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PNEUMA 38 (2016) 330–348
The Penitential Psalms and Wholeness
Penitential Psalms in the Context of Ancient Near Eastern Penitential Prayers
Joel Travis Hamme
William Carey International University, Pasadena, California
Abstract
InthisarticleIexamineaMesopotamiantherapeuticritualanditsprayer,“Mygod,Idid not know.” It is clear that although the prayer is quite general, its purpose is to reconcile a sick person to his personal deity so that the patient is healed. I will then examine structural and content similarities with Pss 38 and 51. Thus, the paper’s methodology is comparative and form critical. I conclude that Pss 38 and 51, like the Mesopotamian penitential prayers and rituals, were ritual prayers through which the faithful Israelite was reconciled to God so that wholeness could be re-established in his or her life. This has implications for wholeness and health today as believers pursue right relationship with their creator. It also has implications for the critical contextualization of the psalms into different cultural contexts.
Keywords
penitential psalms – Mesopotamian prayers – African Initiated Churches – critical contextualization
Introduction
In the following article I explore the penitential psalms in their larger cultural milieu of the ancient Near East. The exploration discovers that similar types of prayers are used in similar circumstances. This has led me to argue that the situ- ations in which the Mesopotamian prayers examined, for which there is ample documentation, provide a helpful context in which to understand the peniten- tial psalms. In both the Mesopotamian prayers and the penitential psalms, the alienation and even direct assault of deity is seen as the cause of a lack of whole-
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi: 10.1163/15700747-03803003
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ness in every area of life, particularly in the area of relationships and mental and physical health. The penitential prayers were meant to reconcile the suf- ferer with God so that a whole life could be restored. I will examine Pss 38 and 51 and the dingir.ša.dib.ba ilī ul idê, “My god, I did not know.” This research has implications for how theologians interpret and understand the purpose of the psalms and how mission practitioners engage in contextualizing faith and practice in different cultural contexts. It also has implications for the current discussion concerning the reintegration of lament into the spirituality and wor- ship life of Pentecostals.
The similarity of form and function between ilī ul idê and Pss 38 and 51 bring up the contemporary missiological principle of critical contextualiza- tion first discussed by Paul Hiebert.1 When biblical faith takes root in a cul- ture, certain indigenous practices and concepts are brought over completely, others are rearticulated and changed, and still others are rejected.2 This is a necessary practice to avoid syncretism, in which believers adopt biblical faith but continue former practices to address felt needs that the form of biblical faith with which they are confronted does not address.3 Given the similarities and differences between ilī ul idê and the penitential psalms, I will plausibly demonstrate that Pss 38 and 51 use a common cultural form rearticulated in the context of biblical faith. The difference beyond the obvi- ous polytheism of the ilī ul idê ritual and prayers and the monotheistic psalms is the ignorance of sin in ilī ul idê and the knowledge of it in the penitential psalms.
A particularly relevant contemporary use of the psalms is their ritual use in the African Initiated Churches. Their use can be fruitfully viewed as culturally contextualized, and is analogous to my argument for a ritual and therapeutic use of the lament psalms. The main exponent of this approach as enriching the current discussion of the psalms is the Nigerian psalm scholar David Tuesday Adamo.
This has implications for pentecostal theology and practice, as recently scholars such as Scott Ellington and Narelle Jane Melton have argued that the contemporary church has lost the lament, even though it was a feature of early Pentecostalism.4 They are correct in saying that a recovery of lament is
1 See his foundational article, Paul Hiebert, “Critical Contextualization,”International Bulletin
of Missionary Review11, no. 3 (July 1987): 104–112.
2 Ibid., 109–110.
3 Ibid., 106.
4 See Narelle Jane Melton, “Lessons of Lament: Reflections on the Correspondence between
the Lament Psalms and Early Australian Pentecostal Prayer,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology
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necessary for a fully orbed pentecostal theology and practice. However, they largely leave the use of the psalms in the realm of pastoral care and grief recovery, when it appears that the psalms were originally used for healing and protection. The aic approach, similar to the apparent context of the lament psalms in Iron Age Israel, reintroduces the element of prayer for healing and protection into a pentecostal approach to the Psalms.
Mespotamian Laments
The Mesopotamians (Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians) developed a rich body of lament literature, spanning millennia.5 I argue that both the Meso- potamian and the Hebrew laments were used in domestic medical and protec- tive rites and were later used in larger ritual and prayer collections in secondary usage.6 What we see in the lament literature is not a case of a cultural borrow- ing, such as the Israelites borrowing a cultural form from their neighbors, but an expression of a common cultural form by which the peoples of the ancient Near East addressed concerns about illness, attacks from enemies, ostracism from friends and family, and so forth.
