(Old Testament Lesson 14 — Exodus 15-20; 32-34)
I would like to share some musings on a source for studying the Sinai story that many might not think of — the Psalms. There will be some overlap here with my previous post on the Exodus story, so if you read that one, please bear with me as I repeat some of those ideas again here. We usually think of the biblical psalms as a collection of hymns or poetry that is generally concerned primarily with praising God. As we are looking for sources to support our study of the Sinai story as presented in the book of Exodus, we should remember that the Exodus and Sinai pericopes became the foundational stories for explaining how Israel was chosen or elected to be God’s people. These events were among the mightiest works of salvation ever performed by Yahweh for his chosen Israel and became an essential part of their identity as a people. It would be logical, then, to imagine that a collection of hymns praising Yahweh would include references to these miraculous events.
Furthermore, besides simply referring to historical events and praising God for his help in times past, the Psalms perhaps furnish us with evidence that the Sinai story was “relived” each year in Israel through a ritualized performance of its major events. If we utilize the theory that many of the psalms were used/performed in an annual festival at the celebration of the New Year (the harvest/ingathering festival or Feast of Tabernacles), then an analysis of these psalms can give us a picture of the liturgy, or ritual performance(s), that took place during this festival. Scholars such as Sigmund Mowinckel, A.R. Johnson, and John Eaton, to name a few, have theorized that certain “ritual dramas” were acted out during the festival that represented the great historical deeds of Yahweh, including the primeval conflict with the forces of Chaos and Darkness, the Creation of the cosmos, the enthronement of Yahweh as King — and his salvific dealings with his people, including a representation of the Exodus from Egypt, the Sinai theophany, and the establishment of the covenant with Israel. All of this, theoretically, was re-enacted, or relived, in the present each year at the great festival — the Israelites experienced it all anew in a dramatic presentation at the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.
While I don’t want to take away from your reading of the Exodus account itself, I believe that a review of the material in the Psalms can be of great help in understanding how the Israelites remembered these powerful events and applied them in their current situation. It is also most likely that the material in the Psalms pre-dates the Exodus/Sinai story as we have it in the book of Exodus in our Bible, therefore possibly providing a more ancient view of these events.
The principal psalms with relevant material are: Ps. 99; Ps. 95; Ps. 81; Ps. 114
The Song of Moses
Before getting into the Psalms themselves, I would like to look at a “psalm” that is actually recorded in the book of Exodus. It is known as the Song of Moses (or “of Moses and Miriam” or “of the Sea”) and is found in Exodus 15. The song retells the experience of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and God’s victory over the Egyptians, and foretells their establishment in the land of Canaan by God and the building of his sanctuary there; the Lord reigns supreme in Israel. The tone of the song is very jubilant and dramatic. There are many liturgical themes, including the fact that apparently Moses sings one part (perhaps leading the Israelite men), while Miriam and the Israelite women give a liturgical response, which includes dancing and playing instruments. We can perhaps imagine that the described events were being theatrically re-enacted with the “song” as accompaniment. For more on Exod. 15, please see Gerald Smith’s great post here.
A very similar song/psalm1 is presented in Deut. 32 and Deut. 33. These chapters describe in a similarly dramatic fashion the events of the Exodus that follow (basically) what was described in Exod. 15. Notice the ritual themes, such as the beginning of Deut. 32: “Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.”
Deut. 33 is presented as a blessing by Moses on the people, but it is clearly a psalm meant to be sung. Its poetic description of the Sinai theophany is quite different from what we read in the Exodus story and is much more of the descriptions that show up in the book of Psalms (please see my last post on Exodus here).
And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them. 3 Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words. 4 Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. 5 And he was (or became) king in Jeshurun (Israel), when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together.
(The next several verses give detailed blessings to each of the tribes of Israel)
26 There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. 27 The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. 28 Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. 29 Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.
Again, this material in Ex. 15 and Deut. 32 and 33 likely represents an older version of the Exodus story than that which we receive in the rest of the book of Exodus. These hymns were likely in use for centuries and later inserted into the stories as they were edited/reconstructed in later times.2
The Presentation of the Exodus Story in the Psalms
As I mentioned in my previous post, Mowinckel and other scholars noted that in the Psalms, the Exodus Story was presented as a repetition of the Creation (i.e. Egypt becomes the chaos monster Rahab and the Red Sea becomes the primeval ocean); through this historical act of “creation”, Yahweh becomes king over Israel and establishes his covenant with his “elect” people, Israel.
