Psalm 18: In The Name Of God
Just who is created in who's image?
Not every psalm is worth emulating. This psalm illustrates the danger of moral superiority and what happens when people do bad things in the name of God.
In the spirit of Psalm 18, which like so many others is attributed to David, I’m reminded of a quotation attributed to thinkers from Henri Rousseau to Voltaire to Twain, “God created man in his own image. And man, being a gentleman, returned the favor.”
In the psalm, God doesn’t just save the author in his time of distress. God grants the author the permission to destroy everyone else.
We launch holy wars and inquisitions; we create laws and excommunications; we police other people’s bodies, religious practices, and lives; we do evil in the name of God. Because we feel that we are innocent, our hands are clean, we are pure, we are loyal, and we are blameless.
And with that sense of innocence, we can vanquish those we feel who are not blameless, those who we feel are perverse. They may cry out to God, but we don’t care, because we know that he wouldn’t answer them. We turn them to dust, and walk all over them. With that sense of superiority, we make others submissive, subjugate them, and treat them poorly, because we know what God truly wants.
The cognitive dissonance in Psalm 18 is overwhelming. 18:31 says that “God is a shield to all who seek refuge in him.” but 18:42 intimates that they cried out to God, but he did not answer them, and God let them be destroyed.
Constantine saw a cross of light in the sky, and had a vision of the words “ἐν τούτῳ νίκα”, or “in this, conquer.” The Ku Klux Klan wore white, as a symbol of purity. They burned crosses on Black people’s lawns, elevating the act of senseless hate into a religious ceremony. The women who screamed at Elizabeth Eckhart from Psalm 3 probably went to Bible study classes and read themselves into the Psalms as well. The people who forced their children into reparative therapy, who later committed suicide, also thought they were doing God’s work.
But as 18:48 makes very clear, it’s all about power.