In Mesopotamia, the adversities mentioned above were often viewed as caused by alienation from one’s personal god. Besides the major gods, such as Marduk, Aššur, Šamaš, Ištar, Sîn, and so forth, families had domestic gods that were intimately involved with the well-being of the individuals in that family. One’s personal god and goddess were more involved in day-to-day affairs
20 (2011): 68–80; Scott A. Ellington, “The Costly Loss of Testimony,” Journal of Pentecostal
Theology8, no. 16 (2000): 48–59.
5 For a good introduction to two of the different genres of Mesopotamian laments, the
eršaḥunga(to sooth the heart of an angry god) anddingir.ša.dib.ba(to turn back the wrath
of an angry god), see Alan Lenzi, ed., Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction
(anem 3; Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 2011), 40–45. Available for free as a pdf through this link:
http://sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/9781589835962.pdf.
6 Erhard Gerstenberger,DerbittendeMensch.BittritualundKlagelieddesEinzelnenimAltenTes-
tament (wmant 51; Neukirchen Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1980), 134–136. Gerstenberger,
“The Psalms: Genres, Life Situations, and Theologies—Towards a Hermeneutics of Social
Stratification,” in Joel S. Burnett, W.H. Bellinger, Jr., and W. Dennis Tucker, Jr., eds., Diachronic
and Synchronic: Reading the Psalms in Real Time (lhb/ots 488; New York/London: t & t
Clark, 2007), 82–83. It is not to say that all laments were domestic, but that is probably a com-
monoriginformany.LamentssuchasPs89:38–52morethanlikelyemergedinaroyalcontext.
Karel van der Toorn, Sin and Sanction in Ancient Israel and Mesopotamia (Assen/Maastricht:
van Gorcum, 1985), 121–123.
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than the major gods, and so the maintenance of one’s relationship with them was of utmost importance. Even the king had to ensure a good relationship not only with the major gods, but also with his personal gods.7 A person’s transgressions, real or perceived,8 could alienate one from his or her personal gods,withdireconsequences.Toovercomethisalienation,ritualsthatincluded certain prayers were used, similar in form and content to a number of biblical laments.
The Ritual and Prayer ilī ul idê, “My God, I Did Not Know” One such ritual was referred to asilī ul idê, “My god, I did not know,” a therapeu- tic ritual in which in the course of ritual acts, prayers, and a number of offerings to various deities, including the personal god and goddess of the sick person, the sick person was reconciled to their personal gods, and thus the root cause of the illness was taken care of.9At the heart of this reconciliation to the personal gods was repentance for sins the sick person may have committed, expressed in a ritual prayer called ilī ul idê, “My god, I did not know,” as well. The ritual is preserved in the Middle Assyrian tablet from Assur,kar90.
7 A line of a ritual text for the ritual cleansing of the king reads thus: “when you go forth from the
house of washing, may the benevolentutukku, the benevolentšedureturn you to prosperity”
(bbr 26 Col 4, lines 28–30). The utukku was a spirit that could be good or evil, and the šedu
was a personal, protective deity. The line probably refers to the same personal deity twice,
using synonymous parallelism, a common feature in Semitic poetry. Toward the end of the
ritual, the king recited three prayers meant to restore relationship with the personal god and
goddess of the king (bbr26 Col 5, lines 77–81).
8 In Mesopotamia, it was believed that a person’s enemies could use witchcraft to slander a
person before their personal god, and thus convince the personal god that the individual had
sinned. The result was either the abandonment of the individual by the personal god or the
personal god actively afflicting them. See Tzvi Abusch, Mesopotamian Witchcraft: Toward a
History and Understanding of Babylonian Witchcraft Beliefs and Literature (amd 5; Leiden:
Brill, 2002), 27–63. This is why slander is a main topic in Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals.
It is also a main topic in the psalms of lament, although we can assume that an enemy could
not use witchcraft to convince theLordto abandon the faithful.
9 Margaret Jaques, “Metaphern als Kommunikationsstrategie in den mesopotamischen Buss-
gebeten an den persönlichen Gott,” in Margaret Jaques, ed. Klagetraditionen: Form und Funk-
tion der Klage in den Kulturen der Antike(obo251; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011),
5–6; Erich Ebeling,Tod und Leben nach den Vorstellungen der Babylonier,i.Teil: Texte(Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1931), 114–115; Margaret Jaques, “‘To Talk to One’s God’: Penitential
Prayers in Mesopotamia,” in Mediating between Heaven and Earth: Communication with the
Divine in the Ancient Near East(ed. Carly L. Crouch, Jonathan Stökl, and Anna Elise Zernecke;
lhbots566; New York/London:t&tClark, 2012), 121–122.