From the descriptions given, the relevant psalms appear to depict a grand procession(s) that took place during the New Year festival. These psalms seem to present both the Creation and the Exodus stories as part of a history of God’s salvific deeds in dealing with Israel. There are numerous parallels between God’s actions in the primeval victory/Creation and in the story of Israel’s escape from the Egyptians and election (creation) as God’s people (see my previous post for more on this). Mowinckel notes: “The procession reviews the Exodus story as well as the chaos myth.”3
According to this theory, the procession dramatically represented not only the victory over the Egyptians and the parting of the Red Sea, but also the journey through the wilderness to Sinai and the events at the holy mountain. The Israelite pilgrims participating in the procession started outside the city of Jerusalem, in “the wilderness.” After the miraculous events of the deliverance from Egypt were dramatically portrayed, the triumphant tribes are led through the wilderness by their victorious God and King.
We see hints of this motif in psalms such as Ps. 99, where during the liturgy of praise to Yahweh, the people are reminded of the Exodus:
Psalm 99:6–7 Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon the LORD, and he answered them. 7 He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them.
Psalm 114 goes into further detail (again, as part of a ritual performance):
Psalm 114:1–8 1 When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; 2 Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. 3 The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. 5 What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? 6 Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? 7 Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; 8 Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.
Psalm 95:
Psalm 95:7–11 7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. 10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: 11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
Psalm 81:5–16 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not. 6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots. 7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. 8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; 9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. 10 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. 12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels. 13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! 14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. 15 The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever. 16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
John Eaton also saw Psalm 68 as describing the festal procession as a re-enactment of the Exodus story. He explains:
From 68:8-9 it seems that the procession could be brought into relation with the Exodus journey. A pre-monarchy use of processional worship to relive the ancient journey into Canaan has been traced in Josh. 2-6 and Ps. 114 (Kraus, pp. 152-65). The equation of the Exodus Invasion journey with the festal procession of Yahweh as King in his chief sanctuary is indicated also by the hymn in Exod. 15, where the Exodus leads straight to Yahweh’s mountain sanctuary in the settled land and to declaration of his kingship. The fusion of the relived Exodus and the universalist Zion worship is also discernible in Ps. 66:1–12.4
Dialogue with the Gatekeepers
The journey of the participants to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was supposed to represent the journey to Mount Sinai. When the procession finally reached the holy mountain where Yahweh dwelled, they were stopped at the outer east gates of the temple complex by the gatekeepers (see 2 Kgs. 25:18).5 Their purpose in ascending the holy mountain was to “seek the face” of the God of Jacob (Ps. 24:6; Ps. 27:8). However, they could only approach the Lord’s presence if they were worthy. They would have to prove this worthiness to the gatekeepers if they wanted to be allowed to pass by this barrier to continue ascending the temple mount.
Compare this situation to the strict rules that God places on ascending Mount Sinai in Exod. 19:
Exodus 19:12–13 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: 13 There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.
In the New Year festival, the leader of the procession (likely the king, representing Moses) engages in a dialogue with the keepers of the gate on behalf of the Israelite pilgrims. This exchange, illustrated primarily by Pss. 24, 15, and 118, takes the form of a question-and-answer sequence. Johnson notes that in Psalm 24, after making reference to the Creation, there follows:
“a short section, couched in terms of question and answer, in which one is reminded of the moral integrity that Yahweh requires of His worshippers…Finally we have the appeal of the worshippers that the gates of the Temple should be opened to admit Yahweh into His sanctuary…”6
Apparently, this “question and answer” exchange lays out the temple entrance requirements which each individual pilgrim must meet before the guardians of the gate will allow them to pass into the temple’s holy precincts to continue participating in the sacred rituals of the festival. We read of the initial exchange in Psalm 24:3–4:
“Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully.”
