A nadir of correlated Old Testament study arrives in Week 25, when the Sunday School manual directs all of one week’s attention to the book of Psalms. Even this attention is focused largely on a handful of bright pearls — the comforting lines of The Lord is My Shepherd, for instance; and an array of creative, not always convincing Messianic parallels in Psalm 22. The rest of the book remains criminally unexplored. <\/p>\n
The Psalms are often beautiful; sometimes alarming; at times hard to make out. At their best, they dazzle, they delight, they disquiet. <\/p>\n
Consider the 137th Psalm:<\/p>\n
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
\n 2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
\n 3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
\n 4 How shall we sing the LORD\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s song in a strange land?
\n 5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
\n 6 If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
\n 7 Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
\n 8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
\n 9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. <\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe first portion contains lines of incredible beauty and overwhelming longing. <\/p>\n
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. <\/p>\n
How shall we sing the LORD\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s song in a strange land? <\/em><\/p>\n
And then, the poem turns suddenly, to end on the jarring note: Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.<\/em><\/p>\n
The mixture is a patriotic, parochial, tribal: Praise for Yahweh; longing for life in Zion; and sociopathic glee in the vengeful anticipation that Babylonian children will someday be smashed against the rocks. What do we do with that mix? <\/p>\n
It raises a number of interesting questions. Should we condemn the bloodthirsty desires of the Psalmist? (Heavens, I hope we do.) How much of our own spiritual self-definition is tied into ideas of tribe and community? Do Mormons sometimes seem to express our own glee at the possibility of other tribes having their children dashed against the stones? How can we worship our own God, without excess of jingoistic zeal? <\/p>\n
Or consider the remarkable Psalm 147, a list of praises that seems to double as an exercise in soft teleology (that is, the idea that we can know God’s existence through the wonder of His creations). <\/p>\n
Praise ye the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.
\n 2 The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.
\n 3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
\n 4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
\n 5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
\n 6 The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.
\n 7 Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:
\n 8 Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
\n 9 He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.
\n 10 He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
\n 11 The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
\n 12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.
\n 13 For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee.
\n 14 He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.
\n 15 He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.
\n 16 He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
\n 17 He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?
\n 18 He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.
\n 19 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
\n 20 He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD. <\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe language is wonderful, the descriptions striking: <\/p>\n
He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. <\/p>\n
His understanding is infinite. <\/em><\/p>\n
A God who counts the stars is both impressive, and approachable. I like to count the stars, too. I can’t tell you their number, though, or all of their names. I love the idea that God can. It highlights what we mean when we talk of the infinity of God. (And of course, Psalm 147 is just a small slice of the teleology of the psalms, which as a whole towers over the more familiar and straightforward Mormon teleology of Alma 30.)<\/p>\n
If you’ve never seriously read the Psalms, you should start. It’s easy enough to do. You can read them and meditate in a quiet room in church, for instance. Or, you may find them more accessible if you take your scriptures to a beach, or to a favorite spot in the mountains; or perhaps, light a candle or three for an evening at home, and sit and read psalms with a loved one. <\/p>\n
These millenia-old expressions of praise and joy and triumph — and sometimes fear and hatred — are remarkable and beautiful. It’s impossible to read more than a few pages without finding a wonderful new surprise. (And read them in various translations, if possible. Translating poetry is a tricky endeavor, and different translations will highlight the beauty of different portions of the book.) <\/p>\n
What are some of your own favorite chapters or verses from the book of Psalms? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A nadir of correlated Old Testament study arrives in Week 25, when the Sunday School manual directs all of one week’s attention to the book of Psalms. Even this attention is focused largely on a handful of bright pearls — the comforting lines of The Lord is My Shepherd, for instance; and an array of creative, not always convincing Messianic parallels in Psalm 22. The rest of the book remains criminally unexplored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}