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The ritual tablet begins with enuma nipiši ili ul idi teppušú, “when you per- form the ritual of ‘my god, I did not know.’”10The ritual contains the recitation of nine ritual prayers, three of which are certainly dingir.ša.dib.ba prayers and one which may be, as it is to a personal god.11
The purpose of the ilī ul idê ritual inscribed on kar 90 is to reconcile a sufferer of disease to their personal god and thus nullify the cause of an illness. kar90 rev. 1512reads,
ilušu ittišú isalim(im) niziqtú lâ iraši(ši).
His god will be at peace with him. He will not experience vexation.
Besides the recitation of nine separate ritual prayers, the ceremony involved the drawing of a flour prison in outline in which the patient is enclosed, and a ritual washing of the sick person. The ritual then included the burning of a number of substances in an oven, including seven clay figurines that represent the family of the sufferer, thus purging their sinful legacy (rev. 5). Finally, two tallow figurines of the sufferer were burned, as well (rev. 7).13
The text of the ritual mentions sickness in a few places. After the recitation of [é]n gá.e lú.kù.ga me.en “I am a pure man” (obv. 16),14 the incantation priest grasps the afflicted person’s hand,qâssu taṣabbat-ma“grasp his hand” (kar90
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W.G. Lambert, “dingir.ša.dib.baIncantations,” jnes33, no. 3 (July 1974), 269. See Ebel- ing,Tod und Leben, 116.
For a list of all of the ritual prayers inkar90, see Lambert, “dingir.ša.dib.ba,” 269; Hein- rich Zimmern, “Zu den ‘Keilschrifttexten aus Assur religiösen Inhalts,’” za 30 (1915/16), 198–199. The incipits of the three definite dingir.ša.dib.ba prayers are the following in the order in which they occur inkar90:
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én ìlí ul idi šeretka našáku(rev. 3)
My god, I did not know that I was bearing [your] punishment.
én ì-lí ul i-di še-ret-ka dan-nat (rev. 4)
My god, I did not know how severe your punishment is.
én mi-nu-ú an-nu-ú-a-a-ma ki-a-am ep-šá-ku(rev. 8)
What are my iniquities that I am so treated?
See Ebeling,Tod und Leben, 119.
van der Toorn, Sin and Sanction, 124. See also Jaques, “To Talk to One’s God,” 122, for the description of a similar ritual action in other rituals containing dingir.ša.dib.ba ritual prayers.
See Ebeling, Tod und Leben, 118; Lambert, “dingir.ša.dib.ba,” 269. This incipit is Sume- rian, and so it is either a Sumerian prayer or a Sumerian and Akkadian bilingual.
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obv. 16).15 After the incantation, a priest constructs a brick stove and uses it to make a mixture of beer, cypress perfume, dates, and oil. The sick person (marṣu) then washes his hands in the mixture and recites én ìlí ul idi šeretka našáku, “My god, I did not know that I was bearing [your] punishment,” and then én ìlí ul idi šeretka dannat, “My god, I did not know how severe your punishment is.”16He then reciteséndištaršurbutu, “Very great goddess” (kar90 rev. 1–4).17 Toward the end of the ritual, the ritual priest throws the oven on which numerous objects and figurines were burnt into the river, recites two ritual prayers, pours water, and prostrates himself. He takes the sick person by the hand and leads him out of the prison of flour that was drawn for the purpose of the ritual. The sick person kneels before the door of the prison and says what is on his mind. The priest then falls down and brings a censor and torch to the patient. The patient then goes directly to his house (rev. 10–14).
Besides being used in the ritual that bears its name, the prayer “My god, I did not know” figured in a cluster of similar prayers in rituals designed for Mesopotamian aristocracy,bît rimkiand royalty, thebît sala mêritual included in the New Year’s festival in the month ofTašritu. The various tablets in whichilī ul idê, “My god, I did not know” and accompanying rituals are preserved stretch in time from the Late Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period.18They are found in libraries from Nineveh in Assyria to Uruk. This attests to the importance and popularity of the prayer and the felt need that the prayer and its accompanying rituals addressed.
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Ebeling interprets this to refer to someone who is afflicted, “seine (des Kranken) Hand fassen.” See Ebeling,Tod und Leben, 118.
This is the ritual prayer in pbs 1, 14, lines 23–39. See Lambert, “dingir.ša.dib.ba,” 275– 276. It is the only ritual prayer fromkar90 that is inbȋt rimki.
Ebeling considerséndištaršur-bu-t[u], “Very great goddess,” to be addressed to the goddess Ištar because supposedly šurbutu would be unsuitable for a personal goddess (Tod und Leben, 118), but see Lambert, where a similar construction is used for a personal god,én ilȋ šurbû“my great god (i.109).” Lambert, “dingir.ša.dib.ba,” 280.
