Psalms easily tops the rankings of ‘favourite books of the Bible’. But why? Many turn to the Psalms for comfort, encouragement, to fuel-up on joy and wonder, re-connect with God, get a spiritual refresher, or even to find solace in misery, despair, uncertainty. It’s all there – an emotionally rich smorgasborg of food for the soul – passion, joy, anger, lament, praise, sorrow, worship.
But others just don’t get it. What can we gain from 150 ancient poems written in an entirely different context, not to mention language? How are they relevant for today? How do they even hold together as a single book of the Bible?
Poetry is infamously difficult to translate across languages, and 2,500-year-old ancient Hebrew poetry is even worse. We don’t get the wordplay, the structure, the nuance, the sarcasm or hidden humour, the careful craftsmanship. For those who don’t even resonate with modern poetry (let alone Shakespearean sonnets), the Psalms seem impenetrable. Sure, there are some good lines, we hear them in our hymns and prayers all the time; Shakespeare had some good lines too, that doesn’t mean we want to sit through 4 hours of Hamlet.
It’s worth asking, what actually IS a psalm? Psalms are ‘carefully structured Hebrew poetry intended to be sung for liturgical purposes’. They were written to be sung – together – for worship. Not only that, but they give the impression that God loves NOISE. He wants to hear all creation singing; from the depths of the sea to the highest heavens (Psalm 148); he wants to hear the shouts of the earth, the sound of harps and lyres, trumpets and horns, the praises of singing, rivers and trees clapping hands, mountains bursting out in joy (Psalm 98); he wants to hear from our inmost being, the depth of our souls, the cries of anguish, injustice, fear. Psalms puts all this into a formal structure.
How is this worship? The ancient Hebrews didn’t have church and the temple wasn’t built. Worship was a way of life in relation to God. Most cultures understand this. When I lived in Africa, singing was everywhere! We’d climb onto a bus, and people would start to sing – suddenly everyone would join in with amazing harmonies. Militaries have marching songs; funerals have dirges; prisoners have work songs; children have play songs. So there’s a whole lot more to the Psalms than ‘making a joyful noise’. (To be continued)
