June 3rd

Psalm 149

Join the Winning Side

After the 9/11 attacks in the United States, we at Herschel Mennonite church invited a Muslim to share during education hour about Islam, the Koran, and violence.  Our speaker, a doctor and professor at the U. of S. talked about Islam as a religion of peace, disavowing the actions of hardliners who commit violence in the name of Allah.

During the Q and A session that followed, one person insisted that the Koran is full of violent imagery and is not a peaceful religion like Christianity.  It was an uncomfortable moment in the discussion.

Another pointed out that our Bible also has many violent images and some Christians use them as a pretext for supporting war and other violent actions even in our day.  A few examples may suffice:

In the sixteenth century, radical Anabaptist, Thomas Muntzer appealed to this psalm (vs. 6-9) to incite the German peasants to revolt.

In the seventeenth century, German theologian Caspar Schopp cited these verses to incite Roman Catholic princes to war against Protestants.  The result was the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648, one of the most destructive wars in European history with an estimated 4-8 million deaths.

In the 1950s and 60s, nationalist Christians in North America, using texts like this and other scriptures, supported and blessed the ‘Cold War,’ supporting an expensive and pointless arms race and fostering hatred of the enemies to the East, namely China and Russia.

Psalm 149 is one of the Hallelujah psalms and it begins with strong notes of praise.  Verse 5 is the centre of the prayer.  Note it well: 

⁵ Let the faithful celebrate with glory;
    let them shout for joy on their beds.

And then in vs. 6 the prayer takes a turn toward talk of ‘two-edged swords, of taking vengeance, and binding kings.’  What can we do with such imagery?

First, note again vs. 5 – ‘the righteous shout for joy from their beds!’  Hardly a place from which to wield a sword!

Second, the people only stand still, God alone fights.  Israel’s vocation is to praise.

When the government of South Africa cancelled a political rally against apartheid, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu moved the rally into St. George’s Cathedral and turned it into a worship service. Soldiers and riot police followed and lined the walls of the cathedral with weapons and bayonets drawn. Tutu spoke about the evils of apartheid and how rulers who supported it were doomed to fail. Tutu is a small man physically but not spiritually. He pointed a frail finger at the soldiers and police—“You may be powerful, but you are not God. God cannot be mocked. You have already lost.”

It was a moment of unbelievable tension. Tutu came out from behind his pulpit and flashed his radiant smile. “Therefore, since you have already lost, we are inviting you to join the winning side.”

The crowd roared. The police and solders put their weapons away and left the cathedral.

We of course live in the ‘in-between time,’ the time between Jesus inaugurating the Kingdom and his return to bring it to perfect fulfillment.  In these times we begin to be celebrate it even though it is not yet complete, even as we pray, ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as in heaven.’