Although the settings in which the ritual prayer was used varied, its purpose and accom- panying ritual actions were quite similar. See Claus Ambos, Der König im Gefangnis und das Neujahrsfest im Herbst: Mechanismen der Legitimation des babylonischen Herrschers im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. und ihre Geschichte(Dresden: Islet Verlag, 2013), 46, 53.
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“My God, I Did Not Know” and Psalms 38 and 51
A right relationship with one’s god was essential for a whole life, whether one was a common person, as reflected in kar 90, an aristocrat, as reflected in bît rimki, or the king, as reflected in bît sala mê. The rituals were seen to restore the suppliant to a state of purity, which made it possible for the person to be reconciled to the deity and then to occupy their place in society.19
Inancient Israel,sickness andother misfortuneswereat timesseen tobe due to divine wrath as well, and so as part of healing, the suppliants would confess their sins. Two examples from the psalms are Pss 38 and 51. What follows is a comparison of the ritual prayer ilī ul idê, “My god, I did not know,” and Pss 38 and 51.
Psalms 38 and 51, and dingir.ša.dib.ba have similar structures. After an analysis of dingir.ša.dib.ba material available to him, Dalglish outlined them as follows:
i. ii. iii. iv.
The Address: Invocation
Lamentation (often a confession of sin) Prayer (often for forgiveness and reconciliation) Thanksgiving.20
It is also clear that the individual lament and thedingir.ša.dib.baare similar in subject matter. See, for example,ilī ul idêin comparison with Pss 51 and 38.
ilī ul idê21
i.23 My god, I did not know how severe your punishment is. i.24 I frivolously took a solemn oath in your name, i.25 I profaned your decrees, I went too far,
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For a discussion of this concerningbîtrimki, see “Rites of Passage in Ancient Mesopotamia: Changing Status by Moving through Space: Bît rimki and the Ritual of the Substitute King,” in Approaching Rituals in Ancient Cultures. Questioni dirito: Rituali come fonte di conoscenza delle religioni e delle concezioni del mondonelle culture antiche. Proceedings of the Conference, November 28–30, 2011, ed. C. Ambos and L. Verderame; Roma. Supplemento No. 2 alla Rivista degli Studi Orientali Nuova Serielxxxvi(Pisa/Roma, 2013), 39–54. EdwardR.Dalglish,PsalmFifty-OneintheLightofAncientNearEasternPatternism(Leiden: Brill, 1962), 53–54.
The numbering is from Lambert, as is the translation. See Lambert, “dingir.ša.dib.ba,” 275–277.
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i.26 I … your mission in trouble,
i.27 I transgressed your way much,
i.28 I did not know, much. [ … ]
i.29 My iniquities are many: I know not what I did.
i.30 My god, expunge, release, suppress the anger of your heart,
i.31 Disregard my transgressions, receive my prayers,
i.32 Turn my sins into virtues.
i.33 Your hand is terrible, I have experienced your punishment.
i.34 Let him who reverences his god and goddess learn from my example. i.35 My god, be reconciled; my goddess, relent.
i.36 Turn your faces to the petition manifest in my raised hands. i.37 May your fierce hearts rest,
i.38 May your reigns be appeased, grant me reconciliation
i.39 That I may sing your praises without forgetting to the widespread people.
Psalm 38 (esv)
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A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering. 38 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath!
For your arrows have sunk into me,
and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh
because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones
because of my sin.
For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester
because of my foolishness,
I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning.
For my sides are filled with burning,
and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and crushed;
I groan because of the tumult of my heart. O Lord, all my longing is before you;
my sighing is not hidden from you.
My heart throbs; my strength fails me,
and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.
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My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off.
Those who seek my life clay their snares;
those who seek my hurt speak of ruin
and meditate treachery all day long.
But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear,
like a mute man who does not open his mouth. I have become like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes.
But for you, O Lord, do I wait;
it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!”
For I am ready to fall,
and my pain is ever before me.
I confess my iniquity;
I am sorry for my sin.
But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty,
and many are those who hate me wrongfully. Those who render me evil for good
accuse me because I follow after good.
Do not forsake me, O Lord!
O my God, be not far from me!
Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation!
