Psalms

We are forever looking for things God has done for us for which we can give him thanks. Things he has done for us and for no other people. That could be a temporal thing - we want things he has done for our generation and not for previous ones. That could be a spatial thing - we want things he has done for our village / town / county / nation and not for others. It could be both at once - things he has done for me and me alone.

Psalm 105 is a total contrast. It starts

Oh give thanks to the Lord;
call upon his name;

In the next week or two, The Well, the magazine that the church produces and distributes free of charge to all 5000 residents of our two parishes, will land on people's doormats.

As usual, page 4 has a letter from me:

Dear friends,

We’ve just come through the most unpredictable General Election for many years; people are talking not only of there being a new government but of a whole new way of doing politics. Time will tell what difference these changes will make, and whether they are great or small.

Anyone wanting to learn how Anglican Chant works as a musical style for the Psalms could look at a couple of introductory webpages.

There is a helpful one on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A15716595.

There is a helpful one on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglican_chant, where I particularly like the example given - with a colour-coded musical stave that can be matched up to the text of part of the Magnificat printed in the same colours. Nice.

They are not uncommon metaphors in the Psalms, but one after the other they offer a wonderful barrage of imagery portraying the security, shelter, help and support that God's people can find in their God. This was the shelter that Jesus availed himself of, first and foremost, and by extension is available to all who are in Christ.

• Rock
• Refuge
• Tower
• Tent
• Wings

Psalm 61:2-4:…
2. From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I,
3. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
4. Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah

Actually, I think all of those images are Exodus metaphors. I'm not sure about refuge, but the others are certainly images that God used of his protective relationship with his people in the wilderness. So these are not abstract, but concrete pictures, and they are pictures that are rooted in salvation history.

Anyway: Read. Chew on. Enjoy. … Oh - and take refuge!

It's Good Friday the day after tomorrow.

If, like me, you enjoy finding snippets to read to help you reflect on the events of Good Friday, may I recommend you take a visit to Steve Jeffery's blog, and read his post entitled The Deliverance of the Cross, where he reflects on Psalm 22, and why Jesus appropriates it in the way he does.

Maybe one day Steve will write a book of such thoughts.

We've been having a most enjoyable, instructive and edifying Lent Course here in Kemsing. John Goulding, a retired Anglican clergyman, has been taking the sessions, leading us through some of the Psalms. The feel of the evenings has been pleasantly relaxed, and as we've wandered together through the Psalter we've noticed all manner of things that has brought those Psalms to life in new ways. Many, many thanks to John for taking this course so well for us all.

Psalm 69 is David praying to God about his enemies that are more numerous than the hairs on his head. He is fearful lest others who love God suffer because David is known to love God and is in disrepute. It is because of his zeal for God that he suffers.

Verse 9, quoted in John 2, comes in that context. David has zeal for God’s house, and because of that zeal he is suffering as he is. So, “consume” does not just mean “absorb”, in the sense that he is consumed with passion for God’s house. Rather, his zeal for God’s house is eating him up; it is leading to his mistreatment.

How do we pray the Psalms as new covenant Christians? What difference does it make that they have been prayed before — now not just by king David but by king Jesus?

Is there any mileage in seeing the Lord's Prayer as a key part of this answer?

Having used it a little, Robert Alter's The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary looks to be a highly worthwhile book to have.

Robert Alter has done lots of work over the years on understanding how Hebrew poetry works. Here, he offers his own translation of the Psalms, together with a short commentary on the text. The comments are brief, but insightful. The translation is fresh, and where he differs significantly from most English versions he explains why he translates as he does.

Let me give an example, from Psalm 1:2

Translation:

But the LORD's teaching is his desire, and His teaching he murmurs day and night

Comment:

2. murmurs. The verb hagah means to make a low muttering sound, which is what one does with a text in a culture where there is no silent reading. By extension, predominantly in post-biblical Hebrew, it has the sense of “to meditate.”

I'm just discovering, and enjoying doing so, Goldingay's commentary on the Psalms. (Volume 1 covers 1-41, Volume 2 coverse 42-89, and Volume 3, not out until December 2008, will cover 90-150.)

Some snippets from the introduction: