Maggie's Farm

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Sunday, July 7. 2019

From today's Lectionary: Make a joyful noise...


Psalm 66:1-9


66:1 Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;


66:2 sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise.


66:3 Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds! Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.


66:4 All the earth worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name." Selah


66:5 Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.


66:6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There we rejoiced in him,


66:7 who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations-- let the rebellious not exalt themselves. Selah


66:8 Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard,


66:9 who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.


Posted by Bird Dog at 05:52 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

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How worthy of the psalmist's praise and ours! God has indeed kept "us among the living", and I, for one, too often forget to be joyful about that fact.
#1 SCReader on 2019-07-07 12:24 (Reply)
In Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place she tells of a rabbi who tells a scriptural joke to her father. "What is the first line of Psalm 166?" He father is puzzled - there is no Psalm 166. "It is 'Make a joyful noise unto the Lord," and then after a pause "which is the first line of both Psalm 100 and Psalm 66."

It works better said aloud, obviously.
#2 Assistant Village Idiot on 2019-07-07 13:57 (Reply)
Omitted opening header is "For the choirmaster, a song"

1. "joyful noise" is grand and sweet but not in the original, which is simply "Shout" - a word used both for humans and horns. This can be joyful or broken - one alternate meaning of this root is "shaky" or "shatterered" and that describes the musical figure called by this name when the horn is blown at Jewish New Year. Mystical interpretations play on the use of a related root to mean "companion" - a call for nearness to G-d.

2. The verse twice uses the word "honor" to describe G-ds name and His glory (similar to "Her Majesty" or "his honor" in English). Apparrently the translator couldn't express this elegantly, and dropped it.

3. "Cringe" is "wither" - the same word used to describe the lean cows in Pharoah's dream. It can also mean "deny/contradict" which does not really work here.

4. All earth shall submit to you. The word "praises" is not in the original, it's just "sing to you".

5. The word used for "deeds" is used in other connections to mean a story's plot or a plan/scheme. "Among" is interesting but it's "upon" in the original. Put these together and the original is talking about how G-d's unseen hand shapes unfolding events. Which leads to the

6. next verse.

7. "Forever" in this context could also mean "the world, the universe". He rules the world with His might... this follows from the previous verses.

By continuing, your lectionary ignores the natural break indicated by "Selah" - which literally means "more, etc." and is either a musical instruction or means "meditate on this". Either way, it indicates that a thought has been completed.

8. OK

9. Who puts our souls among the living...
#3 Ben David on 2019-07-08 12:28 (Reply)
Thank you for your comment. I always find your translations interesting and informative.
#3.1 SC Reader on 2019-07-15 17:28 (Reply)

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