Preparing to Pray the Psalms

 

Yesterday, I introduced you to your new friend, Hermann Gunkel and his classic categorization of Psalms.  Today, I want you to meet Walter Brueggemann who says that Psalms have a pattern and repeated refrain.  Psalms invite us into a cycle of orientation to disorientation to reorientation.  One Psalm describes the world with a stable structure that stands the storms of life and the very next Psalm can describe the bruises and brokenness that no amount of superglue could fix.  Only to keep reading and find the very next Psalm may sing with gusto to the whole world God is still forming and fashioning.  The Psalms, like all good poetry, tell a story.  Brueggemann says that Psalm 1 describes an orientation ~ a way of being in the world like a tree planted by a stream.  Then, turn to Psalm 72 or 88, where everything is going to you know where in a handbasket.  The world has collapsed into chaos.  Then, turn to Psalm 100 or 150 where we praise for the sake of praise ~ no specific reason is given or even needed. 

 

I encourage you to read the above three Psalms (1, 72 or 88, 100 or 150) ~ where are you finding solid ground to stand right now like Psalm 1?  For me, one place is in worship and in daily reading the Psalms.  Where does life individually and communally feel not just like shifting sand but sinking down into the depts/pitt?  For me, it is when I turn on the news.  And where do I long to praise God for no reason?  For me, it is when I am in creation.

 

I pray you will begin to sense that people of faith have always lived in the messy middle of some parts/rooms of the house called, “your life” are in a good place, some are broken worse than Humpty Dumpty, some meaningful moments move us to a mystery we can never fully understand but stand amid/among God’s presence.  May you sense the Sacred that heard our ancestors sing the Psalms and will listen as we join our voices next week.

Preparing for the Psalms

 

For today and tomorrow, I will share some fun Bible nerd facts with you as we prepare to engage and encounter the Psalms.  One scholar of the Hebrew Hymnal was Hermann Gunkel, which I think is a fabulous name.  Gunkel gave us the classic categorization of the Psalms.  He said some Psalms are Hymns praising God for who God is.  “We don’t praise God for God’s personal sake (to stroke the Sacred’s ego), we praise God for the sake of helping to shape ourselves.  When we praise God fully, we let others eavesdrop on our praise!”  A few examples are Psalms 33 or 145.  A second major section of the Psalms are lament, which are one-third of the book ~ so brace and prepare yourself for this reality as we dive into the Psalms next week.  Lament Psalms recall God’s presence in the past and call upon God to participate in the bruises and brokenness and less-than-perfectness of the present moment.  Many of these Psalms end with hope or assurance.  There are individual laments (see Psalm 13 or 22) and communal laments (see 44 or 79).  And there is even a lament that doesn’t end with hope (see psalm 88 – for that day when you cannot bring yourself to see any goodness or God-ness in the world).  Finally, Gunkel said there are Psalms of thanksgiving when the singer looks back on a crisis and how God brought out a new reality or new song out of the shattered sharp shards of life.  A great example is Psalm 30 for individual prayer of gratitude and Psalm 124 for communal lifting every voice to sing with thanksgiving.  There are some minor types of Psalms because not every hymn can be neatly categorized and cataloged.  There is psalm for entering worship (see Psalm 15); one for covenant renewal (see Psalm 50) and hymns of trust (see Psalm 62 and 63). 

 

Take a breath, because I know that is a lot of information!!  Don’t worry, there is not, nor will there be a test on any of this!! Today, I invite you to pause and ponder ~ where are you at?  Was there a type of Psalm described/defined above that piqued your interest?  Once you consider the weather in your life, pick a Psalm to read aloud.  If things are good, maybe you go to a Psalm of praising God like 33.  If you are feeling down in the dumps, go to Psalm 22 or 79.  If you sense hope like a spark needing to be fanned to flamed go to Psalm 30. 

 

If you do not know ~ just randomly open the book of Psalms and read the first one your eyes land upon!

 

May this prayer practice help you experience the Eternal who has been/is/ and will be the Composer and Conductor of our unfinished symphony of life.  Amen.

