Sometimes a song has two meanings.
There are times when a song holds a double entendre, symbolism, or some other kind of allegorical interpretation. Many such modern songs are rated R, but there are some a bit more family friendly. One of the tamest and most well known (at least to people of my age) is American Pie by Don McLean. I remember listening to it on an old record player one verse at a time with my brother as we dissected the song trying to discern its meaning. But even to this day, I’m lost in a cloud of ignorance about this song, a cloud in which I believe most people live.
There are other times when a song’s meaning changes because it becomes attached to a significant event in our lives. One such song for me is the song Loving, Touching, Squeezing by Journey. While this song may not be an intellectual tour de force or a high tower of moral fortitude, every time I hear it I am reminded of my high school friends and I singing it loudly to a buddy of ours after he had locked himself in a closet while talking on the phone to his girlfriend.
Each of those types of songs can carry multiple levels of meaning with them, but they are not the only sort of songs that can do so. Some songs hold two meanings when the events expand the meaning into something much more profound. I believe Psalm 108 is such a song.
If you have spent any time reading the Psalms somewhat carefully you most likely will have noticed that the entirety of Psalm 108 is directly copied from Psalms 57 and 60. When I first saw this repetition I wondered why Psalm 108 was even included in the Psalter. It seemed odd to find the same words repeated so blatantly, but as I’ve been going through the Psalms again lately, I think I might have a small inkling as to why it was done.
Psalm 57 and 60 are both found in Book II of the Psalms, a book where each psalm seems to point toward Israel’s hope in the coming king. Recall that Book II ends with Psalm 72, a psalm about Solomon the next king, and their hopes for what he would bring Israel. In fact, it’s not just Psalm 72, the overall movement of Book II looks forward to the hopes of an earthly king reigning over an earthly kingdom. But as Book III opens and then unfolds, we find that their hope was misplaced. In this context then, Psalm 57 and Psalm 60 seem to be focused on the establishment of God’s earthly kingdom by the hand of one who would be his king here on earth. But I think the story is different in Psalm 108.
The words of Psalm 108, found in Book V, and the words of Psalms 57 and 60, found in Book II, do not mean the same thing, for standing between the loss of Book II’s hope (found in Book III) and the words of Psalm 108 (found in Book V), we find book IV, a book filled with praise for God’s steadfast love and his magnificent nature. It is almost as though the compilers of the Psalms wanted us to see that when Israel saw how their earthly hopes had been misplaced, they had to return to God to see that his love comes to them on his terms alone. Yes, God will gather his people from the four corners of the earth (read Psalm 107) and bring them to a land he has prepared, but it is a land which he has built not one built by earthly kings.
It doesn’t take much to realize this truth is not so very different from our own experiences. When we place our trust in a source of salvation which can be built by men (Book II), it will always fail us and we will always lose hope (Book III). But, if we chose to return to God and praise him (Book IV) then we will always find that God leads us to a land of his making (Book V) where we will be brought into his presence to praise him forevermore. Though, if we do not return to God our hope will always return to us void.
I think this is what the story of Psalm 108 is about: our former songs of misplaced hope can be redeemed to sing of true hope. But there is one more thing that must be said: I think the monks got it wrong. (You didn’t see that one coming, did you?) God does not want us to run from the world, isolate ourselves in caves studying his word and seeking inner peace and enlightenment. God wants us to stay in the world speaking of the hope that can be found in him. He wants us speaking about how he redeems the songs we once sang. And he wants us speaking about how, in many cases, he doesn’t discard those things in which we placed our hope, but redeems them to be used for his greater glory.
Yes, Psalm 108, as seen through the eyes of ancient Israel, holds in it a promise for a return to a land flowing with milk and honey, but not the sort of land to which Psalm 57 and 60 pointed. Psalm 108 reminds us that God will keep his promise of building a kingdom for his people, but not the sort of kingdom which we could have ever imagined.
