Psalm 16

Don't hug when there are items to be spilled nearby. While investigating Psalm 16, I spilled a glass of wine on my hostess and managed to spill my son's coffee - two separate incidents, both over a hug. Perhaps these illustrate the wording of verse 5 - the LORD deals with my cup of wine and has dealt me my lot (the coffee is with a street person who is my adopted son and who woke me up at 7:30 this morning - I never sleep that late, and I was angry - I don't wake in fear or anger. I just didn't want to deal with that son this morning. There's a book in that sentence.)

I expect there are a few children of glory that the LORD doesn't want to deal with. (How long must I bear with you!) But I did deal with him at a local restaurant with money extracted from a machine in the early morning before church - O my hypocritical enravished soul! I did not deal with him at home since my other adopted son was asleep and had worked hard the previous day. Why does one son have a home and another does not? God is love and deals our lot with care to let us engage as we must. So we also deal with each son recognizing what we cannot do because he must do it. Does this help with some of the theodicy problem? We have other children too.

More to come - comparing Dahood and Craigie and other earlier commentaries is a hoot. The disagreements are so far fetched and the manuscript interpretations so wide, I think one might be able to make anything up about this Psalm. How can I as poet leave it as ambiguous as the evidence we seem to have?