INTERPRETING THE PSALMS

The Psalms make use of Hebrew poetry. One aspect of this poetry is “personification,” the speaking of objects and animals as if they are persons. Here is one example:

·       The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob…(Psalm 114:3-7 ESV)

Do mountains literally skip like lambs or does the sea literally flee? I think that the vast majority of us would understand it these references as poetic or figurative, illustrating the greatness of God that He could make mountains skip to praise His glory.

Let me now move to a more contentious passage, one used as evidence that, even in the womb, we are guilty of Adam’s sin:

·       Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5)

This verse comes from one of David’s penitential psalms. According to tradition, David wrote this psalm to repent of his series of sins regarding his adultery with Bathsheba. In any event, it doesn’t seem that we can take this verse literally. Why not? As it stands, it seems like David had been blaming his mother for conceiving him in a sinful manner.

However, such an interpretation doesn’t seem possible. For one thing, it is highly unlikely that David would have exposed his mother’s sin. For another thing, this psalm is all about David’s own sins. He seemed intent to confess every hint of his sins. Why? David understood that his restoration depended on it:

·       The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)

Even at the beginning of the psalm, we observe David’s intent to leave none of his sins unconfessed (To make this obvious, I will underline the fact that he is intent to absorb all the responsibility for his sins.):

·       Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. (Psalm 51:1-4)

Blaming his sin on Adam would not have left God “blameless in your judgment.” Hyperbolically, David also claimed that God was the one he had sinned against. However, David had also sinned against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah, whom he had killed. David was merely highlighting the seriousness of his sins.

It is unthinkable that David could have been blaming his mother, Adam, or God for the Fall. Instead, it is in keeping with the psalm that David was merely saying, again in the form of a hyperbole, that he had been a sinner from the very beginning.

I want to say something else that will be contentious. This interpretation is also in keeping with the theology of the Bible. Nowhere does the Bible explicitly claim that we are born guilty of Adam’s sin. Instead, the consistent message of the Bible is that we must take full responsibility for our own sins. Here are just a few verses to consider:

·       Isaiah 5:3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.  What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?  When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?”

• Jeremiah 2:5 This is what the Lord says: “What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.”

While the Israelites had many excuses for their sins, they never once suggested, “You, God, caused the Fall and had imputed Adam’s sin upon us. Therefore, we never had a chance.”

Jesus had consistently laid upon man the responsibility for sin and rebellion, never upon the Fall:

• Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”

• John 5:39 “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

To claim that we are sinners, born guilty of Adam’s sin, takes the responsibility away from us and places it upon God. Although this might not be the intention, however, this theology that claims that Adam’s guilt had been imputed to us makes this conclusion unavoidable:

·       See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. (Ecclesiastes 7:29)

·       Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (James 1:13-14)

The fault, therefore, lies with us and not with God. Consequently, we are all required to examine ourselves and to take full responsibility for our sins as David had:

·       The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)