Mowinckel notes that Psalm 15 is a parallel to Psalm 24; however, there are in Psalm 15 ten requirements for admittance. He believed that at some point these entry requirements became merged with the ten commandments of Mount Sinai, so that in the festival, entry to the temple involved compliance with these commandments as well. Thus, “the instruction as to the conditions of admittance became merged in the idea of the festival as being a renewal of the covenant and a commemoration of the great works of God and of his commandments”. He further notes:
Here we have a special form or application of Yahweh’s demands, which has been called ‘laws (toroth) of entry’, i.e. authoritative divine ‘instruction’ (tora) through the priest as to what is demanded from those who are admitted to the sanctuary and cult and the blessing thereof. They may have the form of answers to questions on the part of the congregation, or as in this case, the procession.7
In fact, according to Mowinckel, the idea that there were ten commandments (a decalogue) at Sinai is probably derived from this ancient tradition of the temple entry requirements; pilgrims were instructed in a way that they could remember–one rule for each finger. Mowinckel believed that these ten commandments of the covenant would have been heard at the entry to the gate and then later at the climax of the festal cult — the renewal of the covenant.8
According to Mowinckel’s theory, the dialogue at the gate played out in the following manner:
The third element in this logical structure of questions and answers would obviously be a declaration on the part of those who want to attend the cult (the congregation) as to whether they are equal to the demands: I have kept these commandments, I am guiltless of these crimes (taboos). The pattern for this part of the liturgy would then be:
1. Who shall be admitted to the hill of Yahweh?
2. The answer of the priest: he that hath kept such and such rules; he that is of such and such a character.
3. The answer of the procession: we have kept and fulfilled all this.
Such an answer may be detailed: I have not committed this and this and this. In Ps. 24 it is summed up shortly in v. 6: ‘Such are the men who are in quest of Yahweh, who seek the face of the God of Jacob’, i.e. we are confident of fulfilling the demands.9
Those found worthy to pass the gates were allowed to ascend further up the mount (this was likely represented by entering into the “Great Court” (2 Chr. 4:9) from outside the temple complex. Psalm 118:19–27 may represent another dialogue with the gatekeepers of the “Inner Court” where the great altar of the temple was located.
We can compare this to the narrative in Exodus 19-20. The Lord will not let all of the Israelite people “break through” to come up the mount and approach his presence. It would be dangerous, even fatal, for them to do so in their unworthy state. At this point in the narrative, when Israel is at the outer barriers of the holy mountain, Yahweh gives the Decalogue of “entry requirements.” Covenanting to keep these commandments (Ex. 24:3) and then actually keeping them is a requirement for progressing up the mountain. We can perhaps imagine here Yahweh playing the role of the gatekeeper revealing the laws and covenants for entry into his presence. Moses is the leader of the “procession” that mediates between the people who desire entry and the Lord (see Ex. 20:19–20).
We see from the narrative that only certain individuals are found worthy to continue the ascent. They are allowed to pass by the initial barriers. In Exodus 24, the Lord allows Aaron, his sons, and 70 of the elders of Israel to accompany Moses up into the next level of sanctity of the holy mountain. These are the “worthy” that are allowed to pass through the gates. This chapter informs us that they were there permitted to “see the God of Israel” (Ex. 24:10).
Mowinckel believed that one of the key features of the festival was the “epiphany”, or appearance, of Yahweh. He notes that this is a major theme in a number of the psalms (e.g., Ps. 96:13; Ps. 98:9; Ps. 98:2; Ps. 48:4; Ps. 76:2f.) He notes that: “This is not a mere idea, it is reality, visibly expressed through the symbols and rites of the feast and the emotional reactions of the congregation to its experiences. The festival, in short, is the festal epiphany of Yahweh.”10
As part of his appearance, as depicted in the festival, the psalms describe Yahweh as:
- coming with thunder and lightning (Pss. 97:2ff.; 29:3, 7ff.)
- with storm (29:5; 48:8)
- earthquake (29:6, 8; 46:7; 97:4)
- clothed with wonderful shining armor, including the girdle of strength (93:1)
- manifested in flaming majesty (48:6)
The arrival of Yahweh was both a glorious and wonderful occasion (for the righteous) and also a terribly frightening experience (for the unworthy). We see this latter perspective on the part of the Israelite people, as described in Exodus 20:18:
And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
This was all that the general body of the Israelites saw — the lightning, the dark cloud, and the fire (see also Ex. 24:17). However, those who were worthy to ascend further saw the God of Israel himself. The Psalms contain expressions similar to their experience:
Psalm 17:15 (RSV) I shall behold thy face in righteousness … I shall be satisfied with beholding thy form.
In the Sinai story, we are told that only Moses, accompanied by Joshua (his “minister”; Ex. 24:13), are allowed to progress further up into the dark cloud (think “veil”) where Yahweh is waiting to give them his revelation. Only Moses himself actually enters into the presence of the Lord. Some later Jewish traditions indicate that Moses likely saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, similar to the vision of Isaiah in Isa. 6. Yahweh’s throne would have been imagined to be located at the very top of Mount Sinai, the holy mountain.
