Saturday, October 17, 2009

A joyful noise

Psalm 66 and 67: These two communal thanksgiving psalms are all about being heard: they invite the community to join in song and praises and joyful noises. After all, how can a community express thanks except with their voices -- by shouts and singing and cheers. Mennonites loves to sing, and we can burst into the four-parts of what we call "606", a setting of the doxology, if the occasion presents itself.  Psalm 66 gives some background of the exodus from Egypt as a rationale for the thanksgiving, and 67 speaks of Israel's favour before God, after opening with a familiar benediction from Numbers 6: 24-26: "My God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us." (Psalm 67:1).
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousNovember 19, 2009 at 6:50 AM

    I was struck by the change in imagery with respect to the tongue. In Psalm 64, the enemies “whet their tongues like swords” and God will bring the enemy to ruin because of their tongue (reminiscent of James 3) but in Psalm 66, “[God] is extolled with my tongue.”
    IPF

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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