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Advent Devotional for Thursday, December 1
Psalm 82:1-2, 8-13
Every translation is an interpretation … a commentary of sorts. Were we in a Diaspora synagogue of—let’s say—Corinth on a day when an apostle like Paul was preaching and debating (=midrash) on the meaning of our Psalm (number 84 in the text I have translated), the Greek translation would likely have played a role. Yes, to translate holy writ is to restate it and to restate it is to re-envision its subject matter! Even in the Hebrew original, the opening triad of creation, inheritance, and God’s forgiveness is restated prayerfully in the antiphon. In contrast to “land” we have “earth”; for “restored fortunes” we have “turned away treachery”; for “forgave iniquity … pardoned” we read “forgave lawless acts committed … covered”; the Greek version also weaves carefully the imagery of “turning away” and “turning (for both God and for mortals) toward” … “salvation,” “life,” “peace,” and “God’s glory.” Then restatement continues with the “tender embrace” (“passionate kiss”?) of righteousness and peace as past tense (not a future) following upon the conjoining that took place between mercy and truth, a truth that “rose up” (as from the dead?) out of the earth just as righteousness “leaned down” out of heaven. Promised are both the “lordly” provision of practical blessing and the “earthly” yield of fruit that will surround a future whose path is “crossover-marked” by God’s own footprints.
This translational restatement and re-envisioning of the Psalm reminds me of the apostolic declaration of that translator/preacher Paul, who wrote: “For God is at work in you all both to will and to energize on behalf of (salvation’s) good-pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).
O God, for the gift of translation and the re-envisioning of our encounter with both your glorious mercy and truth and your tender embrace of righteousness and peace, we give you thanks and praise. Give us eyes to see the markers of the path Christ blazed for us. Amen.
John Alsup
The First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport,
D. Thomason Professor of New Testament Studies
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
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