This imagery is very clear in the Psalms. Take, for example, Psalm 97:
Psalm 97:1–2 The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! 2 Clouds and thick darkness are round about him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Psalm 11:4 The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, his eyelids test, the children of men.
Enthronement
The representation of God’s heavenly throne was located in the Holy of Holies of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. While later tradition attributes this function to the Aaronic High Priest, during the New Year festival in the days of the Davidic monarchy, the king would have been the one to enter the presence of the Lord in the Holy of Holies. There he would have likely been enthroned on the throne of Yahweh himself, to serve as God’s vice-regent, his representative to the world. As we read in 1 Chron. 29:23:
Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father; and he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.
In the festival, the Davidic king was washed, anointed, clothed, and permitted to sit on the throne of the Lord. This is a common theme in early Jewish mystical texts. When the visionary ascends to heaven, he commonly sees God sitting on his throne. However, some texts have the visionary either see themselves sitting on the throne or see God inviting them to sit on a throne (even His throne) (for more on this, see my earlier post here). In the early Jewish drama written by Ezekiel the Tragedian, entitled Exagoge, Moses is depicted as being enthroned on the throne of God. It reads:
68 I [Moses] had a vision on the top of Sinai of a high throne
69 that reached the fold of heaven.
70 On it was sitting a certain noble man,
71 with a crown and with a large scepter in his
72 left hand, while with the right
73 he beckoned me, and I stood before the throne.
74 He handed me the scepter and told me
75 to sit on the great throne, and gave me the royal
76 crown, and he departed from the throne.
77 I beheld the whole earth around
78 and the things underneath the earth and those above the heaven.
79 Then a multitude of stars fell on their knees before me,
80 and I counted them all,
81 and they paraded by me as in a march of mortals.
(for more on this text and topic, see my posts here and here)
The drama portrays the vision of Sinai as the enthronement of Moses as a godlike figure — the vice-regent of God. In the New Year festival, the king would have emerged from the Temple after his enthronement to declare the revelation given to him by Yahweh (see, e.g., Psalm 2:7). The people would have seen the king as if he were Yahweh himself because he was the representative of Yahweh. Margaret Barker notes that in the Second Temple period, the high priest was still recognized as performing this function. She comments on the description of Simon the high priest emerging from the Temple:
When he emerged from the holy of holies he was like the morning star, like the sun shining on the temple; his very presence made the court of the temple glorious. When he had poured the libation, the trumpest sounded and “all the people together…fell to the ground upon their faces to worship (proskunein) their LORD…” (ben Sira 50:17). The most natural way to read this is that they were worshipping the high priest, or rather, Yahweh whom he represented.11
Although it is not spelled out so clearly in the Book of Exodus, this is how the people see Moses after he descends from the mountain after speaking with the Lord. In Exodus 34, we read:
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tables of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30 And when Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; 34 but whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, 35 the people of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone; and Moses would put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
Moses appears to the Israelite people as if he were God himself. He is the “angel” of Yahweh. His face radiates light, similar to Yahweh’s face (see Ps. 31:16; Ps. 67:1; Ps. 80:3, 7, 19). This is how the king would have appeared (likely with a gold crown bearing the name of YHWH and golden vestments) — as an anthropomorphic vision of God to his worthy people who were gathered in the inner court of the Temple. The king would then proclaim the Law to the people and renew with them the Sinai covenant.
There is so much more that could be done with this topic — it could certainly cover many posts of considerable length to address all of the relevant issues here. This post doesn’t do justice to the complexity and richness of these issues. The ideas I have presented are just the bare structure of a very intricate theological system. The main idea that I want to express is that the events of the Exodus and the theophany at Sinai were foundational to Israel’s religion and self-identity, and that they maintained the power and effectiveness of this tradition by “reliving” it each year at their most important religious festival. It was a ritualistic lesson regarding God’s salvific works in Israel’s past and how they could return to his presence. They were able to experience, through the ritual drama, the past, present, and future all at once. This was the heart of Israel’s temple worship in the era of the First Temple.
- That these sections were indeed presented as a song is expressed in Deut. 32:44.
- See Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, vol. 1, 126
- Mowinckel, 173-174
- John Eaton, Festal Drama in Deutero-Isaiah, 14
- Compare these as well to the cherubim placed at the eastward entrance to Eden in Gen. 3:24.
- Johnson, Sacral Kingship, 72-74
- Mowinckel, 179
- Mowinckel, 180
- Mowinckel, 178-179
- Mowinckel, 142
- Margaret Barker, Temple Themes in Christian Worship, 77
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