Here’s a simple screen capture video I made for today’s responsive reading.

Video made using BibleWorks 8 and Snapz Pro X

I’m a little late posting this.  It’s actually from yesterday’s responsive reading.  But, I wonder if there is a better way to translate the beginning of Psalm 34 to capture the literary features there.  This video deals with that.  However, I don’t know if the word “misfortunes” has too much baggage with it.  Anyway, let me know what you think.

“Love Your Neighbor” that’s what your supposed to do, right?  Well, at least that is what Jesus said in in Matthew 22:38 repeating a line from Leviticus 19:18.  But, what about those other voices in scripture?  You know the ones that say not so nice things about neighbors or wish not so nice things upon them.  We can see a little bit of what happens in the context of liturgy in today’s lectionary reading from Psalm 79.

Click on over and check out the verses that are used … 8, 9, 11 and 13.  Okay.  So, what are we missing?  Verses 10 and 12, right? (This is almost always a fun exercise -for me at least, looking at what’s missing.)  Is there any reason why they might be missing?  I don’t know let’s read them:

10 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes. (NRSV)

12 Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors
the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord!

I think here we have a less than forgiving attitude toward one’s neighbor for whatever reason.  That reason is not important here in the context of talking about lectionary.

What does the lectionary then do when there is something contrary to the idea of “Love Your Neighbor”?  Here at least it appears that the reading is sanitized by removing those parts.  What can this tell us?  I think when we look at what is used and what is missing we see what the modern church values.  We value forgiveness and we value love of neighbor.  Thus, rather than give worshipers an example of someone who does not feel this way and reflects this in their prayer, we choose from those words of theirs that may be more edifying.

Now, I don’t think that this works out so well as an overall strategy.  If we simply ignore difficult passages or passages that don’t agree with those attitudes from scripture that become accepted within the community, this can lead to a great deal of dissonance when people do finally encounter those passages.  It can also lead to dishonesty with God (i.e. a person saying in a prayer that they love someone when they really don’t feel that way).  But, perhaps this is okay if the matters are dealt with elsewhere … say in the homily.

At any rate, I think that if we read between the lines of the lectionary today, we might come away with the message “love your neighbor” even if it is in contrast to when the Psalmist wrote.

Related:
Psalm 72 – Shame on the Lectionary

Today’s responsorial reading is from Psalm 40, which gives me the great pleasure to embed the absolute best modern version of one of the Psalms, U2’s “40.”  The lyrics are here.  Today’s reading actually doesn’t include most of the verses used for this song, but it does make use of verse 2, and that was enough reason to post this.  Please enjoy.

U2 – “40” (Live)

Related:

Psalm 137 – Rivers of Babylon (Sublime version)

More Music Joel Likes …

Live’s “Heaven” and General Revelation

Regina Spektor’s “Laughing With”

GYJER734SHCU

in yesterday’s lectionary reading.  I thought this was a pretty neat bit of imagery in Psalm 147:15.

He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. (Psa 147:15 NRSV)

Related:

Psalm 96:5 – Word Play

Psalm 98 and Assonance

Psalm 1.4 – A Video Illustration of Chaff

Psalm 1.1 – Translation Comparison

I wrote yesterday about how the lectionary obliterated a bit of beautiful imagery.  It doesn’t do a great job with today’s response either, which is the middle-latter portion of Psalm 72.  The focus of this part of the Psalm is upon the king who is worthy of homage and dominion in verses 8-11.

Psalm 72:8-11

8 May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
9 May his foes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust.
10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.
11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service (NRSV).

But, what is it that makes this king worthy of homage?  Why should “kings fall down before him” and “all nations give him service”?  Unfortunately, verse 11 is left out of today’s reading ruining a bit of the connection between 8-11 and 12-14.    At any rate, the answer to these two questions is found in verses 12-14.

Psalm 72:12-14

12 For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper.
13 He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.
14 From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.

The king is marked off as worthy of homage by his treatment of the poor, the needy, and the weak.  Now, I realize, of course, that I do not live in a kingdom and there is a pretty vast time span between my own time and that of the Bible.  And, I realize that verses 8-11 sound a bit imperialistic.  But, the underlying idea that the worth of a political leader is measured by his treatment of the poor is one, in my opinion, that is worthy of remembering.

Related:

Psalm 96:5 – Word Play

Psalm 98 and Assonance

Psalm 1.4 – A Video Illustration of Chaff

Psalm 1.1 – Translation Comparison

Psalm 72 is the responsorial for today and the lectionary successfully obliterates the imagery of verses 6 and 7.  Here’s how the lectionary reading looks online.

Psalm 72 in the Lectionary

Responsorial Psalm
72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8
R.  (see 11) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R.        Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
R.        Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R.        Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

You’ll notice from the numbering that verses 5 and 6 are omitted between verses 4 and 7.  But, this absolutely ruins beautiful imagery between verses 6 and 7.  Notice that justice shall “flower” in the days of the king.  But, why is it flowering?

