Posts tagged with "Responsorial Psalm"

Love Your Neighbor – A Little Lectionary Editing

“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

Psalm 34 Listening

Psalm 34 has inspired, in my opinion, some of the best Psalmody in modern times within my own church tradition.  Below I’ve posted a YouTube video of one of my favorite responses based on Psalm 34, “The Cry of the Poor,” though this is not the greatest rendition.

The Cry of the Poor (Psalm 34)

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

Psalm 1 – Translation Comparison

Psalm 103 & Prosperity Thought

Psalm 98 & Assonance

Psalm 98 and Assonance

I glanced at the lectionary readings earlier in the day, but spent a little more time with them tonight, especially the response, which was Psalm 98.  I wanted to point out one feature of verse 1 in particular that struck me, and this is one of the types of things I think we miss in English.

The English of Psalm 98.1

Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm. (NAB)

This second half of this verse communicates the strength of God’s right hand and of his holy arm.  That seems fairly straightforward, and frankly, that language might get a little boring as often as one hears about God’s right hand in the Old Testament.  However, I think something more is going on at the level of the sounds of the verse, specifically in the second part which reads: “His right hand has won victory for him, his holy arm.”

The Hebrew of Psalm 98.1

Since my main audience for this site is not necessarily scholars, I’m going to leave the text out.  (You can check out the Hebrew of Psalm 98 at the link if you would like).  I think many listeners may be able to catch this on the basis of sound alone (plus I’ve given it away a little in the title of the post).  At any rate, check it out and see if you notice anything interesting (it’s only three seconds long):

AssonancePsalm98

Did you catch it?

There is a pretty significant repetition of the “o” vowel sound especially at the ends of words.  There is even  a use of the “o” vowel that might not be necessary (for my more advanced readers, lo [prep + pronominal suffix] doesn’t occur with the verb translated above as “has won” anywhere else that I am aware of).  Perhaps I am making too much of this, but it seems to me that the repetition of the “o” vowel may be adding an additional layer to attempting to convey the awe-inspiring nature of the wondrous deeds of the Lord and the power of his right hand/holy arm.

Perhaps, I’m making too much out of too little, but we have something analogous in English when we speak of something eliciting “oohhs” and “aahhs.”

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

Psalm 103 & Prosperity Thought

Psalm 1.4 – A Video Illustration of Chaff

Psalm 1.1 – Translation Comparison

You Break the Teeth of the Wicked

That is a phrase that is left out of the Responsorial Psalm for today.  Psalm 3 consists of 8 verses in the Hebrew text.  The response for today uses every verse in the text except for one.  Why leave out one verse?  Because it reads:

Rise up, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. (Psa 3:7 NRS; Hebrew  3:8)

The first part of the Psalm sounds very comforting, but I suppose it is hard for modern readers to blend comfort with the mental image of God breaking someone’s teeth, even if they belong to one’s enemies.

The lectionary really does change the way that we read or experience texts.  I believe that seeing how the lectionary handles texts like this really reflects emphasis.  In a modern context, emphasis is more on comfort from God and less on revenge on enemies.  But, still there is the danger that construing texts in this way will give a false impression to modern worshipers of the Bible as a text that is not as problematic as many make it out to be.

This Psalmist Must Have Never Had Children

Today’s responsorial Psalm blew my mind, but not in some super spiritual way.  Psalm 131 reads as follows:

1 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

3 O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time on and forevermore (emphasis added).

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I’ve experienced calm and quiet since our children were born (and the oldest is 5 going on 6).  But, they sure are beautiful and I love them.

Abigail

Abigail

Katherine

Katherine

Abigail, Katherine, & Me

Abigail, Katherine, & Me

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_