Preparing for the Psalms

 

Last week, I invited you to listen to the melody, music and holy hum hovering in and around your life.  I pray you discerned and discovered the soundtracks in your soul: the rhythms, dynamics, and playlists that are on a loop in your life right now.  We live in a world where there is rarely a measure of rest, where the chaotic thirty-second notes dominate, and everything is turned up to the loudest dynamic and decibel level.  I long for a different wisdom that transcends what we think we know right now.  I crave another way.  Starting next week, I will invite you into a summer with the psalms.  There are 150 songs/poems in the Hebrew hymnal.  The Psalms express, explore, and embody every emotion possible.  There are Psalms of praise sung with joy to Psalms dripping with pain of heartbreak and soul ache.  There are Psalms of comfort, consolation, conflict, and confusion.  Psalms are meant to be conversational.  You do not hold the psalms at arms-length like some social science experiment or graph of numbers.  You enter the Psalms as a dynamic and divine dialogue with your whole life. 

 

Ponder a few quotes about the psalms with me:

 

John Calvin called the psalms, “The anatomy of all the parts of the soul.”  What do those words evoke for you?

 

Eugene Peterson wrote, People look in the mirror to glimpse how they appear to others; we look to the Psalms to find out who we are and whose we are; as we live in relationship with the Holy Other. The Psalms are not some decorative speeches like a throw pillow we can replace to refresh the room.  The Psalms protest that when our eyes are blurred from too much gawking and ears dulled by too much squawking, these holy hymns can clear out the clutter and chaos to create space for God.  This isn’t theology about God, it is connection/communion with God. 

 

Poet Kathleen Norris says that singing the Psalms three times a day reminds us that hymns are meant to bring breath and vibrations of our collective voices raised together.  The Psalms demand engagement, they ask you to sing with your whole self, praying, as St. Benedict says, ‘in such a way that our minds are in harmony with our voices (and bodies and heart and soul)”

 

The more you sing the Psalms, the more you realize you don’t need to censor your awe, anger, angst, fear, frustration, fascination, or numbness at the world; these emotions leap off the pages of the Psalms to meet you where you are.

 

Over the coming months, I invite you to read the Psalms with me.  You can do however and at whatever pace suits you.  I will be encouraging you to read three Psalms each day.  If that is too much, don’t do it!  There is no grade for completing this assignment or badge to earn for your heavenly sash.  If you start next Monday, May 12, read one Psalm a day; you would end on October 9, 2025.  If you read three Psalms starting on May 12 (with days to catch up), we wrap up on July 18.  Whatever pace you select, I pray you will dive and dwell in the ancient wisdom of the Hebrew Hymnal with me.  Today, I invite you to read your favorite psalm (perhaps 23, 100, 121), let the words wash over you and wrap around you reminding you that you are God’s beloved.  If you don’t have a favorite Psalm, try one of the three I suggest.  I encourage you to read the Psalm, letting each syllable sink into and sing to your soul.  Amen.

The Playlist of Your Soul

 

One of my favorite spiritual questions is, if you had to choose a piece of music to be the anthem of these days or your theme music, what would you select?  And why?  Please know, it doesn’t have to be sacred music, because all music can be meaningful in the divine diversity of God’s chorus.  Yes, I know you think your grandchildren listen to noise, but that is what your grandparents said about your musical tastes too!  Yes, I know some music can be hurtful and harmful and hateful, shining a light on the brokenness of humans ~ that art can reflect the world around us in ways we don’t want to see.  What anthem would you choose in the worship service of life?  And just like on Sunday where there is a prelude, three hymns, anthem, doxology (praise), and postlude ~ you don’t have to be limited to one piece.  I would love to see the music that is on your holy playlist right now.  For me, I would begin with “O Love” by Elaine Hagenberg ~ as a reminder that God’s love never lets me go and to trace the rainbows through the rain (tears) of life.  I might move to an opening hymn like “Joyful, Joyful” to belt out praise to God.  Maybe I might move to “Hope” by NF or “Defying Gravity” from the musical Wicked.  I might then sing along with “Surface Pressure” from Enchanto or “Breathe” by Anna Nalick or “Thank God I Do” by Lauren Daigle.  Before the prayer, I might sing, “Not My Brother, nor my Sister, but it is me O Lord, standing in the need of prayer” or “Precious Lord take my hand.”  Finally, the soundtrack of my soul today might turn to “Learning to Sit with Not Knowing” or “Sanctuary” by Carrie Newcomer with a postlude of “River Flows in You” by Yiruma.  Look through the playlist that is humming and hovering in your head, heart, and life this day.  And may God’s grace and love be heard as you listen with your full self to the music of your life today. Amen. 

