Posts Tagged: Derek Kidner
“Exalted, But Not Aloof”
“Psa. 113:4 The LORD is high above all nations,
and his glory above the heavens!
5 Who is like the LORD our God,
who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9 He gives the barren woman a home,
making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 113, English Standard Version)
We have a way-beyond-the-starry-heavens God, who is also incredibly down to earth. Not just down to earth, but down in the dust and the ashes with us.
I found Derek Kidner’s words even more energizing than the coffee I drank this morning. I quote him at length.
“‘Far down …’
The challenge of verse 5, Who is like the Lord our God?, meets us, expressed or implied, throughout the Bible. It is put eloquently and at length in Isaiah 40:12-41:4, but it has its witnesses everywhere, even in the names of men and angels (Micaiah, ‘who is like Yahweh?’; Michael, ‘who is like God?’). Here this transcendence is memorably [Vol 16: Psa, p. 437] suggested by the perspective of verse 6, where the very heavens are almost out of sight below him. He is, as JB [The Jerusalem Bible] puts it, ‘enthroned so high, he needs to stoop to see the sky and earth!’23
7ff. Yet he is anything but aloof. Verses 7 and 8 anticipate the great downward and upward sweep of the gospel, which was to go even deeper and higher than the dust and the throne of princes: from the grave to the throne of God (Eph. 2:5f.).
Consciously, however, these verses look back to the song of Hannah, which they quote almost exactly (cf. 7, 8a with 1 Sam. 2:8). Hence the sudden reference to the childless woman who becomes a mother (9), for this was Hannah’s theme. With such a background the psalm not only makes its immediate point, that the Most High cares for the most humiliated, but brings to mind the train of events that can follow from such an intervention. Hannah’s joy became all Israel’s; Sarah’s became the world’s. And the song of Hannah was to be outshone one day by the Magnificat. The spectacular events of our verses 7 and 8 are not greater than this domestic one; the most important of them have sprung from just such an origin.
But it would distort the psalm, and its values, to make verse 9 simply a means to an end. The psalm finishes with what seems an anticlimax, and it must not be disguised. It is here that God’s glory most sharply differs from man’s: a glory that is equally at home ‘above the heavens’ (4) and at the side of one forlorn person.
There is plainly much more than rhetoric in the question of verse 5, ‘Who is like the Lord our God?’”
Nina Totenberg, long-time NPR reporter, tells a wonderful story about her father. Roman Totenberg was a world-renowned violinist and teacher, who lived to be 101 years old. He was teaching students—quite literally—on his death bed. Nina Totenberg tells the story of her father being asked by Franklin Roosevelt to perform at the White house.
Her dad “. . . had a few weeks earlier played for the king of Italy, and that affair was so formal that he had to borrow a top hat and cape from the Polish ambassador, and back off the stage so as not to offend the king. In contrast, after the performance at the White House, Eleanor Roosevelt served dinner in the family quarters, serving each of the performers from a sitting position on the floor in front of a table. As Totenberg would later recount, he thought to himself as he compared the two events, ‘This is the country for me!’” (https://www.npr.org/2012/05/08/152275442/roman-totenbergs-remarkable-life-and-death, accessed 11-07-2022)
A God so transcendent, yet so near to those who sit in the ashes—this is the God for me! And for you, too, I believe.
“Help: Leaping Beyond the Universe”
The YouVersion verse of the day is Psalm 121:2.
“My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.”
I love this verse, so I decided to read it in context. Many verses in the Bible can sing solos, but the melodies are even richer when you hear them as part of a choir of verses. The entire psalm in which this verse occurs is short, so I thought I would read the whole thing.
“Psa. 121:0 A Song of Ascents.
Psa. 121:1 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
Psa. 121:3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psa. 121:5 The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
Psa. 121:7 The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.”
In the Bible, Psalms 120-134 are classified as “Songs of Ascent”. Scholars aren’t sure exactly what that means. I think that the most likely theory is that these psalms were used when people were on pilgrimage (going up) to Jerusalem.
I was especially struck by Derek Kidner’s comments on this psalm in the Tyndale Commentary Series.
“1. The hills are enigmatic: does the opening line show an impulse to take refuge in them, like the urge that came to David in Psalm 11:1, to ‘flee like a bird to the mountains’? Or are the hills themselves a menace, the haunt of robbers?
2. Either way, he knows something better. The thought of this verse leaps beyond the hills to the universe; beyond the universe to its Maker. Here is living help: primary, personal, wise, immeasurable.
