Week Twenty-Five Reading Assignment:
Psalms 75 - Psalms 97
"These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."
(Luke 24:44 NASB)
(Luke 24:44 NASB)
This Week's Teaching Video: Learning to Pray: For Enemies
Psalms to Hymns by Isaac Watts
We are exploring two of Isaac Watts' Psalm-hymns rather than just one this week. We've selected Psalm 82 because it is yet another fascinating instance of the original text turned into a poem, with the characteristic blend of translation and interpretation. We have selected Psalm 90, meanwhile, because of the famous hymn that it inspired.
The notable point at which Watts starts in his treatment of Psalm 82 is in his understanding of "the gods." For Watts, these are neither actual deities nor rivals to the Lord God. Rather, they are the human beings who are vested with civil authority on earth. This theme is, of course, familiar to us from the Psalm and hymn we considered last week. It's hard to say whether such an under-standing of "the gods" was the original intent of the author, but Watts' insight is sound, and it is certainly consistent with Scripture. The principle at issue is how God has made us stewards. At all sorts of levels, He has entrusted us with responsibility, and we are answerable to Him -- the "greater Ruler" -- for how we manage what He has put in our care. "Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities," wrote the Apostle Paul, "for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God." This is the biblical understanding behind Watts' paradigm. And so the so-called "gods" are temporal authorities, and they are expected to conduct their affairs in a manner that honors the One from whom their authority comes. But Watts follows the Psalmist's lament about the wickedness and the injustice of those human rulers. In spite of the disappointing human performance, however, the hymn is not despairing. On the contrary, there is a tone of celebration and victory, for God's justice will prevail in the end. Specifi-cally, Watts sees that 'end' through New Testament eyes, looking forward to the Messianic, perfect, and eternal reign of Christ. And so the hymn ends with rejoicing in Him, for "He is our Judge, and He is our God." |
Psalms to Hymns by Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts' treatment of Psalm 90 is not nearly so deliberate about following the original text as some others we have considered. Nevertheless, the Watts hymn that Psalm 90 inspired is among his best known, and so it is an important one to consider. Psalm 90 is the basis for "O God, Our Help in Ages Past."
When we read the Psalm and the hymn side-by-side, we see that the poet takes greater liberties with content and flow of thought. Some verses of the Psalm are given elaborate attention, while others are entirely neglected. Meanwhile, we also note that some of the verses of Watts' original hymn are unfamiliar to us (perhaps verses 4, 6, and 8) because they have not been included in our hymn-books. Those omissions partly reflect space limitations, but partly also a reluc-tance to include language that seems overly harsh or negative. Those excluded (or seldom included) verses, however, bear witness to the same, fundamental perspective of the hymn as a whole, and that perspective itself may seem harsh. The perspective comes from a juxtaposition of frail and fleeting humanity with the sovereign and eternal God. You and I may prefer passages and poems that emphasize our own significance, but that is not the theme here. Rather, the Psalm and the hymn both recognize -- indeed, they both celebrate -- the vast difference between us and Him. Yet it is within that very difference that we find the good news. The puniness of humankind is reality, and this gene-ration should know it better than any other. We needn't blush to admit that we come and go; that in the big scheme of things, we are tiny. For our significance is not innate but derivative: that is to say, our importance comes from the fact that that sovereign and eternal God created us and loves us. And so we do not try to take any comfort in who or what we are, but rather in the fact that He is "our help in ages past, our hope for years to come... and our eternal home." |