Psalms 1 and 2 have long been viewed by many exegetes as intimately connected. It has even been suggested that they were at one time a single psalm. Too much water has passed under the bridge for us to be certain about the second contention, but a close reading today does persuade the careful reader that they do, at the very least, play off and complement one another. Many have pointed out that Psalm 2 ends on the same note with which Psalm 1 began: ’ašrê, a macarism that we have translated as “truly fulfilled” in Psalm 1 and “enduring” in Psalm 2.[1] Both psalms, then, have an acute interest in establishing of what the truly “happy,” “fulfilled,” “enduring,” and “progressive” life consists.
 
Psalm 1 teaches that a life of advancement and fulfillment consists of rooting oneself deeply in the guidance and values that God provides in scripture, and in striving to live according to that guidance (1.2).
 
“How truly fulfilled [are]…
they [who] choose YHWH’s direction
   and consult his Tôrâ at all times.”[2]
 
At the same time, the fulfilling and progressive life consists of rejecting the guidance of the ungodly, whose unethical behavior is antithetical to a healthy and enduring society.
 
“How truly fulfilled is one who
   does not walk as directed by the ungodly,
does not stand in the path of the unethical,
   and does not sit in gatherings with sociopaths!”[3]
 
Psalm 1 concludes as it began with a warning about the ungodly. In addition to being built upon rejecting the guidance of the ungodly, avoiding their lifestyle, and refusing to cooperate or collaborate with them in their unethical sociopathy, the fulfilling and advancing life and society are also built on rejecting their often boisterous demands for influence, power, and governance in society.
 
“Therefore, the ungodly should not participate in a place of decision making,
   or the unethical have place in a just assembly.
For, YHWH promotes the norms of those who do right,
   but the norms of the ungodly are to perish.”[4]
 
In a sense, Psalm 2 opens where Psalm 1 opened and closed: with the wicked. But in Psalm 2, the wicked are represented by those in power. The governing. The first psalm’s warning about not allowing the ungodly to “participate in a place of decision making” has gone unheeded. Those who govern the nations and those who allowed them into the position they hold, are in open rebellion against God.
 
“Why do the nations raise such a ruckus,
   and entire populations grouse to no avail?
world’s kings offer resistance;
   world leaders form a united front
against YHWH
   and against his Māšîaḥ.” [5]
 
Such rebellion is not allowed to stand. Whether the nations and their citizenry know it or not, they are on borrowed time. They are given time to repent, but that time will not last to perpetuity.
 
“Now then, O kings, be sensible in your response.
      Learn your lesson, O rulers of the earth.
Serve YHWH with deference.
   Be content with cowering before him;
kissing the Son’s feet,
   lest he become enraged, and you be annihilated;
      for his anger can flare up in a flash.”[6]
 
There are many other truths to explore in these two psalms, and innumerable ways to examine them. But I’ve said what I wanted to say in this brief homily. These two introductory psalms preview themes that will run throughout the Book of Psalms, to wit:
 
The world is infested with many, millions, of ungodly, unethical, and sociopathic individuals. They freely offer their guidance and their values to the unsuspecting. They invite all to adopt these norms and values as their own and collaborate with them in society destroying activities. These ungodly, unethical, and sociopaths find their way into positions of governance. From these high perches, they foment rebellion against God until annihilation is the only possible end.
 
In his mercy, God has provided guidance that delivers us from the perilous traps the ungodly set. This guidance is found in his word, in scripture. By giving diligent attention to the word of God and striving to abide by the guidance found in it, we discover a life that is fulfilling and that allows for unknown progress and advancement.
 
Now, in my former, unrepentant life, I would end with this conclusion and bear testimony to the truth and reality of these things. But as I have so often said, “That was then.”
 
This is now.
 
“In 2016, a man—a man as ungodly, as unethical, as sociopathic, and as dismissive of God’s gracious guidance as any who had ever offered themselves for any public office in the United States—presented himself to Americans and asked that he be granted a position “in a place of decision making.”  The place of governance that he desired—the presidency of the United States—might possibly be the most powerful position of governance the world has ever known. He shamelessly offered his own brand of perverted guidance. He presented his own deviant norms. He invited others to join him. Collaborate with him.
 
Tragically, tens of millions joined him in his ungodliness, his immorality, his sociopathy. More tragic, notwithstanding the Psalmist’s warning that “the ungodly should not participate in a place of decision making,” millions who express love for and allegiance to the Book from which this warning comes, granted him a place of governance. This was a violation of the most basic of godly principles.
 
