Category Archives: Spirituality

A Psalm Against David: Why David Didn’t Write Psalm 51

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I’m scheduled to present a paper at the Institute for Biblical Research (IBR), a sort of evangelical version of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), at their annual meeting in Atlanta, on November 20, 2015. It happens just before the start of the SBL.

The paper is called “A Psalm against David? A Canonical Reading of Psalm 51 as a Critique of David’s Inadequate Repentance in 2 Samuel 12.”

The paper is an attempt to read Psalm 51 carefully in light of the superscription, which links it to David’s confrontation by the prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 12 over his adultery with Bathsheba.

The trouble is that a close reading of the psalm just doesn’t fit with the narrative, at multiple levels. So, what is an evangelical, orthodox Christian to do with that?

Since psalms superscriptions are not original to the psalms, but inserted by later editors (I give evidence for this in the paper), I propose that we take the superscription to Psalm 51 as a (divinely inspired) lectionary suggestion for reading the psalm together with the 2 Samuel narrative.

The result of doing this, I argue, is that the psalm ends up being a critique of David’s superficial “repentance” in 2 Samuel 12. My paper, therefore, challenges the naive, idealistic reading of the figure of David often found in the evangelical church (but then anyone who reads 1-2 Samuel with their eyes open would be disabused of this ideal picture anyway).

The paper is, most fundamentally, my attempt to take the authority of Scripture seriously (regarding both Psalm 51 and 2 Samuel 12 as divinely inspired), with eyes wide open to the complexity of this divinely inspired Scripture.

I tested out a short version of the paper at the recent meeting of the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association in Ottawa, and got good discussion there.

The research group of the IBR in which I’ll be presenting the paper (called Biblical Theology, Hermeneutics, and the Theological Disciplines) posted my draft of a longer, fuller version of the paper so that anyone can read it and send comments to me. I’ll then have a chance to revise the paper in light of the comments, and it will be re-posted in late October, prior to the conference.

The paper will be published (probably in 2017) in a volume of essays coming from the IBR research group, tentatively entitled Explorations in Interdisciplinary Reading: Theological, Exegetical, and Reception-Historical Perspectives, ed. Robbie Castleman, Darian Lockett, and Stephen Presley (Eugene, OR: Pickwick).

I invite you to post your comments or questions here.

On My Way to Jubilee 2015

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It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m sitting in the Atlanta airport, waiting for a flight to Pittsburgh. I’ll be speaking at the annual Jubilee conference tomorrow (Sunday) morning. This year’s conference theme is “This Changes Everything”————a reference to the radical message of the gospel. A brochure for the Jubilee 2015 conference can be found here, for those interested.

I’ll be giving the last of four keynote talks that stretch from Friday through Sunday. The topics for the talks are Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. The title of my talk is “Restoration————The Destiny of God’s Good Creation,” and I hope to take the attendees (mostly college students) on a tour of Scripture, to introduce them to the depth and length and height of God’s amazing love for this world, a love that leads to God’s commitment to redeem and restore creation.

I’m sort of going in to the conference blind, since I won’t have heard the other talks that precede my own; I will get there just in time for supper this evening. I would have liked to have been part of the entire event, which started on Friday. But my wife and I were already committed to being in Jamaica to take care of her mom and stepdad who live there (they are in their eighties); we left the cold and snow for sunny Jamaica ten days ago and we praise God for the wonderful things we were able to accomplish while we were there.

That prior commitment initially led me to turn down the invitation to speak at Jubilee 2015 since I couldn’t be in two places at once. But the good people who plan the conference wouldn’t give up and offered to fly me up directly from Jamaica to Pittsburgh, and then send me home to Rochester.

So, goodby sunshine! Welcome snow and cold!

I’ll let you know how it goes (the conference, not the cold).

Drilling Down beneath the Root Cellar—A Poem from the Faith And Work Conference

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Most people don’t know, but I’ve been writing poetry since high school.

I’ve never been prolific with my poems; I’m not a poem-a-day sort of person (perhaps because I’m an introvert), and I’ve certainly had some dry years along the way.

But taking classes at the local Writers and Books in Rochester on and off over the last few years (especially with Jake Rakovan) has tapped into something fermenting beneath the surface.

In response to a few requests (actually very few), I’m considering posting some of my poems.

In a later post I may share some of the poems that bubbled up in Jake’s courses at Writers and Books, including a course he taught on Dante’s Inferno called “Writing Your Way Through Hell.”

But here is my latest poem, written in response to a time of guided meditation at the end of the Faith and Work conference in NYC I just attended. I scribbled most of it down on the spot, then edited it later.

Root Cellar

Drilling down beneath the root cellar of my soul,
I caught a glint of some deep glow,
pulsing and rising
up through the dark.

As it approached I turned to flee, but
luscious with love,
wrinkled hands enfolded despair,
soothing the dried-up grief
of barren days and nights of pain.

The beam refracted,
sparking into ruby and sapphire,
emerald and diamond,
bursting through the termite-infested floor,
to crack a granite heart
and melt the stalactite stratagems
of endless limestone sorrow.

______________________________________________

As you can see, the conference affected me at a deep, existential level.

Depending on interest, I’ll consider posting more of my poetry sometime.