Reach, Reflect, and Rest: An Invitation by St Augustine from Psalm 4

For the choir director: with stringed instruments. A psalm of David.

1 Answer me when I call,
God, who vindicates me.
You freed me from affliction;
be gracious to me and hear my prayer.
2 How long, exalted ones, will my honour be insulted?
How long will you love what is worthless
and pursue a lie? Selah
3 Know that the LORD has set apart
the faithful for himself;
the LORD will hear when I call to him.
4 Be angry and do not sin;
reflect in your heart while on your bed and be silent. Selah
5 Offer sacrifices in righteousness
and trust in the LORD.
6 Many are asking, “Who can show us anything good?”
Let the light of your face shine on us, LORD.
7 You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and new wine abound.
8 I will both lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, LORD, make me live in safety. (Psalm 4, CSB)

Introduction

‘Why is this happening?’ seems to be the consistent and repeated question posed by the media on the air, neighbours on the streets, and doubts in the mind. This question is so prevalent that many have taken their reflections publicly online. Some like N. T. Wright suggesting boldly in an article entitled “Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It’s Not Supposed To” that tragedies should lead Christians not first to explanations or relief (things he asserts that the rationalists and romantics tend towards respectively), but instead to lament which he describes as an act “when people ask, ‘why?’ and don’t get an answer.”[1] Others, like Andy Davis, have responded to Wright, arguing that Christianity does offer an answer—one that is a “beautiful combination of scriptural truth (rational explanations) plus heartfelt compassion (including lament)” that is grounded in the gospel that boldly declares that “for God’s redeemed, no sickness ever ended ultimately in death.”[2]

The difference between the two positions probably rests more on tone and posture, because a close examination of Wright’s article demonstrates that there is an answer. For example, Wright briefly comments on a selection of Psalms and concludes that “these poems often come out into the light by the end, with a fresh sense of God’s presence and hope, not to explain the trouble but to provide reassurance within it.”[3] In other words, the answer that Wright suggests is that tragedies enable us to experience the hope that God uniquely brings. Yet, it appears that Wright is attempting to encourage his readers to be slower at providing answers and instead quicker to experience God’s presence in the midst of “frustration, sorrow, loneliness and sheer inability to understand what is happening and why.”[4] Notwithstanding, these reflections illustrate the reality that many are striving to understand the purpose and meaning for this tragedy which is causing great distress in the realm of public health, economics, education, and family relationships.

Conversations like these are helpful and essential because they drive us to read the Scriptures in a fresh way. Moreover, modern crises provide an opportunity for Christians to consult historic voices through the task of theological retrieval to find ancient wisdom for contemporary issues. Ortlund summarises the value of the exercise of theological retrieval by stating that “contemporary evangelical theology can be enriched and strengthened in her current task by going back to retrieve classical theological resources.”[5] Therefore, this article seeks to contribute to the growing literature surrounding the responses to COVID-19 with the help of St Augustine of Hippo from his exposition of Psalm 4.

As Waltke, Houston, and Moore note, Psalm 4 had a major liturgical role the Middle Ages, and its reading and reflection “every evening at Compline, as the monks gathered for the Canonical Hour” as well as various uses in congregational and individual settings, highlight its importance for the life of the medieval church.[6] Thus, this article suggests that Augustine through his commentary on Psalm 4 reveals that suffering, pain, and tragedy are meaningful invitations and opportunities for us to keep reaching out to God in prayer, reflecting on the object of our worship, and resting in the Lord. It concludes that an acceptance of Augustine’s recommendation can accomplish two things. First, recover the significance of Psalm 4 in the liturgical life of the church. Second, enable the church to have a posture of humility as she seeks to be a voice of intercession, challenge, and comfort to an anxious and exhausted world that is seeking to survive and thrive through the COVID-19 crisis.

1. Reach

The first invitation that Augustine offers to the distressed through his commentary on Psalm 4 is to reach out to God in prayer. The exact circumstances surrounding the composition of Psalm 4 are unknown, thereby rending the purpose of the Psalm difficult to discern. For example, some like Eaton argue that Psalm 4 be read as a royal psalm,[7] Craigie as a psalm of trust,[8] and Dahood as a prayer for rain.[9] However, Augustine suggests a more general purpose and application of the Psalm.

