The Psalms... not always so lovely...
As I mentioned during the Episcopal 101 presentation, one of you raised the issue of the Psalms in which there is anger or a desire for revenge.
It's helpful to think of the Psalms as our words to God, reflecting the full spectrum of human emotion: from joy and thanksgiving to fear and anger and a desire for vengeance.
These latter emotions might make us uncomfortable-- especially given the safety of our circumstances most of the time. It's important to remember that the context in which the Psalmists lived was far more dangerous than what most of us at St. Peter's will ever experience (pray God).
But trying on another shoe... imagine being a relative, even a parent, to one of the children killed in Afghanistan recently? The concluding verses of Psalm 137 might seem very familiar to us. To a certain extent, our horror at those final verse is a luxury of our context.
And we're not so far as we might think from invoking God's wrath against our enemies in song (remembering that Psalms are songs...) As I was thinking about this late last week, the WWII era song, "Praise the Lord, and Pass the Ammunition" came to mind...You can listen on youtube here, a source that includes background information about the chaplain ("sky pilot") who is the source of the story in the song. The lyrics:
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition (repeat)
And we'll all stay free
Praise the Lord and swing into position
Can't afford to be a politician
Praise the Lord, we're all between perdition
And the deep blue sea
Yes, the sky pilot said it, you gotta give him credit
For a son of a gun of a gunner was he
Shouting, 'Praise the Lord, we're on a mighty mission
All aboard, we ain't a-goin' fishin'
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we'll all stay free'
Even during a time when war was closer at hand, when members met in the first attempt at a General Convention after the Revolutionary War, there was a desire to edit the Psalms significantly-- for all the reasons that we wrestle with them today. And indeed, while our Psalter printed in the Book of Common Prayer is complete, we do not read all of the Psalms, nor all of the verses of all the Psalms we read, on Sunday mornings-- Psalm 137 being a good example.
But as a resource that reminds us that our ancestors in faith have felt all the emotions that we have, and have shared those emotions with God, who can take whatever we cry out... in that the Psalms are priceless.
Bono, U2's lead singer, has suggested the Psalms are the blues of the bible. There's a great article by Bono in The Guardian ca 1999 that is very much worth a read-- good stuff on the role the Psalms played in his faith and his music, reflections on personalities in the Bible, and how the song 40 came to be.
Perhaps knowing the fullness of emotion our ancestors shared with God can encourage us to be so vulnerable with God as well.
Thank you for being on this journey!
