Day Forty-Three -- Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.
Psalm 90 to Psalm 108
One of the pleasures of many of the psalms in this portion of the psalter is that they deal less with the need to defeat enemies and mostly with the desire to praise God. The LORD is the One to whom new songs are to be sung with great joy and thanksgiving. Worship is the aim of many of these psalms, recounting the wondrous deeds God has done to save his people. The tradition of the Episcopal Church to which I belong makes good use of these psalms. The office of Morning Prayer uses either Psalm 95 ("Come, let us sing to the Lord") or Psalm 100 ("Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands") every day of the year except during Easter Week when another anthem is used. The order for Compline, the prayers said before retiring for the night, an option to use a portion of Psalm 91 ("He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High").
It is not just the Episcopal Church that utilizes the psalms in this way, especially when it comes to the singing. A number of beloved hymns are based on paraphrases of the psalms including "O God our help in ages past" (Psalm 90:1-5), "All people that on earth do dwell" (Psalm 100), and "O bless the Lord, my soul!" (Psalm 103:1-5). God's people have indeed been singing his praise for thousands of years, with words that remain forever timeless.
One of the pleasures of many of the psalms in this portion of the psalter is that they deal less with the need to defeat enemies and mostly with the desire to praise God. The LORD is the One to whom new songs are to be sung with great joy and thanksgiving. Worship is the aim of many of these psalms, recounting the wondrous deeds God has done to save his people. The tradition of the Episcopal Church to which I belong makes good use of these psalms. The office of Morning Prayer uses either Psalm 95 ("Come, let us sing to the Lord") or Psalm 100 ("Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands") every day of the year except during Easter Week when another anthem is used. The order for Compline, the prayers said before retiring for the night, an option to use a portion of Psalm 91 ("He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High").
It is not just the Episcopal Church that utilizes the psalms in this way, especially when it comes to the singing. A number of beloved hymns are based on paraphrases of the psalms including "O God our help in ages past" (Psalm 90:1-5), "All people that on earth do dwell" (Psalm 100), and "O bless the Lord, my soul!" (Psalm 103:1-5). God's people have indeed been singing his praise for thousands of years, with words that remain forever timeless.
No comments:
Post a Comment