Kotzé persuasively argues that Augustine’s meditation on Psalm 4 in Conf. 9.4.10 was designed explicitly to address the Manicheans and that a Manichean perspective is thus necessary for a balanced reading of the Confessions.[10] Yet, Kotzé also notes that Augustine’s interpretation of “Psalm 4 in Enarrationes in Psalmos is in general terms.”[11] Mays agrees, stating that “Psalm 4 is an individual prayer for help. Its occasion is the trouble caused by falsehood.”[12] Similarly, Craigie agrees and notes that

Psalm 4 is traditionally classified as an individual lament…[and that] the original thrust and context of the psalm remain uncertain and its anonymity contributes further to this uncertainty.[13]

To be sure, Augustine does not consider the author of this Psalm to be anonymous but instead accepts the superscription that David is indeed the author, stating that “the historical books tell us that David the prophet used the psaltery as part of a great mystery.”[14] Furthermore, in congruence with Canty’s observation that Augustine’s sermon on the Psalms reflect the totus Christus hermeneutic and that “as Augustine reads the psalms, he finds that nearly every verse could speak about either Christ or the Church or Christ and the Church together,”[15] Augustine highlights that Psalm 4 is also “the words of the Lord-Man after the resurrection, or those of any member of the Church who believes and hopes in him.”[16]

Nevertheless, Augustine is also unable to identify the exact source of the Psalmist’s anguish, except that he cries out to God in 4:1 to “give me relief from my distress” (NIV). Kidner notes that the word “distress” (ṣǎr) and its implications of being in a tight corner are brought out well in the NEB translation “I was hard pressed, and thou didst set me at large,” and Augustine makes much of this concept of God “enlarging the heart” or “leading the Psalmist into spacious freedom,” suggesting that reaching out and praying to God is both the right response to distress and the path towards relief.[17]

To paint a more vivid image, Waltke notes that the Psalmist’s petition for salvation “pictures his distress as a situation from which he cannot extricate himself and his salvation as make room, enlarge the space (to escape the strait).”[18] In the midst of this, by examining the grammatical changes in the verse, Augustine poses the question of why the Psalmist would intentionally move from the grammatical third person (he heard) to the second (you led me into spacious freedom). He states that it must be for reasons beyond stylistic preference, yet

if it be not done for the sake of variety and grace, it is strange why the Psalmist should first wish to declare to men that he had been heard, and afterwards address Him who heard him.[19]

In response, Augustine suggests that this grammatical change of person is intentional in showing what it means to have one’s heart enlarged or given relief from distress, that is, to be able to converse with God, groan, or cry out to God, which Augustine uses as synonyms for prayer.[20] Specifically, Augustine states:

Perhaps it was because after he had indicated how in the enlargement of his heart he had been heard, he preferred to talk with God; for this was another way of showing what it means to have our heart enlarged, to have God poured into our hearts already: it means that we can converse inwardly with him.[21]

In other words, according to Augustine, relief from distress is not necessarily found in changing or improved circumstances, nor is it found in immediate vindication. Instead, Augustine states that relief can be found in the presence of God and being able to converse with him through prayer; a privilege and honour which is bestowed upon those who trust in Jesus Christ.[22] Consequently, Augustine proceeds to quote Romans 5:3–5, stating that having the presence of God and being able to access God through prayer is what it means to be able to “rejoice in our sufferings … because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (ESV).

According to Augustine, what matters in times of distress is being able to call out to and be heard by the Lord, the one who leads “into the broad open fields of joy and gladness.”[23] Apparently, this point is so abundantly clear that Augustine questions the need for the repetition of the call to “have mercy on me and hear my prayer” at end of Psalm 4:1, and suggests that these words were written purely for the sake of the readers who believe but are patiently awaiting perfection of understanding. For Augustine, prayer is the path towards relief because it leads to deep engagement with God.

