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    Reflections on the Psalms
    Reflections on the Psalms
    Reflections on the Psalms
    Ebook373 pages5 hours

    Reflections on the Psalms

    By Steven Croft

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    About this ebook

    Following in the footsteps of the bestselling Reflections for Daily Prayer, this special undated companion provides insightful commentary on the Psalms as they are arranged in the Common Worship Psalter. Some of the most outstanding writers from across the Anglican church offer insightful, informed and inspiring reflections on all 150 psalms.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChurch House Publishing
    Release dateMay 7, 2015
    ISBN9780715144923
    Reflections on the Psalms
    Author

    Steven Croft

    Steven Croft is the Bishop of Oxford and one of the principal authors of the Pilgrim series.

    Read more from Steven Croft

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    • 4/5
      Best known as the author of the Chronicles of Narnia and several book on Christian apologetics, C.S. Lewis here takes a variety of "reflections" on themes in Psalms, not as an expert but as a companion reading alongside.Each chapter focuses on one aspect of the Psalms, starting with what Lewis considers the hardest ones - vengeance, for example, and cursing - broken down topically in an almost random way. The final three chapters are closely intertwined, discussing "second meanings" when perhaps the author is talking about more than he actually meant and readers are interpreting it differently in literature, Scripture in general, and then finally the Psalms. Though not my favorite Lewis, Psalms is one of my favorite parts of Scripture so it was fun to get an idea of what Lewis thought of these topics (definitely have your own translation with you, as he refers to specific verses throughout often without quoting them or expanding much on them).
    • 5/5
      Just when I think I've discovered my favorite Jack Lewis book, I go and find another one. This book took me ages to read because I simply did not want it to end. I haven't savored a text like this since reading Hugo's Les Miserables. Like most pieces of art that make a lasting impact on me, this book raised my blood pressure a bit - made me nervous. I have never learned anything from comfort. While I can say that perhaps Lewis and I don't share identical beliefs, he has forced me (by being so incredibly humble) to his perspective. This is, after all, Jack Lewis. If anyone else had suggested some of what Mr. Lewis suggests in this small Bible study, this book quite possibly would never have seen the light of day. But like all good works, this book mades you read it in its entirety - you must let Jack finish his reasons for not equating himself with a fundamentalist - for even, in his own words, envying them - to find at the end of it all a truly fundamental conclusion. But Jack isn't fundamental because he's fundamental, he's fundamental by reason. That might not make a lot of sense to a Lewis outsider, but I believe anyone familiar with his work will know what I mean. Where Paul (an "outsider")is the Jew appealing to the gentile on Mars Hill, Lewis is the gentile who reasons from even further outside the ring to find the same conclusion - to deny that he found it fundamentally - but at heart to be operating from the same fundamental thinking that drives all good theology. That is, he divides what he reads in the Word based on what has been concluded or revealed about the Person of God Himself. That it is a faith conclusion, and it ultimately drives his reasoning. Without giving too much away, I will say that Lewis breaks down his study of the Psalms into brilliant, tidy divisions that give a wholistic view of their pattern and importance rather than dividing them by chronology. While some of his themes have been covered before, he ventures to places I have never seen anyone else go before. His extensive knowledge and background in ancient myths adds a fascinating depth here as he is able at a glance to remark on the differences in these Hebrew mindsets compared with their pagan contemporaries. This added flavor - which highlighted how Jewish texts were completely unique - was one of my favorite things about this book and offered so many rich surprises. Indeed, a lack of understanding in this particular field is why so many Christian scholars miss much of what the Spirit was doing. Jack showed me once again that the Spirit's Poetry is incomparable.While many would be fearful to read Lewis' suggestion that the Psalmist is actually possibly sinning in some of his warmonger type rantings, this notion of dividing what is strictly human from what is strictly God and driving back towards the ultimate question of the Spirit's purpose in preserving whatever has been written is essential to any really strong theological foundation. Lewis steps away from the Book, turns it around several ways - reads it again and again - and sees beauty that I in my more prosaic form of fundamentalism would have failed to see if not forced by a humbler heart than my own. This would be the heart of Jack Lewis. Thank God he was brave enough to make his deepest quandries (those we have all shared in secretly) public. He has, for a few pages, given me a glance behind his eyes and into a mind different than my own - which is the point.I have a different - much larger - much wider - much more beautiful view of the Psalms. Thanks to Jack, they have increased. I have decreased.Good Books don't get much better than that.
    • 4/5
      I enjoy Lewis's religious writings immensely--something which I always find a bit perplexing since I do not consider myself religious and often have very little or no real understanding of the doctrine or scriptures he is discussing. But he writes about difficult concepts well, and I usually leave his books with some sense that I've understood something I didn't before. Often I get insight into the world from his musings, too (in this book, chapter five sparked some useful thinking about the rampant commercialism of Christmas). There's no doubt that Lewis sometimes comes off super pompous and I often want to smack him upside the head and remind him that not everyone is a white, male, educated, protestant from Britain, but there's worth to be found here if you can accept and see past the fact that he will always sound very much like he's only talking to other people just like him.
    • 3/5
      I liked this better than Mere Christianity, and some of it was very calming, but Mr. Lewis and I disagree on a little too many things! Still would recommend and buy for friends.

