Don't Be A Doeg! (Psalm 52 and A Contentious Society)

Recently, I posted this reflection on Psalm 52 on my Honest2God blog.  However, the situation described in 1 Samuel 22 and David's reaction in Psalm 52 speak by analogy and metaphor rather cogently to the contentiousness of our current cultural/political context. So I am reposting that article here. 

Doeg, slaying the priests at Nob
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This psalm is one of the few written in which we know the specific context that provoked its writing. This psalm is David’s poetic response, where he processed the betrayal and horrific actions of Saul’s head herdsman, Doeg the Edomite. Not only did Doeg rat out David’s location to the increasingly paranoid Saul, but he murdered eighty-five innocent priests serving at the Tabernacle. The sad narrative of betrayal, misplaced retribution, and a significant slaughter is found in 1 Samuel 22:6-23. It is a narrative all too common down through history. Times when those in power, fearing the loss of that power, act unjustly towards those they perceive as enemies. Some balk at carrying such orders as Saul gave that day (22:17), but there are always wicked people with no such qualms. Not only were eighty-five priests killed at Doeg’s hand, but all but one in Nob, their priestly city, were slain. “Both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword.” (22:19).

Against this backdrop, David writes the words of this short psalm. The opening verses poetically describe Doeg the worker of destruction, particularly focusing on what he had said. The description indicates that Doeg said more than the brief report in 1 Sam. 22:9-10.

“I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, and he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

These words sound like a simple report of the facts. However, David’s description suggests that much more was involved, either in its content or its intent.

Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
    The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
Your tongue plots destruction,
    like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
You love evil more than good,
    and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah
You love all words that devour,
    O deceitful tongue. (Psalm 52:1-4)

Doeg loved evil and lying more than good. Upon such a genuinely wicked man, David pronounced God’s coming judgment.

But God will break you down forever;
    he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
    he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah (v.5)

I am impressed with the parade of parallel imprecatory verbs associated with what God would do to Doeg and those like him.

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  Photo by Zhang Kenny on Unsplash

  Break you down: This word communicates a repeated beat down, pulling down, and breaking off as of branches from a tree, stones from a wall (2 Kings 25:10), or beams from a house. Another interesting use of this term is regarding the contamination of a house by dread disease/toxic mold (Lev. 14:45). Could we connect Doeg’s inner contagion and the rules for cleansing a house? It sounds like David might have done just that.
• Snatch you up: the picture of being seized quickly for destruction and then dropped like a fiery coal. One moment, it was business as usual, and the next, everything changed for the worse. Judgment is often postponed, but when it comes, it snatches suddenly and irrevocably.
• Tear you away: used of being plucked out of one’s house, tent, or land. While God prefers to plant and sow, he also will pluck up and tear down the wicked and treacherous (àProv. 2:22; 15:25; Deut. 28:63)
• Uproot you from: God will pull you out, roots and all. No trace will be left in “the land of the living” (àIsa 40:23-24). Where else is such imagery for the traceless demise of the wicked found? Psalm 1:4 may have been in David’s mind since a couple of verses later he refers to himself as a green olive tree (v.8), which correlates with the tree metaphor used for the righteous man in Psalm 1:3.

The folly of wickedness and shortsightedness in trusting our wealth and power instead of making God our refuge becomes evident. It is a pattern from which we should learn to go the other way. Esau despised his birthright for a bowl of soup (Gen. 25). Nabal trusted his wealth and despised David’s request (1 Sam. 25). Many kings sought worldly wealth and power instead of the peace and eternal life found in the One True God. Jesus told the story about the rich fool who built bigger barns without consulting the Lord’s counsel for his selfish indulgence instead of graciously sharing his abundance with others (Luke 12:13-21). In the early church, there was the episode with Ananias and Saphira, who made a show of giving but still held back wealth for themselves (Acts 5:1-10). This is only a small sample from an extensive list.

These things were written for our instruction… but will we learn the lesson? Will we be servants of Christ, who though shrewd as serpents are innocent as doves (Mt. 10:16), loving one another and working for the common good? Or will we be like Doeg, excusing our evil desires and shockingly brutal actions as faithful service to an unjust political or economic power? Saying, “I was just following orders,” is no longer an adequate defense. Perhaps it never was.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Later, David’s son Solomon understood how important it was to remove the infection of wicked men from those who govern the people and not allow evil to lobby for injustice. He included it in his collection of proverbs.

