Showing posts with label psalms course. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psalms course. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 December 2013
The psalms course - for the healing of the nations
How about that! I have the whole series of videos in one list. I suppose that's progress.
Please note that the full set of slides is available here. Related posts are on NT Wright's book The Case for the Psalms, here, and the summary of the allusions to or consistency with the psalms in the Sermon on the Mount here. Each of these is also available, somewhat edited, in PDF - here and here.
My review of The Case for the Psalms expresses the reason - and always one is stretching to find such reason - why I wrote my course based on my book Seeing the Psalter, - itself designed to get people to read these remarkable poems - not just for the poems but also for the conversation that one becomes a party to when one reads them.
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Psalms course - Session 6
Session 6 version 2 has just been uploaded - I hope you can see it on the public list of videos. I have removed to private all videos that I have replaced. I see you-tube has a playbook - must learn how to use it. At the present if you want to hear the music I have chosen, you need to use my playlist - not very integrated...
This session introduces Suzanne Haik Vantoura's interpretation of the te'amim. It is short because the time for the session is for the course attendees to bring their own reading, music, poetry, or art related to the psalms based on what we have discussed over the last 5 weeks.
Psalm 96 recording is here.
This session introduces Suzanne Haik Vantoura's interpretation of the te'amim. It is short because the time for the session is for the course attendees to bring their own reading, music, poetry, or art related to the psalms based on what we have discussed over the last 5 weeks.
Psalm 96 recording is here.
Monday, 2 December 2013
The Case for the Psalms - NT Wright
Well, I relented and bought a copy - in fact two copies of this book, The Case for the Psalms - by NT Wright, light though it is, scarcely more than a few ounces. Light - yet touching on a serious and, as Wright himself agrees, a preposterous topic - that God has chosen a small hill in Israel for his home. He didn't use Psalm 68 for this claim, though it too would fit.
Not a good middle to The Case for the Psalms - as if this claim to divine space is going to convince the outsider. How does he then make the case? Wright does what his lecture did here - he makes particular the issues of time, space and matter as belonging to God. We may be embarrassed but this is the truth of the claim. Our time, our space, our bodies are caught up into the present place of God - if ...
Here is one of my conclusions in my own (heavy) book, Seeing the Psalter. The psalms form a story that puts as its focus, the maturing of the merciful (the chasidim) and the formation of a governed and governing community of the merciful. (Do you not know that you will judge angels?) This is the role for the insider, who then binds the outsider in the bonds of the same mercy, a bondage that is equivalent to fetters of iron. The image is strong and violent, recalling the story of Joseph, but it is meant with the prayer of love that is embodied in Psalm 119.
The psalms also treat of justice and the end of war, another preposterous prayer. This is confirmed with a reading of Isaiah 2: they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. The word for pruning-hooks is the same as the word for psalms!
I make the claim for the psalms that they are the leaves of the tree of life and therefore for the healing of the nations and the life of the world. In this claim, my words draw in the death of the son (the title of the first acrostic, Psalm 9-10) and the apocalypse of John. So these poems are neither parochial nor exclusive. In fact they claim for themselves repeatedly an inclusiveness for all who fear God. As Peter said somewhere, there is no partiality with God.
There above are four preposterous claims for one collection of poetry: that God came to live on earth, that poems form a merciful people, that war will end, and that healing through these leaves that do not wither is possible. And we are far from finished with the case for the psalms. But does Wright make this case? I expect he concurs with it - but how strong is his light book. Can his three-fold metaphysical conceit of God in our space-time-matter resolve the problem of violence that so many object to in these poems? Now there's another problem - the violence is not exclusive to the psalms, nor is it absent from the New Testament, nor is it absent from our lives. I have a further simple conclusion: if we are to be like Jesus, then as in the psalms, if we are to be 'likest God', there is no warrant in any canonical text to take violence into our own hands.
One question that arises from this conclusion is - where are the hooks that draw us in and captivate us into the frame and network of the canonical poetry? Is it just a matter of their blunt honesty? Is it the almost random shift in grammatical person that is so evident in this poetry and that moves us into conversation with the Most High? Is it the example of a coherent canonical history illustrating the problem of individual and communal self-interest that suggests there may be an alternative?
I enjoyed Wright's book. His final chapter, My Life with the Psalms, is a delight to read, especially his final rendition of Psalm 91. He plays the language game beautifully. The personal aspect of this poetry is where I began with my detailed journey into the psalms seven and more years ago. How does one learn obedience, the unplugged ear? Wright learned from what he calls 'pin-pricks of psalm-shaped memory' more gently than I (pp 174-175). I wrote then:
Wright is very helpful on worldview and philosophy for the novice in these areas. He draws reader away from ancient-modern as a means of understanding and points out a distinction between the gods as distant (Epicurean) and Elohim as present in creation and covenant. Creation - evidence everywhere - permeated with science and knowledge - and covenant - evidence to be developed by each through life: how can God make a bargain with me? Creation and covenant stimulate the responsibility needed for us to respond to the character of the God who is present to all who call for help. Wright begins rightly with the call for help being answered from his Holy hill (Psalm 3) - but what is this 'Holy' that responds? Therein lies the resolution of that preposterous scandal of particularity. There is so much more to say - you can find out some more pointers by buying a heavier book on the psalms - but even better, read them repeatedly in a close critical translation. No book can substitute for 'the One who teaches humanity knowledge'.
What is my 'case for the Psalms'? The strongest case for the Christian is that Jesus is represented in the epistle to the Hebrews as in conversation with his Father and the text for the conversation is taken almost entirely from the Psalms. Wright does not mention the epistle to the Hebrews. That is an oversight of some significance since it would contribute to the strength of his space-time-matter argument, particularly in the identification of the Anointed (whether Israel or Christ) in both testaments.