    Book preview

    Reflections on the Psalms - Steven Croft

    REFLECTIONS

    ON THE

    PSALMS

    Book title

    IAN ADAMS

    CHRISTOPHER COCKSWORTH

    JOANNA COLLICUTT

    GILLIAN COOPER

    STEVEN CROFT

    PAULA GOODER

    PETER GRAYSTONE

    MALCOLM GUITE

    HELEN-ANN HARTLEY

    BARBARA MOSSE

    MARK OAKLEY

    MARTYN PERCY

    JOHN PRITCHARD

    BEN QUASH

    JOHN SENTAMU

    ANGELA TILBY

    LUCY WINKETT

    JEREMY WORTHEN

    Church House Publishing

    Church House

    Great Smith Street

    London SW1P 3AZ

    ISBN 978 0 7151 4490 9

    Published 2015 by Church House Publishing

    Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2015

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored or transmitted by any means or in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without written permission, which should be sought from: copyright@churchofengland.org

    The opinions expressed in this book are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the General Synod or The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England.

    Liturgical editor: Peter Moger

    Series editor: Hugh Hillyard-Parker

    Designed and typeset by Hugh Hillyard-Parker

    Copy edited by: Ros Connelly and Ruth Oakley

    Printed by CPI Bookmarque, Croydon, Surrey

    What do you think of Reflections on the Psalms?

    We’d love to hear from you – simply email us at

    publishing@churchofengland.org

    or write to us at

    Church House Publishing, Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ.

    Visit www.dailyprayer.org.uk for more information on the Reflections series, ordering and subscriptions.

    Contents

    About the authors

    About Reflections on the Psalms

    The Psalms and the Bible

    The Psalms in the life of the Church

    Psalm table for reading the Psalms over the course of a month

    Psalm table for reading Psalm 119 and the Psalms of Ascent

    Psalms

    About the authors

    Ian Adams is a poet, writer, photographer and artist. He is the creator of the daily Morning Bell, author of Unfurling:poems, Running Over Rocks: spiritual practices to transform tough times and Cave Refectory Road: monastic rhythms for contemporary living. Ian is an Anglican priest, director of StillPoint, co-founder of Beloved Life and Spirituality Adviser for CMS. info: www.about.me/ianadams

    Christopher Cocksworth is the Bishop of Coventry. He read Theology at the University of Manchester. After teaching in secondary education, he trained for ordination and pursued doctoral studies, serving in parochial and chaplaincy ministry and in theological education, latterly as Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge.

    Joanna Collicutt is the Karl Jaspers Lecturer in Psychology and Spirituality at Ripon College Cuddesdon and Advisor on the Spiritual Care of Older People for Oxford Diocese. Her professional background is in clinical psychology, but her current area of academic interest is psychology of religion and, in particular, psychological approaches to reading the Bible. She also ministers in a West Oxfordshire parish.