Take away the dross from the silver,
    and the smith has material for a vessel;
take away the wicked from the presence of the king,
    and his throne will be established in righteousness. (Prov. 25:4-5)

Notice that not only are there parallels between dross/the wicked, and between the smith/the king, but a righteous throne is like a silver vessel, a serving tool to share with others.

Here, in the situation addressed by Psalm 52, David saw himself like the one described in Psalm 1:1-3, who does not learn the ways of the wicked or participate with sinners and scoffers in their ways and works. Again, his son Solomon would later say something similar in Prov. 24:1-2

Be not envious of evil men,
    nor desire to be with them,
for their hearts devise violence,
    and their lips talk of trouble.

Olives in Jerusalem. Photo: Greg K. Dueker

Instead of emulating wicked men, David’s delight was in the Lord, and thus could use the well-watered tree metaphor.

But I am like a green olive tree
    in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
    forever and ever. (v.8) 

Remember, the psalms give us the vocabulary to express our feelings honestly to the Lord. This one is no different. Here, David processes his anger, outrage, and dismay at what Doeg had done. Yet, instead of taking vengeance into his own hands, he trusted God to handle the situation. He wrote with the confidence of one who has already seen it happen, though it had not. David’s early years are challenging to our culture of self-advancement and demanding our rights. David, though anointed to be king, never took the timing of the fulfillment of that anointing into his own hands.

I will thank you forever,
    because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
    in the presence of the godly. (v.9)

Filled with gratitude and goodness, not hate, let us wait for the Lord Jesus Christ along with the community of faith! And while we are waiting, maybe we should cooperate with the Holy Spirit as he cleans our hearts, our words, and our ways… today. 

The Big Picture (Part 2) — Learning From Joseph

In my last post, I started talking about Joseph’s experiences as an example of how God uses even the bad things in our lives for his big picture purposes. I know what is so hard for me is that I don’t really have a clue as to how it all works together while I am walking through it. Does that bother you, too? I am learning to trust God more in the moment of trial than ever before, and Joseph’s story helps. From this narrative, I was reminded of and challenged in several areas.

