Eisegesis 101: Psalm 105:15

Eisegesis: the practice of reading meaning into a text, using presuppositions and assumptions, as opposed to exegesis, which is the “drawing from” or “extracting the meaning” from a text.

saying, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!” (Psalm 105:15)

It is not uncommon to hear this verse used in defense of teachers/pastors when one questions their teaching(s). It is especially common within the Pentecostal/Charismatic world to put up a fence around teachers. The teacher/pastor, having been “anointed” by God to teach/preach, proclaims or does something. Discerning readers/listeners question the biblical veracity of said teaching/action and either the teacher/pastor or supporters of the teacher/pastor (“Defender Of The Anointed” or, for our purposes going forth, “DOTA”) thus respond with, “The Bible says, ‘Touch not mine anointed!” The defense is therefore thrown back in the objector’s face, as if the objector were in effect challenging God Himself by questioning the teaching or action. Our challenges are this: 1) is that actually what the verse says?, and 2) is that actually what the verse means? Let us examine the challenges.

First, let us look at a plain reading of the verse. Is the DOTA of the “anointed” quoting it properly? Well, let’s see….

Here we have the verse cited from the ESV, the the KJV, the NKJV, the NASB and the HCSB:

saying, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!” (ESV)

Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. (KJV)

“Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm.” (NASB)

Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm.” (NKJV)

“Do not touch My anointed ones, or harm My prophets.” (HCSB)

The “Touch not mine anointed” verbiage is actually a quote from the KJV, so we can agree with the defender as far as that goes. Quoting Scripture accurately – even if only a phrase – does not, however, prove that the point being made is an accurate one. We need to look no farther than the temptation of Christ by Satan as an example of this. In Matthew 4, Satan tempts Jesus and in verse six Satan quotes from Psalm 91 in order to support his proposition. Did Satan quote accurately? Yes – look it up. Did he quote properly, though? No, as Jesus made quite clear with His response. Therefore, merely quoting a verse accurately to make one’s point does not necessarily prove the point (cf. the nearly universal misuse of Matthew 7:1).

Let us again work through the logic of the DOTA:

Their teacher/pastor is anointed. (Let’s be clear – we are not denying the anointing of people. The NT is clear that people are anointed. Clear as well, though, that believers are anointed – not just certain believers [cf. 2 Cor. 1:21; Heb. 1:9; 1 John 2:20, 27])
The pastor/teacher proclaims something, say, a biblical principle, teaching or conclusion, or performs some form of action.
Someone objects to the proclamation or action upon biblical grounds
The DOTA responds with, “Touch not mine anointed!” with Psalm 105:15 as the basis for the defense, rendering the pastor/teacher as a form of untouchable, being beyond critique.

Our issue to resolve is this: is the verse being applied correctly by the DOTA? We believeth not and will now set out to establish an exegetical basis for our belief.

Psalm 105 is a psalm where the Psalmist desires to tell of the wonderful works of the Lord with regard to His chosen people Israel. Our challenge here is to not read too much New Testament language concerning “Israel” into the Psalm. The Psalm is an explicit commentary on the Lord’s work on behalf of ethnic Israel. What the Lord did on behalf of Israel is described in the past tense (cf. vv 12-14, 16-45). This Psalm looks backward, not forward.

Our writer says this about the people – they are to do something in the present (e.g., give thanks, make known his deeds, sing, tell, glory in his holy name, seek the Lord and his presence, remember his wondrous works – vv. 1-5) and the writer tells us who is to do this: the offspring of Abraham, the children of Jacob, his chosen ones (v. 6).

Then he makes statements concerning the Lord – statements concerning who he is and what he does and the promises he makes (vv. 7-11).

Verses 12-15 are the relevant ones for our purposes here. Note these verses are one sentence – therefore, we ought exercise caution in extracting one phrase from a sentence in order to establish a point. Can we do that – extract a thought to make a point? Yes. But prudence is in order when doing so – there needs to be firm ground for doing so.

Verse 12 – “When they were few in number, of little account, and sojourners in it,” Who is “they?” The people of God. Few in number? Deut. 7:7 says “you were the fewest of all peoples.” “Of little account” – God’s people were certainly not a great nation along the lines of an Egypt with its military might and engineering prowess which resulted in the construction of the Pyramids. God chose His people specifically because they were not of great account – but because they were of little account, in order to show his might, power and glory. These people were a nation of travelers (“sojourners”) – as they traveled, they….

Verse 13 – ….wandered from nation to nation, encountering kings and nations along the way. God showed the nation kindness along the way as they sojourned, encountering kings and nations, in this manner…

Verse 14 – not allowing these people to be oppressed – yes, there were incidents of opposition but the Lord ultimately protected His people. For example, Genesis 35:5 says, “as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.” The peoples’ mission would not be deterred, and the Lord, showing His sovereignty, even rebuked kings on behalf of His people – He afflicted Pharaoh in Genesis 12 and rebuked Abimelech in Genesis 20.

Verse 15 – the Lord did all these things described in v. 14 for the protection of His people – but where is this quote from (“Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!”)? This is not a direct verbatim quote but a quote of principle. In Gen. 20:7, Abraham is referred to as a “prophet,” giving the word a broader sense than what we may think. “Prophets” such as Abraham were those who heard from God (cf. Gen. 12:1-3). It was clear as the people traveled, they were under the sovereign, protective hand of God – and those who they were to encounter were not to harm them. The verse, though, says nothing about a prohibition of criticism or a shield of sorts placed in front of/against shepherds/teachers. This is only to do with God’s protection of His people as a whole in certain times and situations in the Old Testament.

Teachers are subject to having their teaching reviewed – the Scripture is clear on that and such review occurs from both a human (Gal. 1:6-10) and a divine (James 3:1) perspective. Therefore, the DOTA who uses Psalm 105:15 to argue against any and all criticism or accountability for the “anointed” in contemporary terms is eisegeting the verse and therefore misapplying it.