This all got started because I was frustrated with the bible. The Psalms in particular. Beautiful prayers, poems and songs that at times expressed the deepest desires and fears of my soul and at other times confused me with their hatred, animosity and angry demands. Someone once told me to pay particular attention to the parts of the Bible that I found difficult to understand. And so the journey began two years ago.
The Prayerbook Project is an experiment in prayer and music. I have decided to write & record new songs inspired by the Psalms. 15 songs a year for ten years (=150 total). We have begun mixing the first collection of songs and I hope to be finished with Prayerbook, No. 1 by the beginning of the new year.
It is my hope that others (you?) will go on this journey with me. The Prayerbook of the Bible (as Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it) reminds us that all of life can be a prayerful, dying>living worship to God. So far the experience has been life-changing, overwhelming, rewarding, exhausting, invigorating, spiritually-renewing...
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will make your vindication shine like the light,
and the justice of your cause like the noonday.
Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
do not fret over those who prosper in their way,
over those who carry out evil devices.
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath.
Do not fret - it leads only to evil. Psalm 37:5-8
In regard to your consternation with the portions of the psalms which are hard to reconcile, seem to conflict with the NT Christian emphasis on grace and forgiveness, or just do not feel right: I offer that we need to remember the psalms were written by the Holy Spirit. As such, they present the mind of God in a way we are unable to come to on our own.
Yes, there are many portions we immediately identify with. They express feelings and desires we might never sol eloquently express. Those are the easy parts to accept.
What is hard to accept is that the Christian of today ought to adopt the mindset of the psalmists. But if we are to submit to the principle that what was written before was written for our learning then we need to bring our thoughts into conformity with God's thoughts.
Our sinful nature would have us pick and choose what we will accept of what God has written. That ought not to be so. The only correct guide to renewing our minds, thoughts and hearts after the image of He who created us is found in His Word.
I have not read your renditions, so I do not know where you have come down on resolving this matter for yourself. I only hope it is not as Isaac Watts did. He intended to christianize David. He wrote replacements for the psalms, not just paraphrases or hymns inspired by the same. He thought the psalms needed to be replaced. That is arrogant, to say the least.
If the church spend more time singing the psalms, we might have a whole new look at the world around us and what God is doing and is going to do. How many people really clap their hands in a shout of triumph because God will subdue the people under us and the nations under our feet? That is antithetical to the commonly held idea that our end will be through Deus ex machina; we will be plucked off this earth and out of its grasp. I prefer to believe all the ends of the earth will fear Him.
Posted by: John Hendrickson | September 06, 2006 at 09:52 AM