Consequently, Boice highlights that Psalm 4

could be classified in two ways and is perhaps best seen as a combination of two genres. It is a psalm of individual lament, but it is also a psalm of confidence. In fact, it moves from one to the other, from distress to quiet confidence in God.[24]

Craigie also similarly clarifies that “more precisely it is a psalm of confidence in which the innocent worshiper rises above the grounds of lamentation with sure trust in God.”[25] According to Augustine, the key to this movement from distress to confidence is found through reaching out in prayer.

Moreover, commenting on Psalm 4:3, Augustine also suggests that prayer is also the right response to distress as a way to learn that God hears us in our cries, thereby cultivating our confidence and dependence upon him. Weaver states that prayer in Augustine’s theology has a pedagogical function and states that “Augustine believed that it is as one prays, in however inadequate a fashion, that God corrects and strengthens one’s yearning.”[26] Therefore, prayers do not necessarily need to have a particular desire in mind—it could be an expression of yearning or it could be to learn an important lesson. Augustine expresses this theology of prayer in addressing the last sentence of Psalm 4:3 (“the LORD hears when I call to him”) and states “I believe that here we are being warned to invoke God’s assistance with great earnestness of heart, with the cry from within which does not come from the body.”[27]

It is interesting to note here that Augustine does not make clear what it is that the reader should implore help or pray for, except that they should. Instead, Augustine states, “we are to take it thus: the Lord will hear you, when you cry unto Him,” suggesting that the point of prayer is simply to learn that God hears us when we cry out to him in times of distress and we can reach out in confidence knowing that we are not alone.[28]

This posture of prayer is relevant for the church as she continues to identify appropriate responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Upon reflection of Augustine’s use of the Psalms, McCarthy writes that

Augustine’s frequent reminder that we groan in the present condition suggests a form of resistance to premature solutions of the multiple problems that he faced as a fifth-century bishop.[29]

Therefore, reaching out in prayer enables the church to have confidence in the midst of confusion and respond with poise rather than panic.

2. Reflect

The second invitation that Augustine offers to those in distress through Psalm 4 is to reflect on the object of our worship. According to Augustine, there are few things more consequential than the question of who or what one worships.[30] He writes in the Confessions that

man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you … he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you,

thereby emphasizing that one’s sense of peace, contentment, happiness, and joy rests on whether one is worshipping rightly.[31]

Therefore, Augustine uses this opportunity in his commentary on Psalm 4 to illustrate that false worship leads to further despair while right worship leads to joy even in the midst of disappointments. He accomplishes this in two ways; first, by criticising the “people” (NIV) or “exalted ones” (CSB) of 4:2 and secondly, by confirming the blessings from the Lord in 4:7. Waltke notes that the vocative (benê’ ʾîš’) in 4:2 is not recognized by most English translations, but it “refers to men of rank and of social eminence and wealth.”[32] Augustine picks up on these figures and asks these questions of them:

Why do you wish to be blessed by the most worthless things? ... why therefore are you shackled to the love of temporal things? Why do you pursue things that are ultimately inconsequential as if they were of paramount importance? This is no more than vanity and lying. For you want all those things which pass away like a shadow to stay with you on a permanent basis.[33]

Through this series of rhetorical questions, Augustine not only forces those in 4:2 who “love delusions and seek false gods” (NIV) to reflect upon their pursuits and worship—he also exposes the inherent worthlessness, insignificance, and fragility of these loves. The framing of these pursuits as “temporal loves” not only reiterates the motif of misplaced loves as a recurrent theme in Augustine’s theology—it also emphasizes the real attractiveness that “delusions” or “vanity” (rîq) and “lies” (kā·zāḇ) have on the human heart. These false objects of worship have a gravitational force to them that is both subtle, yet significant, and left unchecked, they can have an overwhelming grip on one’s life. Augustine warns of the dangers of these temporal pursuits in his commentary on verse 9, stating:

When the mind is given over to temporal pleasures, is always burning with desire and cannot be satisfied, when it is stretched this way and that by all sorts of conflicting and miserable thoughts, it does not allow itself to see the good which is uncompounded.[34]

Therefore, Augustine intentionally uses the distresses that the Psalmist faces as an occasion to invite readers to reconsider the objects of their worship and demonstrate that the worship of anything or anyone apart from the Lord God is ultimately futile.