Psalm 51 (esv)
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Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
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Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
In both ilī ul idê and Ps 51, the invocation of the deity is quite short, simply, “O God” in Ps 51 (v. 1) and “My God” in ilī ul idê (i.23). In Ps 38, the invocation is simply, “Lord” (v. 2). Ilī ul idê goes directly into a long confession of sin, with an admission that the supplicant’s sins are so many that he does not know exactly what he did. Contained within the long confession is the lament. The supplicant did not know how severe the deity’s punishment would be (i.23). There is also complaint within the petition for the deity to be reconciled and
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relent from punishment (i.30–39), and that the supplicant has experienced the deity’s terrible hand of punishment (i.33). What Dalglish calls thanksgiving in his outline of the dingir.ša.dib.ba is more appropriately called a motive clause in ilī ul idê. The supplicant gives the reason why the deity should be reconciled and withdraw punishment, that the praying person will be able to sing the deity’s praises to the people (i.39) and serve as an example to others who revere their god and goddess (i.34).22 Ilī ul idê follows Dalglish’s structure quite closely.
Psalm 51 includes almost all of Westermann’s components for the individual lament23and, like thedingir.ša.dib.ba, is a prayer of repentance.24Although Ps 51 is a prayer for deliverance, he does not pray for the destruction of enemies, and so the double wish is absent. After the short invocation, O God (v. 1), Psalm 51 moves into a request for God’s forgiveness and cleansing of the psalmist’s sins due to God’s commitment and mercy (vv. 1–2).
The confession of sin in this psalm is seamlessly woven with various pleas for God to cleanse and forgive (vv. 2–9), which dominates the large majority of the psalm. Intermixed with this is a call for the restoration of the broken relationship between the psalmist and God, which results in healing, joy in God’s salvation, and God’s restored presence through the Holy Spirit. The psalm concentrates on the restoration of the relationship between God and the supplicant, and hints at the negative effects of this broken relationship in vv. 8, 12. The suffering of the psalmist is emotional and relational, although speaking of the bones that God has broken (v. 8) hints at physical suffering.
The psalm has a large motive clause, vv. 13–15, which promises praise if the Lordforgives and restores the psalmist, that the psalmist will teach transgres-
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The worshiper may also serve as a cautionary tale to the faithful, exhorting them to be reverent to the god and goddess.
Claus Westermann, Praise and Lament in the Psalms (Louisville, ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1981), 64. Westermann outlines the individual lament as follows:
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i. Address
ii. Lament
iii. Confession of Trust
iv. Petition
v. Assurance of being heard
vi. Double wish
vii. Vow of Praise
viii. Praise of God when the prayer has been answered.
Westermann,Praise and Lament, 206. Marvin Tate notes that Ps 51 is one of the traditional penitential psalms. See Marvin Tate, Psalms 51–100,wbc20 (Nashville: Nelson, 1990), 8.
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sors his ways, and that sinners will return to him. The assurance of being heard is contained in v. 17. As the psalmist has a broken and contrite heart and spirit, the type of sacrifice God accepts, theLordwill hear the psalmist. The last part of the psalm, vv. 18–19, applies it to a communal context, in which the relation- ship of the whole people with God needs to be restored.25
Psalm 38 does not include all of Westermann’s components for the individ- ual lament. The assurance of being heard and the vow of praise are both lacking. Although the prayer prays for deliverance, he does not pray for the destruction of enemies, and so the double wish is also absent. After the short invocation, O Lord(v. 2), Ps 38 moves to a short petition that asks theLordto stop the severe punishment that the supplicant is experiencing (v. 2). The confession of sin in this psalm is seamlessly woven into the lament (vv. 4, 5, 19) that dominates the large majority of the psalm. The punishment of the Lord affects every area of the supplicant’s life.
The psalm not only concentrates on the physical suffering of the supplicant, but also, the worshiper’s friends and others close to him have abandoned him due to his condition (v. 12), and his enemies are speaking lies concerning him and setting traps to catch him (v. 13).
Psalm 38 includes a strong statement of trust that the Lord will hear the supplicant’s prayer, because if the Lord does not, the supplicant’s adversaries will be great against him (v. 17). Verse 17 is the closest thing that Ps 38 has to a motive clause. If the Lord does not act on the supplicant’s behalf, the psalmist’s enemies, who are presumably the Lord’s enemies, will be made greater against the faithful worshiper. The psalm closes with a continuation of the petition, in which the psalmist asks negatively for the Lord not to forsake him or be far off, and positively to hurry up and help him (vv. 22–23).
Both ilī ul idê and Ps 51 are quite general and leave these prayers open for use in various circumstances.26 Although the superscription of Ps 51 gives it a concrete historical setting, there is no need for this to suggest that it was not reused in other situations in which the relationship between God and a penitent needed to be restored.27Psalm 38 contains more specific complaints, and thus Ps 51 is closer in form and content toilī ul idê. Thedingir.ša.dib.ba
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John Goldingay,Psalms Volume 2: Psalms 42–89(Grand Rapids,mi: Baker Academic, 2007), 18–19.