3, 4. The rest of the psalm leads into an ever expanding circle of promise, all in terms of ‘he’ and ‘you’ (the ‘you’ is singular). Another voice seems to answer the first speaker at this point in the pilgrims’ singing, and yet another in verse 4; or else the whole song is an individual utterance, and the dialogue internal, as in, e.g., Psalm 42:5.
In verse 3 the word for not is the one used normally for requests and commands. So this verse should be taken, not as a statement which verse 4 will virtually repeat, but as a wish or prayer (cf. TEV60), to be answered by the ringing confidence of 4 and of all that follows. I.e. ‘May he not let your foot be moved, may he … not slumber!’ – followed by the answer, ‘Look, he who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.’
[Vol 16: Psa, p. 468]
5, 6. Now Israel’s privilege is made sure to the single Israelite: a protection as individual as he himself. It starts where he is now, out on his journey, looking at the hills. The Lord is closer than they (5c), and his protection as refreshing as it is complete. It avails against the known and the unknown; perils of day and night; the most overpowering of forces and the most insidious.61
7, 8. The promise moves on from the pilgrim’s immediate preoccupations to cover the whole of existence. In the light of other scriptures, to be kept from all evil does not imply a cushioned life, but a well-armed one. Cf. Psalm 23:4, which expects the dark valley but can face it. The two halves of verse 7 can be compared with Luke 21:18f., where God’s minutest care (‘not a hair of your head will perish’) and his servants’ deepest fulfilment (‘you will win true life’, NEB) are promised in the same breath as the prospect of hounding and martyrdom (Luke 21:16f.). Your life, in the present passage (7), is as many-sided a word as in Luke; it means the whole living person. Our Lord enriched the concept of keeping or losing this by his teaching on self-giving and self-love (e.g. John 12:24f.).
The psalm ends with a pledge which could hardly be stronger or more sweeping. Your going out and your coming in is not only a way of saying ‘everything’ (cf. the footnote to verse 6): in closer detail it draws attention to one’s ventures and enterprises (cf. Ps. 126:6), and to the home which remains one’s base; again, to pilgrimage and return; perhaps even (by another association of this pair of verbs) to the dawn and sunset of one’s days. But the last line takes good care of this journey; and it would be hard to decide which half of it is the more encouraging: the fact that it starts ‘from now’, or that it runs on, not to the end of time but without end; like God himself who is (cf. Ps. 73:26) ‘my portion for ever’.”
[Vol 16: Psa, p. 469]
I was especially struck by Kidner’s comments on the verse of the day, “The thought of this verse leaps beyond the hills to the universe; beyond the universe to its Maker. Here is living help: primary, personal, wise, immeasurable.”
Leaping from the hills to the universe to the maker of the universe—yes! Unfortunately, I get stuck on the hills.
What are my hills? Daily circumstances, daily problems, daily tasks. Then there is getting older and the aches and pains that go with that process. Past regrets and future fears may be hills that seem like mountains. Yes, I know: I tend to make mountains out of molehills. They still look and feel like mountains to me.
What are your hills? More importantly, do you let your mind make the leap to the Maker of the universe? Perhaps we have such (seemingly) big problems because we have such a small view of God.
“Shaping Up My Thinking”
My thinking of late has become very flabby. The mind, like the muscles, can get out of shape in a hurry. It takes days for muscles to begin to show that they are atrophying, though I suppose the process is going on when we don’t use our muscles. Flabby thinking can manifest itself in three seconds.
So, it is the first day of October. I am determined to shape up my thinking by reading five psalms in the Book of Psalms each day and one chapter of Proverbs each day. I also plan to marinate in at least one verse of what I am reading. The word “marinate” is used to express two things. The first aspect of marinating is that I need to season my reading with humility, openness, and the willingness to act on whatever God is saying to me by the means of these writings. Second, I need to spend time soaking in God’s Word. Marinating a steak or a mind for a few brief moments is not all that helpful.
In my mental marination, I decided to stir in some Derek Kidner, regarding Psalm 1.
I was struck by his comments on Psalm 1:1-3. I quote them in their entirety, in order to cement them in my own mind as well as for your mental (and behavioral) marination.
“The way of life
Preferable to Blessed, for which a separate word exists, is ‘Happy’, or ‘The happiness of …!’. Such was the Queen of Sheba’s exclamation in 1 Kings 10:8, and it is heard twenty-six times in the Psalter.1 This psalm goes on to show the sober choice that is its basis. The Sermon on the Mount, using the corresponding word in Greek, will go on to expound it still more radically.