He and they have ever since been on rampage. They have raised a hellish ruckus. They have resisted God’s guidance and formed a united front in rebellion against God. Even with his defeat in 2020, he and his minions doubled down, fomented insurrection. Through these and many other anti-social activities, they have created a chasm between them and God that has only deepened and widened since then.
                                                    
No, such rebellion will not be allowed to stand. Whether the nation and its citizenry know it or not, they are on borrowed time. They are given time to repent, but that time will not last to perpetuity.                           
 
“Now then, O kings, be sensible in your response.
      Learn your lesson, O rulers of the earth.
Serve YHWH with deference.
   Be content with cowering before him;
kissing the Son’s feet,
   lest he become enraged, and you be annihilated;
      for his anger can flare up in a flash.”
 
Yes, in these two opening psalms of the Psalter, both individuals and nations can find much to guide them in their attitudes and behaviors. The two paths, fulfillment, advancement and endurance, or damnation and annihilation, are clearly set forth. All are free to choose their path, but not the consequences of their choice. Each path contains within its own course, the seeds of its own inevitable destination.
 
It would be hard to overestimate the importance and pertinence of these two psalms and their message to today’s world and to America in particular. It has a choice to make between advancement and annihilation. Lets hope they choose wisely.
 
“Moreover by thy word is thy servant warned:
   and in keeping of them there is great reward.”[7]
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
 
[1] We accept the proposal that ’ašrê comes from the root ’šr, meaning “advance,” “go/ walk forward.” As one author put it, the word “derives from a root meaning ‘to go forward,’ ‘to walk on,’ ‘to march steadily’ (cf. Akkadian, Arabic, etc.), perhaps even to progress in the way of comprehension” (Terrien, “The Psalms: Strophic Structure and Theological Commentary,” Eerdmans Critical Commentary, emphasis added).
[2] All psalm translations are mine unless noted otherwise.
[3] Psalm 1.1
[4] Psalm 1.5-6
[5] Psalm 2.1-3
[6] Psalm 2.10-12
[7] Psalm 19.11, KJV

My mind once again turns, as it so often has in recent years, to the Old Testament character, Cain (Qayin), the searching question God posed to him, and his belligerent response.
 
“YHWH asked Qayin, ‘Where is your brother, Hebel?’
He replied, ‘I don’t know. Am I responsible for my brother?’” (Gen. 4.9, author’s translation)
 
This exchange always deserves careful attention in its own right. It deserves the careful attention of all of us today because of its terrible relevance to current affairs. It earns my attention today because of my own struggles in dealing with the innumerable Cains our society has spawned.
 
The exchange between God and Cain deserves careful attention in its own right for a number of reasons. One can imagine any number of human activities, good and bad, that transpired in the years immediately following Adam and Eve’s exile from Eden[1] (I still smile every time I recall the painting that appeared many years ago in one Church publication or another. The painting portrayed Adam and Eve having a family home evening with their children. It makes me chuckle even now as I mention it.). Anyway, there had to have been billions of human acts before Cain’s violent murder of his brother, Abel. Yet, this was the first post-Eden story that the writers reported. It is astonishing, really. Some might even say it is perverted. But I say, it is remarkably apt that they should begin human history with a story of such perversion. Many, many thousands of years ago, someone or someones warned us about the nature of the human race. The planet is a violent place because of this dominant violent race. We should be on guard for the inevitable violence.
 
And, we should be on guard for the ungodly justifications of said violence. Again, we are struck by the Biblical writer’s bold and determined commitment to truth telling. For, just as there had to have been many billions of human actions between the departure from Eden and Cain’s murder, there had to have been gazillions of human words spoken in the same time frame. But, like the billions of human actions, the inspired writer passed over every one of the words and conversations, good and bad, without comment and reported these as the first human recorded words:
 
“I don’t know. Am I responsible for my brother?” (KJV, “I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?”).
 
This brings us to the present, one form of the present’s violence, and the relevance of Cain’s response to God’s query about the whereabouts of his brother. Syntactically, by means of its prefixed interrogative particle, ha-, the Hebrew text presents Cain’s response to God’s question as a question, “Am I responsible for my brother?” But even the most undiscerning reader knows that Cain’s question was not really a question. It was a statement. It was an arrogant and belligerent and unapologetic assertion that he had no responsibility for or to his brother. And since he had no responsibility for or to his brother, then he had no responsibility for or to anyone… but himself.
 
And even the most undiscerning libertarian reader knows that Cain’s assertion, masquerading as a question, was patently false; that his aggressive assertion is contrary to every feeling and principle that exists in the heart of God, as well as every hope and expectation he possesses for humanity.
 
