week 4 blog
It seems that there is a clear ethical stance taken in the Psalms. Many of the Psalms lay out a way of living that is "good" and specifically tell people what is good in the eyes of God. This all comes out of a focus of what is good in the eyes of God. That is the general outlieing point of the ethics in the book; do what God wants and dedicate yourself to God and that is good. Psalm 15 has a good outline for ethics. It starts with "Lord, who will sojourn in Your tent, who will dwell on Your holy mountain?" Starting with a question to God does a couple of things; first, it sets up a dialog suggesting the words that follow are the words of God, which helps give it more credability and meaning. Also, it helps reinforce the idea that people should live to please God and that is the motivation to act ethical (in the way God says). In answering the question, the Psalm lays out clear, specific guidelines for how to live. "He who walks blameless and does justice and speaks the truth in his heart" is the first response to the question. These ideas are some of the most commonly seen ideas throughout the Psalms and I feel that they are the most important. The fact that they are first reinforces their importance along with the fact that they are a common theme. They focus on doing the right thing and being honest, which are the most important themes. There is also a repeated idea of "the wicked" which apears in many of the Psalms. What is interesting about the idea of the "wicked" is that usually it is something that people need protection from, so it seems to follow the idea that all people are inheritly bad and can not help but be bad. It makes sense that they need to ask for protection against the "wicked" because there it is in their nature. This leads to the next main idea that is seen, which is confessing to God. Psalm 32 is a good example of this idea. "Happy, of sin forgiven, absolved of offense" is how Psalm 32 starts. This statement alone holds all of these ideas. It does not suggest that one can be without sin, but does say that sin can be forgiven and absolved. The Pslam does later say that by being honest with God, your sins can be forgiven: "My offense I made known to You and my crime I did not cover." These ideas seem very similar to the ethics of current Christianity however, the contradiction between all people being sinners and also needing to live a ceratain way seems to be more present in the Psalms. This contradiction makes the ethic difficult to live by, though I do think it is possible because people can confess to God for forgiveness.