Psalm 72:6

May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth. (Psa 72:6 NRSV)

“Justice” … or “the righteous” … or “abundance” dependent on your translation is flowers/flourishes if the king is like a refreshing shower that waters the earth.  How can he be like a refreshing shower?  Maybe we go back to verses 1 and 4 … when he has received the gift of right judgment from the Lord (vs. 1) … when he defends the oppressed, delivers the poor and crushes the oppressor.

I usually love having a lectionary to read from, but I think today it obliterates some of the connections and beauty in the imagery.

Related:

Psalm 96:5 – Word Play

Psalm 98 and Assonance

Psalm 1.4 – A Video Illustration of Chaff

Psalm 1.1 – Translation Comparison

Today’s responsorial Psalm is Psalm 96.  In verse 5, there is a word play between the words translated “gods of the peoples” and the word translated “idols” (or “worthless idols” or “worthless” dependent on which translation you are reading).  I wanted to see if you can hear it.

Psalm 96:5

For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.

See here for the Hebrew text of Psalm 96.  The phrase in question for “gods of the peoples” are the third and fourth words; the additional word in question is the fifth word with a variety of translations, one of which is “idols.”

Hebrew Audio of Psalm 96:5

Okay, see if you can hear it.  The Hebrew is ‘elohey ha’ammim – ‘eliyliym

The word play creates a stark contrast between what the peoples believe their gods to be and what they really are.  ‘eliyliym is often translated as “idols,” but the root meaning of the word likely has something to do with being weak, feeble, worthless.  This contrast is taken even further in the second half of the verse where these “gods/idols” are compared to YHWH, namely in the statement that “YHWH has created the heavens/sky.”

Related Posts:

Psalm 98 and Assonance

Psalm 1.4 – A Video Illustration of Chaff

Psalm 1.1 – Translation Comparison

Psalm 85.11 (English verse 10) is the kind of verse in comparing parallel translations that could drive a sane man crazy.  Five different translations and three different renderings of the word hesed and three different renderings of the verb tenses.

Parallel Comparison of Psalm 85.11

Here are the parallel translations in BibleWorks:

Notice that the first word, which is rendered for the Hebrew hesed, is translated as “steadfast love”(ESV, NRSV) “love” (NAB, TNIV) and “lovingkindness” (NASB).  This word is notoriously difficult to translate as some have proposed possibilities such as “covenant loyalty,” and even further, others have proposed that the word does not translate readily into English and should be left untranslated.  These translators would simply transliterate the word as hesed and leave it up to the individual interpreter to make a decision as to how to best understand the idea.

Now, check out the verb tenses.  The verbs are translated “meet/kiss” (sounds like a gnomic type present – ESV, TNIV), “will meet/will kiss” (future – NAB, NRSV), and “have met” (past – NASB).  Each of the translations have some merit.  There are a future (vs. 9) and a present (implied – vs. 10) in the context that the translators could be following.  Yet the form is identified by morphology databases as perfect and could be translated with an English past tense.

Overall, I think how the verse should be translated is ambiguous.  But, this should serve as a lesson for English interpreters in the value of comparing translations.  In preaching or teaching, I would be somewhat careful of making too much out of the word meanings, though certainly you must choose one, or of making much out of the tenses of the verbs.

Related Posts:

Psalm 1.1 – Translation Comparison

Isaiah 41 – An Interesting Translation Issue

An Ancient of Days or The Ancient of Days: Does it Really Matter?

I have always enjoyed reading Westermann for some reason or another.  I just finished reading Westermann’s book entitled Psalms for the second time with the first time being a very long time ago back when I was in seminary. And, I would have to say that I would heartily recommend the book.  It is a short, quick read written in an engaging, interesting style.

It is not so much that the content of the book is unchallenged.  Some of the ideas in fact have been challenged with one example springing immediately to mind being the existence of Wisdom Psalms.  Westermann discusses Wisdom Psalms; however, subsequent scholars have questioned this category on the basis that there are no firm criteria for placing a Psalm in this category other than vocabulary.  Certainly some Psalms exhibit many of the characteristics of Wisdom literature, but do these Psalms merit their own category?  In addition the whole idea of categories has been shown to be somewhat difficult to work with in every circumstance since some Psalms use mixed forms and do not fit well into any of the types.

With that said, some of the forms discussed by Westermann do still provide a helpful paradigm for discussing the Psalms as a whole, continuing to show up in places like Miller’s Interpreting the Psalms.  In addition, for those unfamiliar with form criticism in general Westermann on the Psalms (as well as Westermann on the Basic Forms of Prophetic Speech) provides, in my opinion, an accessible and very practical example of form criticism at work.  I am not strictly a form critic, as I do not think that anyone in today’s climate in Biblical Studies can be simply one type of critic or another; however, I do think that I have been able to glean a great deal from Westermann concerning in what ways form criticism can be helpful.

So, go ahead and read Westermann on the Psalms.  It’s only 132 pages and worth the short amount of time.

Related – Check out some of my other Psalms posts from last week:

Psalm 1 – Translation Comparison

Psalm 103 & Prosperity Thought

Psalm 98 & Assonance