A Shallow Dive into the Psalms

The book of psalms in the Christian and Hebrew bibles offers the reader a resource which connects to aspects of our lives in ways that should not be ignored.  In the Christiaan context they are an integral part of the liturgy.  The Book of Psalms in the Christian bible consists of 150 psalms attributed to many different authors.   Up to half the psalms are attributed to King David.  However, as noted in the go-to-source of knowledge on-line, Wikipedia, “David's authorship is not accepted by most modern Bible scholars, who instead attribute the composition of the psalms to various authors writing between the 9th and 5th centuries BC.”

The 150 psalms with many different authors vary in content and length.  The shortest psalm number 117 is two verses long; it is a psalm of praise to God.  The longest, psalm 119, has 176 verses.  It is what is called an acrostic work.  According to the Oxford Companion to the Bible, “an acrostic poem is a poem in which the initial letters of each successive line form a word, phrase or pattern.”  In psalm 119, the psalm is divided into parts composed of 8 verses.  Each psalm uses a letter from the Hebrew alphabet which is comprised of 22 letters e.g., the first 8 verses correspond to the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph.

In delving into the Book of Psalms it may be helpful to categorize the psalms.  This can be done in different ways.  One way I found on-line, uses 10 categories.  Here is the link https://knoxepc.wordpress.com/2020/04/01/the-10-types-of-psalms/.

Praise: A psalm of praise is pretty self-explanatory. It focuses on praising who God is and what He has done (for example, Psalm 1). We even see praise psalms in other places, such as 2 Chronicles 20.

Hymns: These are songs of joy from people who are happy with God and their circumstances. They often urge others to sing to God as well (see Psalm 98).

Laments: On the flip side of joy is distress, and that results in the lament psalms. These express emotional and spiritual suffering with a plea to God to intervene and help (such as Psalm 88).

Imprecatory: The most difficult type of psalm to understand, imprecatory psalms call for God’s judgment upon enemies. They use striking images and ultimately leave justice and vengeance to God alone (such as Psalm 69).

Thanksgiving: While these psalms are full of joy, they are more specific in the reasons why one is joyful. As the category indicates, thanksgiving psalms thank God for blessings and provision (see Psalm 30).

Prophetic: Many of the psalms hold prophetic oracles where God is the speaker rather than the subject. Psalm 50 would be your go-to example of one of these.

Confidence: Instead of falling into despair like a lament, confidence psalms see opposition coming but they rise to state their trust in God and His guidance (Psalm 23).

Wisdom: Some of the psalms share traits of other biblical wisdom literature with practical guidance and warnings (Psalm 119).

Remembrance: This is a psalm that looks back at what God has done in the past and seeks to remind everyone of these acts and promises (Psalm 136).

Royal: Any time a psalm dips into regal imagery — of kings, processions, thrones, and the like — it’s most likely a royal psalm either from a king, about a king, or about God as king.

May you be blessed with psalms that speak to you on your journey.

I acknowledge that we are on the original homelands of the many Indigenous Nations who have lived since time immemorial in Canada or as many First and other Indigenous Nations.  All of the lands in Canada are the subject of up to one hundred Treaties signed by the Crown in the right of Canada with these Nations. I will only mention a few of the Nations: the Cree, Ojibway, Blackfoot, Blood, Dakota, Mig M'ag, Huron, Inuit and these lands are also home to the Metis people.

The Unknown Faces of God

Last week I wrote about the unknown unknowns and encouraged all of us to open up the boxes which we have constructed for our ideas of God and how they are constrained by the walls of those boxes.  Over the weekend, Lorna and I attended a workshop with John Bell, the well-known hymn writer, on the psalms.  This was offered by the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine in Toronto.  John did a wonderful job of mining the treasure that is contained in the psalms which, in my experience, has been unexplored to a great extent in our churches. 

This week I want to share a small part of that treasure revealed by John and continue on my exploration of the unknown, or at least lesser-known, images of God contained in the psalms.  The session of the workshop I want to share with you was entitled appropriately ‘The Faces of God in the Psalms’.  John introduced this by telling a story - he is a wonderful storyteller - which illustrated the idea that the sign that we know someone well is that we have many pictures of them.  He initially illustrated this point by drawing on a biblical source outside the psalms – the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin.  These appear as companion parables in the Gospel of Luke chapter 15.  The figure of the Good Shepherd who leaves the flock and searches for the lost sheep is male and can easily be seen as the masculine face of God.  This is juxtaposed with the woman who searches for her lost coin is the female homemaker and therefore presents a female aspect of God who cares for any of the lost children.  It concludes, “I tell you, there is joy in the presence of angels of God over one sinner who repents.” 

