Martha and the psalms of lament

Everyone remembers Martha, the sister of Mary and Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead as recounted in John 11. Although this episode is found in the New Testament, the dialogue between Jesus and Martha reflects the structure of the psalms of lament. This is the thesis of the late biblical scholar Gail R. O'Day in a remarkable article to which my wife alerted me last week, Martha: Seeing the Glory of God. (If you set up a free account, you can "borrow" this ebook for one hour.)

While past commentators, including such luminaries as Augustine, Chrysostom, and Calvin, have focussed on Martha's personality and on her emotional state during this episode, O'Day insists that we need to look instead at how her actions and words contribute to the unfolding of the gospel narrative. When we do so, we will notice the striking similarity between her words and a psalm of lament:

Martha's words move from complaint (v. 3) and petition (v. 21) to confidence (v. 24) and confession (v. 26). This movement mirrors the classic movement in Israel's psalms of lament, in which the petitioner begins with a plea that gives way to praise in the course of the psalm.

In the plea section of a lament psalm, the petitioner addresses God directly and tells God how desperate the situation is. The petitioner then asks God for help, and to strengthen the petition may also provide God with reasons why God should act. Psalm 13 is one of the most succinct examples of the lament form: direct address to God ("How long, O Lord") and complaint ("must I bear pain in my soul") (vss. 1-2), followed by petition ("consider and answer me, O Lord my God") in v. 3, and motivation in v. 4 ("lest my enemy").

Just as in the classic lament psalms, Martha addresses Jesus directly (note the double use of kurie in vss. 3 and 21), expresses her complaint (Lazarus is ill), which gives way to her petition in v. 21. Martha even provides Jesus with a motivation to act ("I know that whatever you ask God, God will give you").

O'Day's article is a reminder that the first-century Jewish community, of which Jesus and his disciples were members, was steeped in the biblical Psalter, from which they sang and prayed on a daily basis.