Generally, I like this book as far as it goes, but I have one particular cavil with his analysis, that is the emphasis on the 'you' at the beginning of Psalm 104 (pp 128-129). He is using an English translation to support the rhetoric. The repeated 'you' is not in the text of this psalm. The verbs are, like Psalm 146, a series of active participles. The series of active participles supports the presence of God's 'Yes' to creation (104) and to his care (146) even more than the use of the present tense.
But there are repeated uses of 'you' in the psalms and they are particularly important again to his space-time-matter theme. Psalms 74 and 89, two significant laments, outline the importance of an emphatic repeated 'You'. Psalm 74 reminds God of the power that creates and subdues the world - an emphatic 'Yes' to us that we should engage with God in spite of tragedy (in this case the exile). Psalm 89 then accuses God directly, with repeated 'You', of violation of the covenant. The poet is facing head-on the presence of the divine 'No' to the governance history of Israel. The modern world needs this divine 'No' equally strongly.
It is to be observed that God sits on the praises of the people (Psalm 22). One need only attend a Sabbath liturgy to observe this. We read of the seated rule of the divine Sovereign in the implied 'No' to the wantonness (Psalms 14, 53) of the human in the created order, a created order that proclaims without reservation the glory (Psalm 19) and prodigality (Psalm 77) of Yah (the short name for Yhwh). Wantonness and prodigality are the same word in Hebrew. With God there is prodigality, with the human, it is wantonness! So I agree that there is a case for the psalms, but I don't think NT Wright has made it as strongly as it could be made. This is good - it leaves us work to do.
Physically, The Case for the Psalms has seven short chapters and the shortest Scripture index of any I have seen, one tiny page, two sides - containing perhaps as many as 700 references! But at least it is there (though Hebrews is missing from it). I would not have bought the book if it had no index. I note also his gratitude to Susan Gillingham, one from whom I also have learned much and whose scholarship on the psalms is evident in her work, e.g. Psalms through the Centuries, Volume 1, Wiley-Blackwell. We must look forward to Volume 2. See for example my review of her lecture on the reception history of Psalm 137 at the Oxford Psalms Conference 2010 here.
PS - I feel I owe more to the review of Wright's implied anthropology and explicit Christology. Also a growing question in my thought is the effective application of the psalms as the prayer of 'the insider', a subject to be acted on.
Why be envious O hills"This is the point that Western modernity regards as so incomprehensible as to be laughable" (p. 79)
of mountain peaks this hill
God finds attractive for his seat
Also, יהוה will dwell here in perpetuity
Not a good middle to The Case for the Psalms - as if this claim to divine space is going to convince the outsider. How does he then make the case? Wright does what his lecture did here - he makes particular the issues of time, space and matter as belonging to God. We may be embarrassed but this is the truth of the claim. Our time, our space, our bodies are caught up into the present place of God - if ...
for he will speak peaceOf course Wright is making the case for the insider to read the Psalms - not the outsider. It is not as if we, insider or outsider, are learning as we ought to. It is observable, however, that the outsider often behaves better than the insider. So the in and out are moot. Perhaps each of us is both in and out in the same material-space-time construct in which we live.
to his people and to those under his mercy
but let them not turn to folly
Here is one of my conclusions in my own (heavy) book, Seeing the Psalter. The psalms form a story that puts as its focus, the maturing of the merciful (the chasidim) and the formation of a governed and governing community of the merciful. (Do you not know that you will judge angels?) This is the role for the insider, who then binds the outsider in the bonds of the same mercy, a bondage that is equivalent to fetters of iron. The image is strong and violent, recalling the story of Joseph, but it is meant with the prayer of love that is embodied in Psalm 119.
The psalms also treat of justice and the end of war, another preposterous prayer. This is confirmed with a reading of Isaiah 2: they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. The word for pruning-hooks is the same as the word for psalms!
I make the claim for the psalms that they are the leaves of the tree of life and therefore for the healing of the nations and the life of the world. In this claim, my words draw in the death of the son (the title of the first acrostic, Psalm 9-10) and the apocalypse of John. So these poems are neither parochial nor exclusive. In fact they claim for themselves repeatedly an inclusiveness for all who fear God. As Peter said somewhere, there is no partiality with God.
There above are four preposterous claims for one collection of poetry: that God came to live on earth, that poems form a merciful people, that war will end, and that healing through these leaves that do not wither is possible. And we are far from finished with the case for the psalms. But does Wright make this case? I expect he concurs with it - but how strong is his light book. Can his three-fold metaphysical conceit of God in our space-time-matter resolve the problem of violence that so many object to in these poems? Now there's another problem - the violence is not exclusive to the psalms, nor is it absent from the New Testament, nor is it absent from our lives. I have a further simple conclusion: if we are to be like Jesus, then as in the psalms, if we are to be 'likest God', there is no warrant in any canonical text to take violence into our own hands.
One question that arises from this conclusion is - where are the hooks that draw us in and captivate us into the frame and network of the canonical poetry? Is it just a matter of their blunt honesty? Is it the almost random shift in grammatical person that is so evident in this poetry and that moves us into conversation with the Most High? Is it the example of a coherent canonical history illustrating the problem of individual and communal self-interest that suggests there may be an alternative?
