Friday, March 7, 2008

Would you say a Psalm to me?

Or, which is perhaps more to my point, would I say a Psalm to you? The difficulty of expression is twofold. Overly expressive people make me uncomfortable--they fall down in the aisles of churches or weep uncontrollably at Easter services. But the flip side is a faith in the amazingness of God that is never spoken. Which can be a cover for a faith that doesn't even think in those terms--the terms that David uses in the Psalms. Do you think in those terms? Would your soul resound with another's if he started psalming to you, or would you feel awkward?

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my sould thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My sould will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My sould clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

They who seek my life will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
they will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.

But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God's name will praise him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

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