Turning to psalms, John explored some of the other images of God which are there if you have eyes to see.  Here are some of the ones we explored:

Psalm 2 v 04 “The one who sits enthroned in heaven laughs, the Lord derides those who conspire against him, then angrily he rebukes them.”   God is pictured as a judge – not something surprizing to us.

Psalm 17 v 08 “Guard me like the apple of your eye; shield me in the shadow of your wings.”   God is pictured as a bird – less familiar to us.

Psalm 22 v 09 “You are the one who brought me from my mother's womb, who laid me on my mother's breast. To your care I was entrusted at birth; from my mother's womb you have been my God.”  God as the midwife – which is always a woman’s role in the bible bringing new life to birth in God’s people.

Psalm 31 v 11 “You have turned my laments into dancing; you have stripped off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.”    God is the one who turns our sorrow into joy.

Psalm 38 v 2-3 “Your arrows have rained down on me, and your hand on me has been heavy. Your indignation has left no part of my body unscathed; because of my sin there is no health in my whole frame.”  God is the disciplinarian. 

Psalm 41 v 2-3 “The Lord never leaves those who care for the helpless to the will of their enemies. On their sick-beds, the Lord nurses them, transforming every illness to health.”  God is the disciplinarian. 

Psalm 23 v 01 “The Lord is my shepherd; I lack for nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me to water where I may rest.”  The last example which ends where I started with the best-known psalm and the well-known image of God as the Shepherd. 

I will close with a quote John gave us from Allan Boesak, the great anti-apartheid crusader, “God is sometimes a lion, sometimes a lamb, but never a chameleon.”   May you be blessed to encounter many faces of God on your journey.   

The Language of Jesus

 

As I noted a couple of weeks ago, Lorna and I are taking a course on Benedictive Spirituality offered by the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine.  One of the many aspects of the course which have caught my attention is the statement that the psalms were the ‘language of Jesus’.  This was quite a surprise for me and I followed up on this assertion questioning this with the following.

As I mentioned yesterday, I would appreciate a discussion of the Benedictine understanding (perhaps not unique to them) that the Psalms were the language of Jesus.  I am aware that the psalms were integral to worship in the synagogue in Jesus’ time but is there more to it than that.  My reaction to reading that is that the psalms often presented God as retributive and the psalmist often wanted God to do a lot of smiting of enemies - not what Jesus preached and lived.

My question was presented in a supplementary discussion period offered by the course leader, Sr. Constance Gefvert, which enabled me to flesh out my understanding of this.  I find it is helpful to engage in a discussion to more fully develop my thoughts on a subject (sometimes it is a discussion with only myself).  I came to the awareness that Jesus probably had a full and detailed familiarity of the psalms throughout his life.  He also had a full and in-depth familiarity with the people in his life and was fully aware of the complexity of the human condition as demonstrated in his relationship with all the Mary’s and the Martha’s; the Pharisees and the Sadducees; the rich and the poor; the outcasts and the tax collectors.  This was best demonstrated in his parables.  He seemed to know people better than they know themselves.  The psalms were and are a record of just that – an expression of all of human nature from praising God for all that God had done to blessed the psalmist, to a cry for help, a cry of anguish, and a cry of (sometimes) righteous anger.  

In the course of our discussion, Sr. Connie asked me to consider what Jungian psychology would make of the psalms.  I did just that and later when the opportunity arose, I responded that Jungian psychology was focussed on wholeness and not on perfection which is expressed so vividly in the psalms.  On further reflection I would add that we need to accept all of who God created us to be including the unacceptable parts.  Those parts which are unacceptable are demonstrated quite vividly in many of the psalms.  If we do not acknowledge them, they remain inaccessible in the unconscious part of ourselves.  They return when we are not looking like a thief in the night and can wreak havoc for others and us.  Jung talks about these unacceptable parts of ourselves as the Shadow.

The shadow is often one of the easier images to identify in a dream. We can also identify it at work when we take an instant, irrational dislike to someone,  It can be helpful to notice when you have a strong reaction to someone that seems to have not rational basis and explore what it is about the person that triggered that reaction.  When you have figured that our, look for that characteristic in yourself.

Blessings on your journey and know that God is with you and so is your Shadow.