I enjoyed Wright's book. His final chapter, My Life with the Psalms, is a delight to read, especially his final rendition of Psalm 91. He plays the language game beautifully. The personal aspect of this poetry is where I began with my detailed journey into the psalms seven and more years ago. How does one learn obedience, the unplugged ear? Wright learned from what he calls 'pin-pricks of psalm-shaped memory' more gently than I (pp 174-175). I wrote then:
These poems are dangerous. I find it impossible to avoid the reality they portray - judgment and mercy; enemy and chosen; how can one cry out or whisper in safety when the answer comes from consuming fire?Now - just what are these poems and the Psalter that they comprise? Are they a hymn book or a prayer book, a phrase that Wright uses several times? This is a limited analogy. Wright uses these terms because of his audience. Yes, they are prayers - though only 4 are labeled as such. They are hymns, though only some are labeled 'songs'. Only some are labeled psalms! The name in Hebrew for the whole is Tehillim - praises. That is where the Psalter leads - to the first Hallelujah at the close of Psalm 104 to a crescendo of praise at the end of Book 5. The hymn-book / prayer-book analogy is both limited and potentially misleading. The Psalter is nothing like modern day prayer books or hymn books. The Psalter is not a random collection. And though written to be sung - so was all the Old Testament. And Job and Proverbs have the same cantillation as the Psalms. What distinguishes the Psalter is its formation by poets and redactors across 500 years or so and through a covenant history that judges and forms, corrects and heals those who experience them.
Wright is very helpful on worldview and philosophy for the novice in these areas. He draws reader away from ancient-modern as a means of understanding and points out a distinction between the gods as distant (Epicurean) and Elohim as present in creation and covenant. Creation - evidence everywhere - permeated with science and knowledge - and covenant - evidence to be developed by each through life: how can God make a bargain with me? Creation and covenant stimulate the responsibility needed for us to respond to the character of the God who is present to all who call for help. Wright begins rightly with the call for help being answered from his Holy hill (Psalm 3) - but what is this 'Holy' that responds? Therein lies the resolution of that preposterous scandal of particularity. There is so much more to say - you can find out some more pointers by buying a heavier book on the psalms - but even better, read them repeatedly in a close critical translation. No book can substitute for 'the One who teaches humanity knowledge'.
What is my 'case for the Psalms'? The strongest case for the Christian is that Jesus is represented in the epistle to the Hebrews as in conversation with his Father and the text for the conversation is taken almost entirely from the Psalms. Wright does not mention the epistle to the Hebrews. That is an oversight of some significance since it would contribute to the strength of his space-time-matter argument, particularly in the identification of the Anointed (whether Israel or Christ) in both testaments.
Generally, I like this book as far as it goes, but I have one particular cavil with his analysis, that is the emphasis on the 'you' at the beginning of Psalm 104 (pp 128-129). He is using an English translation to support the rhetoric. The repeated 'you' is not in the text of this psalm. The verbs are, like Psalm 146, a series of active participles. The series of active participles supports the presence of God's 'Yes' to creation (104) and to his care (146) even more than the use of the present tense.
But there are repeated uses of 'you' in the psalms and they are particularly important again to his space-time-matter theme. Psalms 74 and 89, two significant laments, outline the importance of an emphatic repeated 'You'. Psalm 74 reminds God of the power that creates and subdues the world - an emphatic 'Yes' to us that we should engage with God in spite of tragedy (in this case the exile). Psalm 89 then accuses God directly, with repeated 'You', of violation of the covenant. The poet is facing head-on the presence of the divine 'No' to the governance history of Israel. The modern world needs this divine 'No' equally strongly.
It is to be observed that God sits on the praises of the people (Psalm 22). One need only attend a Sabbath liturgy to observe this. We read of the seated rule of the divine Sovereign in the implied 'No' to the wantonness (Psalms 14, 53) of the human in the created order, a created order that proclaims without reservation the glory (Psalm 19) and prodigality (Psalm 77) of Yah (the short name for Yhwh). Wantonness and prodigality are the same word in Hebrew. With God there is prodigality, with the human, it is wantonness! So I agree that there is a case for the psalms, but I don't think NT Wright has made it as strongly as it could be made. This is good - it leaves us work to do.
Physically, The Case for the Psalms has seven short chapters and the shortest Scripture index of any I have seen, one tiny page, two sides - containing perhaps as many as 700 references! But at least it is there (though Hebrews is missing from it). I would not have bought the book if it had no index. I note also his gratitude to Susan Gillingham, one from whom I also have learned much and whose scholarship on the psalms is evident in her work, e.g. Psalms through the Centuries, Volume 1, Wiley-Blackwell. We must look forward to Volume 2. See for example my review of her lecture on the reception history of Psalm 137 at the Oxford Psalms Conference 2010 here.
PS - I feel I owe more to the review of Wright's implied anthropology and explicit Christology. Also a growing question in my thought is the effective application of the psalms as the prayer of 'the insider', a subject to be acted on.
Saturday, 23 November 2013
The Psalter as a tent - the movie
I thought it would be fun to show you my latest very short film - shorter even than Tim's 5 minute Bible. (It's not Dr Who nor is it Nadal and Djokovic playing tennis on a boat in Patagonia). Just a brief on the new slide for my next class in the Psalms at St Barnabas next Tuesday. One day I will republish the original session 3, but it takes the computer a long time and I will probably change it again. Full presentations for the course are here.
There were 15 of us at the first two sessions and there is still room for more to attend and you can catch up by watching the movies and doing the homework(!). Whaaat - real work! The special deal is that you get a copy of my book for only $25, and that money goes to the relief effort for the Philippines. (You may never see a better offer for Seeing the Psalter - I am undermining all those stores that I have left copies at.)
Lord who will dwell in your tent? (Psalm 15)
There were 15 of us at the first two sessions and there is still room for more to attend and you can catch up by watching the movies and doing the homework(!). Whaaat - real work! The special deal is that you get a copy of my book for only $25, and that money goes to the relief effort for the Philippines. (You may never see a better offer for Seeing the Psalter - I am undermining all those stores that I have left copies at.)
