The Musical, Liturgical and Pastoral benefits of a literal approach to the Psalms: A cost-benefit analysis.
I often find myself warning others about the dangers of literally interpreting the Bible. I tend to think and suggest that the Bible is a complex collection of writings that must be investigated at depth, opened up and explored at an exegetical level for a richer, fuller understanding to be reached. Accepting mere words on a page as the final word is simply not sufficient – there is always a deeper story and meaning to be found…
However, I recently read a blog at Dandy Kat Konnection that challenged this viewpoint of mine and made me think twice. [I would suggest you to read the hyperlinked article above as a bit of a backdrop before continuing any further here.]
The blog spoke about a congregation praying Psalm 150 in their worship space. As people entered – an assortment of percussive instruments were placed at the foot of the sanctuary and people were asked to select one of them as they entered and to ‘play’ it when the Psalm commenced.
Quite literally, the action of playing these instruments was a direct mimicking of Psalm 150:
‘Praise God with tambourine and dance;
Praise God with strings and pipe!
Praise God with clanging cymbals;
Praise God with loud clashing cymbals!’
What we see here is scriptural literalism occurring…seemingly at its [dare I say it] best! Apparently, the celebration was energising and a prayerful encounter with the joyful flavour of the final Psalm.
While, I am aware this kind of very interactive style of liturgy may not suit everybody – or congregation for that matter – there are a number of things happening here which I feel are worth exploring a little further.
There appear to be pastoral, musical and liturgical pros and cons to consider here. I will work through each of them individually and see what emerges:
PASTORAL: In the referenced story from Dandy Kat Konnection, the pastoral needs of the congregation are held as central. Their direct involvement in the playing and propulsion of the psalm places them in a wonderful position to [as Dr. Kathleen Harmon would argue] become the psalm.
There is a drama at play here that has an accompanying action that is in-sync with the words emanating from the Psalm. This in turn, reinforces the lyrical beauty of the Psalm – and I would argue creates for people a tool to remember the psalm. This is a great thing, as it makes it possible for the psalm to become something that will travel with the individual. It will more likely become a part of the prayer life of the person in their weekly pilgrim journey because of this event of memory which has been created by a visual, physical cue married to the text…and in a sung form at that! There is great pastoral benefit here…full, conscious and active participation!!
MUSICAL: Bring people together in this fashion and inviting them to actually play the music of the psalm is an ambitious venture. Quite possibly, the music might be enhanced – if you have some rhythmical members of the assembly. The power of sung prayer in this instance could be enhanced and ‘owned’ by the assembly in a very real way.
But what happens if this is not the case? What if people don’t have a rhythmical bone in their body and the music becomes overrun with banging and clanging and becomes very ‘unprayerful’ and a distraction? It would be best to avoid such a situation. Solution: target your ‘players’ perhaps prior to the liturgy? Issue: Would this in turn break the sense of spontaneity? This seems to be an area where there are more questions and unknown quantities. Do you take the risk and allow the Spirit to lead proceedings? Or is a more cautious and reserved approach warranted?
The idea of inviting anybody to play is a very community-driven, welcoming and dynamic thing to do. Musically however, I would say you might be setting yourself up for unforeseen and potentially sloppy musical delivery.
LITURGICAL: The liturgy in itself is a powerful manifestation of scripture. This is what Dom Cyprian Vagaggini O.S.B says about the scriptures in relation to the liturgy in his 1976 opus ‘Theological Dimensions of the Liturgy’:
‘The liturgy is concerned with the mystery of sacred history, the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the Church. But the liturgy does not invent this mystery; it simply finds it in the scriptures’.
The liturgical merits of praying the Psalms therefore seem grounded theologically. That participants of the liturgy are literally reinforcing what is being celebrated in the text of the Psalm itself by way of physical gesture and action – is surely highlighting the value and beauty of the Word.
This idea of literal mimicry within Catholic liturgy is nothing outlandishly new.
The gesture of raising one’s hands or arms in prayer to God is known as the Orans. Mostly associated with the Presider, it can also be used by members of the assembly to heighten their own prayer [although it is rarely seen]. The evangelicals love doing it at praise and worship sessions – you’ve probably seen it on television – all that arm waving - all the ecstasy of prayer and the like. The Catholics aren’t really into it and see it as the priest’s job to flap his arms about.
In the Roman Rite, the Orans take most notable effect at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer with the priest calling ‘Lift Up Your Hearts’ [with arms elevated gesturing the assembly with word and action to follow]. There are of course many other points in the liturgy where the Orans is used.
Elsewhere in Catholic liturgy, such as in Evening Prayer, the use of physical gesture in Psalm 141 ‘Let my prayers rise up like incense before you – the lifting up of my hands – as an offering to you’…is also a place where the Orans can be used. On a personal note, it has been with a sense of delight that my wife and I have watched our two children spontaneously adopt the Orans when we sing Psalm 141 as part of our domestic adaptation of Evening Prayer. Their use of the Orans has developed simply by hearing the words being sung and deciding to literally mimic the words being recited with an appropriate and accompanying action. It has been fascinating to watch, because they were not prompted to do so my either my wife or myself.
Literally enacting the words of the psalm in this instance has enhanced our experience of Liturgy…as it no doubt did for Dan’s community and their rhythmical interpretation of Psalm 150. Biblical literalism may not be as dirty an idea as I once thought!
It seems to me, the Psalms can often come off second best in the liturgy and people often overlook them [or fail to see them] as the wonderful source of prayer that they are. They are essentially, as I have said previously, the prayers and songs of Jesus himself. It is necessary and important that we therefore make them our own songs too.
