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The Town Crier – Part 2
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; lovingkindness and truth go before You [Psalm 89:14].
The town crier of old has become a relic of the past. Internet and evening news have forced him into retirement. But his functions still remain, though now they are done by other avenues for spreading the news. The town crier was the newsman of his day, you see.
The Book of Psalms is composed of Hebrew poetry. Biblical Hebrew poetry does not function in the same way as contemporary poetry does. Today we rhyme words at the end of lines and consider that the essence of poetry. In Scripture the Hebrews rhymed ideas between the lines as their form of poetry.
When the ideas presented rhymes of similar thoughts, we call it “synonymous parallelism”. The thoughts parallel each other with basically the same idea. They are synonyms of sorts. Should the ideas express opposite thoughts, then we refer to it as “antonymous parallelism”. The thoughts parallel each other as contrasting ideas.
Psalm 89:14 is an example of Hebrew poetry. We have two lines which parallel each other. Whether they express similar or opposing ideas is a little more difficult to determine.
The first line of our verse is a reference to the Covenant of Law. The second line introduces the Covenant of Grace. Both Law and grace come from the Lord, so in that sense they are not opposed to each other. However, the two concepts do contrast different aspects of God, and Psalm 89:14 portray this truth. Hence our Bible verse is an example of “antonymous parallelism”.
Both aspects are true of God at all times. He is both righteous and loving simultaneously. He requires that justice tempered with mercy exist together. God loves us, you see, but at the same time He is righteous and cannot allow the guilty to go unpunished for their crimes against His righteous rule.
Let’s itemize the parallel ideas of the two lines:
A. righteousness and justice
B. are the foundation of Your throne
A. lovingkindness and truth
B. go before You
The “A” and “B” before each phrase identifies which ones are parallel. “Righteousness and justice” come from society’s legal code. It is right to obey the rules of civilization. Each person is governed by the same rules. This is government by law. It is “justice”.
The Law of Moses was the legal code of the Israelites while they inhabited the Promised Land in Old Testament times. The Lord identified obedience to the Law as being righteous. When society functioned in that manner, justice prevailed and the Lord was pleased. Blessings followed this arrangement.
Contrariwise, when the Law was skirted and its authority rejected, then unrighteousness existed and justice was nonexistent. Rather than blessings, the Lord rained down curses on the people and the land under that scenario.
The Law, you see, served as the “foundation” of God’s throne, of His Kingship, of His rule over Old Testament Israel. Without obedience to the Law, the reign of God wasn’t visible in Old Testament times. The Law was “the foundation of God’s throne”.
We will assay the parallelism of the second line in our next study. For now let’s mull over the parallelism of the first line and learn from the the foundation of Law.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
The town crier of old has become a relic of the past. Internet and evening news have forced him into retirement. But his functions still remain, though now they are done by other avenues for spreading the news. The town crier was the newsman of his day, you see.
The Book of Psalms is composed of Hebrew poetry. Biblical Hebrew poetry does not function in the same way as contemporary poetry does. Today we rhyme words at the end of lines and consider that the essence of poetry. In Scripture the Hebrews rhymed ideas between the lines as their form of poetry.
When the ideas presented rhymes of similar thoughts, we call it “synonymous parallelism”. The thoughts parallel each other with basically the same idea. They are synonyms of sorts. Should the ideas express opposite thoughts, then we refer to it as “antonymous parallelism”. The thoughts parallel each other as contrasting ideas.
Psalm 89:14 is an example of Hebrew poetry. We have two lines which parallel each other. Whether they express similar or opposing ideas is a little more difficult to determine.
The first line of our verse is a reference to the Covenant of Law. The second line introduces the Covenant of Grace. Both Law and grace come from the Lord, so in that sense they are not opposed to each other. However, the two concepts do contrast different aspects of God, and Psalm 89:14 portray this truth. Hence our Bible verse is an example of “antonymous parallelism”.
Both aspects are true of God at all times. He is both righteous and loving simultaneously. He requires that justice tempered with mercy exist together. God loves us, you see, but at the same time He is righteous and cannot allow the guilty to go unpunished for their crimes against His righteous rule.
Let’s itemize the parallel ideas of the two lines:
A. righteousness and justice
B. are the foundation of Your throne
A. lovingkindness and truth
B. go before You
The “A” and “B” before each phrase identifies which ones are parallel. “Righteousness and justice” come from society’s legal code. It is right to obey the rules of civilization. Each person is governed by the same rules. This is government by law. It is “justice”.
The Law of Moses was the legal code of the Israelites while they inhabited the Promised Land in Old Testament times. The Lord identified obedience to the Law as being righteous. When society functioned in that manner, justice prevailed and the Lord was pleased. Blessings followed this arrangement.
Contrariwise, when the Law was skirted and its authority rejected, then unrighteousness existed and justice was nonexistent. Rather than blessings, the Lord rained down curses on the people and the land under that scenario.
The Law, you see, served as the “foundation” of God’s throne, of His Kingship, of His rule over Old Testament Israel. Without obedience to the Law, the reign of God wasn’t visible in Old Testament times. The Law was “the foundation of God’s throne”.
We will assay the parallelism of the second line in our next study. For now let’s mull over the parallelism of the first line and learn from the the foundation of Law.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
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