It is often in times of great distress and tragedy that the fundamental questions of life are revisited, and Augustine shows that God is not disinterested in this, stating that “the human race is admonished to turn to God, even at the eleventh hour, from its love of this world.”[35] Through Psalm 4, Augustine is showing that distress can be viewed as an opportunity to reflect upon the chief loves of our hearts and reconfigure our misplaced worship.

To be sure, according to Augustine, the pursuit of temporal things does bring an increase of sorts, yet these increases never satisfy. More specifically, he states that those pursuing temporal pleasures are the ones experiencing the gain of grain and wine (4:7), yet they are also the ones asking, “who can show us anything good?” (4:6). It is apparent that acquiring and gaining more does not satiate if that which is acquired does not fulfil our fundamental need or desire.

As Bourke states, Augustine has a clear differentiation between “fleshly joy (gaudium carnale) in sensory experience and inner joy (gaudium in mente) in the goods of the spirit.” [36] Consequently, to highlight the folly of false worship, Augustine writes that “increase does not always mean plenty; it can also mean poverty,” because true increase, satisfaction, and joy are found not in external temporal things, but in looking inwardly; not in pursuing temporal pleasures (4:1) and by hoping or trusting in the Lord (4:5).[37]

Consequently, beyond criticizing those in 4:2 of false worship, Augustine also invites his readers to reflect upon the Lord God, the one truly worthy of worship and the one who offers joy and satisfaction. He does this by contrasting temporal pleasure and true joy, and commenting on 4:7, Augustine writes that:

Joy, therefore, is not to be sought outside oneself, by those who, still heavy in heart, love emptiness and chase falsehood. Rather, it is sought within, where the light of God’s face is stamped.[38]

Augustine does not leave his readers to guess what he means by looking or seeking from within. He states simply that:

the human individual has been made in God’s image and likeness, something which each has corrupted by sinning. Therefore, true and eternal goodness is ours if we are minted afresh by being born again.[39]

According to Augustine, the one who is born again has Christ dwelling in the inner person.[40] Thus, it is through Jesus Christ that one’s marred image is restored, and it is by focusing exclusively on this Christ who redeems and recovers brokenness that one’s joy and satisfaction is found. In other words, it is to love God and not the world and it is to turn to God and not the temporal goods that this world has to offer.

The invitation to pause and reflect is also appropriate for the church because the COVID-19 crisis and its threat to public health and safety will continue to open up spaces for the church to challenge the world about what it worships, and humbly offer the joy and peace of Christ as the all-satisfying answer.

3. Rest

The third and final invitation that Augustine offers is to rest in the Lord. The Psalmist writes in 4:8 “in peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (ESV) and Augustine recognizes that the Psalmist is offering two types of peace and safety. On the one hand, Augustine states that these words are uttered by the “person of faith” who is not entangled by the concerns of this world and is focused inwardly on Christ. More specifically, he writes that one is able to rest in joy “when all the time these things [goods] are to be sought on the inside, in simplicity of the heart, rather than on the outside, by using the eyes.”[41] These are those who recognise the limited nature of temporal goods, this world, and all it has to offer, and chooses to love them not as ends unto themselves but as a means of enjoying the source of all goods, namely, the Lord God. Consequently, the absence of earthly goods will not ultimately shake them because their sense of joy, peace, and safety were not anchored on any of these things to begin with.

On the other hand, Augustine also notices that the language of rest and sleep also indicate something more permanent than peace and joy through Christ in the midst of adversity. Significantly, Augustine states that this true sense of peace comes from eternal life in Christ. Augustine writes that:

Believers rightly hope for a complete separation of the mind from mortal things and for the opportunity to forget the miseries of this world. This is fittingly and prophetically described by the terms rest and sleep, which is where the greatest peace can be disturbed by no commotion. But this is not within our grasp at present, in this life. Instead, it is something to be hoped for after this life.[42]

It is apparent that there is an eschatological shape to Augustine’s invitation to rest in the Lord, thus he appropriately concludes his commentary on Psalm 4:8 by quoting Romans 8:25: “but if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Therefore, peace and safety in the midst of adversity and hardship are possible not only because Christ is their hope, but also because eternal life through Christ is their hope.