Counsel, way and seat (or ‘assembly’, or ‘dwelling’) draw attention to the realms of thinking, behaving and belonging, in which a person’s fundamental choice of allegiance is made and carried through; and this is borne out by a hint of decisiveness in the tense of the Hebrew verbs (the perfect). It would be reading too much into these verbs to draw a moral from the apparent process of slowing down from walking to sitting, since the journey was in the wrong direction for a start. Yet certainly the three complete phrases show three aspects, indeed three degrees, of departure from God, by portraying conformity to this world at three different levels: accepting its advice, being party to its ways, and adopting the most fatal of its attitudes – for the scoffers, if not the most scandalous of sinners, are the farthest from repentance (Prov. 3:34).
2. The three negatives have cleared the way for what is positive, which is their true function and the value of their hard cutting edge. (Even in Eden God gave man a negative, to allow him the privilege of decisive choice.) The mind was the first bastion to defend, in verse 1, and is treated as the key to the whole man. The law of the Lord stands opposed to ‘the counsel of the wicked’ (1), to which it is ultimately the only answer. The psalm is content to develop this one theme, implying that whatever really shapes a man’s thinking shapes his life. This is conveniently illustrated also by the next psalm, where the word for ‘plot’ (2:1b) is the same as for meditates here, with results that follow from the very different thoughts that are entertained there. In our verse, the deliberate echo of the charge to Joshua reminds the man of action that the call to think hard about the will of God is not merely for the recluse, but is the secret of [Vol 15: Psa, p. 65] achieving anything worthwhile (cf. prospers, here, with Josh. 1:8). Law (tôrâ) basically means ‘direction’ or ‘instruction’; it can be confined to a single command, or can extend, as here, to Scripture as a whole.
3. With this attractive picture, forming with verse 4 the centrepiece of the psalm, cf. the more elaborate passage, Jeremiah 17:5–8. The phrase its fruit in its season emphasizes both the distinctiveness and the quiet growth of the product; for the tree is no mere channel, piping the water unchanged from one place to another, but a living organism which absorbs it, to produce in due course something new and delightful, proper to its kind and to its time. The promised immunity of the leaf from withering is not independence of the rhythm of the seasons (cf. the preceding line, and see on 31:15), but freedom from the crippling damage of drought (cf. Jer. 17:8b).”[1]
I was especially struck by Kidner’s comment that “. . . whatever really shapes a man’s thinking shapes his life.”
What is shaping my life these days? Playing chess? Eating? Lazy thinking because I’m retired? Selfishness in the form of thinking only about what I want?
And, of course, this is an unwelcome question that you might need to be asking yourself as well. What is shaping your thinking these days?
[1]Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary, TOTC 15; IVP/Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 64-65.
https://accordance.bible/link/read/Tyndale_Commentary#21798, accessed 10-01-2021)
“Follow Your Heart? Well, maybe!”
You have no doubt heard the advice to “follow your heart.” It is good counsel, except when it isn’t. Let me explain.
Some of us, at many times and in many ways, do need to follow our hearts. We have a feeling, a hunch, an intuition, or a dream in our hearts. We need to go with that! Self-doubt may masquerade as humility, but such doubt is not always the best guide.
However, a lot depends on what sort of heart you have, as well as what your heart is telling you at any given moment. Sometimes, I’ve followed my own heart, and caused a great deal of harm to myself and others. Maybe I’m unique in this regard, but I seriously doubt it.
Psalm 36 warns about the danger of following our hearts when they are not in the right place. At least, that is the way I would take the psalm. However, there is a problem in translating verse 1.
Here’s the deal. A literal rendering of verse 1 (verse 2 in Hebrew) would go something like this: “An utterance of rebellion to the wicked in his heart.” There are many problems with translating this verse, and I won’t go into them all here. Both you and your guide could easily get lost, never to be found.
Because it is such a strange and difficult verse, many modern translators try to smooth it out, but to my own way of thinking it seems to be best translated as I have done above. Several things should be noted.
First, the word that I’ve translated “utterance” is a Hebrew word that usually refers to an authoritative speech. Usually, such authoritative speech is said to come from God or a prophet. But, if I am properly interpreting the word in its context in Psalm 36, it means that the wicked person has an authoritative utterance of transgression (or rebellion) emanating from his very heart. An oracle has taken up residence in his very heart. Unfortunately this “authoritative word” is all about rebellion!
