Psalms 1, Do you hear what I hear?
Thursday night we came to our break in the Psalms 1 class, reading from Psalms 32, 34, 37 and 49. While each of these Psalms covered different subject matter (including “the remission of sin,” God’s unique brand of justice, and the fate of sinners and the righteous), you could not mistake the message of truth and divine wisdom spoken clearly and with zeal.
Each of the four Psalms is like an exhortation by the singer, a call to others. In Psalm 49, the appeal practically shouts at us to wake up and listen. Psalm 49 makes me think of the Christmas song, “Do you hear what I hear?”
“Hear this, all you peoples! Give ear, all who inhabit the world,” (Psa 49:2)
The Christmas song “Do you hear” was written by a married songwriting couple during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Their concern for the fate of the world turned to God and the birth of the Prince of Peace. The lyrics of the song herald Christ’s birth from aloft, “the wind to the lamb.” The lamb then informs the lowly shepherd boy, who tells the king, who instructs the whole of humanity to pray for this child and for peace.
Each player in the song has the opportunity to receive this great wisdom, regardless of their status, and do something with it. When the shepherd boy speaks to the king, “In your palace warm,” he asks if the king knows that the messiah shivers in the cold. In one short verse we are asked by these songwriters to consider both our role in letting the poor suffer, and the denial of Christ’s divinity, God’s saving grace offered to us on the night of his son’s birth.
Are we going to leave the anointed one’s mission shivering in the cold, or are we going to praise it, honor it with gifts, and help the Lord bring justice to his creation?
Isn’t that what our Psalmists in effect have been doing for the last three months with us? Haven’t they been asking us what we think of the true nature of God, the need to seek God’s wisdom and act righteously?
This Christmas season, as we sing praises to God for his choice to become incarnate and save our souls, let us know if perhaps the Christmas Carols and church Christmas hymns we readily take for granted perhaps take on new meaning for you in light of the Psalms.
Yes, Christmas songs can seem trite at times through the overexposure of commercial radio. But singing God’s praises with awe and sincerity takes many forms. Throughout HIS history, God has inspired great artists to paint and sculpt miraculous wonder in his honor. Would he stop inspiring modern people simply because their expression may appear less grand?
If you still have your doubts, here is the once wonderful Whitney Houston singing “Do you hear” on the Jay Leno show many years ago. Enjoy.
We will take up Psalms again in late February as we enter the Lenten Season. Until then, we hope you continue to pray the Psalms and gain both comfort and wisdom from them. We hope they are opportunities for you to continue to glorify God with praise and exaltation. And if the spirit moves you, feel free to continue our discussion through this page.
God bless you and your families and a very Merry Christmas to all.
Psalms 1, Song of Ascents
Really? Are we one class from the end of this marvelous first pass through the Psalms? How and when did we get here? Who did we meet along the way? What did we learn about the Psalms, God, ourselves?
First off, please accept my apologies for my recent absences. As it happened, God called me to other tasks these last few weeks. I struggled mightily with accepting these invitations to be elsewhere, but I felt a power beyond me calling me to let go of my control of this world. As usual, God was right.
I wasn’t there this Thursday night, but reading through pages 55-63, I can see I missed a great class. We have discussed our author’s overreaching sometimes for meaning from the Psalms, perhaps interpreting too much. But on these pages, I believe Craghan nailed sinners to the cross and lifted up the true followers of God.
At the bottom of page 55 Craghan writes that the Psalms’ authors felt that “humans were charged with the sacred task of transforming God’s/their world; they were to relish life because the Creator had proclaimed that it was good, very good.”
I see these sentiments arise most clearly in Psalms 112 and 127. In each, we need to focus on the very first verses of the Psalms, as all further meaning flows from these words:
121; The Blessings of the Just: “Happy are those who fear the Lord, who greatly delight in God’s commands.”
127; The Need of God’s Blessing: “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build.”
Both of these Psalms begin with a very explicit statement; God is the ultimate source of life’s blessings and truth. Being humble before God’s authority in our lives, and diligently seeking his way and hopes and dreams for us is the only path to meaning.