This is the case for most psalms.
This is indeed probably why the psalm was preserved and transmitted. Patrick Miller suggests that the open-ended language of many psalms leaves them open for use in a variety of contexts by worshiping communities. See Patrick Miller,Interpreting the Psalms (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), 8.
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prayers’ “vague rubrics” suggest that they have developed into general use prayers and are the therapeutic partners to the diagnostic texts.28
An important difference between ilī ul idê and Pss 38 and 51 is that ilī ul idê confesses a certain ignorance of the deity’s punishment, and ignorance of a par- ticular wrongdoing is a common theme in Mesopotamian penitential prayers and expiatory rituals.29 The penitential psalms in the Hebrew Bible are quite aware of particular sins. The penitent hides sin before confession (Ps 32), and Ps 38 describes it in explicit terms. Psalm 51 is more general in its description, but there is a real sense that the penitent person knows what the sin is.
For an understanding of what is occurring in ilī ul idê, it is important to understandthatitoccursinamedicalritual,andsoPs38,Ps51,andilīulidêcon- nect illness with the wrath of the deity (Ps 38:2–4, Ps 51:8; ilī ul idê i.23, i.33).30 In this context,ilī ul idêis not only the name of thedingir.ša.dib.ba, but the name of the ritual performed to remove the divine wrath of the deity that is causing the illness.31Thedingir.ša.dib.baprayers were also commonly used in the treatment of psychological and emotional distress,32 which also seems to be in the background of Pss 38 and 51.
Most notably, Erhard Gerstenberger argues that the individual lament psalms were ritual prayers that were communal responses to calamities, such as sickness. The rationale in this case is that the sickness or other problem has its root in alienation from God. The ritual specialist would diagnose the illness and perform the ritual prayer with the distressed person.33 In relation to Ps 51,
28 29
30
31
32 33
van der Toorn,Sin and Sanction, 123.
All of the dingir.ša.dib.ba prayers in the ritual, “My God, I Did Not Know,” express some ignorance of the exact nature of the offense and the severity of the punishment that the offense would carry. See note 11. Equally significant, the ritual instructions for the ritual direct the ritual specialist to continue with thešurpûritual, which ritually removes a whole host of sins from the patient, as it is assumed that any number of sins may be the cause of the patient’s trouble. See Markham J. Geller, Ancient Babylonian Medicine: Theory and Practice(Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 29.
Geller, Ancient Babylonian Medicine, 29; See also M.-J. Seux, Hymnes et prieres aux dieus de babylonie et d’assyrie (Paris: Cerf, 1976) 199–200, n. 1; van der Toorn, Sin and Sanction, 121–122. There is no direct connection of punishment with illness inilī ul idê, but it is easily inferred as it is a prayer used in a medical ritual. Ilī ul idê is also the name of the medical ritual.
van der Toorn, Sin and Sanction, 121. The medical ritual is found on the cuneiform tablet kar90.
Ibid., 123.
Gerstenberger, Der bittende Mensch, 134–136. The biblical text suggests that this may be a prophet or man of God. See 1Kgs 17:17–24.
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scholars have indicated that some of the language may be referring to ritual actions to restore ritual purity and allow the suppliant to enter the presence of God (ṭhr, v. 4b), although the lines between moral and ritual purity are cer- tainly blurred here.34
What is unclear due to lack of direct evidence is what such ritual actions would entail. It is plausible that such prayers were used to move a person from a state of liminality to a reintegration in society so that they could function normally.35 With that in mind, the ritual may look something like the one involved in reintegrating a cleansed leper back into society, as is found in Leviticus 13–14. Of particular notice is the use of hyssop in the cleansing rite in Leviticus 14:1–32. Also, red wool and cedar, as in the rite for cleansing a leper in Leviticus 14, were commonly used in Mesopotamian purification rites.36
The treatment of illness and mental distress was not the only use of din- gir.ša.dib.baprayers, however. The main exemplar that this article has exam- ined, ilī ul idê, was also used in rituals that were meant to restore the relation- ship of the suppliant to their personal god so that they might operate in their appointed place in society. This was especially important in the restoration of the king to ritual purity so that he could legitimately rule, in the ritualsbît rimki (house of ablution) andbît sala mê(house of water sprinkling). With the proper relationship to his personal god restored, the king could rightfully resume his role as king after a period of alienation.
What is at stake with the use of the penitential prayers in the ancient Near East, both in the psalms and in the Mesopotamian corpus, is a reconciliation with deity. This reconciliation allows not only for mental and physical whole- ness but also for the suppliants to resume their rightful place in society.