Lord who will dwell in your tent? (Psalm 15)
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
The first running of the first session of a course on the psalms
It doesn't matter how well prepared you are, there are always unexpected things. My eyes are fading so I could hardly see the screen in the light in the church - curious - and slightly ironic. But we got through. In sessions 1 and 2, I have made all the text on the slides bigger as far as I could. I dropped the slide on Psalm 11 - it's in the book and can be studied individually. But most important - the first exercise is quite hard so I have simplified it. (Revised video here). There is no change in the voice over.
Sometimes I wonder about the thesis that word patterns are deliberate. I still think they are. It is poetry after all, but in performance, it is hard to tell, sometimes.
What is most curious to me is the complex aspect of putting an idea across to others - and then waiting for the consequences and questions and group formation that can happen as a result. Time will tell.
First, I will be making sure I can read the slides in lectures 2 to 6 and secondly, that the workshop exercises are not too open ended. Augh! Session 2's workshop could take hours! I have simplified it. The slides for the whole are here - sessions 1 and 2 are revised.
Now - the puzzle problem is this - suppose we see clearly what is in the Psalms - what then do we do about it? How do they help us today? Why is there so much violence? I suggested a direction of consideration - but I deflected the direct question partly because I think the understanding must arise from within the community - fully facing the text and its implications - not sanitizing it.
My book does suggests possible approaches to such questions - but the main task of the book is lay out the poetry for study and I think it accomplishes this.
Sometimes I wonder about the thesis that word patterns are deliberate. I still think they are. It is poetry after all, but in performance, it is hard to tell, sometimes.
What is most curious to me is the complex aspect of putting an idea across to others - and then waiting for the consequences and questions and group formation that can happen as a result. Time will tell.
First, I will be making sure I can read the slides in lectures 2 to 6 and secondly, that the workshop exercises are not too open ended. Augh! Session 2's workshop could take hours! I have simplified it. The slides for the whole are here - sessions 1 and 2 are revised.
Now - the puzzle problem is this - suppose we see clearly what is in the Psalms - what then do we do about it? How do they help us today? Why is there so much violence? I suggested a direction of consideration - but I deflected the direct question partly because I think the understanding must arise from within the community - fully facing the text and its implications - not sanitizing it.
My book does suggests possible approaches to such questions - but the main task of the book is lay out the poetry for study and I think it accomplishes this.
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Thursday, 17 October 2013
The Sermon on the Mount and the Psalms
Notes - there are many connections between Matthew 5 and Luke 6 and the Psalms, far more than might first appear if you are reading in Greek or English.
First the raw data. Matthew 5:3-12 and Luke 6:20-26. Pick an English version - any version. You are a reader, listening to a voice coming from far away (or near) and long ago (or present).
We are in the presence of blessing or a statement of happiness. These are the Beatitudes, blessings, happinesses (yes it is plural in Hebrew). The Greek is μακάριος so some name them makarisms. These are very compact. They fit a Hebrew mind. If we are translating into Hebrew there are choices to be made as there would be in any translation exercise. I looked at two translations. Salkinson-Ginsberg and this alternative translation, and later, the Rabbinic reasoning and the occasional gloss from Herbert Basser's book: The MIND behind the Gospels: A Commentary to Matthew 1 – 14, Brighton: Academic Studies Press, 2009.
Since I immersed myself in the Writings, I have found it difficult to enter the NT especially with my former assumptions. I am not a literalist, nor do I subscribe to any particular confessional stance, yet I rejoice in every word and letter because of the one who had these things written for my (our) learning. Words work to life in the conversation where listening leads to learning. Learning happens with a teacher. This is Torah. The Psalms are Torah. Will I find Torah in the NT? Yes - but not if I go there with all the answers already in my head. A critical bit of teaching in the NT is to read the OT. What is in us by dogmatic assertion or even affliction often stops the ear from hearing and learning. I only say this out of the experience of growing and eventually learning a certain faithfulness. As the wry poet of Psalm 73 comments: and I am touched all the day long with my own correction in the morning. There's ambiguity in that word 'touch'. (See Psalm 39:11: put aside from me your touch // from the stroke of your hand // I, I am finished. And compare the use of the word in Job 1:11, 19:21. Correction also resonates with Job).
I was surprised that my Jerusalem Bible had a differing sequence of the beatitudes. A question on the FaceBook NT textual criticism page got me an answer: It is a MS variation from the old Latin: The Roman Catholic Bibles follow the order of the Western text (D and the Old Latin version and Jerome's Vulgate). This order of vs 5, then 4 is also followed by one Syriac version and one Coptic version, as well as being mentioned by Origen (commentary on Matthew) and Eusebius.
It is not a really important variant. By the time we are finished this exercise, we will see more than we expected - or so I hoped when I began and I was not disappointed. But you, dear reader, don't expect the 5 minute sound bite - do your homework and read the texts slowly and if you are new to it, also in large chunks. Reading the texts is not a matter of speeding through the countryside. Stop awhile and say hello to the Most High.
Here are my notes from my first meandering into this topic in session 4 of the first draft of my course on the Psalms (pilot session beginning Nov 12, 2013 in Victoria BC in the Church of St Barnabas, Belmont and Begbie - all welcome).
4 happy those who lament, for they - they will be consoled ... :אַשְׁרֵי הַמִּתְאַבְּלִים כִּי־הֵם יְנֻחָמוּ
First the raw data. Matthew 5:3-12 and Luke 6:20-26. Pick an English version - any version. You are a reader, listening to a voice coming from far away (or near) and long ago (or present).
We are in the presence of blessing or a statement of happiness. These are the Beatitudes, blessings, happinesses (yes it is plural in Hebrew). The Greek is μακάριος so some name them makarisms. These are very compact. They fit a Hebrew mind. If we are translating into Hebrew there are choices to be made as there would be in any translation exercise. I looked at two translations. Salkinson-Ginsberg and this alternative translation, and later, the Rabbinic reasoning and the occasional gloss from Herbert Basser's book: The MIND behind the Gospels: A Commentary to Matthew 1 – 14, Brighton: Academic Studies Press, 2009.
