EXPLORING THE PSALMS PARKCREST SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY Prof. Kelly Dagley Week 4: April 5, 2017
REVIEW The Psalms are human words spoken to and/or about God. The Psalms are poetry. Poetry is about experience and emotion. What idea lies behind these poetic phrases? What is the poetry trying to get you to feel? Hebrew Poetry plays with the relation between ideas and images. The psalmists use parallelism which makes us ask: are these lines saying the same thing, the opposite, or progressing the idea? We have looked at Psalms of Orientation; these are psalms that describe the world as it should be: ordered, predictable, God is in charge and responding to his righteous people as he promised.
REVIEW Psalms of Disorientation are songs of disarray. These psalms describe the experiences in which human life consists in anguished seasons of hurt, alienation, suffering and death. They evoke rage, resentment, self-pity, and hatred. A Lament is a statement of grief, regret, or mourning. Laments Psalms are some of the most human and realistic words we find in the Bible. Laments affirm that faith is a dialogue between each of us and God. We miss out if we do not lament when needed; we fail to engage God where He has asked to be engaged. Where the cry is not voiced, heaven is not moved and history is not initiated. The end is hopelessness. Where the cry is seriously voiced, heaven may answer and earth may have a new chance. The new resolve in heaven and the new possibility on earth depend on the initiation of protest.
PENITENTIAL PSALMS A second option to the Disorientation. In the Penitential Psalms, the Psalmist has failed to uphold covenant with Yahweh, he has sinned and as a result has experienced suffering, often both emotional and physical, because of his transgressions. Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.
IMPRECATORY PSALM/ LANGUAGE The psalmist had enemies and hateful feelings toward them. The Imprecatory nature and language of some psalms does not stop at complaining about the enemy, but also calling upon God to enact vengeance against them for the psalmist. These words are the voices of the oppressed and the voiceless. It is a surrendering of the last word to God. These words are also that- merely words. There are no battle plans drawn. Instead these ugly thoughts are brought to Yahweh.
BONO AND EUGENE PETERSON VIDEO
PSALMS OF NEW ORIENTATION Communicate faith and trust in Yahweh after a lamentable experience. The psalmists of New Orientation have learned from their past and praise Yahweh for being with them through the storm, even if they didn t know Yahweh was there. Are movement from wretchedness to joy Brueggemann says, These songs are not about the natural outcome of trouble, but about the decisive transformation made possible by this God who causes new life where none seems possible. Life is always on the move either into orientation or out of orientation
PSALMS OF THANKSGIVING They communicate the distress, rescue, and praise of a crisis which is fresh on the mind of the speaker. Closely akin to Laments and Hymns of Praise A significant sign: verb tense. If the description of distress is in the past tense, then it is a Psalm of Thanksgiving. Can be Individual or Communal.
PSALMS OF THANKSGIVING Form: Introduction: an indication of the psalmists intent to praise God because of a previous experience Main Section: The Psalmist s Past Experience Portrayal of distress The Psalmist s cry for help The deliverance from trouble Conclusion: reminiscent of the Introduction and offering praise again to God for the resolution of the situation. Psalm 30
PSALM 30 FROM AUSCHWITZ VIDEO
PSALM OF TRUST These Songs are elaborations of the Confessions or Expressions of Trust found in the Lament Psalms. Brueggemann says that what sets these Songs of Confidence or Trust apart from Psalms of Thanksgiving is they are not so immediate, for they are more distanced from the crisis and reflective. Psalm 63
MUMFORD AND SONS WITH BAABA MAAL VIDEO
OTHER GENRES OF NEW ORIENTATION PSALMS Festival/Liturgical Psalms Psalms of Ascents Royals Psalms Songs of Zion Victory/Enthronement Psalms
LECTIO DIVINA Sacred Reading Seek in READING, and you will find in MEDITATION, knock in PRAYER, and it will be opened to you in CONTEMPLATION. St. John of the Cross There are four phases or movements 1. Reading- Lectio 2. Meditation- Meditatio 3. Prayer-Oratio 4. Contemplation- Contemplatio