Deuteronomic Cycle
We love because he first loved us.
(1 John 4:19)
By Stephen W. Hiemstra
While the stories of Abraham and of the Exodus offer positive responses of faith of at least a remnant, the Deuteronomic cycle given by Moses (Deut 30:1-3) and cited by Brueggemann (2016, 59) offers an alternative response. Those who refuse faith garner the curse of scattering, an echo of the curse of Cain (Gen 3:14). Here the pattern is: collective sin, scattering and enslavement, crying out to the Lord, and the sending of a deliverer. This pattern is repeated throughout the Old and New Testaments. All are called; not all respond. One way or the other, through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit: “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.” (Isa 45:23)
Cycle in Judges
The Deuteronomic cycle is especially prominent in the Book of Judges. Probably the most familiar example is the story of Gideon. The cycle starts with sin and the resulting curse. In Judges 6:1 we read: “The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.” (Jdg 6:1) After being persecuted by the Midianites, the people cry out to the Lord in verse 6 and the Lord sends an angel to call on Gideon, who is busy hiding wheat from the Midianites in a winepress (verse 11).
Gideon then assembles an elite team three hundred men against the army of the Midianites described as too numerous to number like locusts ravaging the land. Responding to a vision in a dream, this team woke the Midianites in the middle of the night with trumpets and torches. Frightened in the night, the Midianites began slaughtering each other in the dark (Jdg 7:22).
In this manner, the Lord freed the Israelite people from the oppression of the Midianites and brought them the joy of salvation.
Cycle in Psalms
The Deuteronomic cycle usually applies to the people of Israel as a whole and brought salvation from oppression. Following the pattern established in Psalm 18, however, Psalm 116 applies salvation to the individual rather than the nation.
This should not come as a surprise. Wenham (2012, 7) writes: “I have called it Psalms as Torah out of my conviction that the psalms were and are vehicles not only of worship but also of instruction, which is the fundamental meaning of Torah.” If the Psalms serve as a commentary on the Books of the Law, then they should show how to apply things like the Deuteronomic cycle.
Note that the Deuteronomic cycle starts with the commission of sin—the curses of Deuteronomy 28 are a consequence of disobeying the Mosaic covenant. Thus, the cycle can once again be summarized as committing sin, earning the curse, crying out to the Lord, and, then, being redeemed.
The first four verses of Psalm 116 tell his story:
“I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the LORD: O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”
Verse one here explains his joy: “I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.” Actually, English translations add the word, LORD, which does not appear in the original Hebrew or in the Septuagint Greek. The Hebrew simply reads: I have loved because he has heard my voice… We see an echo of the original Hebrew in John’s first letter: “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
Moving on to verse two, the psalmist reiterates the importance of being heard and takes a vow: “Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.” This vow is interesting because if you pray or sing this psalm, as is the custom, you also repeat this vow.
Why is listening so important to the psalmist? Verse three reiterates the answer three times: “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.” In other words, death had surrounded me; hell had opened its doors to pull me in; and I was terrified. The repetition assures us that the psalmist’s vows in verse two are not to be taken lightly.
Verse four then closes the loop by returning to the second half of verse one. Verse one talks of “pleas for mercy, while verse four cites the psalmist’s actual prayer: “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”
So what brings joy to the psalmist? The Lord rescued him from death. Commentators believe Psalm 116 to be a crib notes version of Psalm 18 where King David recounts his own brush with death. Even more bone-crushing details can be found in 2 Samuel 22.
New Testament Cycle
Psalm 116’s personalized the Deuteronomic cycle and directly anticipated the New Testament and our salvation in Christ. In fact, if Jesus and the disciples sang Psalm 116 after the Last Supper, as was the custom during Passover, they took these very same vows and, in the resurrection, Jesus experienced God’s deliverance. Our redemption in Christ follows this same pattern. We sin; we get into trouble; we ask for forgiveness; Christ offers us redemption.
The key to understanding this parallel is to see sin as a form of oppression. We all experience besetting sins—addictions small and great–that we cannot shake on our own. If gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins, it is also a besetting sin that can destroy our self-esteem, ruin our health, and undermine our relationships. Just like the Midianites oppressed Israel, we can be oppressed by besetting sins and we need to cry out to the Lord for our forgiveness and salvation.
References
Brueggemann, Walter. 2016. Money and Possessions. Interpretation series. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.
Wenham, Gordon J. 2012. Psalms as Torah: Reading Biblical Song Ethically. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.
Deuteronomic Cycle
Also see:
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
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Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net
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