Since I immersed myself in the Writings, I have found it difficult to enter the NT especially with my former assumptions. I am not a literalist, nor do I subscribe to any particular confessional stance, yet I rejoice in every word and letter because of the one who had these things written for my (our) learning. Words work to life in the conversation where listening leads to learning. Learning happens with a teacher. This is Torah. The Psalms are Torah. Will I find Torah in the NT? Yes - but not if I go there with all the answers already in my head. A critical bit of teaching in the NT is to read the OT. What is in us by dogmatic assertion or even affliction often stops the ear from hearing and learning. I only say this out of the experience of growing and eventually learning a certain faithfulness. As the wry poet of Psalm 73 comments: and I am touched all the day long with my own correction in the morning. There's ambiguity in that word 'touch'. (See Psalm 39:11: put aside from me your touch // from the stroke of your hand // I, I am finished. And compare the use of the word in Job 1:11, 19:21. Correction also resonates with Job).
I was surprised that my Jerusalem Bible had a differing sequence of the beatitudes. A question on the FaceBook NT textual criticism page got me an answer: It is a MS variation from the old Latin: The Roman Catholic Bibles follow the order of the Western text (D and the Old Latin version and Jerome's Vulgate). This order of vs 5, then 4 is also followed by one Syriac version and one Coptic version, as well as being mentioned by Origen (commentary on Matthew) and Eusebius.
It is not a really important variant. By the time we are finished this exercise, we will see more than we expected - or so I hoped when I began and I was not disappointed. But you, dear reader, don't expect the 5 minute sound bite - do your homework and read the texts slowly and if you are new to it, also in large chunks. Reading the texts is not a matter of speeding through the countryside. Stop awhile and say hello to the Most High.
Here are my notes from my first meandering into this topic in session 4 of the first draft of my course on the Psalms (pilot session beginning Nov 12, 2013 in Victoria BC in the Church of St Barnabas, Belmont and Begbie - all welcome).
This is not an easy exercise – I want you to help me with it – search deep for the allusions – some are very clear: like verse 5 'inherit the earth', Psalm 25:13, 37:11 etc. Begin at Matthew 5:3 – the poor in spirit – what character in the psalms is he referring to? Is there language that lets us hear an allusion?3 happy the poor of the spirit for to them is the kingdom of heaven … אַשְׁרֵי עֲנִיֵּי הָרוּחַ כִּי לָהֶם מַלְכוּת הַשָּׁמָיִם׃
4 happy those who lament, for they - they will be consoled ... :אַשְׁרֵי הַמִּתְאַבְּלִים כִּי־הֵם יְנֻחָמוּ
5 happy the afflicted, for they - they will inherit the land ... :אַשְׁרֵי הָעֲנָוִים כִּי־הֵם יִירְשׁוּ־אָרֶץ
6 happy those hungering and those thirsting for righteousness,
for they - they will be saturated (or satisfied / sated as in the alternative translation).
:אַשְׁרֵי הָרְעֵבִים וְהַצְּמֵאִים לִצְדָקָה כִּי־הֵם יִרְוָיֻן
7 happy those who are with compassion, (or the compassionate as in the alternative).
for they - they will be shown compassion ... אַשְׁרֵי בַּעֲלֵי־רַחֲמִים כִּי־הֵם יְרֻחָמוּ׃
8 happy the pure of heart, for they - they will gaze on God ... אַשְׁרֵי בָּרֵי לֵבָב כִּי־הֵם יֶחֱזוּ אֶת־אֱלֹהִים׃
9 happy those who make peace, (or who pursue peace as in the alternative above).
for they - they will be called the children of God ... אַשְׁרֵי עֹשֵׂי שָׁלוֹם כִּי־הֵם יִקָּרְאוּ בְּנֵי־אֱלֹהִים׃
10 happy those who are pursued for the sake of righteousness,
for to them is the kingdom of heaven ... אַשְׁרֵי הַנִּרְדָּפִים עֵקֶב צִדְקָתָם כִּי לָהֶם מַלְכוּת הַשָּׁמָיִם׃
The repetition of the reward 'the kingdom of heaven' seems to close this first part of the sermon. The section is followed by a crescendo in the use of pursue, hound, persecute. In the alternate translation, this root rdp רדפ recurs 4 times once each in verses 9, 10, 11, and 12. This is the same root as 'follow' in the traditional translation of Psalm 23.
Basser eventually connects each group of people addressed in verses 3 to 10 with the afflicted (traditional meek) of verse 5. This, by the way, almost becomes a code word in the NT especially as used by Paul for the collection from the Gentiles. The poor העניים and the afflicted הענוים are nearly the same word. They differ by one letter, a vav or a yod and these letters are frequently confused. So these two groups of people are difficult to distinguish in the Psalms and the words are very frequent. Inherit the earth (or the land - same word) is a phrase in Psalm 37 - the 'wicked' acrostic. Psalm 37 uses this phrase possess or inherit the earth 5 times. And those who will possess it are those waiting for יהוה, the afflicted. In the psalm. these righteous ones are blessed by one who is righteous and are exalted by יהוה. Psalm 37 is one of 8 outer pillars in the tent that is the Psalter. The 8 pillars are the acrostics and the poems that immediately precede them. Inner pillars include 14-53, 40-70, 57-60-108.
Those who lament, הַמִּתְאַבְּלִים. This phrase (traditionally those who mourn) draws in the laments in Book 2 and 3 of the Psalter. The word though is used only once in Psalm 35 where the individual poet speaks of betrayal and his own mourning as one lamenting (אבל) a mother.
