Welcome back to A Sharp Knife Is Safer. Today’s iteration is inspired by the Psalms, the book you see when you open your Bible to the middle.
Psalm
Hear me, O Lord, in my time of sales, and lead me not to ruin. I lay out my banquet in the presence of my enemy; before him I hone the knife. In the pride of his household he says, “Dullness shall not come for me.” He thinks in his heart, “Through all generations my own weapon shall cut.” He sharpens his words against me, saying “I shall not buy.” Give me words of iron, that would separate his portion from him as flesh from bone. My sword I hold out front in honor, but the wicked man hides his dagger beneath his tongue. He sets his wallet against me; in the hiding place of his heart he robs me of my sale. Break the teeth that gnash against me, and the hands that dash my hope against the stones. Deliver me, O Lord, from the miser, and create for me a soft bed of his firstfruits. Lay me down among my riches and prepare an easy path in the shadow of the valley of want. Long may I dwell in your counting-house, and may I close forever and ever, Amen.
I do own a Bible, the New Oxford Annotated, plus the chunky Asimov’s Guide to the Bible and Christianity: The First Thousand Years, and the Chronicles of Narnia. I grew up Christian, went to Christian school K-12, learned God loves the Jews, hates the gays, and made the world in a week about 6,000 years ago. Tim Mucci and I drew on that background in our audio sitcom Roommate From Hell.
I’ve been an atheist since halfway through Christian college, but I’m grateful for 20 years of steeping in the lore. And I’m always surprised just how deep that lore goes:
Lately I’m reading God: An Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou. She writes that the ancient Israelites very much believed in a Yahweh with a body, who walked, ate, fought, and fucked. In addition to evidence from archaeology and outside texts, she points to verse after verse of the canonical Hebrew Bible. Centuries after their writing, the Jewish and Christian religious leaders who consolidated the canon believed in a more Platonic, incorporeal Yahweh, but even they could not scrub the counter-evidence from the text.
“Did you know,” I tell my wife, “that the Bible makes multiple references to God literally wrestling and killing a giant sea monster?”
“Are you telling me,” says my wife, “that some of the stories in the Bible…are made up?”
Recommendation: Gospels of the Flood by Jonas Kyratzes and Chris Christodoulou
“On the day that the continents began to sink, I lost my faith in God.” Gospels of the Flood is a fiction podcast, written in a literary mythical style, about the world washing away in a flood. It’s about philosophy, religion, atheism, and climate grief.
The opening of the first episode is a gorgeous piece of audio collage. The technique should be used more often. Even if you don’t listen to the whole show, I insist that you listen to the first minute of the first episode, and be awed.
Listen if you like: The Problem of Pain, the Broken Earth trilogy, The Leftovers, ANOHNI, Godspeed You! Black Emperor