Musical Markings

 

As we continue to explore and express what the unfinished symphony of our life is offering, as we prayerfully seek to be in concert with God, I invite you to think about other musical marking on the score of your soul.  Are there repeat signs when you go back over a well-known melody or phrase?  Repeats happen at mealtimes, volunteer opportunities, worship, meetings, doctor’s appointments and the roads we take.  Where are the repeats in your life today?  Are there any codas in your life?  Coda is a sign to jump forward to the ending.  Maybe you saw the coda coming in a relationship or a repeat where you felt stuck or stymied in life ~ or maybe the coda came out of nowhere.  So much of what we see in the dust and debris of the daily news is a fog that doesn’t allow us to have equilibrium, so much (too much) is happening around us that our brains (or at least my brain) are adding to the smoke and fog! 

 

Keep writing down the pace of the notes of life this week, keep paying attention to the dynamics that you are playing, and now where are other musical markings appearing in the score of your soul?  May this invitation awaken you to all that is going on around and within you in these days.  Amen.

Sounds in Your Soul

 

Yesterday we explored the rhythm of your life.  Today, I want you to listen for the dynamic ~ that is the intensity or volume of life.  To be sure, we live in a world that is stuck at fortississimo (that is extremely loud that hurts not just our ears but our souls).  We are blasted by blaring words and actions that are harming each other and God’s creation.  Everyone keeps turning up the volume on social media and people with platforms who are only concerned about the number of clicks ~ not their character.  When the world around us feels sforzando (that means suddenly forced, abrupt, fierce ~ I know it is like a music theory class this week!) ~ that does something to us in our minds, bodies and especially souls! 

 

Where are those moments you get caught or cling to the shouting, screeching, piercing with pulsing notes of life that are going by in a blur?  Where do you bring the dynamics of life down a notch to mezzo forte (that is the default dynamic level of equilibrium that your soul longs for).  Do you ever find a space and place for pianississimo, so soft the only sounds are audible to the ears of your soul?

 

Just as the rhythm of life matters, so do the dynamics.  God is calling us to explore the range from so soft as a feather drop to moments when we life every voice to sing so heaven rings.  We need moments where the peaceful violin strings reverberate and resonate fading softly as well as times for the bass drum to boom to get our blood flowing.  Too much of one dynamic, just like too much one note, makes not only for a boring symphony, but life.  Pay attention to the sounds around you and within you.  Pay attention to the moments of quiet rest when it is only your breath.  Pay attention to others who decree and demand you must play their way!  Remember God is the Conductor and Composer of the unfinished symphony of this last day of April.  Amen.

Pace and Rhythm

 

How did yesterday go?  What sort of symphony did you hear coming from your mind, heart, soul, body and the others around you?  Right now, it can feel like my life is lived in a series of demisemihemidemisemiquaver notes (by the way, I did not make that up!  It is an actual musical note that means two hundred fifty-sixth note ~ that is a note that goes by so fast it is a blimp, a blur that can barely be heard or held.)  We live life in such a series of notes racing and running up and down the scale that our minds spin and hearts race, we keep pushing ourselves convinced that if we can just keep up, all will be well, until we fall exhausted (physically, emotionally, spiritually) into bed at night for a restless sleep to wake up the next day already feeling behind. 

 

Good Lord!

 

What are the notes on the page of your life?  Look at your calendar.  Where are the whole notes that are held out in a sustained way?  Where are the half notes that are played?  Where are the measures (not just brief breathers) of rest?  Look at your calendar.  Is it so full that days spill into the next in a blur?  Maybe it is so blank with too much rest?  Where are those energizing eighth note moments that stir and swirl with energy and where are those moments followed by rest for your soul to catch up?  Or are you living a series of demisemihemidemisemiquaver notes (who knew you would learn a new word today?).  Listen to the rhythm of your life today and how that impacts and leaves an impression on your life.  May our Composer and Conductor call us back to a tempo that fills you with grace and love.  Amen.