NORTHERN STYLE NEWSWATCH No.21
CREDO `You have made us a reproach to our neighbours'
An e-mail came through recently quoting Scriptures as to why the world media is so hostile towards Israel in its reporting on the continuing terrorist attacks upon the Jewish people. In quoting these Scriptures the writer of the e-mail was perfectly satisfied that, if Scripture (as he read it) said the Jews would be persecuted then it would be so, but in that persecution and the Jewish survival God would be seen to be God through the proving of His Word. That argument is a classic example of `Stoic Endurance' - a form of Greek philosophy mixed with Judaic reasoning from the Scriptures - which, as we have said before, permeates western Christian thinking.

We would first look at the Scriptures quoted, and Psalm 44:13 was the pivotal verse:

" You have made us a reproach to our neighbours
the scorn and derision of those around us. "
The writer then sought to confirm this verse by referring to Deuteronomy 28:37:

" You (Israel) will become a thing of horror, and an object of scorn
and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you. "
Finally, he quoted the words of the LORD to Solomon after his great Prayer of Dedication at the dedication of the Temple to the LORD: (1 Kings 9:7)

" Then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will
reject this Temple I have consecrated for My Name. Israel will then
become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. "
We have, of course, no desire to denigrate those who sincerely seek to correct wordly media bias, although we doubt the quoting of Scripture to such people will do more than cause them to denounce religious fundamentalism - which in turn will produce a self-righteous attitude where none should be. It takes little exposition of the passages quoted from the Books of Deuteronomy and 1 Kings to show that the verses quoted were out of context in regards to the right of Israel to occupy the land. In fact the reverse is true. If we look at secular Israel today those verses could be quoted as the reason why they should not continue to occupy the land. However, that is not the purpose of our reflection here and we would return to Psalm 44:13 which was the pivotal Scripture in the e-mail mentioned.

This Psalm is set in the Second Book of Psalms, which corresponds to the Second Book of Torah, the Book of Exodus, which gives us the understanding that Psalm 44 concerns a deliverance from potential captivity. The writer, knowing that the LORD has brought His people into the land, faces the probability that the people will be driven from the land and taken into a captivity as real as that which his forefathers experienced in Egypt, and he cries out his distress in this Psalm. Remembering that the superscriptions of the Psalms in the Hebrew Scriptures are part of the Inspired Word of God, we find that the superscription and the opening words of the Psalm are `of the Sons of Korah' - a reminder of God's grace in not destroying the whole of the tribe of Korah following his rebellion against Moses centuries earlier. In doing this the writer has begun to understand that the distress which faces the nation of Israel is indeed the result of rebellion, even though at this stage the root-cause is not fully comprehended. Again it is recorded that this Psalm is a `maskil', an instruction to an assembled people - not to individuals but to the assembled people of Israel. The meaning of this instruction is for them to look well into their present circumstances in order to gain understanding, and in doing so put matters right so that the present distress will disperse.

The public gathering then hears these opening words: (verse 1)

" We have heard with our ears, O God;
our fathers have told us
what you did in their days,
in days long ago. "
The Psalmist is referring to the earlier Exodus when God heard their cries and delivered them from the bondage of Egypt and led them through the Red Sea and on into the Promised Land. The Psalmist recounts that miraculous deliverance, acknowledging that: (verse 3)

" It was not by their sword that they won the land,
nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was Your right hand, Your arm,
and the light of Your face, for You loved them. "
In this public declaration the Psalmist is confirming the collective understanding of the assembled people, who are seeking instruction and understanding of what has brought them to the perilous place in which they now find themselves, for they know the Covenanted promises of their LORD: (v 4-5)

" You are my King and my God,
who decrees victories for Jacob.
Through You we push back our enemies;
through Your Name we trample our foes. "
In this public confession we now come to a `Selah' - which with our western thinking we tend to hurry past, looking instead for God's promise of blessing now that we have confessed our predicament. However, the `Selahs' are part of the Inspired Word of God and are not placed there for us to ignore, neither are they there for us to piously `pause and calmly consider' (as the Amplified Bible instructs us) but are connecting words. Here, at the Selah, the Psalmist now pauses . . . . . . The past acts of a Righteous Covenant Keeping God have been acknowledged, which leads the Psalmist into the present distress they are experiencing, and so through their knowledge of the past acts of God comes understanding of the reason why they are finding themselves in such trouble. The following verses give us the understanding that their position is indeed perilous! The people of God . . having been delivered out of captivity in Egypt and brought into the Land . . having seen the power of God drive out their enemies . . having worshipped God in the glorious Temple that Solomon built . . having known the promises of God for them when they recall the Glory, the Presence of God, which filled the Temple after Solomon's Prayer of Dedication . . now face the probability of a captivity worse than that of their forefathers, the ancient Hebrews.

