Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Wrapped in vengeance, clothed with dishonour

Psalms 108 and 109: What's interesting to me as I make my way through the Psalms is how some themes are repeated over and over again, and sometimes even whole lines or paragraphs are repeated. I suppose the short answer to why that is is the evolution of the individual psalms: some were sung and chanted in liturgy and parts were used during praise or prayer, just as we sing or chant some of the same lines today. That's probably why the opening verses of Psalm 108 are the same words of praise as found in Psalm 57: 7-11.
In Psalm 109, the image of clothing and garments and being wrapped in a mantle are applied to the wicked, where earlier they referred to the righteous (Psalm 102). Psalm 109 is an individual lament with a long list of accusation of curses against the wicked man, who is "clothed with cursing as his coat"  (v. 18) and the curses are like a garment wrapped around him. (v. 19). At the conclusion of the psalm, the psalmist asks that the assailants be clothed with dishonour and wrapped in their own shame like a mantle (v. 29). Although we often view clothing as exterior, our culture will judge people by how they are dressed, and it isn't a large leap to think that the Hebrews were also judged on the quality of their clothing and how they presented themselves to the world.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.