Well, here we go again. Just when I begin to think David might have an ounce of humanity in him after all, his next psalm goes off the deep end — or maybe it’s just the psalmist he chose.
Violence, xenophobia, paranoia — this psalm has it all, as if David hasn’t covered that ground umpteen times before. In fact, the psalmist plagiarizes umpteen other psalms to write this one.
The best lines here — also copied from other psalms — are the Q & A: “Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?”; then, “Man is like a breath; / His days are like a passing shadow.”
The psalmist closes by listing the many things that would make him happy — healthy sons and daughters (stacked like “pillars”), full barns and fields, no break-ins, and no rioting in the streets.
“Happy are the people who are in such a state,” the psalmist says, surely not referring to Florida or Texas. “Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!” There again, that’s treading a fine line.