    Gillian Cooper is a writer, teacher, and Old Testament enthusiast. She has previously worked as a theological educator, a cathedral verger, and an administrator. She has recently moved to London, but still escapes whenever she can to the windswept beaches of Norfolk and Orkney.

    Steven Croft is the Bishop of Sheffield. He is the author of a number of books including Jesus People: what next for the church? and The Advent Calendar, a novel for children and adults, and a co-author of Pilgrim: a course for the Christian journey.

    Paula Gooder is Theologian in Residence for the Bible Society. She is a writer and lecturer in biblical studies, author of a number of books including Journey to the Empty Tomb, The Meaning is in the Waiting and Heaven, and a co-author of the Pilgrim course. She is also a Reader in the Church of England.

    Peter Graystone works for Church Army, where he oversees pioneering projects that take the Good News way beyond the walls of a church to profoundly unchurched people. One of those locations is the internet, and he edits Christianity.org.uk, which gives free, confidential, reliable information about the Christian faith. He is a Church Times columnist and theatre reviewer.

    Malcolm Guite, the Chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge, is a poet and singer–songwriter, and is the author of What do Christians Believe? (Granta 2006), Faith, Hope and Poetry (Ashgate 2010), Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year (Canterbury 2012), The Singing Bowl (Canterbury 2013) and Word in the Wilderness (Canterbury 2014).

    Helen-Ann Hartley is the 7th Bishop of Waikato in the Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki, New Zealand. Prior to her consecration, Helen-Ann was Dean at the College of St John the Evangelist in Auckland, New Zealand. She was ordained deacon and priest in the Diocese of Oxford and served as Director of Biblical Studies at Ripon College Cuddesdon prior to her move to New Zealand in 2012.

    Barbara Mosse is a writer and retired Anglican priest. She was a lecturer on the MA in Christian Spirituality at Sarum College, Salisbury. Earlier ministerial posts included some parish work, alongside chaplaincy experience in prison, university, community mental health and hospital. She is the author of The Treasures of Darkness (Canterbury 2003), Encircling the Christian Year (BRF 2012) and Welcoming the Way of the Cross (BRF 2013).

    Mark Oakley is Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral. A former Chaplain to the Bishop of London and Rector of St Paul’s, Covent Garden, he is also the author of The Collage of God (2001) and various anthologies, including Readings for Funerals (2015), articles and reviews, usually in the areas of faith, poetry and literature. He is Visiting Lecturer in the department of Theology and Religious Studies at King’s College London.

    Martyn Percy is the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, one of the University of Oxford’s largest colleges, as well as the Cathedral Church of the diocese of Oxford. From 2004 to 2014 he was Principal of Ripon College, Cuddesdon. Prior to that he was Director of the Lincoln Theological Institute and has also been Chaplain and Director of Studies at Christ’s College, Cambridge.

    John Pritchard has recently retired as Bishop of Oxford. Prior to that he has been Bishop of Jarrow, Archdeacon of Canterbury and Warden of Cranmer Hall, Durham. His only ambition was to be a vicar, which he was in Taunton for eight happy years. He enjoys armchair sport, walking, reading, music, theatre and recovering.

    Ben Quash has been Professor of Christianity and the Arts at King’s College London since 2007, and is Director of the Centre for Arts and the Sacred at King’s (ASK). Prior to that he was Dean and Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He runs a collaborative MA in Christianity and the Arts with the National Gallery in London, and is also Canon Theologian of both Coventry and Bradford Cathedrals.

    John Sentamu practised Law both at the Bar and at the Bench in Uganda before he came to the UK in 1974. He was ordained priest in 1979, and was appointed Bishop for Stepney in 1996, Bishop for Birmingham in 2002 and Archbishop of York in 2005. He is Primate of England and Metropolitan, a member of the House of Lords and a Privy Councillor.

    Angela Tilby is a Canon of Christ Church, Oxford and is Continuing Ministerial Development Adviser for the Diocese of Oxford. Prior to that she has been Vice-Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge and a senior producer at the BBC, where she made several acclaimed television programmes and series.

