“God is known in Judah; His name is great in Israel. His tabernacle is in Salem; His dwelling place also is in Zion…. You caused judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still when God arose to judgment, to save all the humble of the earth. Selah”
(Psa 76:1-2, 8-9).
In the previous psalm (Psalm 75), we found a mysterious conflation between a divine first person speaker identified as God and a first person speaker whose identity is distinct from God. In Psalm 76, the mystery deepens. Only now, the issue is not a mystery of divine identity but a mystery of divine presence (i.e., location).
A close reading of the psalm raises an important question: Where exactly is God located? In verses 1-7, God dwells in Salem, that is, Mount Zion, from where He rules over the nations. But without warning, God’s abode shifts from Zion to heaven in verses 8-12, from where He judges the whole earth. We first encounter this mystery of divine presence in the Torah, which teaches that God dwells simultaneously in the tabernacle (Exod 40:34-35; Lev 1:1) and in heaven (Deut 26:15). The Torah also introduces the mystery of divine identity. For who exactly is speaking to Moses from the burning bush? Is it God? Yes. Is it the Messenger of the LORD? Yes. Are the two one? Yes. Are the two distinct? Yes.
Similarly, God is mysteriously present in the Messiah on earth while remaining enthroned in heaven.
Thus, in Psalms 75-76 we find side by side the dual mystery of divine identity and divine presence. By using the word “mystery,” I am acknowledging a paradox rather than a contradiction. God is mysteriously identified with the Messiah: two and one. Similarly, God is mysteriously present in the Messiah on earth while remaining enthroned in heaven.
The New Testament does not solve this theological paradox, but it does make it profoundly personal through the incarnation. In this mystery, we discover a God who emptied Himself of glory and humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross in order to bring us salvation. Paradoxically, heaven’s unseen hands have, for the sake of love, been scarred forever.
