TRUSTING YHWH
Abiding Legacy of the Ancient Hebrew Psalms
Lorne E. Weaver
Foreword by James A. Sanders
TRUSTING YHWH
Abiding Legacy of the Ancient Hebrew Psalms
Copyright © 2019 Lorne E. Weaver. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
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Lord (Adonai), you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were born, or ever you brought forth the earth and the world,
you are God (Elohim) from eternity to eternity.
Psalm 90:1-2
The one who dwells in the secret shelter of the Most High (Elyon),
and passes the night in the shadow of the God of Heaven (Shaddai), speaks:
‘I will say of the LORD (YHWH), my refuge and my bulwark;
my God (Elohay) in whom I put my trust’.
Psalm 91:1-2
It is good to give thanks to the LORD (YHWH), and sing praises to your name,
O Most High (Elyon); to declare your loving kindness in the morning,
and your faithfulness in the night.
Psalm 92:1-2
Foreword
Fr. Lorne Weaver has crafted for the faithful believer an engaging read of the biblical Psalter. This is not just another scholarly book about the Psalms. It is a pastor’s journey into the hymns and songs of the faithful in antiquity. And on that journey Weaver stops time and again to smell the “roses of Sharon” as he moves through psalm after psalm that move the reader to find expression after expression of trust in God even in the worst of circumstances.
Weaver finds in the Psalms amazing affirmations of trust in God in the midst of personal disasters that today drive many people away from the Church. While Weaver bases his readings on scholarship of the Book of Psalms he nonetheless pierces through the many conjectures about their forms, origins and provenances and finds what the lay person today faces who often lives on the boundaries of modern existence, the soul who quietly endures the worst that life can throw at a person. This book speaks to those who often quietly suffer pain and doubt to the point of despair. This is the book that speaks to those who ask the desperate question, “Why did God let this happen?”
Weaver has crafted out of his many years of ministry a reading of the Psalms that speaks directly to the individual believer who stumbles and staggers, even gropes for something stable on which to find his or her footing in a world that has lost the support of family and often finds her/himself alone and needing care, or is the care-giver for a loved one who literally absorbs all they have to give of themselves.
Weaver shows how biblical texts like those of the Psalms still speak loud and clear to those who read them needing sure help to get through life intact. Sure, they spoke to enough in antiquity to get on a tenure tract toward lodging in Jewish and Christian canons, but that is not Weaver’s concern. Weaver’s concern is for the soul out there who deeply needs spiritual succor. His confidence is that with the help this book can afford, even the sorely afflicted, the reader will find the true trust that fills the heart with the peace and solace that only God herself can provide.
James A. Sanders
Claremont, CA
Preface
To my knowledge, there has not been a book written on the Psalms that deals solely with the genre of the songs of trust or psalms of confidence. The songs of trust are a sub-genre of the psalms of complaint or lament and there are roughly fourteen of them in the Psalter. Most scholars treat them within the broader genre of lament, although many psalms of complaint do have within them confessions of trust. But it is those psalms that are more brightly illumined in tone and mood by the dominant theme of trust which are commonly designated psalms of trust or songs of confidence.
These consist predominantly of affirmations of confidence and expressions of trust in YHWH, usually in the face of considerable troubles and severe adversity. These particular psalms are admittedly few in number in the Psalter. But their significance far outweighs their relatively small numbers. No two scholars agree completely on a specific list of psalms which are included in the genre of trust psalms but it is the dominance of the themes of trust and confidence that characterizes a particular psalm as warranting its classification as such. This book is not primarily focused on the genre of the psalms of trust although it does treat many of them. The book that treats solely the psalms of confidence genre is yet to be written.
I consider the following as fitting the genre of the psalms of confidence: Psalms 4, 11, 16, 23, 27, 46, 63, 73, 91, 115, 121, 125, and 139. Further, in my view, Psalms 90, 91, and 92, which open Book Four of the Psalter, are a literary unit and, when taken together, conform to the criteria of trust or confidence. Elements of thanksgiving and praise are evident, too, as well as notable didactic features. But the whole enterprise of form criticism—rewarding and instructive though it has been for Psalms studies over the past century—may be quite subjective and the lines of demarcation pertaining to particular psalm types ought not be drawn too finely. Strictly speaking, the entire book of Psalms is an ongoing dialog between Yahweh (יהוה) and the ancient people of Israel. It is in these pages where the voice of the people of God meets the voice of God; where the conversation has as its subject how life is to be lived this side of glory; when the very words spoken over and again instruct the faithful in the journey of faith.
Throughout I have chosen to use the Hebrew script for the sacred name YHWH, יהוה. The divine name is central to the book of Psalms, thematically and theologically, and therefore ought rightly be recognized and read as such. I have abandoned the Christian terms Old and New Testaments. Rather I choose to use the terms Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Scriptures and First Testament; and, the Second Testament and Christian Scriptures. I trust that these alterations may not prove too intrusive to the reader. In those places where I have used Hebrew and Greek script, an English translation is provided. Knowledge of Hebrew and Greek is not a prerequisite for reading this book.
Additionally, I have chosen to bracket the use of male pronouns such as [he], [him], [his] and [himself] and, frequently, the nouns [man] and [men] to show that, in fact, the usage of the language ought rightly embrace both male and female agency. This is not a perfect solution. However, it at least acknowledges the need for the use of an inclusive language model without resorting to the repetitious use of the word “God.” There are other models out there which adopt a more drastic solution to a gender neutral rendering of the text (eg. The Saint Helena Psalter). I deem these models deficient in that they depart from the text by removing all references of the holy names of God in Hebrew, which are so central to the study of the Psalms. The repetitive use of the word “God” is in my view not at all helpful in seeking to achieve an inclusive model for a gender neutral text. The individual Hebrew Names for God are laden with rich theological meanings and nowhere moreso than in the book of Psalms.
Regarding