Consolation - comfort - is the loaded word of the book of the consolation (Isaiah 40 ff). In the psalms, we have it in Psalms 23 and 90 - significant enough in themselves.
Luke has weep here. This word recalls the sometimes untranslated part of Psalm 84, the valley of Baca, the 'vale of tears'. Psalm 84 has three beatitudes. The central verse 7 is introduced with the second one:
Happy the human whose strength is in you
with a highway in their heart
passing through the valley of weeping
they mark it a spring
even with blessings wrapped from instruction
This weeping is the word used in Luke. These shall laugh - joining in God's laughter at the birth of Isaac. And we can go on:
for they - they will be shown compassion ... אַשְׁרֵי בַּעֲלֵי־רַחֲמִים כִּי־הֵם יְרֻחָמוּ׃
8 happy the pure of heart, for they - they will gaze on God ... אַשְׁרֵי בָּרֵי לֵבָב כִּי־הֵם יֶחֱזוּ אֶת־אֱלֹהִים׃
9 happy those who make peace, (or who pursue peace as in the alternative above).
for they - they will be called the children of God ... אַשְׁרֵי עֹשֵׂי שָׁלוֹם כִּי־הֵם יִקָּרְאוּ בְּנֵי־אֱלֹהִים׃
10 happy those who are pursued for the sake of righteousness,
for to them is the kingdom of heaven ... אַשְׁרֵי הַנִּרְדָּפִים עֵקֶב צִדְקָתָם כִּי לָהֶם מַלְכוּת הַשָּׁמָיִם׃
The repetition of the reward 'the kingdom of heaven' seems to close this first part of the sermon. The section is followed by a crescendo in the use of pursue, hound, persecute. In the alternate translation, this root rdp רדפ recurs 4 times once each in verses 9, 10, 11, and 12. This is the same root as 'follow' in the traditional translation of Psalm 23.
Basser eventually connects each group of people addressed in verses 3 to 10 with the afflicted (traditional meek) of verse 5. This, by the way, almost becomes a code word in the NT especially as used by Paul for the collection from the Gentiles. The poor העניים and the afflicted הענוים are nearly the same word. They differ by one letter, a vav or a yod and these letters are frequently confused. So these two groups of people are difficult to distinguish in the Psalms and the words are very frequent. Inherit the earth (or the land - same word) is a phrase in Psalm 37 - the 'wicked' acrostic. Psalm 37 uses this phrase possess or inherit the earth 5 times. And those who will possess it are those waiting for יהוה, the afflicted. In the psalm. these righteous ones are blessed by one who is righteous and are exalted by יהוה. Psalm 37 is one of 8 outer pillars in the tent that is the Psalter. The 8 pillars are the acrostics and the poems that immediately precede them. Inner pillars include 14-53, 40-70, 57-60-108.
Those who lament, הַמִּתְאַבְּלִים. This phrase (traditionally those who mourn) draws in the laments in Book 2 and 3 of the Psalter. The word though is used only once in Psalm 35 where the individual poet speaks of betrayal and his own mourning as one lamenting (אבל) a mother.
Consolation - comfort - is the loaded word of the book of the consolation (Isaiah 40 ff). In the psalms, we have it in Psalms 23 and 90 - significant enough in themselves.
Luke has weep here. This word recalls the sometimes untranslated part of Psalm 84, the valley of Baca, the 'vale of tears'. Psalm 84 has three beatitudes. The central verse 7 is introduced with the second one:
Happy the human whose strength is in you
with a highway in their heart
passing through the valley of weeping
they mark it a spring
even with blessings wrapped from instruction
This weeping is the word used in Luke. These shall laugh - joining in God's laughter at the birth of Isaac. And we can go on:
- Hungry and thirsty – think of the hart in Psalm 42 – filled – saturated. See also 107, 22:27, 23:5, 36:9, 65:11, 66:12 saturated.
- The merciful – this is translated back into raxam – that womb-like compassion expressed in Psalm 18:2 and Psalms 145:8-9 (citing Exodus 34:6 – these are the ones who are likest God).
- The pure in heart – Psalm 73:1 is a direct quotation – that heart is used here first as a frame is perhaps significant. See also 18:21, 25, 27.
- The peace-maker – We might think of perhaps the psalms of ascent – the peace of Jerusalem for which we are commanded to pray, but as I noted, the alternate translation suggests the one who pursues peace (34:15, all psalm references use Hebrew verse numbering.)
- And the persecuted, those who are reproached, draws in all psalms of reproach like Psalm 69.
- How should I reread the teaching of the NT?
- Can I see the mind of Jesus as poet? How does this mind reflect the mind of the Psalter?
- Must I learn the Torah and Prophets with as great care as I have approached the Psalms? This is more than the average bear can bear.
- Does my limited knowledge let me in to the assumptions of the various theologies of the past 2000 years?
- Does this - to me proven - 'care for the poor' tell me something about politics, prayer, and action today? Clearly God does not necessarily protect those who protect their own interests. Billionaires complaining about universal health care maybe should pay their back taxes.
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
Psalms Course at St Barnabas Nov 12 to Dec 17
For the ‘Healing of the Nations’
A Course on the Psalms
To form a merciful
crew using ‘leaves that do not wither’
 |
Chagall Tree of Life
1974, Saint-paul-de-vence
|
When … Six 1.5 hour sessions on Tuesdays from
November 12 to December 17, 2013; 7:30 PM
Where … St Barnabas Church Hall. Begbie and Belmont, Victoria BC. All welcome. Cost
of Materials $25; bursaries available.