1. God’s plan operates above, under, and around the “right now” instantaneous sensory perception of those of us who are involved in the world. Joseph would have had no idea what God was going to do at the beginning of his story. When Joseph was a slave in Potiphar’s house or in the dungeon, would he have imagined that one day he would not only be released but be placed in charge of the entire country of Egypt, and with all the trappings of his new position and authority? Pharaoh even gave Joseph a new name, "Zaphnath-paaneah."  While scholars are uncertain as to its exact meaning, this name has been interpreted to mean any of the following: "The Savior of the World," "The Supporter of Life," "The Food of the Living," or "The Revealer of Secrets."  All are appropriate to Joseph and ultimately to our Lord Jesus Christ as well. One day, the Lord Jesus Christ will give to those who overcome a new name as well! What should comfort us in the valley of the shadow is the presence of the Lord with us, even as he was with Joseph.
2. We can allow the things that people have done to us to keep us from trusting and loving others the way that God requires, or we can see our own brokenness in their broken actions. We are all broken and need the grace that God offers in Christ. In acknowledging our own susceptibility to treat other people as mere objects to be arranged as we wish, we will be quicker to forgive and show grace when others treat us that way. When we see the sins of others, it should remind us to repent of our own sins all the more fervently. The tears of a broken and repentant heart, when mixed with trust in God’s love, are the certain antidote for the malignant cancers of cynicism, bitterness, and hate.
3. How do we live in the moment when we can’t see God’s big-picture plan? Joseph lived with integrity, distinguishing himself in his work, with patience, and with trust in his God, no matter how grievous the situation. We would do well to learn from Joseph to do the same. Yet Joseph was not the hero in his own story…it was the presence of God that made all the difference in giving success (Genesis 39:3, 21, 23). Jesus still promises us our daily bread through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is because, though he fully knows us, he does not leave us, that we can respond in love. It is because of such responsive love that we can sing, even in the dungeon, “Though none go with you still I will follow, no turning back! No turning back!”
4. What do we do when the tables are turned and we have both the power and the opportunity for revenge? After testing his brothers to see if they would throw Benjamin “under the bus” like they had done to him, Joseph recognized that God had not only been at work in his own life through the years but in his brothers’ lives as well. Not only did Joseph pass the test of power, but his brothers passed the test of humility. As God used Joseph to test the brothers' hearts, he worked repentance in them.  The testing of their lives produced fear (Gen. 42:28,35) and sorrow (Gen. 42:21), then confession (Gen. 44:16) and repentance (Gen. 42:13-34). Their hearts were changed. They were concerned about their father and his potential grief. They were now willing to stand in place of their brother, even to their own hurt—truly an act of relational repentance from their shameful treatment of Joseph. It was because of this repentance that they were in a position to experience grace, which they heard and received (Gen. 45:5).  It is an old saying, but true that "Those who say, 'We are guilty' could rightly understand the words of precious grace, 'It was not you but God'."[1] Joseph chose to forgive their sins against him and to embrace them again as his family. He yielded to the larger purpose of God. Are we willing to stand before our brothers whom we have treated shamefully, in some way like Joseph was treated, and repent? Are we willing to take the place of dishonor for the benefit of another? I hope so.
5. They really meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Which purpose will we choose to respond to, to live into, to die for? It is all too easy to blame others for our failures. It is harder for us to accept our own responsibility to live fully for God despite hardship, suffering, and even death. For what are we willing to die? For our own power, desires, and comfort, or for the holy redemptive cause of Christ in the world? In 1980, Salvadoran martyr Bishop Oscar Romero told a reporter, a short time before he was killed, "You can tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish."[2]
6. God’s big-picture cycle of reward and retribution is not contained in this life on earth, much less within the current workweek. It has been said that we don’t sow and reap in the same season. It is a theological error that directly associates material wealth, worldly comfort, and ease with personal righteousness or the lack of these things with personal sin and foolishness. Just as it was wrong for Job’s friends to conclude that because he had suffered so terribly, he must be a heinous sinner, it is wrong for the wealthy to think that God will not hold them accountable for looking down on the poor in oppressive contempt. Jesus is coming back. He is not slow…he is just patient and does not desire that any should perish (2 Peter 3). Let us work together with Jesus towards that end as agents of reconciliation! 

Joseph was not only a wonderful and personal type of Christ, but his actions served as a historical type as well.  Arthur W.  Pink, in his book Gleanings in Genesis, lists and describes 101 ways in which Joseph was a type of Christ! While I have not found as many, there is plenty of room for further study on this point. More importantly, I have to ask, do we bear a family resemblance to Joseph and to Jesus? Where do we fit in the big-picture plan of God? He has a place for us. Will we embrace it?

[This post originally appeared on my cultural engagement blog while I was a DMin student.]

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[1] C.H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Book of Genesis, (Loizeaux Brothers, 1880,1959), p.331.

[2] http://www.uscatholic.org/culture/social-justice/2009/02/oscar-romero-bishop-poor#sthash.qv9WtkTj.dpuf

The Big Picture (Part 1) — Learning From Joseph

As Pastors and leaders, we often experience setbacks, stress, and suffering in a way that can be hazardous to our well-being and that of those around us. There are times when we experience betrayal and false accusations, and may be subject to the court of public opinion without an opportunity to defend ourselves. I am not even talking about the huge train wrecks of moral failure, but of the smaller issues where our motivation is questioned or our effectiveness is criticized. Those times when our allies turn on us unexpectedly or forget about our valuable input into the process. Sometimes we launch out in faith that God has called us, but we don't see immediate results or perhaps feel like we have been sidelined unjustly. If you can relate to any of this, then I hope that this series of three posts based on the story of Joseph will serve as encouraging reminders of God's presence during trial and of his continued ministry call on our lives.

We all have our stories of brokenness and hurt…for no one is immune to the bruising experience of life in a fallen world. Some people’s pain may be more acute—stabbing, searing in a moment of tragedy. While others hurts may experience more chronic suffering over the years and even decades. Why do we evaluate the pain of others in the same way that we consider our own sin and failure? We tend to amplify our own pain while minimizing that of another. At the same time, we minimize our own sin while that of others is often perceived to be more severe. When we are hurting, physically or emotionally, our pain can seem like it is the center of the universe. 

But it isn’t.

Yet, it is not wasted, not a bit of it, if we are surrendered to Christ, the one whose suffering was, in fact, the center, the crux, of the universe! Do we see the big picture of sharing in the suffering of Christ, or are we mired in the dark pit of our own limited view? Has our short-sightedness caused us to become angry, frustrated, or bitter? I hope not.

Years ago, my son was a medic in the Army National Guard, and at times chafed at the extremely mundane assignments performed during monthly drill weekends. However, when his unit stepped up their training in preparation for their deployment, that all changed. After returning from some intense brigade-level training, my son had a different attitude and said that he had finally gotten to see “the big picture.” He saw how all the mundane tasks, if not done with diligence, can have tragic consequences on the battlefield. 

The Bible story that perhaps best illustrates this concept is the story of Joseph found in Genesis 37-47. His birth is described in Gen. 30:22-24, but the story really gets going in Gen. 37.

Joseph was Jacob's first son by his wife Rachel, who had waited many years to have a child.  She named the child Joseph for two reasons: (1) The name Joseph is connected linguistically to his mother’s testimony, "God has taken away my disgrace," and (2) the name itself is a prayer of faith to God ("may the Lord add" to her another son).  Joseph was certainly a man who would never be one to bring disgrace, but instead, by his integrity and simple faith, he worked to remove it…even in the lives of those who meant him ill.   

Joseph grew up with the love of his father but not that of his brothers. They were alienated from him by their jealousy and their father’s show of favoritism. They blamed Joseph for their disgrace instead of taking responsibility for their failures. The Scripture says that they "could not speak a kind word to him" (37:4).  Literally, they would not speak a "peaceable" word, referring to the common Middle Eastern greeting, "Peace be with you."  They snubbed him at every opportunity.  You can read about what happened as the old story of Cain & Abel (Gen. 4) reverberates in the life of Joseph. Here is a brief outline of Joseph’s story:

1. God used Joseph as a youth to reveal God’s plan for his family (Gen. 37)
2. God used Joseph as a slave in Potiphar's house (Gen. 39:1-20)
3. God used Joseph as a prisoner serving other prisoners (Gen. 39:21 - 40:23)
4. God used Joseph as a prophet to interpret Pharaoh's dreams (Gen. 41:1-36)
5. God used Joseph (raising him to power) to save Egypt, and his family (Gen. 41:37-56)
6. God used Joseph as a judge to test his brothers (Gen. 42-44) 
7. God used Joseph as a peacemaker to reconcile his family. (Gen. 45-47) 

Why is the life of Joseph so important to us today? It asks and answers questions about our purpose in God’s plan for our families, nations, and the world. Joseph experienced a lot of pain—relational, physical, cultural, and perhaps even racial bigotry. Yet there was a larger purpose behind all he suffered. He was hated by his brothers, betrayed, sold as a slave a couple of times, sexually harassed, falsely accused, and imprisoned, and finally forgotten by one who should have quickly shown gratitude. This happened over many years before God suddenly raised him up as one prepared for the moment of crisis. Not that betrayal, estrangement, slavery, and the dungeon are good (they’re not!), but that God took what was intended for evil and used it for good. God was with him every step along the way. He was not separated from, or a stranger to, Joseph’s suffering. One thing we don’t see Joseph doing is questioning God’s presence or complaining about God. Do we have an attitude and a work ethic that God can bless no matter what our circumstances are? Can God give us favor with those in authority over us without violating his own character?

Are we using what has been intended for evil against us for the good of God’s people? I am convinced that God wants to do just that.

My next post will elaborate on some of the “big picture” lessons I am learning and the hard questions I am asking myself in response to the example of God’s working in Joseph’s life. Join me on the journey!

[This was originally posted on my Cultural Engagement blog when I was still a doctoral student.]