Snoopy on the Psalms

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The Psalms would have been sung in Hebrew, no? That would contribute to a unique sound I imagine.
 
paradox3 said:
The Psalms would have been sung in Hebrew, no? That would contribute to a unique sound I imagine.
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Yep, they would be. Wonder if the Greek and Aramaic translations that likely came along in later eras were sung as well, though. But in the temple and synagogues, certainly Hebrew.
 
We had a Jewish guest speaker at church a few weeks ago. She said the people would sing the Psalms as they climbed the hill to Jerusalem.
 
It's too bad we don't have more of the Psalms sung in churches.
I remember singing the Byrds version of Ecclesiates 3, in church with our young peoples group...Turn, turn, turn.( Years ago)
 
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We used to read the Psalms responsively in church a few years ago but we no longer do this.

Many selections in VU have short versicles which are sung and repeated a few times. I always found them quite haunting.

We had one of the sung versions of Psalm 23 recently. VU has an abundance of material related to the Psalms.
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Here is a little anecdote related to the interpretation of poetry. I heard it from one of my high school English teachers.

Apparently Robert Browning was asked why he had chosen a particular phrase for one of his famous poems.

"I don't know," he said. "You will have to ask the Browning Society." :D
 
I find singing more spiritual than just saying the Psalms....you can close your eyes or not, hum along if you want, move your body, ...it would be freeing. IMO.
We sing as worship to God when we're cheerful, James 5:13
We sing to each other to encourage each other, Ecclesiates 5:18-20
We sing when we are indwelled with the word of Christ to express truth to each other. Colossians 3:16
 
I remember reading the Psalms responsively from the little blue hymn book (The Hymnary) when I was a child. There were vertical lines inserted in the text to help with the pacing. I think the selections were from the KJV.

There were no sung responses at all. I recall it being deadly boring.
 
paradox3 said:
I remember reading the Psalms responsively from the little blue hymn book (The Hymnary) when I was a child. There were vertical lines inserted in the text to help with the pacing. I think the selections were from the KJV.

There were no sung responses at all. I recall it being deadly boring.
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Been there, done that. Serious abuse of poetry in retrospect, even if I did it myself in the services I led.
 
LoL @ poetry abuse :D

Anyone remember our old friend Arminius/ Hermann? He used to say that scripture needed to be approached like an art form. .
 
paradox3 said:
LoL @ poetry abuse :D

Anyone remember our old friend Arminius/ Hermann? He used to say that scripture needed to be approached like an art form. .
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Some of it certainly does. Miss Hermann. He was quite a guy. Quite in tune with my thinking in a lot of ways.
 
Yeah Hermann was an interesting character who always saw matters of the spirit from more than one angle.
 
We had a minister who often started bible studies with these two questions about the passage:

What resonates with you?
What do you resist?

This might be a useful approach for the Psalms.
 
For Psalm 1 then.
What resonates?

The opening verse (as we have already discussed.)

The positive spin on God's commands. We can find pleasure in obeying and meditating on them.

The tree will yield its fruit at the proper time. Is this where "fruits of the spirit" originates?

The way of the wicked ends in destruction. I like this as a karmic statement or expression of natural consequence.

What do I resist?

That the godly one will succeed in everything attempted. Clearly this does not always happen.
 
Now that I think about this, the way of the wicked doesn't always end in destruction either. Maybe there's a little hyperbole being expressed both ways.
 
paradox3 said:
the way of the wicked doesn't always end in destruction either
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Yeah, the idea that the wicked will be their own undoing is a comforting thought that comes up time and again in various cultures but, let's be honest, more than a few of them die of natural causes unless they do something stupidly aggressive or people actually take action against them.

Of course, Christianity tends to read this as meaning they will be punished in Hell or on the Judgement Day but that's cold comfort to their victims, isn't it?
 
"With the loyal you show yourself loyal; with the blameless you show yourself blameless;...
and with the crooked you show yourself perverse (Psalm 18:25-26)."

In other words, God will educate you by allowing your skeptical or optimistic, positive or negative mindset to determine your experience of Him.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart... But be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him (37:4. 7)."

And here is the mindset most conducive to obtaining answers to prayer. This promise rings true in my experience, but I can be impatient and lose out by failing to spend time in meditating on my intimacy with God and by being unwilling to accept God's No.
 
Psalm 2 may take a couple of days to consider. It is addressed to the kings of the earth.

Serve the Lord in fear.
Repent in terror. (2: 11)

This Psalm offers rest in God but warns that God's anger will quickly ignite.
 
Psalm 2 could be read as a lamentation from God. "Why do the nation's rebel? Why are the countries devising plots that will fail?" (2: 1)

God could be lamenting the same thing today.

The text has a very messianic feel to it. Evidently the NT writers thought so, too. There are 7 references to Psalm 2 in the NT. Here is one of them:

www.biblegateway.com

Bible Gateway passage: Acts 13:32-33 - New English Translation

And we proclaim to you the good news about the promise to our ancestors, that this promise God has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son; today I have fathered you.’
www.biblegateway.com www.biblegateway.com
 
So nations are being bad. Things haven't changed much in 2500ish years, eh. And, yeah, there's definitely a Messianic quality to this.

I will give you the nations as your inheritance,[y]
the ends of the earth as your personal property.
9 You will break them[z] with an iron scepter;[aa]
you will smash them like a potter’s jar.’”[ab]
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Sounds very much like something you would hear in a Messianic text. It seems to be an expression of frustration with the ways of the world. Perhaps the psalmist feels threatened by those nations and this idea of the Lord stepping in and dealing with them is comforting, or at least appealing.
 
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