September 7, 2011: In the Wake of Tropical Storm Irene: Psalm 93

In the Wake of Tropical Storm Irene (Psalm 93)

Kabbalat Shabbat, the introductory service that ushers in the Sabbath, culminates with Psalm 93, one of the shortest psalms in the liturgy:

Adonai reigns, robed in majesty!
Adonai is robed, girded in strength!
The world stands firm; it shall never be shaken.
Your throne stands firm from long ago;
You have existed since the beginning of time.
The floods raise up, Adonai,
the floods raise up their roaring,
the floods raise up their pounding.
Greater than the roaring of the tremendous waters,
Mightier than the breakers of the sea,
Mighty on high is Adonai!
Your testimonies are faithful beyond measure.
Holiness beautifies Your house.
Adonai, You shall be forevermore.
(my translation)

Psalm 93 is a prime example of the category known as “enthronement psalms,” so called because they depict Adonai as king over all creation. Mesopotamia and other ancient Near Eastern societies held an annual coronation festival in the fall, during which the king reestablished his rule over the realm. The influential Protestant Biblical scholar Sigmund Mowinckel posits that the ancient Israelites observed their own autumnal festival. He claims that originally, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot were all tied together in one, three-week-long New Year’s celebration—only instead of crowning an earthly monarch, Israel crowned Adonai sovereign of the entire world. (To this day, tradition considers Rosh Hashanah as the day the world was conceived.) According to Mowinckel, celebrants chanted Psalm 93 and the other enthronement psalms throughout the Israelite coronation festival.

Psalm 93’s powerful water imagery evinces another parallel with other Near Eastern cultures. Many ancient myths, such as the Babylonian Enuma Elish, describe a cosmic battle between the Sky God, who represents the forces of order, and the Water God, who represents the forces of chaos. Literary vestigial references appear throughout the Hebrew Bible—in the Creation Story (Genesis 1), the Flood (Genesis 6-9), the Parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14), as well as many of the psalms, including Psalm 93. (I think the repetitive phrasing of verse 3, “the floods raise up, Adonai, the floods raise up their roaring, the floods raise up their pounding,” is meant to evoke the incessant crash of waves upon the beach.) Whereas in the Enuma Elish, the Sky God and the Sea God are more or less equally matched in strength, Psalm 93 makes vividly clear Adonai’s supremacy over the waters: “greater than the roaring of the tremendous waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea, mighty on high is Adonai.” Despite the raging floods, ultimately: “the world stands firm; it shall never be shaken.”

Psalm 93’s unequivocal assurance of the world’s essential endurance affords a comforting reminder to us, as we reel from the devastation of Hurricane Irene. Vermont has just been through its worst natural disaster since the legendary floods of 1927. Many of our neighbors’ homes and communities have been destroyed. During times of severe upheaval, grief counselors advise us, mourners need to fall back on familiar surroundings and routines as much as possible. We need to remember that the sun will come up in the morning, as it always does.

Many people read the final verse of Psalm 93, “Your testimonies are faithful beyond measure…,” as an allusion to Torah, inasmuch as the Hebrew word for “testimonies,” edot, elsewhere denotes the Ten Commandments. I would like to interpret “Torah” in the most expansive manner possible. For me, the “testimonies” are the immutable Laws of Nature, which are (according to Maimonides) also part of Torah. The same physical forces that give rise to hurricanes also produce the orderly weather patterns upon which we, our livestock and our crops rely. Natural disasters such as Irene are so disruptive precisely because they are so rare. Most of the time, rivers remain within their banks. Most of the time, rain is a blessing. Judaism well acknowledges the beneficence of water. Twice daily, during the Shema, we pray for “rain in its season, the early rains and the latter rains.” Torah itself is often called “living waters,” mayim chayyim, for its power to cleanse, sustain and nurture.

Psalm 93 invites us to look beyond our immediate circumstances, however painful, and take the longest possible view of them. We can regain our composure and serenity if we remind ourselves that “this, too, shall pass.” Floods may come and go, but “You have existed since the beginning of time” and “You shall be forevermore.” The replacement of a temporary perspective with an eternal one also makes Psalm 93 a fitting entrée into the timeless atmosphere of Shabbat. Note that the very last word of Psalm 93, “forevermore,” l’orech yamim, is the same as the last word of the famous Psalm 23. (Psalm 23 begins: “the Lord is my shepherd…,” and it ends: “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forevermore,” l’orech yamim.) The ultimate consolation of both psalms is the same. Just as we have survived until now, we shall survive this too.