I guess that is what I experienced these last few weeks that I haven’t been with you. As much as this Bible Study means to me and as ardently I treasure being there, if God says, “Rich, I need you over here right now,” then I have to trust that I have heard him correctly, and like the Apostles, drop everything and follow. (Perhaps I will have some time this Thursday to explain more.)
We need to find quiet places (e.g. reading the Psalms) at the beginning and middle and end of our day to examine ourselves and our choices, to see if we are doing our utmost to live in God’s way, not ours.
Are our lives examples of fruitful vines?
Psalm 128 offers an answer to the question you posed to Rabbi Perten several classes ago. Some of you were challenged by the frequent references in the Psalms (and other Old Testament writings) about the afterlife. Why do there appear to be so many references to resurrection in the writings of a people who didn’t believe in it? Rabbi’s answer was wonderful. “There is no short answer.” And in many respects, through the Talmud and other teachings, there is room for interpretation about the possibility of a life after death. It is a gray space.
But what Psalms like 128 tell us, the Jewish people of ancient times believed in one very clear, very black and white concept. God intended for us to live this life joyfully and by his law. And these two concepts are not separable.
Psalm 128, entitled a “song of ascents,” tells us we will be “happy and prosper” only when we fear (understand with humility God’s rightful place) the Lord and walk in his ways. This life, right now, is a celebration. Abiding by God’s law and worshipping God is not a penalty or act of submission, but an opening to true freedom from our worldly oppressors of love and joy. We can ascend to a heaven on earth simply through actions that please God. Who then needs an afterlife when you can live in the Kingdom of God right now?
As Craghan states, “the righteous life is indeed worth living.” Amen.
Some final thoughts to consider as we head into our last class this coming Thursday:
1) As Christians, how do you balance your concern for your fate in the afterlife, with your concern for doing God’s will in this life? Are our works here only petitions to earn something later?
2) Throughout this study we have talked about how some of the Psalms were very likely used during temple rituals. Like similar songs of ascent, 128 was sung as the Jewish nation marched up the temple steps to the “Happy Home of the Just,” God’s sanctuary. If the words of these Psalms were sung by a group in worship, where do you see corollaries for worship in our modern Christian lives?
3) Which Psalms have helped you discern the difference between human effort, and God’s hand at work in your life? (Page 62)
Psalms 1, Trust and Confidence in Salvation
On Thursday, our class dug deep into the Psalms of Trust and Confidence. We started with perhaps the most familiar, and in many eyes the most beautiful — Psalm 23.
A psalm of David.
The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.
In green pastures he makes me lie down; to still waters he leads me; he restores my soul.
He guides me along right paths for the sake of his name.
We’ve talked repeatedly throughout this study about how beautiful the psalms are. The poetry of this week’s Psalms (23, 11, 27, 63 & 16) at times left us breathless. Their use of images and language to draw us closer to God, to assure our hearts that he is with us always, brought me great peace and a sense of the order the Lord seeks to create for us in this world.
Psalm 23 and its references to a shepherd naturally lead us to images of Christ settling our souls.
We see Christ and the Church at work throughout Psalm 23. When we read “You set a table before me,” we taste the Eucharist at Sunday mass. When the Lord anoints the Psalmist’s head with oil, we see Confirmation, or the Initiation ceremony at Easter Vigil. The safe waters where our strength is restored are the waters of Baptism. When we pray this Psalm intimately, we are in deepest communion with God. We will dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come.
The sense of the constant, eternal and lasting signs of God’s presence with us are so strong in these Psalms. They may have been written 2500-3000 years ago, but they have always been present to humans throughout the ages.
Look at how Mark uses Psalm 23 in his version of the Multiplication of the Loaves. Patrick Henry Reardon, in his book Christ in the Psalms, points out that when Christ and the disciples find the multitudes before them, they are in a desert, a deserted place. But when he tells the Apostles to instruct the thousands (“like sheep without a shepherd“) to sit down in small groups, they lie down in the “green grass” of Psalm 23.
Just as we found Christ in Psalm 1 with Sister Salvador, and as we found Him in the opening Psalm-like hymn of John’s Gospel, we find Him here again in Psalm 23. He was and is always with us, always our savior. In Psalm 27, he is the Lord “of light and my salvation.” (As Pat pointed out, the Septuagint trades the word Salvation for Savior.)
