any more questions, Jesus is not finished with them just yet, as he continues to point out their theological errors, this time about the relation between David and the Messiah and that the Messiah cannot possibly be David’s literal son. Mark records the reaction of the crowd rather than the scribes. The “large crowd was listening to him with delight.” (37)
Delight, I imagine, not just at the truths Jesus was revealing but that he was putting these theological know-it-alls, who doubtless lorded their superior knowledge over the hoi polloi, into their rightful place.
But wait, there’s more. As Jesus points out their scribal hypocrisy: that somehow their superior knowledge has earned them the right to “walk around in long robes, and be greeted with respect in the marketplace.” How easy it is for us who know a couple of theological truths to strut in the same practiced superiority.
Jesus basically seals the deal with the scribes by promising them the “greater condemnation.” Mark doesn’t need to describe the scribes reaction to this statement. We know it: barely suppressed outrage. As we’ve observed before, it’s almost as if Jesus continues to goad officialdom in order to ensure they make good on their threats by the end of this most significant week.
Another one of Mark’s juxtapositions follows: Immediately following his condemnation of the haughty scribes, he praises the widow with two mites. As we all learned in Sunday School, two mites trumps “large sums” because while others “contributed out of their abundance,” it is all she possessed.
But there is more here: there is the humility of the widow pitted against the haughtiness and hypocrisy of church officialdom. As we see frequently in the OT, widows and orphans are always accorded special protection by God–and we all have a duty, which the scribes had clearly forgotten, to protect them.
Speak Your Mind