The course objective is to encourage each participant to regular reading of the Psalms. The first three sessions cover techniques of reading and the observable structures in individual poems and within the collection. Sessions 4 and 5 delve into more personal aspects: discovery for ourselves of how the Psalter informed the faith of Jesus and discipline for ourselves to use the Psalms in prayer for ourselves, for others, and for the world. Each session begins with music and includes lecture, workshop, and discussion time. The final session invites music, poetry, and performance from the participants and explores the music implied in the text as it might have been sung when the Psalms were collected.
1.
The Psalter – What – When –
Who for – Why – How to read them
2.
Translation – The Game –
Wordplay – Acrostics
3.
The Whole – Inscriptions –
God – Major structures
4.
Discovery – Characters –
Use in the NT – Use by Jesus
5.
Discipline – Questions –
How to Ask – God’s acts – Prayer
6.
Music – Signs in the Text –
Music or Punctuation – a New Song
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
The use of the Psalms in the Sermons of Jesus
How does one really know what one believes? Is that even important or should one just get on with it? Well - perhaps we do both things. But somehow, we have to mature ... and if you're like me, there's also the business of subverting others, especially those who are certain concerning their confessional propositions.
I said, "we're going to search deeply beyond what can be written" and "what must be known in the heart cannot necessarily he expressed." This is an article of faith for me. I distrust the word's ability to explain, but I do not distrust the word's ability to create. Words, words, words...
I attempted to write this essay based on the You-Tube automated transcription of my 4th video in the course on the Psalms that I wrote in the past two weeks (see links below). Sometimes the transcription is a hoot - and shows me how unclear my speaking voice is. But then, perhaps the software was not expecting interspersed Latin, Greek and Hebrew words. (I wonder if you pod-casters out there have ever read the transcriptions produced by You-Tube?)
The session is entitled "discovery" and I put it in big letters. I did this, as I say, "so that you know even as we have known in the first three sessions" that "the work is a mystery within us, not our own doing". This too is what I believe - yet I do not fail to engage.
The session tries to deal with too much, too briefly
"I have, I think, a quite challenging exercise on looking at the use of the psalms by Jesus [geez is] in the sermon on the mount [mound]." - and these are the least of the problems!
When I said - "what is a Beatitude? That word comes from the Latin beatus", the software heard "what is the attitude, that word comes from the Latin Bay office". Enough!
I created the session before I read anything in commentaries on the sermon. This is important - what I did was influenced by what I have studied in the psalms these past 7 years. What I do in the lecture is to use Salkinson-Ginsberg's translation of the Greek to the Hebrew and look for the words of the Psalms from their choices. The results are very revealing, or so I think. Certainly I have been influenced and I am scarcely aware of which experiences and lectures that I draw on, but first I draw. When one speaks, all sorts of things come out. Do these reveal the inner person? Who am I?
"It really matters what the internal pattern of our own thinking is when we read another text. How our thinking is formed determines how we read and hear what is being said to us." This is another article of my belief. Let it not be, O Lord, that we are ruled by lies, by deceptions already deeply formed within us.
But I am now reading Herbert Basser, The MIND behind the GOSPELS, henceforward, HB (Helpful Bear in Winnie the Poo language). [HB, it seems, is a colleague of my friends Dan Fraiken and Bill Morrow - that's a good start.] I found HB's book by scanning the shelves yesterday at the UVic library. He has of course done much more than what I did. He argues throughout his book
My sessions are available here - if you want to start at number 1. I also added a seventh video to illustrate the workshop process and output.
I said, "we're going to search deeply beyond what can be written" and "what must be known in the heart cannot necessarily he expressed." This is an article of faith for me. I distrust the word's ability to explain, but I do not distrust the word's ability to create. Words, words, words...
I attempted to write this essay based on the You-Tube automated transcription of my 4th video in the course on the Psalms that I wrote in the past two weeks (see links below). Sometimes the transcription is a hoot - and shows me how unclear my speaking voice is. But then, perhaps the software was not expecting interspersed Latin, Greek and Hebrew words. (I wonder if you pod-casters out there have ever read the transcriptions produced by You-Tube?)
The session is entitled "discovery" and I put it in big letters. I did this, as I say, "so that you know even as we have known in the first three sessions" that "the work is a mystery within us, not our own doing". This too is what I believe - yet I do not fail to engage.
The session tries to deal with too much, too briefly
- the characters in the Psalms
- the Psalms in the NT
- and the use of the psalms by Jesus
"I have, I think, a quite challenging exercise on looking at the use of the psalms by Jesus [geez is] in the sermon on the mount [mound]." - and these are the least of the problems!
When I said - "what is a Beatitude? That word comes from the Latin beatus", the software heard "what is the attitude, that word comes from the Latin Bay office". Enough!
I created the session before I read anything in commentaries on the sermon. This is important - what I did was influenced by what I have studied in the psalms these past 7 years. What I do in the lecture is to use Salkinson-Ginsberg's translation of the Greek to the Hebrew and look for the words of the Psalms from their choices. The results are very revealing, or so I think. Certainly I have been influenced and I am scarcely aware of which experiences and lectures that I draw on, but first I draw. When one speaks, all sorts of things come out. Do these reveal the inner person? Who am I?
"It really matters what the internal pattern of our own thinking is when we read another text. How our thinking is formed determines how we read and hear what is being said to us." This is another article of my belief. Let it not be, O Lord, that we are ruled by lies, by deceptions already deeply formed within us.
