creation faith of the psalmists, The

Trinity Journal, Fall 2000 by Obenhaus, Stacy R

Nevertheless, this subsidiary role is significant, both in terms of its frequency in the Psalter and in its prominent function in a wide variety of psalms. Thus, creation appears as a motif throughout a broad range of traditional form-critical categories of psalms, from hymns to laments to royal psalms. The following discussion will demonstrate a variety of these functions, in particular: (a) as a basis for confidence in God's redemptive power; (b) as an argument to motivate God to act in the present; and (c) as a warrant for social or ethical order in the world.

III. REPRESENTATIVE FUNCTIONS OF CREATION THEOLOGY

One of the most common functions of Creation theology is demonstrating the basis for the believer's confidence in God's saving or redemptive power. This is often expressed quite simply, as in Psalm 121: "I lift up my eyes to the hills-from where will my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved" (Ps 121:1-3). The idea is expressed more indirectly in Psalm 95: "O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand" (Ps 95:6-7). Here, creation implies belonging to God as sheep belong to and are led by their shepherd.31 Confidence in God as the Creator is also expressed in the mythological language of creation. Thus, in Psalm 93 the psalmist proclaims:

The LORD is king, he is robed in majesty .... The floods have lifted up, 0 LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice .... More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters... majestic on high is the LORD. (Ps 93:3-4)

In Psalm 98, as a result of God's great victory, "Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; ... Let the floods clap their hands.... for he is coming to judge the earth" (Ps 98:1, 7-9). In these two psalms, "the waters of chaos have become so tamed and transformed that, instead of being hostile to Yahweh, they roar their acclaim to the king."32 In this role, Creation is not a theory about how the world came to be, but rather serves as an affirmation "that the world is a well-ordered, reliable, and life-giving system, because God has ordained it that way and continues to preside effectively over the process."33

Related perhaps to this role in instilling confidence in the ordered world is the function of motivating God to act on behalf of the believer or the community in the present. Thus, in Psalm 74, the psalmist asks God to "Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago" (Ps 74:2). After recounting the destruction and ransacking of God's sanctuary, the psalmist almost tauntingly asks God: "Is the enemy to revile your name forever?" (Ps 74:10). Then he reminds God of his past greatness:

Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth. You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters .... You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter. (Ps 74:12-17)