And yet, millions of Americans, many of them Bible readers and professed Christians, have lived for the past two and a half years, essentially spitting Cain’s violent retort into the beautiful face of a God whom they claim to know and love, but whom they blaspheme with every breath they breathe.
 
“I will not mask. I will not be vaccinated. I have no responsibility and no obligation to and for anyone but myself. If others become sick, if others die because of my putrid breath, that’s on them, not on me.”
 
Even the most undiscerning libertarian Bible reader ought to know that this assertion is patently false; that this aggressive assertion is contrary to every feeling and principle that exists in the heart of Yahweh, as well as every hope and expectation he possesses for humanity. And they do know. But, they are like Amulek of Book of Mormon fame.
 
“I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling against God, in the wickedness of my heart… (Al. 10.6).
 
Like Amulek, they have made a choice. A willful choice. They have willfully chosen a lie over the truth. One can only hope that they, like Amulek, will find their own “fourth day of this seventh month.” For their sake and for the sake of all the rest of us.
 
This brings us to my own struggles in dealing with the innumerable Cains who have reincarnated in American society. What am I to do to with them? How can I trust them? How can I believe a word they say, but for those words in which they reveal their narcissism coupled with hatred of God and of others?
 
They stand and bear testimony that they know God lives; that Joseph Smith was a prophet; that the Book of Mormon is true; that the Church is led today by living prophets. And how, I wonder, am I supposed to believe that they have discerned the truth of all the things they claim to know when they cannot discern the truth of the existence of a sickening and potentially deadly pathogen? I do not question the veracity of all to which they testify, but I do question, doubt with a skepticism unlike any other I have known in my life, that they can discern such spiritual truths when they cannot discern the most simple of truths: a dead virus was loose among humankind and simple measure were needed in the face of it.
 
And what am I to do and feel when they stand and testify that they “love each and every one of you.” I know that they do not love me, and many others like me. They have shown me that by their works. If they loved those outside their insular families, they would have happily social distanced and worn a mask. They would be vaccinated. It is just that simple.

I simply cannot compartmentalize and separate their testimonial assertions from their deviant actions. Upon deciding that he had no responsibility for or to others and then living by that dictum, he became a “fugitive and a vagabond.” He was a pariah in society. Should these modern day Cains who are willing to see others sicken and die so that they can selfishly avoid the inconvenience and discomfort of a mask or shot be treated any differently? Why do their leaders treat them with kid gloves, coddle their violence?
 
As for me, I can no longer give them a listening hear. I hear only hypocrisy. These modern day Cains are, to me, a staggering and tottering people. They are wondering fugitives from the truth.[2]
 
Unfortunately, we are all—whether we like it or not, whether we want to be or not—connected. As Paul reminded us, what happens to one part of the body is felt by all members of the body. And so, their staggering and tottering has made a homeless wanderer of me. Those who I once thought of as friends,
 
“with whom, together, I enjoyed sweet companionship
         with whom, together, I walked among the worshippers…[3]
 
these now appear dangerous. Their actions shameful. Indecent. Cain-like. UnChrist-like.
 
I am torn. Do I, can I, maintain Alma’s perspective that “their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren.” Can I hope that God will give me and others “power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee”; reclaim them from their apostacy?[4]
 
Or, do I follow the Psalmist’s lead and resort to cold, hard execration?
 
“Let death come upon them;
            may they descend into hell while still alive
               because multiply evils are in their homes, deeply imbedded.”[5]
 
I don’t know. I vacillate back and forth between the two futures, not sure which one will finally win the day.
 
For now, I can only do as I have always done. Take refuge in him who is and always has been my go-to “hiding place.”[6] My true home.
 
“Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me:
   for my soul trusteth in thee: yea,
in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge,
   until these calamities be overpast.”[7]
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
 

[1] My discussion of events recorded in Genesis as if they were literal is simply rhetorical, much like I might do if I were discussing Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. But I do not take the events recorded in Genesis literally. As is the case with Shakespeare’s play, the importance of the principles expounded in Genesis far, far outweigh any value that might come from literal readings.
[2] See Gen. 4.14. The basic meaning of Hebrew, nûa‘ and nûd, KJV’s “fugitive” and “vagabond,” are “to stagger” and “to totter.” They can also have the more concrete meaning, “to wonder aimlessly” and “to be homeless.”
[3] Psalm 55.13-14, author’s translation
[4] Alma 31.35
[5] Psalm 55.15, author’s translation.
[6] Psalm 32.7
[7] Psalm 57.1