But while the Lord and his love are timeless, the Psalms remind us our lives on this earth are not. This finite nature of our human existence is one of the greatest challenges in forming and holding our covenant with God. The Psalms of Trust and Confidence pose this question: Do we pursue God because we fear death and seek an everlasting life? Is that the basis of our worship? The Psalms of Trust and Confidence ask us to consider deeply before answering.
The New American version of Psalm 16 tells us that God will show us the path to life and “the delights at your right hand forever.” Is this worship for the purpose of resurrection? The Septuagint, the original Greek version of the Bible, uses different words. It reads “the delights at your right hand to the end.” (Thank you again Pat for leading us to this.)
Nancy remarked how she felt that seeking God’s love was not a kind of “waiting game,” but that God through these Psalms begs our hearts to love him here and now, every day, as deeply as we can.
Sheol, a place of total absence from God, is depicted throughout the Old Testament in different forms. In Jonah 2, the belly of the whale removes Jonah from his God.
The worshippers of other gods depicted in these verses are accursed. “They multiply their sorrows who court other gods.” (Psalm 16:4) Thursday night, when I read this in class, the image of humans choosing to not worship the one and only God made me realize they were choosing to distance themselves from God’s love. Instead of death/sheol forcing separation from God on these worshippers, they actively chose to spend their lives absent from God. They choose to live their lives in a state of death. Talk about a zombie apocalypse!
We need to reject that kind of worship, and Psalm 27 shows us the way. The Psalmist writes: “Come,” says my heart, “seek God’s face.” (Psalm 27:8) For the Jews, that voice would have been a scary proposition. Only Moses saw God face-to-face. The Psalmist appears to be willing to risk his own death to see God.
I also see great meaning in the fact that the Psalmist says it is his heart that calls to him, not his head. I think when we intellectualize our love for God too much, we move away from the true source of a lasting covenant.
God is Love, and Love exists not in the head, but in the heart. We cannot understand it. I don’t know why as a father I love my children so much. I couldn’t explain it “rationally” to you. I just know that I do love them, and it is perhaps the most powerful emotion I feel. If I tried to explain it to you by reason (“I love my children because I share DNA with them.” OR “I love my children because I’ve raised them since birth.”) it falls far short of the essence of my love for them. I cannot explain that essence.
For me, that same “love” is the essence of God’s love for us and us for Him. I know what it feels like. It is there for me in some tangible intangible way that exists in the tension between our world and something else far beyond my comprehension. But I have the trust and confidence that it is real. God’s love exists. And He will not abandon me. This for me is the power of the Psalms. “For your love is better than life; my lips shall ever praise you!” (Psalm 63:4)
We’ve also started a new tradition with this class. Every Thursday night, we are going to ask someone to read one of the Psalms from their Bible. Nancy pointed out the richness of the different translations we all have, and how they lead us to revelations that the New American and other traditional modern Catholic Bibles don’t share. As you read this week’s text (Pages 43-54), please consider reading for us from your Bible. Send me an e-mail in advance, and let me know which Psalm has meant something to you. We’ll listen to God’s words that evening through you.
Psalms 1, The Descriptive Voice of Praise
In this, our second class about the Psalms of Descriptive Praise, we listened deeper and longer for the voice of God, and equally important, the voice of those who praise Him.
In Psalm 29, we experienced the crashing thunder of God’s voice, humbling worshippers as his might washed in from the Mediterranean Sea, crashed through the cedar forests of Lebanon and brought rain to Mt. Hermon (Sirion) in northern Israel.
Patrick Henry Reardon, in his book Christ in the Psalms, writes how “… the Hebrew noun found most frequently [seven times in fact] in this psalm is qol, meaning “voice.” Pronounced with the full glottal shock of the letter “q,” the word mimics the sound of thunder, which is in fact, what the noun refers to in this psalm.” (As Mary stated in her lesson, Psalm 29 is called “The Psalm of the Seven Thunders.”)