Dan at Dandy Kat Konnection might be onto something in the way his community celebrated Psalm 150. Are there other Psalms that could be investigated in a similar interactive way that will heighten the pastoral, liturgical and musical needs of the gathered faithful?
However, I recently read a blog at Dandy Kat Konnection that challenged this viewpoint of mine and made me think twice. [I would suggest you to read the hyperlinked article above as a bit of a backdrop before continuing any further here.]
The blog spoke about a congregation praying Psalm 150 in their worship space. As people entered – an assortment of percussive instruments were placed at the foot of the sanctuary and people were asked to select one of them as they entered and to ‘play’ it when the Psalm commenced.
Quite literally, the action of playing these instruments was a direct mimicking of Psalm 150:
‘Praise God with tambourine and dance;
Praise God with strings and pipe!
Praise God with clanging cymbals;
Praise God with loud clashing cymbals!’
What we see here is scriptural literalism occurring…seemingly at its [dare I say it] best! Apparently, the celebration was energising and a prayerful encounter with the joyful flavour of the final Psalm.
While, I am aware this kind of very interactive style of liturgy may not suit everybody – or congregation for that matter – there are a number of things happening here which I feel are worth exploring a little further.
There appear to be pastoral, musical and liturgical pros and cons to consider here. I will work through each of them individually and see what emerges:
PASTORAL: In the referenced story from Dandy Kat Konnection, the pastoral needs of the congregation are held as central. Their direct involvement in the playing and propulsion of the psalm places them in a wonderful position to [as Dr. Kathleen Harmon would argue] become the psalm.
There is a drama at play here that has an accompanying action that is in-sync with the words emanating from the Psalm. This in turn, reinforces the lyrical beauty of the Psalm – and I would argue creates for people a tool to remember the psalm. This is a great thing, as it makes it possible for the psalm to become something that will travel with the individual. It will more likely become a part of the prayer life of the person in their weekly pilgrim journey because of this event of memory which has been created by a visual, physical cue married to the text…and in a sung form at that! There is great pastoral benefit here…full, conscious and active participation!!
MUSICAL: Bring people together in this fashion and inviting them to actually play the music of the psalm is an ambitious venture. Quite possibly, the music might be enhanced – if you have some rhythmical members of the assembly. The power of sung prayer in this instance could be enhanced and ‘owned’ by the assembly in a very real way.
But what happens if this is not the case? What if people don’t have a rhythmical bone in their body and the music becomes overrun with banging and clanging and becomes very ‘unprayerful’ and a distraction? It would be best to avoid such a situation. Solution: target your ‘players’ perhaps prior to the liturgy? Issue: Would this in turn break the sense of spontaneity? This seems to be an area where there are more questions and unknown quantities. Do you take the risk and allow the Spirit to lead proceedings? Or is a more cautious and reserved approach warranted?
The idea of inviting anybody to play is a very community-driven, welcoming and dynamic thing to do. Musically however, I would say you might be setting yourself up for unforeseen and potentially sloppy musical delivery.
LITURGICAL: The liturgy in itself is a powerful manifestation of scripture. This is what Dom Cyprian Vagaggini O.S.B says about the scriptures in relation to the liturgy in his 1976 opus ‘Theological Dimensions of the Liturgy’:
‘The liturgy is concerned with the mystery of sacred history, the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the Church. But the liturgy does not invent this mystery; it simply finds it in the scriptures’.
The liturgical merits of praying the Psalms therefore seem grounded theologically. That participants of the liturgy are literally reinforcing what is being celebrated in the text of the Psalm itself by way of physical gesture and action – is surely highlighting the value and beauty of the Word.
This idea of literal mimicry within Catholic liturgy is nothing outlandishly new.
The gesture of raising one’s hands or arms in prayer to God is known as the Orans. Mostly associated with the Presider, it can also be used by members of the assembly to heighten their own prayer [although it is rarely seen]. The evangelicals love doing it at praise and worship sessions – you’ve probably seen it on television – all that arm waving - all the ecstasy of prayer and the like. The Catholics aren’t really into it and see it as the priest’s job to flap his arms about.
In the Roman Rite, the Orans take most notable effect at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer with the priest calling ‘Lift Up Your Hearts’ [with arms elevated gesturing the assembly with word and action to follow]. There are of course many other points in the liturgy where the Orans is used.
Elsewhere in Catholic liturgy, such as in Evening Prayer, the use of physical gesture in Psalm 141 ‘Let my prayers rise up like incense before you – the lifting up of my hands – as an offering to you’…is also a place where the Orans can be used. On a personal note, it has been with a sense of delight that my wife and I have watched our two children spontaneously adopt the Orans when we sing Psalm 141 as part of our domestic adaptation of Evening Prayer. Their use of the Orans has developed simply by hearing the words being sung and deciding to literally mimic the words being recited with an appropriate and accompanying action. It has been fascinating to watch, because they were not prompted to do so my either my wife or myself.
Literally enacting the words of the psalm in this instance has enhanced our experience of Liturgy…as it no doubt did for Dan’s community and their rhythmical interpretation of Psalm 150. Biblical literalism may not be as dirty an idea as I once thought!
It seems to me, the Psalms can often come off second best in the liturgy and people often overlook them [or fail to see them] as the wonderful source of prayer that they are. They are essentially, as I have said previously, the prayers and songs of Jesus himself. It is necessary and important that we therefore make them our own songs too.
Dan at Dandy Kat Konnection might be onto something in the way his community celebrated Psalm 150. Are there other Psalms that could be investigated in a similar interactive way that will heighten the pastoral, liturgical and musical needs of the gathered faithful?
posted by malleebull at 10:42 pm
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