Conclusion

As noted earlier, the exact circumstances surrounding the composition of this Psalm remains unknown. Therefore, this uncertainty makes it difficult to offer a specific application to a specific scenario. Yet, Craigie highlights that

the lack of precise identification of either adversaries or accusations is a part of the genius of the psalm, and that which makes it so appropriate for use by any man or woman.[43]

The relevance of Psalm 4 and Augustine’s commentary on it thus urges the contemporary reader to consider four implications.

First, it should restore the Psalms to a place of prominence in the daily life of the contemporary Christian and church. Godfrey observes that:

throughout history, the book of Psalms has been treasured by many Christians in many places. In the ancient and medieval periods, the Psalms were studied and sung very frequently, especially by monastics.[44]

Yet, this description fails to match the practices and exercises of the modern church, much to her own demise. The church ought to recover the reading, preaching, meditation, praying, and singing of the Psalms given the richness of expression and hope that the book has to offer, and in doing so, present the world a view of God that knows the struggles of a fallen world and promises to restore it.

Secondly, it should lead the church to be an intercessory voice for the world. Augustine states that Psalmist finds hope and confidence as he engages with God in prayer, thus the believer should be motivated to turn to God in times of troubles and trials to find comfort and peace. But more than that, since God promises to offer joy and security to those who turn to him, the church should be constantly interceding; asking that the lost—those pursuing temporal pleasures, would turn to God and rest in him. As our world continues to move from one instability to the next, what people need more than ever is to worship rightly.

Thirdly, it should embolden the church to be a prophetic voice to the world. Augustine uses the occasion of the Psalmist’s distress to challenge the “wealthy” and implore them to give up on their false loves and worship.[45] Therefore, if God is where restless hearts find rest, then the church should take up the privilege of encouraging and engaging the world to reflect on the object of their worship. It is thus of little surprise that commentators have noted that some have viewed Psalm 4 as “as a liturgical-instructional psalm calling the community to put away false gods and worship the living God.”[46]

Fourthly, it should move the church to look towards their eschatological hope. From age to age, the church can often run the risk of an over-realised eschatology and forgetting that the promises of God will only be perfect in the New Creation. So that, while Christ does offer joy and peace now that nothing else can compare, what he offers in the future restoration is even greater. Thus, based on Augustine’s commentary on Psalm 4, readers are invited, regardless of life’s tragedies and trials to reach out to God in prayer, reflect on the object of one’s worship, and rest in the Lord. The COVID-19 situation may intensify, yet those who reach, reflect, and rest need not be crippled by fear because the Lord is their confidence, the Lord is their joy, and the Lord will give them peace.

Elliot Ku is an Assistant Pastor at GracePoint Presbyterian Church (Sydney, Australia) and PhD candidate at Christ College. His current research focuses on Augustine's theology of joy in Enarrationes in Psalmos.

[1] N.T. Wright, “Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It's Not Supposed To," Time, 2020, https://time.com/5808495/coronavirus-christianity/. (emphasis added)

[2] Andy Davis, ”Surprised by Hopelessness: A Response to N. T. Wright," The Gospel Coalition, 2020, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/coronavirus-response-to-nt-wright/.

[3] Wright, "Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It's Not Supposed To."

[4] Wright, "Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It's Not Supposed To."

[5] Gavin Ortlund, Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals: Why We Need Our Past to Have a Future (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 45.

[6] Bruce K. Waltke, James M. Houston, and Erika Moore, The Psalms as Christian Worship: An Historical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 215.

[7] John H. Eaton, Kingship and the Psalms (Sheffield: JSOT, 1986), 29–30.

[8] Peter C. Craigie, Psalms 1–50, vol. 19, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1983), 79–80.

