The Language of Suspicion

"The lament Psalms of dislocation may be understood as an instance of the hermeneutic of suspicion. The lament Psalm of dislocation becomes necessary usually quite unexpectedly. It is necessary in a situation in which the old worldview, old faith perspectives, and old language are no longer adequate" [Walter Brueggemann, "The Psalms and the Life of Faith: A Suggested Typology of Function" in Soundings in the Theology of Psalms: Perspectives and Methods in Contemporary Scholarship. Edited by Rolf A. Jacobson (Fortress, 2011), p. 13.].

This is exactly what Job is struggling in the text. The hermeneutic of suspicion is what he is applying to his faith. He suspects the old because the old system fails to sustain his new experience, and it no longer decodes what is going on in Job's dislocation. Job's hermeneutic of suspicion is the way to search for a new place to relocate.

Job's friends apply the hermeneutic of symbols into their faith or everyone's faith. Different attributes of God symbolize such and such. The mystery of the cross must be understood in certain ways. The wind of the Spirit ought to be blown in a certain direction. As evangelicals, we talk about assurance of salvation: what God had already done in the objective work of Christ, and we are saved by grace through faith in the subjective work of the Spirit. However, we don't have any assurance of the ways of God and His ways in us. In other words, we are sure of our destination. Nevertheless, we are not so sure of our journeys. The problem of Job's friends is that they are so sure of God's ways from here to there. When you read their talks about God, they are right and sound biblical. But they are too dogmatic about the journeys, especially the journey of Job (as well as others). They are typical fundamentalists.

Job's plea and complaint means that God is much more than what He is now. The God of the future is coming behind the God of the present just like the God of the past comes before the God of the present. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8). The One who is to come is the One Job is hoping for and arguing towards.

Walter Brueggemann's interpretation of the Psalms captures my understanding of Job's new seeking:

"The Psalms move from petition and plea to praise...The form of Israel's speech is complaint and not lament; that is, protest and not resignation. There is expectation and even insistence that Yahweh can be moved to act and that Yahweh will act. And when Yahweh acts, Yahweh will bring things to a new life-order. The break between plea and praise in the Psalms reflects an important moment of realism" (p. 7).

Job's faith is dialectic and dynamic although he is dislocated. The faith of his friends may be in the right position before women and men. Yet, it's certainly not so right before God because it's patterned, static, and dead.