Sep 01 2009
Upon a Throne of Praise
Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool. (Psalms 99:5)
Nonverbal touch and gesture are essential means by which animals communicate with one another. Including our kind. In his book, Collision of Wills: How Ambiguity About Social Rank Breeds Conflict, Roger Gould addresses the many ways gesture can both sustain and disturb perceptions of social rank. He makes a nod to the plasticity of human behavior, writing,
“All it takes is a conventional understanding that a gesture is disrespectful for it to be so. Likewise, it is sufficient that a gesture be a conventional expression of respect (shaking hands, tipping one’s hat, saying good-bye) for its omission to be construed as insulting.”
(19)
Clever creatures, aren’t we? We are quick to perceive social slight, obsessed with pursuing accommodation and compliment. Much of our status-establishing-and-regulating behavior is in fact verbal, but perhaps not overtly so. The emotional and social elements of language frequently get overshadowed by the informational content. But still we are sensitive to it and it will puncture our conscious awareness periodically.
It wasn’t what you said but how you said it!
Wouldn’t it be nicely clear if human social strivings were as obvious as the chimpanzees? “When a chimp threatens a rival, or responds to a threat from one (or from a predator), its hair stands on end, making it seem larger than life.” (20) But that isn’t obviously the case with our kind. Rather than hair, perhaps we resort to words. Darwin himself speculated about the when/why of the human obsession over public opinion. He wrote that even “savages” highlight “the trophies of their prowess” and engage in boasting. (21) Human beings generally don’t show physical strength by beating their chests; instead they will talk of their accomplishments and display visual evidence of them: material possessions, photos of their fantastic offspring, and pics and sovereigns from extravagant vacations, etc.
In a highly fascinating speculation about human dynamics, The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life, Robin Wright reveals the interconnectedness of social concerns, habitual emotional reactions, and morality. One comment about the innate human ability to show deference exposes what I think is a core element of the psychology of self-esteem, one that goes overlooked far too often — the social element.
“If one function of low self-esteem is to keep high-status people satisfied with your deference, then its level, strictly speaking, should depend on how much deference it takes to do that.” (22)
Pride has been called a deadly sin. Why? To be a brown-nose-kiss-ass is also condemned. Why? The astute social creature knows where (among whom) and when (under what circumstances) to signal their power. Or their relative lack.
Having arrived at the topic of deference as a means of placating those of higher status, let us segue into the topic of religion.
Language is symbolic behavior. High-ranking individuals are frequently given titles that are the verbal equivalent of a pedestal. Father, reverend, president, doctor . . .
The Bible is replete with “master” speak and controversy that boils down to relative status. Even Jesus was not above such squabbles. In his book on the Christian messiah and New Testament writings, Russell Shorto highlights this point in talk of John the Baptist.
“[T]he evangelists go out of their way to elevate Jesus and lower John, when the likelihood was that for a time Jesus was the disciple and John the master.” (23)
But how could John be the master of The Master?
Perform a keyword search of the New International Version of the Bible for “praise” and the result will be not a few dozen hits, but a few hundred verses that contain that string of letters. Why? Praise is a verbal polishing of the throne of high status. And in a book about the most alpha of Alphas we encounter cover-to-cover content about how to show Him he is the Highest and how to not send the wrong message (and what wrath will befall you if you do).
Words are powerful things.
The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD. (1 Samuel 3:19-20)
Words symbolize events. Just as “words can fall to the ground,” they can lift up and soar. With a open palm one can slap another person in the face. Similarly, with well-chosen words one can slap another person in the . . . reputation/esteem/status?
Among the non-human primates there is a grooming gradient, reflecting relative rank. Among humans there appears to be a praise gradient. Both quantity and quality of words count.
David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, “Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. (1 Chronicles 29:10-11)
In his praise David assures his lord that the lord is greatest and “exalted as head over all.” In my opinion this is little more than pecking-order concerns extended into the realm of the imaginary.
“O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God.” (Nehemiah 1:5)
“Hey God! You the man!”
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel (Psalms 22:3)
Exactly. Lacking a throne of praise and exalting words, written and/or spoken, how is a god to stay atop the human mind?
In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever. (Psalms 44:8)
Boast? By praising a name forever we assure the being’s continued high status.
They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. (Acts 12:22-23)
Verbal disrespect by neglect. How dare you not speak highly of the highest!
Yes, hierarchies are a serious thing to human beings, both of the explicit sort and the implicit. The Bible bulges with each.
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(19) Gould, R. V. Collision of Wills: How Ambiguity About Social Rank Breeds Conflict, University of Chicago, Chicago, 2003, p. 57
(20) Wright, R., The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life , Vintage, NY, 1995, p. 266 (22) Wright, R., 1995, p. 266
(22) Wright, R., 1995, p. 270
(23) Shorto, R. Gospel Truth: The New Image of Jesus Emerging from Science and History, and Why it Matters, Riverhead Books, New York, 1997, p. 103
