Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
Psalm 125 (ESV)
which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD surrounds his people,
from this time on and forevermore.
For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest
on the land allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous might not stretch out
their hands to do wrong.
Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
and to those who are upright in their hearts.
But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways
the LORD will lead away with evildoers.
Peace be upon Israel!
——————
A Wisdom psalm, I guess.
Biblical wisdom is true in heaven always.
On earth it is true sometimes,
under certain circumstances,
potentially, aspirationally,
or otherwise, frankly, just not,
which is why Ecclesiastes so roundly criticizes Proverbs,
or rather a dull, flat reading of Proverbs,
and why Job rightly trashes Job’s friends.
“Those who trust in the Lord . . . cannot be moved”?
Then why the concern, just a few lines later:
who are these “righteous”
whose righteousness is so defectible,
so fragile, so mobile,
that if a “scepter of wickedness” were to rest upon their land
they would forthwith “stretch out their hands to do wrong”?
“Do good, O Lord, to those who are good”?
Who, and where, are these “good,” these “upright”?
Have you found them?
Have you not read:
there is none that is righteous,
no not one,
all have turned aside?
And here: those who have turned aside
the Lord will lead away with evildoers.
“Peace be upon Israel”—indeed!
Where is this Israel upon whom peace should rest?
Where are these trusters in the Lord
who are like Mount Zion,
immovable,
forever?
Biblical Wisdom is true in heaven
and how we long for it to be true
on earth as it is in heaven!
How we dream of it,
and wait for it
as an answer, perhaps,
eventually,
to a prayer taught by holy Wisdom herself
and repeated a million times by
us untrusty trusters,
us would-be good,
us readily swayed by wicked scepters,
us moveables,
us walkers in righteous fragility.
Verba Sparsa 