The Jewish nation, who likely adapted this song from the Canaanites, is grateful not only for God’s power, but for the blessings of water coursing down the slopes of Mt. Hermon into the Jordan River, and eventually bringing life to Judah. Their gratitude is reflected in verse 2:
Give to the LORD the glory due his name. Bow down before the LORD’s holy splendor!
I thought perhaps we could listen to these voices of worship.
The life-giving waters of the Jordan are crucial to farms in this otherwise arid land.
God’s voice is gentler in Psalm 65. Water showers through its verses, making the land verdant for farming and raising livestock.
As Mary has told us several times now, the psalmist uses imagery the average Hebrew could understand. No greater metaphor did the young Jewish nation have for God’s blessings (and their dependence on them) than the annual rains.
With showers you keep the ground soft, blessing its young sprouts.
You adorn the year with your bounty; your paths drip with fruitful rain.
The meadows of the wilderness also drip; the hills are robed with joy.
Craghan ends this chapter drawing us to the New Testament, specifically to the opening of John’s Gospel. I have always loved this section. This poetry of creation, including the images of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all present at the beginning of the world when order was created out of chaos. I never realized this is a hymn.
Craghan writes about how “At prayer we are compelled to recognize God’s movement as ever going outward.” While Craghan focuses on how “the Word” moves between different elements of our world during different phases of God’s engagement with it (pre-creation, creation and when Christ became incarnate), I was drawn to how “the Word,” through scripture, engages us in a continuous dialogue that allows us to always hear God’s voice. What a blessing these psalms are, like the waters of the Jordan.
Psalms 1, The Descriptive Praise of Autumn
To think, people drive from all over the region to take in the wonder right outside my front door.
To be in a state of wonder is a marvelous thing. Autumn’s splendor always reduces me to awe. Like I said Thursday night, it seems this time of year every corner you turn in Orange County unveils another spectacular landscape.
The hills of Harriman State Park, facing our valley, have been fabulous this week. I live in Smith’s Clove, and all I need to do is open my front door to see God’s splendor.
We have a sugar maple in our front yard that I have come to treasure. It must be 30-40 feet tall at this point. During the summer, as the afternoon progresses, it throws shade on the front lawn, providing sanctuary for our Golden Doodle Sophie who likes to lounge there on the lawn.
In the fall, it turns a shimmering yellow that at certain times of day almost makes it look like a stained glass window. It reminds me of the tree of life Sister Salvador had us meditate over when we studied Psalm 1 last week.
Now, thinking about Pat’s lesson, I can’t help but hover over Psalm 33:8: “let all who dwell in the world show reverence.”
Thursday night, as Pat captured with such genuine devotion the meaning of these Psalms, I heard the echo of Sister Roberta’s voice, her reminding us how the Wisdom Psalms point us to the order God has created in our world. If we live faithful to our covenant with God, life is like the sugar maple in front of my home, spreading shade in the heat of summer, a shimmering gold light in fall.
This is the order Pat spoke about when we studied the synonymous parallelism of the Psalms of Praise. As the psalmist declares the depth of beauty we find in the world, he also is describing the incomparable and inconceivable glory that is God, the creator of order.
“You are clothed with majesty and glory, robed in light as with a cloak.” Psalm 104:1
A three-panel stained glass depiction of the “Tree of Life,” in of all places, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Traverse City, Mich.
Like Pat, I too am a hiker. It is one of the reasons I live here in the Hudson Valley. We have so many places right at our doorstep where we can take in the majesty of God and the glory he creates. There are hundreds of miles of trails in Harriman State Park and Black Rock Preserve. The highest point in Orange County is our very own Schunnemunk Mountain. And you haven’t experienced awe until you’ve stood in front of Mineral Springs Falls in late April as the snow melt thunders over the rocks.
These meditative places are like Psalms, helping us grow closer to God. In Psalms for All Seasons, John Craghan writes: “… one finds God both in the beauty of nature and in the beauty of the revealed word. The worship in the universe and in the Temple should complement each other and lead to mutual appreciation.”
I often wonder, if we could hear God’s voice, what would it sound like. I think it sounds something like Autumn.
