Book IV and the Feast of Tabernacles (Part 4)
(Bible Study - December 2000)
We ended our last article by describing the change of tone that occurs on Tishri 20, the sixth day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Our Exodus reading for the morning recounted the sin of the golden calf. The faithful Israelites were outraged. Moses smashed the tables of stone, and the Levites slew the wicked who were guilty of this horrendous transgression of the commandments of our Lord. We also read of Solomon’s intention to follow the fine example of his faithful father. For our morning hymn, our king sang Psalm 101, declaring his allegiance to the Lord in the words of David himself. Our king will walk with a perfect heart just as his father David walked. He is committed to destroying all the wicked in the land, to cutting off all the wicked doers from the city of the Lord. Following these solemn declarations, our king has spent the day fasting in sackcloth and ashes. This evening he will close the day by singing the Prayer of the Afflicted.
Psalm 102 (Readings: Exodus 32:30-33:11; I
Kings 8:22-64)
We now come to the evening of the sixth day. In our Exodus reading, Moses intercedes
for our forefathers. He says to the people, "You have sinned a great sin: and now
I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin."
Then he says to the Lord, "If thou will forgive their sin." We are
reminded of last week’s Day of Atonement, a day in which we prayed for forgiveness, a
day in which we afflicted our souls, that is, we fasted.
The Lord tells Moses that He will not go up in the midst of the people because they are stiff-necked; if He were to go with them, even for one moment, He might consume them in the way. When the people hear these evil tidings, they mourn and no man puts on his ornaments. It is truly a day of mourning.
We also read that Moses at first pitched the tent of meeting without the camp. When Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tent, and the Lord spoke with Moses. The Lord spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friends.
Later on, when Moses reviews this episode in Deuteronomy, he recalls, "And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you. But the Lord hearkened unto me that time also" (Dt. 9:18-19). So Moses fasted before he made intercession for the people.
As Moses fasted, today our king has been fasting all day long. He now sings our evening hymn, Psalm 102, a prayer of the afflicted, offered when he is faint, when he pours out his complaint before the Lord. Following Moses’ example, our king pleads, "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the day of my distress; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily…My heart is smitten like grass, and withered. For I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my flesh. I am like a pelican in the wilderness; I am become as an owl of the waste places. I watch, and am become like a sparrow that is alone upon the housetop…I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping…My days are like a shadow that declines; and I am withered like grass."
This evening we also read Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple. King Solomon had gathered all Israel together in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles. They had offered the sacrifices. The cloud of glory had filled the house of the Lord. The Lord had said that He would dwell in the thick darkness and Solomon had built Him a house to dwell in for ever. Solomon now stands before the altar in the presence of the congregation, and asks God over and over again to hear from heaven the prayers of His servant and His people, and to forgive them. "Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prays before thee to day: that thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou has said, My name shall be there: that thou may hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hear, forgive" (I Kgs. 8:28-30; cp. 31-53).
Our king recalls these very ideas, singing Psalm 102, "For the Lord has built up Zion, He has appeared in his glory; He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer…For He has looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth…To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem."
Psalm 103 (Readings: Exodus 33:12-34; I Kings
8:65-9:9)
The next day, in the morning of Tishri 21, the seventh day of the feast, these prayers
are answered. The Lord has heard our prayers, and forgiven us of our sins. In our Exodus
reading, Moses is heard. The Lord descends in the cloud and proclaims the name of the
Lord. The Lord passes by before Moses, and proclaims, "The Lord, the Lord God,
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Moses hastens to
ask, "O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us; for it is a
stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine
inheritance." The Lord answers, "Behold, I make a covenant: before all
your people I will do marvels…and all the people shall see the work of the
Lord…I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." Moses was there with
the Lord for forty days and forty nights, fasting; he wrote upon the tables the words of
the covenant, the ten commandments.
In our Kings reading, Solomon is heard. The Lord says to Solomon, "I have heard your prayer and your supplication, that you have made before me: I have hallowed this house, which you have built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually."
And our king’s prayer from last night has also been heard. This morning he sings another Psalm of David (Psalm 103), and it is full of explicit echoes to this morning’s readings. "Bless the Lord, O my soul: And all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all his benefits: who forgives all your iniquities…Who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies…He made known his ways unto Moses, His doings unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide; neither will He keep His anger for ever. He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us after our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him…the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him…to such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them…Bless the Lord, all you His works, in all places of his dominion: Bless the Lord, O my soul."
Psalm 104 (Readings: Genesis 1-11; Joshua 1)
We come now to the evening service for the seventh day of the feast. We have finished
our sequential readings from Exodus and Kings. Tomorrow is the eighth and final day of the
feast. At that time, we will renew the covenant. We will remember God’s faithfulness
to His covenant, and our repeated disobedience despite the multitude of His mercies. This
evening we bless the Lord as the Creator and Provider for all His creatures. Our hymn is
based on our readings from the opening chapters of Genesis and Joshua.
Our reading from Genesis covers the creation of the heaven and the earth and all that dwell in them, the un-creation of the flood, and the re-creation of all things through righteous Noah, who walked with God and was blameless in his generations. This will become a pattern: God blesses His people; they sin; so God destroys the sinful, and begins again with a faithful remnant which He preserves from that destruction.
Our reading from Joshua reminds us that the Lord our God is with us wherever we go as He was with Moses and Joshua wherever they went. We must be strong and of good courage, observing all the law that Moses, God’s servant, commanded us. We must remember that God has given us rest in a land He has prepared for us. In both of these readings, we learn an important lesson: whoever rebels against the commandment will be put to death.
Our hymn for this evening is a perfect accompaniment to these readings. Throughout this week we have been reminded that our Lord has created all things. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever He formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, He is God (Psa. 90:2). In His hand are the deep places of the earth: the heights of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land (95:4-5). The gods of the peoples are things of naught: but the Lord made the heavens (96:5). The heavens, the earth, the sea, all the trees of the wood, the floods and the hills are to rejoice together before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth (96:11-13; 98:7-9). Of old, He laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of His hands (102:25). He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust (103:14).
These brief but clear echoes form a recurring theme of our Tabernacles celebration. And now with Psalm 104 we have a full-fledged Symphony of Creation. This symphony follows the pattern of Genesis 1, "O Lord my God…Who covers thyself with light… Who stretches out the heavens…Who lays the beams of His chambers in the waters…Who laid the foundations of the earth…Thou covered it with the deep…the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled...He causes the grass to grow…and herb for the service of man…The trees of the Lord are full of sap…where the birds make their nests…He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knows his going down. Thou makest darkness…The sun arises…The earth is full of thy creatures…Yonder is the sea...wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts…there is the leviathan."
Moreover, everything that God has made is very good. God’s creation is no random phenomenon; He has made provision for all His creatures. "He sends forth springs into the valleys…they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst…He waters the mountains from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man; that He may bring forth food out of the earth: and wine that makes glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengthens man’s heart…These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season, that thou givest unto them they gather; thou openest thine hand, they are satisfied with good."
Finally, there is even allusion to the creation, un-creation, and re-creation pattern. "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom have thou made them all…Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: Thou taketh away their breath, they die, and return to the dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are [re-]created: and thou renewest the face of the ground. Let the glory of the Lord endure for ever; Let the Lord rejoice in His works."
So, "I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have any being. Let my meditation be sweet unto Him: I will rejoice in the Lord." Indeed!
God willing, our next article will conclude our meditations on Book IV of the Psalms.
Joe Hill