Whoa! (Or should I say, “Woe!”)
To say that a person has an oracle of rebellion, an authoritatively wicked utterance set up in his heart, is a chilling reminder of how wicked the heart can be. And, of course, such wickedness in the heart has consequences in the outward life. Thus, the wicked person—presumably following the oracle of his heart—goes off the rails. Shoot! He doesn’t even believe that there are any rails! So, Psalm 36 continues as follows:
“Psa. 36:1b there is no fear of God
before his eyes.
Psa. 36:2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes
that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
Psa. 36:3 The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit;
he has ceased to act wisely and do good.
Psa. 36:4 He plots trouble while on his bed;
he sets himself in a way that is not good;
he does not reject evil.”
Derek Kidner, in his 1973 commentary on Psalms 1-72 (Tyndale series), writes the following:
“The opening words, lit. ‘An oracle of transgression’, make a startling heading to the portrait of this dedicated sinner. It is as though transgression itself were his god or prophet. . . . While a believer sets his course towards God himself, this man does not take even ‘the terror of the Lord’ into account. This is the culminating symptom of sin in Romans 3:18, a passage which teaches us to see this portrait as that of man (but for the grace of God) rather than of an abnormally wicked type. All men as fallen have these characteristics, latent or developed.”
Kidner goes on to point out that people who have wicked hearts that lead to evil actions also experience “. . . a wholesale reversal of values, leaving good powerless to attract, and evil to repel. Cf. Alexander Pope on a possible series of steps towards this:
‘Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet, seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.[Vol 15: Psa, p. 165]’”
Sounds pretty scary, doesn’t it? If it doesn’t sound scary to you, you should really be scared. If you’re scared, then be sure to guard your heart (Proverbs 4:23)! It is only the guarded heart that should be followed.
DTEB, “Fair—and Merciful—Weights and Measures”
As I was out walking the dog and listening to my You Version Bible on my smart phone this morning, I was struck by the following verse:
Prov. 11:1 “A false balance is an abomination to the LORD,
but a just weight is his delight.” (English Standard Version)
I was even more struck with a rather personal extended application of the verse to my own sometimes judgmental attitude. I did not like the application, but I no doubt needed it.
False weights and measures are, in the literal sense, an economic issue. Here is what Kidner says concerning the matter: “The Law (Lev. 19:35f.), the Prophets (Mic. 6:1f.) and the Wisdom Writings (see also 20:10, 23) agree in condemning dishonesty primarily for God’s sake. For the same reason we are encouraged to give not only in full but to overflowing (Luke 6:35, 38). See also 16:11 . . . .” Christine Roy Yoder comments that, of eleven things that are listed as abominations of Yahweh in the book of Proverbs, three of them involve unjust weights and measures.[1] (See also Amos 8:5; and Micah 6:10-11.)
However, the figurative meaning of this saying was what I especially needed and didn’t like. I felt that God was asking me about my tendency to want mercy for me, but judgment for others. Isn’t that having different weights and measures? Other people’s wrongdoing is heavier and more than mine, surely! And, of course, my motivations are always pure, whereas the motivations of other people are often suspect.
I was hoping that I had misheard God’s Spirit, but was pretty well certain that I had not. When I looked up Luke 6:35-38 (to which Kidner referred, as already noted), all doubt was removed.
“Luke 6:36 “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Notice how Jesus intensifies this business of a fair “measure.” We are not simply to be just. Rather, we are to be merciful and generous. In fact, this merciful measure doesn’t stop with not being judgmental. No! Jesus calls his disciples to forgive!
And since I need a lot of mercy and forgiveness, I need to extend a lot of mercy and forgiveness to others. Measure for measure! The same standards of mercy for others that I need for myself.
Man, do I ever have a lot of work to do!
[1] Christine Roy Yoder, Proverbs, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries (Nashville: Abingdon, 2009), 130.
“Stay Teachable; Stay Progressive”
“Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life,
but he who rejects reproof leads others astray.” (Prov. 10:17, English Standard Version)
“A traveller to life [is] he who is keeping instruction, And whoso is forsaking rebuke is erring.”
“Education is change, and change is ‘Ouch!'” (Evelyn Huber)
(Proverbs 10:17 Young’s Literal Translation of the Holy Bible)
Proverbs, in any language, are usually very brief and terse. Think, for example, of our saying, “Nothing ventured; nothing gained.” Because they are brief and terse, they are both memorable and (sometimes) cryptic.
