With Psalm 126 we have the first explicit hint that these psalms may not be literal, but hopeful. Maybe they aren't actually on their way to Zion, but are hoping and imagining and dreaming. The exiles of Judah, far from home, whose temple has been destroyed, imagine themselves en route, walking from their homelands up through the mountains towards Zion.
In part, this is clear from the two halves of the psalm (1-3, 4-6), which describe in the first half an unreal journey towards Zion ("we thought we were dreaming"), but then in the second half discover they aren't on their way at all, but merely hope and dream and plead to be returned.
The two halves share a similar structure:
1-3
A Yhwh returned the returning ones
B We were like dreamers
C From sad exiles to joyous returnees
4-6
A Yhwh, return us returning ones
B Like streams of the Negev
C From sad exiles to joyous returnees
שׁוב
In the first clause of both halves there is a double use of שׁוב, first as the verb (to return, bring back), and then as the noun (the ones who return). This lexeme is common throughout the Hebrew Bible both in the context of exiles physically returning, but also of hearts returning in penitence to the God they have wronged. As such, this psalm could be using both senses of the lexeme, Yhwh returning the penitent ones, who are in exile because of their sin, but have turned their hearts back to their faithful God and await his rescue. There is however no context of sin in this psalm, just that they are in exile. It is not too much to infer that from the context (it's not as if they were in Babylon on holiday), but it's still not explicit. For that reason, I think it's emphasising the movement of people toward Zion, but I could be persuaded otherwise.
נגב
In the second clause of both halves is another comparison with כ, in both cases describing themselves. In 1c they were like dreamers, or, perhaps better translated, "we thought we were dreaming." The unreality of the exile being reversed is brought to the fore - who could imagine that the exile could be so spectacularly reversed. In 4b the image of a stream describes water in a dry place. Negev (נגב) has three potential but related meanings. It can just mean "south," and then can also be a place name, "the south." But what is the south like? It is dry, arid, so Negev could just as easily mean "the desert," and is used as a synonym for מדבר (desert, wilderness) in Isaiah 21:1. So what is being described here? At the very least, it is water in the desert. But to say more than that means choosing between two options. The first is a desert stream or an oasis, an unexpected delight of water in a place that is otherwise completely dry and incapable of supporting life. To be like such a stream in the Negev is for the return to Zion to make the returnees a source of life where it is least expected. The alternate is to be like the streams which appear in the wilderness after a yearly or ten-yearly rain. Like Lake Eyre in South Australia, an arid salt plain, used for setting land-speed records because it is in the middle of nowhere, dry and flat--except for the rare occasion when rivers form as if out of nowhere, turn the salt flats into a lake, and attract a plethora of wildlife and make countless hidden and dormant plants flower. This is a lovely image, of the change wrought by Yhwh by breaking their exile and enacting their return. Never having been to the Negev (or Lake Eyre, for that matter), I'm not sure which is more likely, although I have been told that there is indeed the odd river running through the Negev which may point to the former.
Sparking Joy
With apologies to Marie Kondo, the psalm moves on in both halves to suggest the joy that would fill the mouths and tongues of Judah when she is returned to Judah. In the first half, the previous state is not described, but only the change to the new.
- 2a Laughter filled our mouths,
- 2b songs of joy [filled] our tongues,
- 2d, 3a the nations say of us, and we say of ourselves, that Yhwh has done great things for us,
- 3b we are overjoyed.
In the second half the change from sorry to joy is described more fully, with two illustrations of this change:
- 5 The ones who sow in tears
- shall reap with in songs of joy.
- 6 The ones who go out weeping, carrying bags of seed
- will come back in songs of joy, carrying sheaves.
There are three words used to describe this joy. Laughter (שׂחוק) occurs once, as does overjoyed (שׂמח). They have two letters in common: שׂ and ח, which may well be deliberate, as these two words begin and conclude the first C section (v2a; v3b).
The third word, רנן/רנה occurs three times (2b, 5b, 6c), and it seems to be an onomatopoeic word, meaning a song of joy, to rejoice, an exultation, a cry of jubilation (to choose a few options from HALOT). The fact that it can mean a cry of victory may also be part of the meaning here - one does not simply get released from captivity - there must be some sort of military victory to release the exile. But if that is implicit in the first half, in the second the meaning shifts to the farmer, sowing their seed in tears, but on their return reap in songs of joy. There is a change from little (seeds) to plenty (sheaves), which is descriptive of the hoped-for abundance that Yhwh will bring about on their return to the promised land.
Perhaps one last thing is the repetition in 2d and 3a, where the exclamation "Yhwh has done great things for them" is first on the lips of the nations, but then is on the lips of the returnees: "Great things has Yhwh done for us." Such repetition on different lips is not uncommon in the songs of ascent - Psalm 132 is probably the best example of this.
Whether originally understood or not, this points to a greater comprehending of Yhwh's goodness and sovereignty by those who were not called God's people, with the trajectory being that they might become God's people. The eschatological hope which this psalm points to is that it is not just the exiles who come to Jerusalem, but that as they go about their journey, singing these songs of ascent, that the nations will pick up their songs, and join in with them, coming also to Zion to worship Yhwh as their God also (cf. Zech 8:20-23).
No comments:
Post a Comment