    Lucy Winkett is Rector of St James’s Church, Piccadilly. She contributes regularly to Radio 4’s Thought for the Day and is the author of Our Sound is our Wound (Continuum 2010). She combines parish ministry with chairing an educational trust and running an all-through Church of England Academy, including a project for children on the autistic spectrum. Until 2010, she was Canon Precentor of St Paul’s Cathedral.

    Jeremy Worthen is a priest in the Church of England and is currently the Secretary for Ecumenical Relations and Theology at the Council for Christian Unity. He previously worked in theological education and has written on a range of subjects, including Jewish–Christian relations. His most recent book is Responding to God’s Call (Canterbury Press 2012).

    About Reflections on the Psalms

    Reflections on the Psalms is a companion publication to the highly successful annual series of Reflections for Daily Prayer; this book offers a series of short reflections on each of the Psalms, written by a varied team of popular writers, experienced ministers, biblical scholars and theologians, all of whom bring their own emphases, enthusiasms and approaches to biblical interpretation to bear.

    Regular users of Morning Prayer and Time to Pray (from Common Worship: Daily Prayer) will benefit from the rich variety of traditions represented in these stimulating and accessible pieces.

    Unlike Reflections for Daily Prayer this volume is not tied to the annual lectionary; rather it will form a perpetual companion for Morning and/or Evening Prayer, and will also be a good reference for preaching from the principal service Lectionary readings, which always include a psalm.

    As such this book will be a valuable resource for personal or devotional use. Some readers may use it in tandem with Reflections for Daily Prayer; others may choose to use it in place of it for a while. Equally, the value of the book won’t be limited to people using the Morning Prayer Lectionary – it will be of use to many who never do, or who only want to use it on Sundays or as part of a non-Lectionary based pattern of prayer. Two possible patterns of reading the Psalms are suggested on pages 16–18.

    Each reflection sits on a page with its corresponding Psalm refrain and prayer from the Common Worship Psalter.

    Some of the longer psalms have been divided into shorter portions, each of which is given its own reflection (e.g. Psalm 18). The longest psalm, Psalm 119, is divided into eight parts, following the divisions found in Common Worship Daily Prayer.

    The Psalms and the Bible

    The book of the Psalms – sometimes also called the Psalter – has been at the centre of Jewish and Christian worship for over 2000 years, though individual psalms have been used in worship for much longer even than that. Indeed one of the most inspirational features of the Psalter is that it has been in constant use as a prayer book for at least 2000 years, if not longer. When we pray the words of the Psalms, we join our words to the words of those millions of Jews and Christians who have gone before us and have used this collection as their own prayer book.

    Our English word ‘psalm’ comes from the Greek word psalmos, which means a song sung to harp music. Our name for the Psalms then seems to reflect how they were prayed. The Hebrew name for the Psalter is Tehillim, which means literally ‘praises’ and appears to be more connected to the content of the Psalms than to how they were prayed.

    Five major types of psalms

    The Hebrew name for the Psalter may have been ‘praises’, but you do not have to read very far through the Psalms to realize that not all psalms are psalms of praise. Some psalms contain far more grief and anger than they do praise. The further you read, the clearer it becomes that there are different types of psalms in the Psalter, and being able to recognize what type of psalm you are reading can be very helpful in understanding it better. There are five major types of psalms, although, of course, not all psalms fit easily into one category or another.

    •    Hymns – Many of the Psalms fall into the category of hymns. Hymns are focused around God, who he was and is, and what he has done. They often begin and end with a call to praise, with a middle section that describes more about who God is (as, for example, in Psalm 33).

    •    Laments – Another large group of psalms are best described as laments. Some laments are communal; others are individual. These psalms all have a similar form: they begin and end with a plea to God begging him to hear their cry, with a middle section that lays out the nature of the disaster. With the exception of Psalm 88, which is full of despair from beginning to end, the psalms of lament are striking in that they express their faith in God despite what is going on around them.

