Susan Gillingham - Psalms Through the Centuries, Volume 3

The first issue in its reception is one of translation in the first verse: is God good ‘to Israel’ or ‘to the upright’? Some manuscripts divide these words differently in Hebrew, and because the vowels were a later addition it is possible to insert different vowels or break the line in a different place—both of which change the meaning. 9‘God is good to Israel, to the pure in heart’ ( tob leyisra’el elohim: lebarei lebab ), which the Greek translation also follows, gives the psalm a more national tenor; ‘God is good to the upright, Elohim to the pure in heart’ ( tob leyasar ’el : elohim lebarei lebab ) suggests more individual concerns. Given that all the other Asaphite psalms have more communal interests, ‘to Israel’ is probably preferable; but the psalm is undoubtedly more personal than the others, and this small issue of translation can change the emphasis and so the reception of the psalm.

The first part of verse 4 presents another problem: the Hebrew reads literally ‘for they have no torment in their death’, although the NRSV reads ‘For they have no pain’ (with no reference to death). The Greek however translates ‘torment’ as ananeusis , a feminine noun found nowhere else in the * Septuagint, probably from the verb ‘to refuse, reject’ and a loose translation of the Greek would be, literally, ‘There is no refusal for their death’, that is ‘For they refuse death’. The * Vulgate reads this a little differently: ‘ non est respectus morti eorum ’ which could mean, simply, ‘they have no care about their death’. 10This could however be translated (in the light of the interest in death in verses 23–24) as ‘the wicked will not return from death’ which alters the meaning altogether. 11

Another example is an additional phrase in the Greek at the end of the psalm (not brought out in the NRSV) which gives the psalm a more national bias: the final phrase reads ‘to tell of all your works in the gates of the daughter Sion ’. 12

*Targum reads verse 1 as being about ‘Israel’, and the mockery and pride of the ‘wicked’ in verses 2–9 relate to the Gentiles who threaten the entire people. Verse 10 is amended to read ‘ Therefore he is returning for the sake of the people of the Lord, and they shall strike them with hammers and cause many tears to run down’ . Verses 18–20 are also about the Gentiles: ‘… as a dream from a drunken man who awakens, O Lord, at the day of the great judgement when they awake from their graves, with anger you will despise their image .’ 13Here a personal reading has been absorbed into a communal one.

There is no evidence of this psalm in the New Testament. Later Christian commentary is not very creative with it, although, unlike Jewish readings, the psalm is usually seen in more personal terms in its view of the good life in the face of death. According to *Ambrose, it is about ‘growth in moral perfection’: it is important to rejoice in chastisement, knowing that future consolation will come, for the peace of sinners is deceptive. 14Ambrose also ‘Christianises’ the psalm by reading the reference to God holding the psalmist’s ‘right hand’ (verse 23), as meaning our holding of Christ’s right hand, so that we possess Christ alone in heaven. 15*Augustine is mainly interested in the moral impact of this psalm: he compares verses 15–20 (describing the fate of the wicked) with the parable of Abraham and Lazarus in Luke 16:20–31. 16A more explicitly Christian reading is attributed to *Bede, who, following *Cassiodorus, sees Psalm 73 as an expansion of Psalm 72: the hymns of David have failed (72:20) and the temporal rule of Jesse has now been fulfilled in one from the stem of Jesse, Christ himself (Isa. 11:1; Matt. 1:5–16); hence Psalm 73 is about that Son who conquers sin and oppression. 17A reading associated with *Aquinas could not be more different from Targum : now the ungodly are the Jews, of whom Christ speaks in verses 18–19: ‘…Those who brought to nothing the image of God in their earthly city, shall have their image brought to nothing in his city.’ 18

Typical anti-Jewish readings are also found in Byzantine Psalters. For example, the * Khludov Psalter (fol. 70v) illustrates verse 9 (‘they set their mouths against heaven’) with Jewish *iconoclasts: the inscription reads ‘the ones who are heretics and speak against God.’ 19

*Carolingian Psalters are less polemical and more practical in their illustrations. For example, the *Utrecht Psalter (fol. 41v) is a narrative about the victory of the righteous over the wicked. At the top right the psalmist is sitting on a hillock, and below him is a mare and colt (a literal translation of the Hebrew ‘beasts’ in verse 22, to which the psalmist compares himself). The ‘sanctuary’ of verse 17 is behind him, next to a walled city with a gate (noting the Greek and Latin additions about ‘Zion’ at the end of verse 28). At the top left we see the wicked, reading from scrolls (verse 9), and in the bottom right is another group trampling on the poor and a different group gorging at a table full of food. The hand of God comes out from heaven to grasp the psalmist’s right hand (verse 23) and above a group of angels is another wingless angel holding a whip (suggested by the Latin ‘ flagellabuntur ’ and ‘ flagellatus’ of verses 5 and 14), who is driving a large number of the wicked into a fiery pit of Hell (verse 27). 20The * Stuttgart Psalter (fol. 85r) depicts the psalmist sitting with a mare and colt (like Utrecht , following verse 22), thus illustrating in a single image a more Christian reading of the psalm, where Jesus enters Jerusalem on these animals in Matt. 21:2–7. 21

A more overtly Christian reading is found in the twelfth-century * St Albans Psalter . In the illuminated initial ‘Q’ (for Q uam bonus Israel in verse 1), the psalmist, stripped to the waist, turns, terrified, to look up at God in heaven: this also illustrates the hope for survival beyond death in verses 22–26, verses which were used by the Prioress, Christina of Markyate (to whom the Psalter was dedicated), after she had given her final vows. 22

Turning to examples from poetry, an intriguingly personal use is by George *Herbert in The Temple . ‘The Collar’ follows the same theme on the unjust success of the wicked in the first part of Psalm 73, although Herbert’s start of the poem (lines 3–9) is even more angry and intense than the psalm itself. 23This is partly due to the fact that Herbert’s speaker is not outside the sanctuary (i.e. unable to find an answer until he goes to it, as in Ps. 73:17) but actually within it, ‘at board’ (i.e. at the altar) all along: ‘He struck the board, and cry’d, No More/I will abroad!’ (lines 1–2). Although the speaker is tempted to affirm and share in the prosperity of the wicked, there is eventually some epiphany and resolution:

But as I rav’d and grew more fierce and wilde

at every word

Me thoughts I heard one calling, ‘Child!’

And I reply’d, ‘My Lord.’

(Lines 33–36.) 24

Another personal literary appropriation of this psalm, also reflecting on the problem of injustice and the plight of the righteous and the wicked, with an explicit Christian focus, is found in John *Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress : as Christian sinks in the mire, despairing that he will die for his sins, Hopeful responds by citing Ps. 73:4–5: ‘the troubles and distresses that you go through in these waters are no sign that God hath forsaken you; but are sent to try you…’ 25

The last part of the psalm, with its references to the life beyond, has provided the most explicit Christian readings. This is found especially in both metrical psalmody and hymnody. Charles *Wesley, for example, on his death bed, reflecting on verse 25 (‘Whom have I in heaven but you?…) dictated the following hymn to his wife: ‘Jesus, my only hope thou art, Strength of failing flesh and heart: O could I catch a smile from thee, and drop into eternity!’ 26