[Interesting postscript. Saturday morning, an e-mail from a stranger led me to this video. Like the Psalms, this song reminds us that if we are listening for God’s voice, we are open to growing closer to him. Perhaps Autumn’s visual splendor IS one of God’s ways of drawing us to his voice…..]
Psalms 1 Bible Study, Sister Roberta Salvador and the Wisdom Psalms
St. Patrick’s welcomes anyone to our Psalms 1 study every Thursday night starting at 7 p.m. in the Religious Education building.
Wisdom is a very misunderstood and elusive thing. So many people believe wisdom and book smarts are on the same plane. Others feel it comes from age. While book smarts and age can help open an avenue to achieving wisdom, after spending time with Sister Roberta Salvador this week discussing the Wisdom Psalms, I think I have a much clearer answer to the question; “What is Wisdom?”
What I heard is that having an honest and meaningful relationship with Jesus and God is the only way to ensure we can obtain true wisdom.
Sister discussed in her opening instruction how Wisdom was there at the creation (like John’s description of Christ, “the true light which enlightens everyone”), bringing order to the disorder of the world. Thursday night, as we read Psalm 1 verse by verse, this concept came alive for me.
Contrasted with the chaotic waters of creation, Psalm 1:3 presented us with a much more serene scene, “streams of water” flowing where the tree of life grows. (There is a wonderful cross-reference here to the Prophet Jeremiah at Jer 17:8.)
The wicked “are like chaff that the wind drives away.”
Psalm 1:4
Lives of disorder, lived without heavenly wisdom are the lives we see caricatured on reality television. The chaotic lives of celebrities, lacking sometimes it seems in any wisdom, is like the “chaff that the wind drives away.” (How many seasons did Jersey Shore last versus the thousands of years for the Book of Psalms?)
Thursday’s class was an incredibly special way to build on the momentum Mary started a week ago. It complemented Mary’s teachings by helping us build some skills for listening to the Psalms and discerning their spiritual message as we progress through the next six weeks.
Sister told us that the Psalms have “the character of meditation,” and advised us to meditate over the Psalms as we read and study them so that we can hear God’s voice rise from them. I think that is excellent advice, and would add that if we quiet our minds enough, we might also hear the voice of Christ.
Pat pointed out how Psalm 1 made him think of the Beatitudes (“Blessed are they who…”) Indeed Bible.org has a very lengthy dissection of Psalm 1, and specifically points us to the Beatitudes. Jesus, a learned Jew, of course would speak in terms that other Jews would find familiar and understand. How wonderful though to picture Christ, the wisdom bearing light of the world, enlightening those around him in the time-honored Jewish tradition of the Psalms.
We leave you then with the questions Sister Salvador asked us to reflect on. Perhaps you can find some quiet time the next few days to re-read Psalm 1 and think about them:
- Have you ever known a truly wise person? Who were they? Why did you consider them wise?
- What does the tree of life tell you about your present life?
- What makes you truly happy?
- Where do you find your heart’s desire?
- What would you want to change in your life?
Feel free to share your answers and thoughts at the bottom of this post. Some of us have already started for you.
Finally, at mass on Sunday the exit hymn was Holy Wisdom, Lamp of Learning. I couldn’t help but think about how some of us discussed after Sister Roberta’s lesson the linkages between the Psalms and Christ. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bQgeKHA8KY
Listen:
Psalms 1 Bible Study, October 4 Recap
St. Patrick’s Psalms 1 class meets every Thursday night @ 7 p.m. in the Religious Education Building.
On Thursday, Oct. 4, twelve parishioners came together to listen to an overview of the Psalms by St. Patrick’s own Mary Porcu.
Mary, a semi-retired teacher and fan of ancient history, instructed us on the history of the Psalms, the rhythmic patterns of the text, and how the Psalms reflect ancient poetry and even some modern poetry. The session helped frame the next seven weeks where we will dive deeper into different Psalm groupings and specific whole Psalms.
The Psalms are divided into five “books” within the greater whole. They are:
- Psalms 1-41; An early collection of Davidic hymns.
- Psalms 42-72; A collection of hymns from northern Israel.
- Psalms 73-89; A collection from the temple singers.
- Psalms 90-106; A collection of royal psalms.
- Psalms 107-150; A second and expanded Davidic royal collection.
