A Psalm a day keeps the dark away

"Sing to the Lord a new song;
   sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
   proclaim his salvation day after day." (Psalm 96:1-2)

Frosty dawn, melting into day with a slow steam rising. Above it all the mountains reveal a dusting of snow. Ice crystals cling to the surface of the deck, and where small bodies of water collected in the sleet of the day before. The splendour of autumn has collected under the trees, a final play of falling leaves adding to it. I wonder how many love songs and poems have been written about the nostalgia of autumn. Nat King Cole sang this haunting song about a love lost:

The falling leaves drift by the window

The autumn leaves of red and gold

I see your lips, the summer kisses

The sun-burned hands,  I used to hold

Since you went away, 

the days grow long

And soon I'll hear old winter's song

But I miss you most of all, my darling

When autumn leaves start to fall

Then we had Van Morrisson in "Moondance" who sang with a grinding voice and velvet lyrics:

And all the leaves on the trees are fallin'

To the sound of the breezes that blow

An' I'm trying to please to the callin'

Of your heart strings that play soft and low...

And when I returned to the classics I found this little gem from Margaret Postgate Cole:

Today, as I rode by,

I saw the brown leaves dropping from their tree
In a still afternoon,
When no wind whirled them whistling to the sky,
But thickly, silently,
They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon;
And wandered slowly thence
For thinking of a gallant multitude
Which now all withering lay,
Slain by no wind of age or pestilence,

But in their beauty strewed

Like snowflakes falling on the Flemish clay.

What is it about poetry that makes us stop short and listen; then feel, then see, smell, trapped in the rythm of words and mind images? A friend recently started reciting a "nonsense" poem by Edward Lear. We were lunching in a beautiful garden and there was a easy hum of conversation and the tinkle of little voices all round. Suddenly there was a hush, the children drew nearer, I imagined even the birds stopped their twittering for a while. No great literary work of prose could have evoked the same reaction. As I have always loved poetry, but sadly never studied a great deal of it, this got me thinking (oh dear...).

I know that God has written countless pages of poetry for us, so I started with the Psalms. At the hand of David Pawson in "Unlocking the Bible", here are some of the wonderful things I discovered:

The three features of poetry that make the words beautiful for us is rhyme, rythm and repetition. Poetry has a much deeper effect on people than prose. It can penetrate parts of our personality that prose would leave untouched. It is more easily remembered, especially when set to music. The word Psalm itself means "pluck" or "twang", implying that it should be accompanied by a stringed (or other) instrument.

It touches the intuitive and artistic part of the brain, that can be left unmoved by the ordered arguments of prose. It evokes emotions, often reaching deep into the heart. Many of us remember part of a Psalm, either sung or often read, from childhood, only to understand the deeper meaning of it much later in life. But how can the Psalms, originally written in Hebrew, not loose their effect when translated into other languages? Imagine translating a stirring old English poem into German... But in Hebrew poetry, the emphasis is on the sense of the words rather than the sound of them, which is why it can be translated into any language. So it is easy to see why God chose such a medium. Hebrew poetry is based on a form of repetition called parallelism, that refers to the "correspondence" between the phrases of a poetic line.

Their is a timeless quality to the Psalms. They can still be applied to our everyday lives right now. I've often dug into the Psalms at times when I needed comfort, then ending up reading a Psalm out loud, my voice  gaining strength as I realise that praise is due to our God, even in troubled times. Over-analysis destroys the beauty of a poem and so also with the Psalms. It is lovely just to read it out load, let it sink in slowly and if necessary, repeat the process.

God is addressed by two names in the Psalms. Elohim, which simply means "God", though being plural, it refers to the holy Trinity. The other is Yaweh, derived from the verb "to be". Which got me thinking (again...) did Shakespeare realise what he was saying?  - "To be, or not to be" (or Yaweh or not Yaweh!) the famous  opening lines of a soliloquy by Hamlet, as he questions the meaning of life, and whether or not it is worthwhile to stay alive when life contains so many hardships. He comes to the conclusion that the main reason people stay alive is due to a fear of death and uncertainty at what lies beyond life...With Yaweh, we know that to live is Christ and to die is gain!

Back to the Psalms, (this happens when I think too much). David wrote the bulk of the Psalms, but many are anonymous. David had many roles, shepherd, warrior, king and musician. But it was the role of musician that meant the most to him, when he died, he thanked God that he had been Israel's "sweet singer". Our voices can also become "sweet" as we read or sing the Psalms in our daily worship. David is refreshingly honest in his writing. He curses men, complains about God and asks for revenge on his enemies. He tells God exactly how he feels - and since God knows this already anyway, he can understand and forgive us when we are honest before Him.

I was quite amazed to see all that is prophesied about Jesus, the Son of David, in the "Messianic" or prophetic Psalms. David was able to enter into the sufferings of Jesus on the cross, without ever having experienced them himself. Psalm 22 begins with "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (the words Jesus cried from the cross). We find twenty of these Psalms quoted in the New Testament, proving the relevance of the whole Bible now and always. If we could "enter" into these same sufferings in only a small way, we would be overawed by all that was sacrificed for us.

 The sons of Korah wrote 10 - a man named Korah features in a story recorded in the Book of Numbers. God punished him to death when he led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. But generations later, his descendants were engaged in Temple worship! The sons of Asaph wrote 12 psalms and they were part of the choir that served in the Temple at the time.

The Psalms tell us that God is Shepherd, Warrior, Judge, Father and, above all, King. In David Pawson's words: "In view of these attributes and actions of God, it is no surprise that in the Psalms theology very quickly becomes doxology. Truth leads inevitably to praise!"

Make a Psalm your own - give it a title. See and feel God responding to you. We discover their true beauty and power when we read them aloud, sing them, even shout them at times... The Psalms are meant to lead us into passionate praise that glorifies God. Do I do all the things I so easily recommend in these writings? Sadly not. But God sees our hunger and honours that. If we pray that we may have a deep longing for time in his Word, as well as have the "time" and opportunity to do it, he will be faithful. It is in our willingness to admit that we need more of Him, where He meets our need.

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
     let the sea resound, and all that is in it.

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
     let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,
     he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
     and the peoples in his faithfulness.

                                                          Psalm 96:11-13

(Do read the whole Psalm out loud to yourself - then pray for the hunger to make this a daily habit. Our Lord will meet you there as His beloved).