Verse 14 does not justify the continual presence of Israel in occupying the Land - the setting is that of the armies of Assyria's King Sennacherib, who after scattering the Northern Kingdom of Israel was now, in the reign of King Hezekiah, at the very gates of Jerusalem:

" You have made us a reproach to our neighbours,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
You have made us a byword among the nations;
the peoples shake their heads at us.
My disgrace is before me all day long,
and my face is covered with shame
at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me,
because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.
All this happened to us,
though we had not forgotten You
or been false to Your Covenant. " (verses 13-17)
The `Great Cylinder of Sennacherib' also records this occasion, where it has included his words:

" I reckoned him (Hezekiah) as spoil, himself like a caged bird
within Jerusalem his royal city I shut in. "
The intention of the public instruction of this Psalm in verses 12-22 is to ask the question `why'? We have not forgotten You or been false to Your Covenant (like the Northern Kingdom of Israel). We have not forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to foreign gods (as they had). Your Temple still stands . . we offer You the prescribed sacrifices . . yet You crush us and make us like a desert place, and we stand today in the shadow of death.

The Psalmist concludes with a cry to God: (verses 23-26 in part)

" Awake, O LORD! Why do You sleep?
Rouse Yourself! Do not reject us for ever . . . .
Rise up and help us;
redeem us because of Your unfailing love. "
As we read through Scripture we know the outworking of this ` public instruction' in the nation during Hezekiah's time, for upon coming to understand the reason for their predicament deliverance did follow - captivity for the Kingdom of Judah at the hands of the Assyrians did not occur. (That deliverance might have been short lived, but the captivity which did finally occur is not for these reflections.) Finally the Psalmist concludes with these words:

" For the Chief Musician; upon Shoshanna (or Lilies). "
On seeing the great deliverance that came, King Hezekiah caused this Psalm to be written, entrusting it to the Chief Musician of the Temple to be brought out when similar circumstances of national peril occurred to remind the people of the righteous acts of God, who uses worldly powers and natural means to turn His people back to Him. Psalm 44 is called a Passover Psalm, usually recited at Passover celebrations, but unless placed within the context of national peril it would not be a `maskil' an `instruction to look well into' the reasons for that peril in order to `gain rectifying understanding'. So without reading this Psalm in its historical context the occasion would simply turn into self-righteous justification for whatever happens to God's assembled people.

Within the Levitical Feasts of Israel the two Feasts of Passover and Tabernacles divided the secular year into two equal halves - Passover celebrated with flowers and Tabernacles with pomegranates, the understanding being that the flowers of redemption led to the fruit of salvation, a national deliverance! You can see the understanding of this on many of the tombstones in old Jewish cemeteries, which often have chiselled out a Menorah, the Tree of Life, decorated with `knobs and flowers' (the buds and flowers) and often with Lilies and Pomegranates. Jewish tradition says these knobs are only poppy seeds and flowers (signifying eternal sleep), whilst the pomegranates (which adorned the hem of the High Priest's robes when entering the Most Holy Place) represent dried husks from which the life has gone. But entwining them into the Menorah, the Tree of Life, signifies that the day will come when life will course through the `poppy seeds' and `dried husks' and the True Israel of God will know deliverance, eternal salvation through their High Priest, the Messiah. Such is the Jewish understanding of Passover and Tabernacles which is so sadly lacking in much of the Church, who although they have received salvation in Christ Jesus forget that they still await the fullness and must live accordingly. But the day will come when a spiritual maskil will be called - not only for the nation of Israel but also for the Church of the Redeemed, two peoples called together on a parallel journey, both facing perilous times, both enduring `the scorn and derision of those around, a byword among the nations (with) the people shaking their heads at us'!

Will not One greater than Hezekiah call His people together to `look well into' the peril that confronts them in order to `gain rectifying understanding' of what has happened, as together the nation of Israel and the Church face those perilous times. Was not September 11th our SELAH . . a looking back to what God has done, then looking at what we have become so that we can come to that collective repentance which will lead to our deliverance:

"Rise up and help us;
redeem us because of Your unfailing love. "

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