But I am now reading Herbert Basser, The MIND behind the GOSPELS, henceforward, HB (Helpful Bear in Winnie the Poo language). [HB, it seems, is a colleague of my friends Dan Fraiken and Bill Morrow - that's a good start.] I found HB's book by scanning the shelves yesterday at the UVic library. He has of course done much more than what I did. He argues throughout his book
that in many instances where we have such close literary matches between Gospel and Talmud we cannot easily escape the conclusion [that] we deal with more than a shared mind, we deal with an articulated tradition that predates both our Gospel and Talmudic sources (p.13).So I am proceeding in a direction HB might not disapprove of. I looked at a half-dozen or more commentaries on Matthew and this was the only one that I could bear reading, the only one that I would allow myself to carry home, whose weight justified the effort. So now I will go away and design a text using my method and also use HB and his understanding of Matthew's text from the point of view of Rabbinic teaching.
My sessions are available here - if you want to start at number 1. I also added a seventh video to illustrate the workshop process and output.
Monday, 30 September 2013
Course on the psalms has taken shape quickly
My course on the psalms has taken shape - I have learned to upload videos myself! and I even put together a playlist so you can find the psalm to be heard at the beginning of each session. (But who would use such things when ads are inserted into them?) If you want to take the course - go ahead and do it - it is free. The only cost to you is the learning time (priceless) and the cost of a copy of the book (cheap). You can use any Psalter or translation of the psalms in any Bible but it will be harder to do the exercises because you won't have the recurrence tables - and you would benefit from them.
The blogger editor keeps losing my playlist - can you believe it? What did my playlist do to get lost - so the six psalms for the six sessions are the following:
All six video sessions are uploaded. If you want to use the course for adult education in a church - please let me know with a comment. I am happy to answer questions or even participate remotely. If there is a version 2 of the video - use that one and ignore version 1.
I have taught bits of this course live in several places - but the whole is new in this form - I expect it will change over time and grow once I have taught it live, something which I hope will happen soon in my own home town.
If you want me to teach the course - I will if we can figure out how to get me where I need to be for the amount of time needed. We could squeeze the course into two days - but it is more effective over several weeks of learning.
My motivation is to spread the word about how good the Psalms are.
The blogger editor keeps losing my playlist - can you believe it? What did my playlist do to get lost - so the six psalms for the six sessions are the following:
- Purcell, Jehova quam multi sunt hostes mei? (Psalm 3)
- Bairstow, Lord thou hast been our refuge (Psalm 90 and others)
- Handel, Dixit Dominus (Psalm 110)
- Bernstein, Psalms 2 / 23
- Gibbons, Psalm 47 O Clap Your Hands Together
- Vantoura, Psalm 96 - Sing to יהוה a New Song
I have taught bits of this course live in several places - but the whole is new in this form - I expect it will change over time and grow once I have taught it live, something which I hope will happen soon in my own home town.
If you want me to teach the course - I will if we can figure out how to get me where I need to be for the amount of time needed. We could squeeze the course into two days - but it is more effective over several weeks of learning.
My motivation is to spread the word about how good the Psalms are.
Sunday, 29 September 2013
Videos available for Seeing the Psalter
There are currently several videos available and in production related to Seeing the Psalter.
- The first was given live at the conference on Digital Media and Sacred Text in London at The Open University in June 2013. It is here on you-tube. It had also been presented earlier to high school students at Pacific Christian School and between services on Sunday morning at Spokane Cathedral.
- The second is the first of a series of 6 lectures, [now all done] all the rest of which are in various stages in my office. The six are intended as an online course - which I also hope to deliver in my home base and to anyone who wishes on the road. But equally, I am preparing course material so that the sessions could be run by individuals and groups anywhere.
Monday, 23 September 2013
Continuing work on a course on the Psalms
I think this could be run remotely or with other instructors than me (obviously a different flavour). But here is a full PP drafted - 54 slides at present over 6 2 hour sessions. Could do 5 or 6 consecutive evenings or 5 or 6 weeks in a row - but need time for the homework which is extensive, the intent being that people might really learn to love reading the psalms.
Here's the link. Isn't there an alter ego of mine out there who loves the psalms and could give some substantial feedback - with not a few challenges - like Bob - it's too much?
I am just reading William L. Holladay The Psalms through Three Thousand Years, Prayerbook of a Cloud of Witnesses. There's a lot of it that I like, and a few chapters I have skipped so far, and also a few places where I disagree with his criticism. The title makes it sound like Susan Gillingham's book (Psalms through the Centuries) from 2008 but hers is quite different.
Holladay may have placed some of the psalms into their rough dates - but the evidence seems very tenuous to me. I don't read the psalms this way - and I find it a bit of a turn-off as if I were reading something that had nothing to say to me today - and who knows maybe that's my problem. Maybe there is no solution to the human predicament short of mutual self-destruction. I have not chosen to believe such a statement.
Here's the link. Isn't there an alter ego of mine out there who loves the psalms and could give some substantial feedback - with not a few challenges - like Bob - it's too much?
I am just reading William L. Holladay The Psalms through Three Thousand Years, Prayerbook of a Cloud of Witnesses. There's a lot of it that I like, and a few chapters I have skipped so far, and also a few places where I disagree with his criticism. The title makes it sound like Susan Gillingham's book (Psalms through the Centuries) from 2008 but hers is quite different.
Holladay may have placed some of the psalms into their rough dates - but the evidence seems very tenuous to me. I don't read the psalms this way - and I find it a bit of a turn-off as if I were reading something that had nothing to say to me today - and who knows maybe that's my problem. Maybe there is no solution to the human predicament short of mutual self-destruction. I have not chosen to believe such a statement.
Monday, 16 September 2013
A course on the Psalms
I think it is vital that the psalms be explored face to face. But some of this six week course has also found its way into video...
Here's my current announcement and full set of slides [under continuous update] Feedback welcome. I would happily run this onsite for anyone who wants it. [Now fully drafted in videos]
Here's my current announcement and full set of slides [under continuous update] Feedback welcome. I would happily run this onsite for anyone who wants it. [Now fully drafted in videos]
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