Mary talked about how the Psalms were probably written (and in some cases adapted from other religious or spiritual poetry of their time) between 1000-400 B.C., but compiled and finally canonized probably around 100 C.E.
The Psalms are a very distinct form of writing in the Bible, demonstrating, as Mary says, “a special connection” between the author and God. She pointed out how they are the only book where the author(s) are always speaking to God, and that we, the readers, are not being spoken at. In this way, the Psalms provide us with a special connection to these ancient writers because they are so personally written with such powerful emotion.
The basis structure of most Psalms (as defined in Father Lawrence Boadt’s Reading the Old Testament) is as follows:
- an address to God: (“hear me, O God”) often followed by praises
- a lament: where the Psalmist brings his complaint to God
- confession of trust: in God and petition for relief
- exclamation of certainty: where the Psalmist states self-assurance that their prayer is being heard by God
- the vow of praise: promising to always declare God’s praise to the community
Pat Conroy and Mary pointed out how similar this structure is to the Lord’s Prayer.
We wrapped up class discussing how readers of the Bible should never lose sight of the fact that the Psalms were written to be sung. Mary discussed the full spectrum of instruments that were available to the ancients to accompany the Psalter’s signing. Throughout the class, the instructors will bring audio CDs for us to listen to at least one Psalm per class.
We’ll be reading Psalms for All Seasons as our principal text for the Psalms 1 Class.
The text for this class is the Little Rock Bible Study’s Psalms for All Seasons, by John F. Craghan. However, the instructors will be providing additional resources throughout the study to supplement this principal text.
A total of 15 parishioners are participating in the Psalms 1 class, which also will include a special Oct. 11 lecture by Sister Roberta Salvador, with the Maryknoll sisters in Westchester, NY. Sister Roberta will discuss the Wisdom Psalms at some length. If you would like to join us for the lecture or a class or two, simply let us know in advance, by emailing rda911us@yahoo.com.
Class participants should read Pages 1-6 prior to our October 18th Class.
Oct. 11 Special Lecture open to all: True Wisdom
The St. Patrick’s Adult Faith Formation program once again will be graced by biblical scholar Sister Roberta Salvador, as she joins us to discuss the Wisdom Psalms @ 6:30 p.m. on Thursday Oct. 11 (the 50th Anniversary of Vatican II being convened in Rome).
Open to all, this special parish gathering will explore the depth and breadth of these beautiful songs praising God’s justice. Many pray with the Wisdom Psalms to understand some of life’s most important questions: What is life’s meaning? Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper? What is the fate of each? What is the meaning of the law or teaching of the Lord? How do you walk in the ways of the Lord?
Sister Salvador will provide a general background on wisdom and then discuss in greater detail a few of the psalms. There also will be time for Q&A. So that we can plan to have enough space for all guests, please e-mail your RSVP to Richard D’Ambrosio @ rda911us@yahoo.com.
Sister Roberta Salvador
About our speaker: Sister Roberta Salvador
Sister Roberta Salvador was born in Manila, Philippines, and entered Maryknoll in 1967. Assigned to Chile in 1970, she taught at a high school and did catechetical work. Later she taught for five years at Maryknoll High School in Hawaii. She served on a vocation team on the West Coast and in the Communications Office at the Maryknoll mission center in New York.
While a staff member for the Mission Research Office, she served as an advisor for the Holy See Mission to the United Nations and was a recipient of the Cross “Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.” She attended the international Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and signed the Earth Pledge on behalf of the Maryknoll Sisters.
Sister Roberta received her M.A. in Jewish-Christian Studies from Seton Hall University, NJ and has a doctoral degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary, NY, where she studied the Hebrew Bible and ancient Semitic languages. She has taught Scripture at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Fordham University, and the General Theological Seminary (Episcopal). She also is affiliated with the Society of Biblical Literature and the Catholic Biblical Association, whose current members are biblical scholars of many faiths throughout the world.
Maryknoll Sisters have always enjoyed courses from this Scripture scholar, but on vacations, they enjoy even more the fact that Sister Roberta is a fisherwoman. Fresh trout for supper!
Richard D'Ambrosio
Pathways 