    •    Thanksgiving psalms – Connected to the laments are the thanksgiving psalms, which give thanks to God for what he has done to help the psalmist. They are most likely to have been used to accompany a sacrifice of thanksgiving in the temple.

    •    Royal psalms – The royal psalms are all, as their title suggests, about kings. They praise God for the king; they celebrate the king and all he has done; they pray for the king and declare his righteousness. Royal psalms are in form quite different from each other, and the only thing that connects them is their interest in the king.

    •    Wisdom psalms – The wisdom psalms stand out from the rest since they appear to arise less from immediate events of catastrophe or celebration and more from a particular way of looking at the world (a perspective that they share with books such as Proverbs and Ecclesiastes). As a result they focus attention on the importance of wisdom and the fear of the Lord, and seem to be instructing their hearers into a better way of being. A good example of a wisdom psalm is Psalm 1.

    As well as these five major types of psalms there are a number of psalms that would best fit under the heading of miscellaneous. These psalms are quite different from each other and almost defy categorization.

    Orientation, disorientation and reorientation

    Scholars use the five major categories as a tool for understanding more about the Psalms and how they were first used. The Old Testament scholar and theologian Walter Brueggemann picked up this classification and took it a helpful step further as a means for us to read and understand the Psalms today. He observed that the majority of psalms in the categories above had one of three effects: orientation, disorientation and reorientation.

    What he meant by this was that there are some psalms that reflect the ordinariness of life. These he identified as psalms of orientation (see for example Psalm 33). These psalms arise out of and speak into lives that are settled, clear and purposeful. In these God’s presence is easily discerned and identified.

    The problem is that our lives can all too easily fall apart – with very little notice. When they do, we feel as though we are sucked down into a deep pit and that God is absent and uncaring. Psalms of disorientation (such as Psalm 22) are written out of such an experience, but nevertheless are addressed to God and reflect the assurance of a relationship with God despite the events that crush us.

    Psalms of reorientation (such as Psalm 103) reflect faith after catastrophe and explore the nature of faith in God following such an experience.

    In other words, the majority of psalms speak out of and into genuine experience – experience that resonates as strongly today as it did when the Psalms were first written. Indeed, it is the genuineness of this experience that means that the Psalms still speak powerfully to so many people; they are not just of historic interest, but remain profoundly relevant as prayers that speak out of real emotion. Many people have found over the years that praying with the Psalms has helped them bring what they are feeling to God in both the good times and the bad.

    The five books of the Psalter

    So far we have looked at the groupings of individual psalms based on their form and content. It is worth noting, however, that the Psalter has already grouped the Psalms together in five collections (1–41; 42–72; 73–89; 90–106; 107–150). The collections are each marked at the end with a doxology or blessing (see 41.13; 72.18-19; 89.52), and the final book ends with a grand doxology of a whole psalm. It appears that these five collections had a life as collections before they were all gathered together into one book. This is because there are some duplicates (see, for example, Psalms 14 and 53). Every time there are duplicate psalms, they appear in two different collections. The best explanation for this is that by the time the Psalter was gathered together as a whole collection, the smaller collections were so well known as they were that it was not possible to take the duplicate psalms out.

    Having said this, the whole Psalter itself has movement within it. Although lament and praise are woven together throughout the whole book, there are many more laments in the first half of the Psalter and many more thanksgivings in the second half, until you get to the end of the Psalter, which contains pure unadulterated praise. It is also worth noting that the central psalm (if you count volume of words not psalm numbers) is Psalm 88, which is the psalm mentioned above as being despairing from beginning to end. It is almost as though the whole Psalter sinks into deep disorientation at its heart before turning the corner into reorientation. As a result, the Psalter as a whole reflects the movement of many psalms of lament, which journey into the depths of despair and then out again in praise and thanksgiving.

    Poetry and parallelism

    Hebrew poetry, while recognizable as poetry, is quite different from English poetry, since rhythm and rhyme are less important for it than assonance and parallelism. Parallelism, in particular, is an unusual and striking feature of

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