Psalm 8 and Wisdom
Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31 Notebook Page 27
Sunday, June 6, 2004
By Kendall H. Brown
Embedded in the Old Testament is a body of literature from an ancient tradition known as the Wisdom School. The Songs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs and the Book of Job are the four Old Testament books from that school of thought. Although the book of Psalms comes to us from the worship life of ancient Israel, not the Wisdom tradition, the eighth Psalm declares a message that could have easily been written by one of the Wisdom School writers.
The Wisdom School is found in the documents of many ancient cultures. On the web you can find sites that will show many sayings and quotes from other ancient religions, ancient Phoenicia, Egypt, Mesopotamia and even India and China, that are almost identical to the OT Wisdom writings. The tradition had many down to earth teachings about living an upright and moral life. Ben Franklin might have been inspired by the Wisdom tradition when writing his Poor Richard’s Almanacs and filling them with pithy and earthy sayings.
The wisdom tradition had a few basic presuppositions. One of them was, in more recent parlance, there is a place for everything and everything in its place. Most notably, humanity has a very definite place in the order of nature or creation. In the Wisdom Tradition, humanity is given a grand place of honor. An expression of this understanding is found outside of the traditional works of the school in the verses of Psalm 8.
“what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. “
Another translation puts it, “a little less than angels” But be it a little less than God or angels, mortals in the Wisdom tradition occupy a very high perch in creation’s pecking order.This is quite different from the anthropology that is found in the Pentateuch. In the Pentateuch, mortals are fallen creatures. That point is made quite clear in Genesis. There is the dismissal of Adam and Eve from the Garden, followed by Cain’s treacherous murder of his brother, followed by the story of the flood, and then the tower of Babel. By the time you have reached the story of the Tower of Babel, you have to be pretty dull not to have noticed the point that humanity and Israel are totally incapable of saving themselves by any means. The Wisdom Tradition paints an exalted view of humanity which is in stark contrast to wretched view of mortals as the picture is painted in the Pentateuch.
The perception of our place as being a little less than angels easily leads to arrogance and pride. Also, this view also sets the believer up for a fall in the face of misfortune and suffering. If we are just a little lower than the angels, and if one lives the virtuous life that is pleasing to God as taught in the Wisdom School system of morality, (and more than anything else the School is a morality system,) then the sudden appearance of suffering or misfortune in one’s life is incomprehensible. Good fortune becomes linked with pleasing God and the opposite is obvious. The presence of suffering in one’s life can only be explained by some sin of omission or commission that displeases God.
The book of Job, written by a Wisdom School writer and philosopher pushes beyond this impasse of spirit.
The book of Job is a story about a man who is the paradigm of virtue. He has lived every day of his life in accordance with the morality system of the Wisdom tradition. And for a time it seems that his virtuous life is pleasing to God for he is rewarded with family, wealth and well-being. Then Job loses everything. He ends up on a dung pile with his body covered with boils pleading with God, “Why has all of this misfortune come to me. I have lived the virtuous life that pleases you. Why God?” Job is in agony and begs God to let him know what his one fault is that once he understands, he can correct and again be pleasing to God.
God does finally answer Job. His answer begins with words spoken out of a whirlwind.
By the way, here we catch a glimpse of another difference between the Wisdom Philosophy and the Theology found in much of the rest of the Old Testament. In the Wisdom tradition, god is a noisy, thunderous God as pictured in Job. But God speaks with more softness in much of the rest of the OT. In the Pentateuch, God walks and talks quietly in the cool of the evening with Adam and Eve in the garden. God speaks in dreams to Jacob and Samuel. God sends messengers to Abraham. In the book of Kings, we have the story of Elijah. Those who wrote the book of Kings were contemporaries with some of the Wisdom writers and were well aware of their differences. In Job, God talks out of a whirlwind. In Kings, in the story of Elijah beating a retreat to the mountains and being spoken to by God, we are told specifically that God did not speak in the wind, nor in the fire, nor in the earthquake. Elijah heard a still small voice. But in the Wisdom tradition, God is a mighty mover and Job hears him speaking out of the whirlwind.
God says to Job, “Who is this whose ignorant words smear my design with darkness? Stand up like a man; I will question you: (humans don’t question God, God questions them, perhaps mortals don’t occupy quite as high a perch as the Wisdom teachers thought they did) Where were you when I planned the earth, said God. Tell me if you are so wise. Do you know who took its dimensions, measuring its length with a cord? Who laid down the cornerstone, while the morning stars burst out singing and the angels shouted for joy?”
God thunders away in this manner for four whole chapters in response to Job. It is a noisy, clamoring awesome response of the omnipotent and omnipresent, all-powerful and everywhere-present, god. Job must have been thunderstruck. What more could he say or ask. Suddenly in the presence of the all powerful creator, his problems could only seem minuscule. When we step away from the presence of God, our problems and many other details of our lives, do become mountains. But when we stay in the presence of God, we know to what greatness belongs and to what greatness should be given. WE give greatness to God and our problems are diminished. Job’s questions were about what he had done wrong and Job searched for understanding. The writer of the Book of Job realized something that was missed by many in the Wisdom School. He realized that the answer to suffering is not in understanding. God did not give Job an answer, God gave Job his overwhelming presence even in Job’s suffering.
The composer of Psalm 8, ends the Psalm by breaking into a chorus celebrating the Wisdom understanding of mortals place in the universe. Before that chorus there is a question: “What are mortals that God is mindful of them, and the children of mortals that God cares for them?” The Psalmist starts where Job ends and that is with the faithful outlook that God is mindful of us and cares about us. For the Psalmist, God’s care is made even more wondrous by simply observing the heavens and all the spectacular beauty of the natural world and realizing that with all those distractions God still is present to us. The Wisdom writers start with humanity’s greatness. The Psalmist starts with God’s greatness, which can only stir a heart with thankfulness and awe. In that thankfulness, awe and presence, the problems and difficulties of day to day life take on a new and right size. Nothing is as big and powerful as we are tempted to believe if we begin each day in the presence or a large and awesome God.
Return to Sermon Archive Page