34
35
36
Tate,Psalms51–100, 15. Hermann Gunkel noted that the reference of purgation with hyssop may indicate some sort of purification rite. See Hermann Gunkel and Joachim Begrich, An Introduction to the Psalms: The Genres of the Religious Lyric of Israel, trans. James D. Nogalski (Macon,ga: Mercer University Press, 1998), 126.
This is demonstrably the case with the use of ilī ul idê in bît rimki and bît sala mê. See Ambos, “Rites of Passage,” 39–54.
For a brief discussion of this, with reference to relevant primary and secondary literature, see Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, aybc3 (New Haven,ct: Yale University Press, 1991), 836.
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Lament Psalms and the African Initiated Church
Quite helpful in exploring a plausible ritual use of the penitential psalms, and others for that matter, is the use of the psalms in the African Initiated Church as explored by David Tuesday Adamo. In his article “Decolonizing the Psalter in Africa,” he outlines several scholarly approaches amenable to an African context. This is useful, because it moves Psalms studies from the largely con- ceptual realm of western scholarship into a context that is as concerned with the community and ritual use of the biblical text as extracting propositional theology. In this context, it becomes a document as concerned with protection from enemies, healing, and success as it is with making a theological state- ment.37
The African Initiated Churches, a term that refers to a number of Jesus movements in Africa that started outside of the mission churches, is far from a monolithic group, but they have some characteristics in common, such as a prophetic figure that heads the group, and more or less pentecostal practice and theology.38
Rather than expressing African cultural worldview and idiom in the writing of new hymns, the African Initiated Churches have often incorporated cer- tain biblical psalms into rituals similar to those found in African traditional religions. These rituals are for healing, protection from enemies, and so forth. Grant LeMarquand, the Anglican bishop for the Horn of Africa, raises the con- cern that many Westerners have when first learning about the use of the psalms by the aic churches: might this be using the psalms as a form of magic spell? He quickly answers this by noting that some people in the Bible, such as the woman healed from the issue of blood in Mark 5:25–34 and parallel passages, have a magical understanding concerning Jesus’ power to heal, but they are healed even if their faith was imperfect. LeMarquand also assures his reader that there is a body of growing psalm scholarship in Africa, and this “magical” understanding is not the only one operative there.39
37
38
39
David Tuesday Adamo, “Decolonizing the Psalter in Africa,”Black Theology5, no. 1 (2007), 31. I can remember reading the work of Professor Adamo and reading some Western scholars at the same time, and having the realization that Adamo’s approach was much more useful in elucidating how an Iron Age Israelite would have understood and used the psalms than those of Walter Breuggemann or Claus Westermann, as valuable and insightful as they are.
Elizabeth Allo Isichei, The Religious Traditions of Africa: A History (Westport, ct: Praeger, 2004), 194–195.
Grant LeMarquand, “The Bible as Specimen, Talisman, and Dragoman in Africa: A Look at
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I argue, however, that theaic’s ritual use of a number of psalms for practical purposes such as healing, protection from enemies, and so forth, reflects more accurately the use that the psalms would have had in ancient Israel.40A view of the psalms from this angle is what Adamo calls the “Bible as Power Approach.”41 My introduction to the academic study of the psalms caused me to say deep inside after reading a bibliography of western scholarly works, “There is no way that this is how the Iron Age Israelite understood the psalms.” This occurred at the same time I was reading a canonical collection of Mesopotamian laments and one of David Tuesday Adamo’s articles on the African use of the psalms. I found myself saying, “This is more like how the ancient Israelite understood the lament psalms, at least.”
I agree with LeMarquand that there is a danger that the aic churches may drift over into trying to manipulate God with the formulaic use of the psalms in ritual, but ritual is more than likely the original home of a number of psalms, based on comparative evidence. The issue with theaicuse of the psalms seems to be based more on a certain understanding of who God is than a problem of ritual use of the psalms to address real human problems. This understanding is similar to that of the ancient Israelites and their ancient Mesopotamian neighbors. God was active in their lives and was present for blessing, healing, and protection. The dangers that may exist in the aic churches’ use of the psalms is something for them to negotiate as they mature in discipleship under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In another article on the subject of the aic use of the psalms, Adamo calls their use “liturgical use.”42This distinctively African approach to the psalms has
40
41 42
Some African Uses of the Psalms and 1Corinthians 12–14,”Bulletin for Biblical Research22, no. 2 (2012), 195–196. Such a dual usage of the psalms would not be new with the African church. Qumran, as well, treated the psalms as canonical Scripture, but also used them ritualistically. An example of this is their use of Ps 91 in exorcism rituals. See, for example, Craig A. Evans, “Jesus and Evil Spirits in the Light of Psalm 91,”Baptistic Theologies1, no. 2 (2009), 44. Psalm 91 has been found at Qumran with a number of exorcistic psalms (11q11), and so it seems possible to receive spiritual edification and instruction from the same texts with which one would exorcize demons.