[9] Mitchell Dahood, Psalms I 1–50, Anchor Bible Commentary (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), 23–24.

[10] Annemaré Kotzé, "Reading Psalm 4 to the Manicheans," Vigiliae Christianae 55, no. 2 (2001): 135.

[11] Kotzé, "Reading Psalm 4 to the Manicheans," 132.

[12] James L. Mays, Psalms (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox, 1994), 55. (emphasis added)

[13] Craigie, Psalms 1–50, 19, 79.

[14] Enarrat. Ps. 4.1

[15] Aaron M. Canty, "Augustine's Totus Christus Hermeneutic for Interpreting the Psalms," Biblical Research 53 (2008): 60.

[16] Enarrat. Ps. 4.1

[17] Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 72.

[18] Waltke, Houston, and Moore, The Psalms as Christian Worship: An Historical Commentary, 230. (emphasis original)

[19] Enarrat. Ps. 4.2 (emphasis added)

[20] Augustine, in Enarrationes in Psalmos 3.4, describes crying out to God as prayer because the act of crying out is not necessarily an activity of the voice but of the heart. It is “not with the voice of the body, which is drawn out with the sound of the reverberation of the air; but with the voice of the heart, which to men speaks not, but with God sounds as a cry. By this voice Susanna was heard; and with this voice the Lord Himself commanded that prayer should be made in closets, that is, in the recesses of the heart noiselessly.” Therefore, Maria Boulding in her notes on Enarrat. Ps. 3.4 suggests that prayer in Augustine’s theology can be described as “silent shouting.” See Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms: 1–32, ed. John E. Rotelle, trans. Maria Boulding (New York: New City Press, 2000), 78.

[21] Enarrat. Ps. 4.2 (emphasis added)

[22] Augustine states that the one who has God poured into their hearts and is able to converse inwardly with God “is rightly understood as spoken in the person of him who, believing on Christ, has been enlightened.” Enarrat. Ps. 4.2

[23] Enarrat. Ps. 4.2

[24] James M. Boice, Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 37.

[25] Craigie, Psalms 1–50, 19, 79.

[26] Rebecca H. Weaver, "Prayer," in Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, ed. Allan Fitzgerald et al. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 671.

[27] Enarrat. Ps. 4.5

[28] Enarrat. Ps. 4.5

[29] Michael Cornelius McCarthy, "An Ecclesiology of Groaning: Augustine, the Psalms, and the Making of Church," Theological Studies 66, no. 1 (2005): 47. (emphasis added)

[30] Levering writes that according to Augustine, sin and rebellion can be rightly understood as misplaced worship. He writes that “to understand our origin and to attain our end, we must come to realize that we have been disordered by a profound rebellion. This rebellion manifests itself in disordered desire: we seek happiness not in eternal things but in ambition, sexual pleasure, and so forth. Most important, our rebellion manifests itself in false worship.” See Matthew Levering, The Theology of Augustine: An Introductory Guide to His Most Important Works (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2013), 110. (emphasis added).

[31] Confessiones, 1.1

[32] Waltke, Houston, and Moore, The Psalms as Christian Worship: An Historical Commentary, 231.

[33] Enarrat. Ps. 4.3 (emphasis added)

[34] Enarrat. Ps. 4.9

[35] Enarrat. Ps. 4.4

[36] Vernon J. Bourke, Joy in Augustine's Ethics (Villanova, PA: Villanova University Press, 1979), 41.

[37] Enarrat. Ps. 4.9

[38] Enarrat. Ps. 4.8

[39] Enarrat. Ps. 4.8

[40] Enarrat. Ps. 4.8

[41] Enarrat. Ps. 4.9

[42] Enarrat. Ps. 4.9 (emphasis added)

[43] Craigie, Psalms 1–50, 19, 82.

[44] W. Robert Godfrey, Learning to Love the Psalms (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2017), 4.

[45] Waltke, Houston, and Moore, The Psalms as Christian Worship: An Historical Commentary, 231.

[46] Nancy L. deClaisse-Walford, Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth L.N. Tanner, The Book of Psalms, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014), 79.