Thursday 01 March 2018

Psalm: Psalm 26

Background

In this passage we’re confronted by an image that perhaps seems distasteful to us today – the return of the mighty divine warrior, his clothing stained red with the blood of his enemies. Although the warrior initially says he has been treading grapes in the wine press alone, it quickly transpires that the grapes are a metaphor for his enemies: “I trampled down peoples in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth” (v. 6).

When I encounter passages that portray God in such a bloodthirsty way, I often feel squeamish or embarrassed. “That’s not the God I worship,” I tell my non-Christian friends when they challenge me on some of the more unpalatable bits of the Old Testament. But it’s important that we don’t just dismiss such readings as a misunderstanding of the character of God – in doing so, we miss the significant role that such portrayals played in the formation of Jewish expectations of the Messiah.

Today we hear the voice of a nation that is sick and tired of being the victim, the oppressed, the slave and the ridiculed. This text arises from a people crying out, not just for justice, but for vengeance. We might baulk at the image of a messiah dripping with blood, but that was precisely what Israel longed for in the years following their exile in Babylon. No wonder some of Jesus’ followers were perplexed by the servant Christ they encountered – perhaps the reaction we saw from Peter in Mark 8:31-38 had something to do with his cultural expectation of a warrior messiah.

Interestingly, the reading takes a surprisingly tender tone towards the end:

“It was no messenger or angel
   but his presence that saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
   he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” (v. 9)

As much as the people of Israel longed for vengeance, clearly they also craved a parent, one who would carry them through the difficult days ahead.

To Ponder

• How does it make you feel to read about a bloodthirsty Messiah?
• What kind of God do you long for?
• How do you think your hopes and dreams influence your image of God?