What is true of proverbs in general is also true of biblical proverbs and the Book of Proverbs. (There are proverbs throughout the Bible. Hence the distinction between biblical proverbs and the Book of Proverbs.)
The brief and terse proverb that is the basis for this post is fairly clear in its broad contours, but somewhat cryptic with regard to specifics. For example, it is by no means clear whether the proverb warns against rejecting reproof because the person rejecting reproof will go astray, or warning is against leading others astray.
But do we even need to choose? It is hard to be a good GPS for others, when you’re lost yourself! Indeed, it is impossible.
“Reproof” is an old-fashioned word that we don’t use much anymore. The modern equivalent would probably fall somewhere between “correction” and “reprimand.” None of us likes to be corrected or reprimanded, but all of us need that at times. We need to stay teachable over the long haul.
Derek Kidner comments on this verse, in his usual terse and practical manner, so I’ll let him have the final word:
“10:17. Stay teachable, you
stay progressive.” Kidner goes on to
say, “Note that the contrast is between keeping and forsaking: i.e. not only
must instruction be listened to; it must be held fast over a long period.”[1]
[1] Derek Kidner, Proverbs: An Introduction & Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1964), 88.
“PSALM 37 AND THE REDIRECTION OF EMOTIONS”
Have you ever thought of different ways of handling feelings?
Of course, you can stuff them. This, however, doesn’t seem terribly wise. Stuffing stuff isn’t wise when it comes to houses or hearts. Psychologists have been telling us this for a long time, and they are almost certainly right, in my opinion.
On the other hand, you can spray others with your feelings. This doesn’t seem wise either. I have noticed that, when I simply vent my emotions, I don’t feel better. In fact, I feel worse. As my brother said years ago, “I don’t slam the door, because I figure it would feel so good that I would want to yank the #!* thing off its hinges.”
Perhaps there is a third way. What about refocusing emotions?
“Psa. 37:1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
2 For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.
Psa. 37:3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psa. 37:5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
Psa. 37:7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
Psa. 37:8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.”
Derek Kidner, in his wonderful commentary in the Tyndale Old Testament Series, summarizes verses 1-8, and makes some telling points in regard to them. “An obsession with enemies and rivals cannot be simply switched off, but it can be ousted by a new focus of attention; note the preoccupation with the Lord himself, expressed in the four phrases that contain his name here. It includes a deliberate redirection of one’s emotions . . . .” [1]
I was especially struck by Kidner’s comment that we can’t simply switch off our “obsession with enemies and rivals.” Furthermore, there is such a thing as “. . . a deliberate redirection of one’s emotions . . . .”
I am increasingly finding this to be true. I really can redirect my emotions.
I used to not so much have emotions, as they had me. These days, if I slow down and think—and, above all, pray—I find that I am much more in control of my emotions than I used to be.
I’ve often heard it said, “Emotions are neither good nor bad; they just are.” This, it seems to me, is be true but not the whole truth. Emotions can lead us toward good actions or bad actions.
I
am not saying that emotions are always easy to redirect. I am not sure that they are ever easy
to redirect. However, I do believe that
it is possible. And redirecting emotions
is so much better than either stuffing or spraying.
[1]https://accordance.bible/link/read/Tyndale_Commentary#22420
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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- “Delighting in Being Told What to Do?!?” February 23, 2024“Psa. 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! 2 His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures […]
- “Character is the Real Lesson” January 19, 2024I am often confused about what lesson I’m really supposed to be learning. For example, this morning I was trying to knock out several Spanish lessons. My intentions were a lot better than my internet connection. I’ve done three lessons. Or rather, I’ve done two lessons. One of them I did twice because the internet […]
- “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked” January 1, 2024Each year, I try to come up with one word or a short phrase for what I intend to work on in the upcoming year. 2024 is “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked”. What?!! What does that even mean? So glad that you asked! Jesus said to his disciples, “Why do you look at the speck […]
- “Searching for the Noble One” December 26, 2023My wife and I were reading Luke, chapter 2 on Christmas Day. Luke 2 talks about the shepherds being told to look for this very special child—in fact, this King—in a stable. I prefer the word “barn”. I grew up on a farm. I know what a barn is. A stable is entirely too biblical […]
- “That Don’t Impress God Much” December 14, 2023DTEB, “That Don’t Impress God Much” “That Don’t Impress Me Much” (Song by Robert John Lange and Shania Twain) Micah 6:8 (MSG) “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be […]
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