Covering all the bases

I recently completed Biblical Interpretation at UGST, which was an experience in so many ways! Dr. David Norris, who is quite possibly the most brilliant person I know - or at least in the top 5 - taught the course. One morning, as a devotional, we sang Psalm 136 - that famous responsorial psalm which ends each verse with the phrase - "for his mercy endureth forever" - you know, the phrase you start to skip over after a while. Or at least I did. That is, until Dr. Norris stood at the whiteboard and wrote the Hebrew letters for this phrase on the board and proceeded to explain to us its real meaning. When he came to the Hebrew words for "mercy endureth forever" I was so amazed - this phrase means that his love is infinite, unending, from beginning of time until end, matchless. When we fail to love, he continues. When all other mercy fails, his continues. Isn't that amazing?

The neat part was when a dear sister in our class who sings R&B was unexpectedly called to the front to sing the first half of each verse - ad lib, on-the-fly, with no advance notice! Let me just say, "you nailed it, Sis. Angela!" While she sang the first half, the class "responded," as the psalmist intended, with a chant-like refrain of "for his mercy endureth forever." By the time we got to verse 23 which states, "He who remembered us in our lowely estate.....," let me tell you - I wondered if we would be able to have class that day!

There is something about singing the pslams - a silly-sounding thing to say, considering that's how they were SUPPOSED to be expressed. I wonder what would happen if we would choose to intone them in our choirs, or small groups? Trust me, you don't need instrumentation for something like that! The Word is so powerful and there is something about the way that particular psalms flows. Starting with a Kerygma type of worship which proclaims God's great attributes, then flowing to a Koinonia worship where the congregation is reminding each other of God's great deeds (crossing the Red Sea, being delivered from Pharoah's army), to a Leitourgia worship which speaks the words directly to God - this psalm covers it all. We argue about "verical" worship or "horizontal" worship so much. Could it be that we could simply take a page from the greatest book of songs and just put it all in there? Sing to God, to each other and about God so that everyone would know of his enduring, infinite mercy.

Since I always forget, I'm listening to........very little......my car's CD player is on the blink. But I am spinning Israel's "Power of One" quite a bit a home, especially "I Receive" - that song blows me away. I'm reading...... anything about capital punishment - writing a paper.