Psalm 113 is famous for being sung during the Passover Seder as a part of the Egyptian “Hallel” Psalms, Psalms 113-118. These songs are used to offer praise and thanksgiving for the deliverance from Egypt.
Psalm 113 is also famous for lines that are echoed in two famous songs in the Old and New Testament. The images of Psalm 113 find expression in both Hannah's Song (1 Samuel 2:1–10) and Mary's Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55):
He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the trash heap
in order to seat them with nobles—
with the nobles of his people.
He gives the childless woman a household,
making her the joyful mother of children.
Psalm 113 describes God's concern for the poor and needy ("He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the trash heap"), a reversal of status ("to seat them with nobles"), and barrenness transformed to fruitfulness ("He gives the childless woman a household,
making her the joyful mother of children").
A few years ago I started to describe myself as a "post-progressive Christian." At the time I got a lot of eye rolls for coining that self-description. I couldn't tell why exactly. Perhaps progressive readers felt criticized. Some people seemed to feel that labels just create more divisiveness. For my part, I just needed a word to locate myself in a very confusing and shifting landscape.
I still feel that way, and I still claim my label of being a "post-progressive Christian." I think progressive Christianity has gone off the rails in many ways. Or reached a dead end. Some of this is mirrored in the left-wing extremism and overreach that caused independent swing voters, many of whom were young and people of color, to drift toward Trump in the last election. As a result, the Democrats are doing a lot of handwringing about how to move forward. Moderate? Double-down? They have yet to find a coherent strategy. Mostly, I think, they are hoping that Donald Trump implodes. Which he might, but you're still not putting forward a positive vision that can recapture the imagination of swing state voters.
My concerns, however, are less political and more spiritual, the effect of progressivism upon the faith of Christians and the witness of the church. Again, I've written about this at length. My main concern is how, via deconstruction, progressive Christianity dissipates into unbelief or a spiritual but not religious haze.
And yet, I still own the label "progressive." I'm not, like a lot of young Christians today, reacting against progressivism by embracing right-wing expressions of Christianity. I'm post-progressive, not anti-progressive. For example, I'm not "anti-Woke." I think "Woke" remains a good idea in its original conception and vision. Why? Because of Psalm 113. God raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the trash heap. I'm woke because I'm convinced of God's preferential option for the poor. This economic concern for the poor is Biblical, and I'm a Christian who prizes being Biblical. I'm woke because Jesus was woke:
Blessed are you who are poor,
because the kingdom of God is yours.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your comfort.
Perhaps I should say I'm post-Woke. As I wrote about in my original series on post-progressive Christianity, one of the ways I think progressives lost the thread is how, in the 1990s, they pivoted away from class issues to an identity-based politics. Politically, I think that was a mistake. I think the pivot away from Bernie Sanders to Hilary Clinton was fateful on this point, the party choosing identity over class, opening the way for Trump to make an appeal to Rust Belt and working class voters. But again, my concerns here are mainly religious. Because of texts like Psalm 113, I'm a liberation theologian. I espouse God's preferential option for the poor. I don't like identity politics, but my sympathies are deeply Marxist. Not as a fan of communist economies, but as a critical prophetic perch. "Marxist" as a relentless focus upon and concern for the material economic conditions of the poor. "Marxist" as a relentless criticism of the class disparities caused by capitalism. "Marxist" because when Babylon falls in Revelation 18 the merchants weep over her:
The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargo any longer—cargo of gold, silver, jewels, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; all kinds of fragrant wood products; objects of ivory; objects of expensive wood, brass, iron, and marble; cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, olive oil, fine flour, and grain; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and slaves—human lives.
But it's really not "Marxist." Or progressive. It's just deeply and profoundly Christian. Blessed are the poor, Jesus said, and woe upon the rich. For the Lord God raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the trash heap.
