God’s Generosity and Human Need

Psalm 5

1 Lord God, I will praise Your name with joy, among those who know Your righteous judgments. 2 For You are good and merciful, the refuge of the poor; When I cry to You, do not silently disregard me. 3 For no one takes plunder from a powerful man; Who, then, can take anything You have made unless You Yourself give it?⁠ 4 For man and his portion (lie) in Your presence in the balance; He cannot increase what You have assigned to him, God.

5 When we are in distress we call upon You for help, And You do not reject our request, for You are our God. 6 Do not let Your hand weigh heavily on us, so that hardship does not lead us into sin. 7 Even though You do not restore us, we will not stay away; But we will come to You.

8 For if I hunger, I will cry to You, God; and You will give to me.⁠ 9 You feed birds and fish, by giving rain to the steppes so that green grass may grow,⁠ 10 (So) to prepare fodder in the steppe for every living thing; And if they are hungry, they lift their faces to You. 11 You feed kings and rulers and peoples, God; And who helps the poor and needy, if not You, Lord? 12 And You will listen, for who is good and gentle but You? You bring joy to the humble person’s soul by opening Your hand in mercy. 13 Human kindness is (given) grudgingly and [text uncertain]; And if someone repeats (it) without complaining, even that is marvelous. 14 But Your gift is great in goodness and wealth, And the person whose hope is (set) on You will lack no gifts. 15 Your mercy extends in goodness over the whole earth, Lord.

16 Happy is he whom God remembers by (granting to him) enough to live on; If a man has too much, he sins. 17 Modest resources with righteousness are enough, and in this way the Lord’s blessing (becomes) abundance with righteousness. 18 Those who fear the Lord rejoice in good (gifts), And Your goodness is upon Israel in Your kingdom. 19 Blessed is the glory of the Lord for He is our king.

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalms of Solomon 5:9 and Genesis Rabbah 76

Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry · Rabbinic

Summary

The Psalms of Solomon describes God's care by how he feeds birds, fish, the rich, and the poor, using an early form of parable tradition later found in Jesus' teaching in the New Testament and in Rabbinic tradition, such as Genesis Rabbah.

Passages

Psalms of Solomon 5:9

Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry

6 Do not let Your hand weigh heavily on us, so that hardship does not lead us into sin. 7 Even though You do not restore us, we will not stay away; But we will come to You. 8 For if I hunger, I will cry to You, God; and You will give to me. 9 You feed birds and fish, by giving rain to the steppes so that green grass may grow, 10 (So) to prepare fodder in the steppe for every living thing; And if they are hungry, they lift their faces to You. 11 You feed kings and rulers and peoples, God; And who helps the poor and needy, if not You, Lord?

65–30 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Psalms of Solomon

Genesis Rabbah 76

Rabbinic · Aggadah

That is what they say, that a person must show gratitude to a place from which he benefits. Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai and Rabbi Elazar his son were hiding in a cave for thirteen years during the days of persecution. They would eat withered carobs until they broke out in sores. After thirteen years, he [Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai] emerged and sat at the cave entrance. He saw a certain hunter standing and hunting birds. When Rabbi Shimon would hear a Divine Voice from Heaven: ‘Freedom, freedom,’ it would escape. But when he would hear a Divine Voice saying: ‘Killing,’ it would be hunted and trapped. He said: ‘Were it not for Heaven, a bird would not be hunted; the soul of a person, all the more so.’ He went out and found that matters were calm, and that the edict had been abrogated. They came and bathed in that heated bathhouse in Tiberias. His son said to him: ‘Tiberias has afforded us so much benefit, and we are not purifying it from the dead?’ He said: ‘We must perform an act of good just as our ancestors would, as they would establish markets and sell at low prices.’

500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis Rabbah

References

"... In this saying, as in the corresponding exhortation to consider the wild flowers (Matthew 6:28; Luke 12:27), Jesus adopts the style of a Jewish wisdom teacher, inviting his hearers to consider the natural world, God’s creation, and to draw religious lessons from it (compare Job 12:7–8; 35:4; Proverbs 6:6; Sirach 33:15; 1 Enoch 2:1–3; 3:1; 4:1; 5:1, 3). What he asks them to notice – that God feeds the birds / ravens – is drawn directly from the creation theology of the Hebrew Bible, especially the Psalms, in which it is a commonplace that God the Creator supplies all his living creatures with food ... The Old Testament creation theology, which Jesus here echoes, includes humans among the living creatures for whom God provides. The great creation psalm – 104 – where humans are included among all the creatures who look to God for food (verses 27–8), is notable for its depiction of humans as one species among others in the community of creation for which the Creator provides. Psalm 145:15, which echoes Psalm 104:27–8, does so, as the context makes clear, in order especially to highlight God’s provision for humans. Like Jesus, the psalmist points to God’s care for all his living creatures in order to assure humans who turn to God in need that he provides for them. The same point is made, in dependence on these psalms, in a later Jewish psalm (Psalms of Solomon 5:8-11) ..."

Richard Bauckham, Living with Other Creatures: Green Exegesis and Theology (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2011), 87–89.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

God’s Generosity and Human Need

Psalms of Solomon18 psalms

Compare Psalms of Solomon 5:9 and Genesis Rabbah 76

Summary

Passages

Psalms of Solomon 5:9

Genesis Rabbah 76

References

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