Of the 79 psalms I’ve read so far, this one is the most difficult to write about — and not because it’s too repetitious or too simplistic or, in the case of the 23rd Psalm, too familiar. This one could have been written yesterday — well, any day after Oct. 7, 2023, really. It hits too close to home.
This psalm’s subtitle is “A Dirge and a Prayer for Israel, Destroyed by Enemies.” It’s another one of Asaph’s works. You know, it occurs to me this instant that Asaph might also have authored — or edited, at least — the Book of Ecclesiastes. Maybe this poet was King Solomon’s ghostwriter.
That’s just uneducated speculation — I mean, I haven’t even consulted Professor Google about it yet — but back in the day when I was a teacher, I could recognize a student’s word-processed essay without even seeing their name. It wasn’t just their errors; it was usually their unique style.
What makes this psalm so relevant is the bloody picture that the poet paints of the same kind of death and destruction that Israeli settlers and Gazan civilians have seen over the past 74 days. For the massacre, Asaph doesn’t give us a reason, not even “For everything there is a season.”