The psalms have generally been transmitted to us today without much evidence of the ritual context in which they may have been used, and so it is unknown whether or not ancient Israelite ritual use of the psalms would have much resemblance with aic use.
Adamo, “Decolonizing the Psalter in Africa,” 32.
David Tuesday Adamo, “The Distinctive Use of Psalms in Africa,” Melanesian Journal of Theology9, no. 2 (1993), 102.
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a different categorization of them from the form criticism that has dominated Western scholarship based on use. They are protective psalms, therapeutic psalms,43and success psalms.44
Here is an example of a therapeutic use of a lament psalm prescribed by Prophet Ogunfuye.
Put some water in a pot, and then put some young palm leaves in water. Add some olive oil to the water. Then read Ps 143 into water seven times. Repeat this process for three days. Then allow the patient to bathe with
the consecrated water … His health will be restored.45
The exploration of the aic use of the psalms brings up the issue of critical contextualization. As mentioned earlier, this is the incorporation of biblical faith into cultural practices and concepts in which some are accepted, others are adapted and rearticulated, and other practices are rejected altogether as incompatible with biblical faith. In his critical evaluation of the aic use of the psalms, Adamo addresses the concerns of scholars such as LeMarquand that the aic church is merely baptizing African traditional religion. He argues that the distinctively African use of the psalms has a background in African religion, but this also has a warrant in the Bible, as various elements in African ritual are found there as well.46For example, some traditional prayers for protection are similar to those found in the psalms.
He compares this traditional Duala prayer from Cameroon with the prayers for protection found in the psalms, such as Pss 5–6 and 55, which pray for protection and the destruction of enemies. This is quite formally similar to Westermann’s form-critical treatment of the so-called lament psalm.47
God, be propitious to me!
Here is the new Moon:
Keep every harmful sickness far from me
Stop the wicked man, who is contemplating my misfortune Let his wicked plans fall on himself
43
44
45 46 47
This category is especially significant, because it is comprised of the so-called lament psalms, and their use is analogous to this article’s proposed ritual context of the laments. Adamo, “The Distinctive Use of Psalms in Africa,” 102–106. In the article, Adamo gives examples of how particular psalms are used, and for what purpose.
Quoted from ibid., 105.
Ibid., 105–114.
Westermann, Praise and Lament, 64.
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God, be propitious to me! Desert me not in my need.48
He also raises the caution that African Christians should not consider all Afri- can religious and cultural traditions as good and as useful in contextualizing Christian faith for Africans.49
Conclusion
It is apparent that the cultures in the ancient Near East had a common ap- proach to the issues of emotional disturbance and illness. Most often these problems were attributed to the alienation of the patient’s personal god, whether it was one of the many protective spirits of Mesopotamia or the God of Israel. The structure and content of the penitential prayers in both cul- tural contexts are similar. In God’s wisdom, the communities of Christ’s fol- lowers and their Hebrew ancestors embraced the psalms and considered them God’s word, even though the psalms have analogs to the religious ritual texts and hymns of surrounding religions that do not worship the God of biblical faith.
What can we learn from this for faith and ministry today? One, we can reassert the strain in pentecostal theology that seeks to incorporates the bib- lical lament into the life of the individual believer and the corporate body. Although western psalm scholars have turned this mostly into merely a search for psychological and spiritual wholeness, as valuable as that is as a pastoral use of the lament psalms, it should not be left there.50 The African church power- fully lifts up another use of the psalms that can inform our use as western Pen- tecostals. We can pray the psalms for healing and protection as they do and the ancient Israelites did.51Two, the fact that the Hebrew Bible shares something in common both formally and conceptually with its larger cultural environment
48 49 50
51
Adamo, “The Distinctive Use of Psalms in Africa,” 108–110.
Ibid., 114.
See Walter Brueggemann, “The Costly Loss of Lament,” inThe Psalms and the Life of Faith, ed. Patrick Miller (Minneapolis,mn: Fortress Press, 1995), 98–111. See more recently Kristin M. Swenson, Living through Pain: Psalms and the Search for Wholeness (Waco, tx: Baylor University Press, 2006).
As Africa and ancient Israel are ritualized societies, and modern western society is much less so, western practice would not include complex ritual, although some would be helpful, as it introduces a more sensory experience.
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shows us that the Bible itself is contextualized. It endorses a methodology of critical contextualization when it comes to faith in the living God being fleshed out in a particular cultural environment.
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