Friday, May 28, 2010

What I'm Reading #5: Praying the Psalms (Walter Brueggemann)

Praying the Psalms: Engaging Scripture and the Life of the Spirit, by Walter Brueggemann

OK, so I actually read Walter Brueggemann's Praying the Psalms for my Old Testament class this past semester, but especially because we didn't write a paper on it or anything (and because I loved it), I feel the need to reflect on it and share it.

(By the way, the page I linked to for Brueggemann is from Theopedia. What is that?!)

This book has 5 chapters, which broke it into manageable chunks that I read a day at a time, simultaneously completing my spring break reading assignment and discovering a new source of devotion and reflection.

The first is called "Letting Experience Touch the Psalter." Brueggemann points out that we live most of our lives between two extremes--that of crisis and that of elation. Rarely do we stay long in the place of equilibrium for which we long. But this is the truth of what Brueggemann calls "the rawness of life," and this is where the Psalmist meets us. In the Psalms, the anger is frightening and the joy seems naive at times. But this is how the Psalms touch our experience, and, amazingly enough, they are affected by our experience.

The next chapter, "The Liberation of Language," encourages the reader to appreciate and unleash the richness of the language in the Psalms. Brueggemann warns against the danger of taking the Psalms as basically positive and descriptive in nature--if we do that, he says, "the Psalms can probably be managed and comprehended and rendered powerless." Life is often unpredictable, and we are not as in control as we would like. We need to relinquish our need for control, reading the Psalms in a creative, transformative way instead of domesticating them.

To further the discussion of language, Brueggemann begins to locate it in the next section, "Language Appropriate to a Place." He writes, "Our lives always move between the pit and the wing"--the pit of Sheol and the protective wing of God. The psalms of trust are almost always located in the pit, and the very expression of hope in and reliance on God in a place of despair "is a first gesturing of transformed circumstance." One often cannot see the fruit of hope while still in the pit, but the very act of expressing that hope draws us toward that promise of redemption.

In chapter four, "Christians in 'Jewish' Territory," Brueggemann explores a touchy subject: the use of definitively Jewish scripture by Christians. Brueggemann says that it is important to acknowledge the profound Jewish-ness of the Psalms and through them to pray for the Jews, not as a condescension, but as a joining in the cries of the Jews throughout history, "for Jews are a paradigm of the deepest longings and yearnings of all humanity." Praying the Psalms is an act of seeking solidarity with the oppressed, those whom the world rejects but by whom God stands firm. Brueggemann says that we must pray the Psalms "as Jews"--not by pretending to be Jewish or by adding a sort of Christian flair to co-opted Jewish practices, but by understanding and exercising the concreteness, embodied-ness, candor, hope and passion that are distinctly Jewish traits of the Psalms.

The last part of the book is perhaps the most difficult: "Vengeance: Human and Divine." The imprecatory psalms make most Christian uncomfortable, and understandably so. However, Brueggemann says that the presence of real anger and desire for revenge is a reflection of our own brokenness--"The real theological problem...is not that vengeance is there in the Psalms, but that it is here in our midst." To avoid the psalms of vengeance is to ignore a fundamental, if embarrassing, piece of humanity: our ability to hate. When thoughts of hatred enter our minds, they seem frighteningly powerful and destructive; but the Psalms offer us an opportunity to let go of these desires, and when we express them, we find that they are not as destructive as we feared. Dietrich Bonhoeffer pointed out in his book Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible that the imprecatory Psalms never call for a person to take vengeance, but for God to do so. Brueggemann says that the act of acknowledging God's right and ability to take revenge releases us from its power. God bears our vengeance--and the crucifixion of Christ was a staggering act of God bearing his own vengeance for our sakes.

I love this book for how it demonstrates the Psalms' understanding of the whole of humanity, even our anger and despair. This helped me feel encouraged that whatever we may be dealing with, God can take it--even if that means screaming at him. God wants our whole selves, and praying the Psalms gives us a Scriptural basis for how to offer that to him.


Favorite Quotations

"While we all yearn for [equilibrium], it is not very interesting and does not produce great prayer or powerful song."

"[The Psalms] assert not that God will be or has promised to be a refuge, but that God is refuge right in the present circumstance."

"Thus the use of the Psalm of trust while still in the pit is an act of profound hope which permits new life. Expressing one's trust in God's sheltering wings is a bold assertion that the power of the pit has been broken."

"To pray with the Jews is to be aware of the solidarity with the chosen of God whom the world rejects."

"When we learn to pray these prayers faithfully, we shall all be scandalized."

"To affirm that vengeance belongs to God is an act of profound faith. Conversely, to try to keep some vengeance for self and to withhold it from God is to mistrust God, as though we could do it better than God. Affirmation of God's vengeance is in fact a yielding."

0 comments:

Friday, May 28, 2010

What I'm Reading #5: Praying the Psalms (Walter Brueggemann)

Praying the Psalms: Engaging Scripture and the Life of the Spirit, by Walter Brueggemann

OK, so I actually read Walter Brueggemann's Praying the Psalms for my Old Testament class this past semester, but especially because we didn't write a paper on it or anything (and because I loved it), I feel the need to reflect on it and share it.

(By the way, the page I linked to for Brueggemann is from Theopedia. What is that?!)

This book has 5 chapters, which broke it into manageable chunks that I read a day at a time, simultaneously completing my spring break reading assignment and discovering a new source of devotion and reflection.

The first is called "Letting Experience Touch the Psalter." Brueggemann points out that we live most of our lives between two extremes--that of crisis and that of elation. Rarely do we stay long in the place of equilibrium for which we long. But this is the truth of what Brueggemann calls "the rawness of life," and this is where the Psalmist meets us. In the Psalms, the anger is frightening and the joy seems naive at times. But this is how the Psalms touch our experience, and, amazingly enough, they are affected by our experience.

The next chapter, "The Liberation of Language," encourages the reader to appreciate and unleash the richness of the language in the Psalms. Brueggemann warns against the danger of taking the Psalms as basically positive and descriptive in nature--if we do that, he says, "the Psalms can probably be managed and comprehended and rendered powerless." Life is often unpredictable, and we are not as in control as we would like. We need to relinquish our need for control, reading the Psalms in a creative, transformative way instead of domesticating them.

To further the discussion of language, Brueggemann begins to locate it in the next section, "Language Appropriate to a Place." He writes, "Our lives always move between the pit and the wing"--the pit of Sheol and the protective wing of God. The psalms of trust are almost always located in the pit, and the very expression of hope in and reliance on God in a place of despair "is a first gesturing of transformed circumstance." One often cannot see the fruit of hope while still in the pit, but the very act of expressing that hope draws us toward that promise of redemption.

In chapter four, "Christians in 'Jewish' Territory," Brueggemann explores a touchy subject: the use of definitively Jewish scripture by Christians. Brueggemann says that it is important to acknowledge the profound Jewish-ness of the Psalms and through them to pray for the Jews, not as a condescension, but as a joining in the cries of the Jews throughout history, "for Jews are a paradigm of the deepest longings and yearnings of all humanity." Praying the Psalms is an act of seeking solidarity with the oppressed, those whom the world rejects but by whom God stands firm. Brueggemann says that we must pray the Psalms "as Jews"--not by pretending to be Jewish or by adding a sort of Christian flair to co-opted Jewish practices, but by understanding and exercising the concreteness, embodied-ness, candor, hope and passion that are distinctly Jewish traits of the Psalms.

The last part of the book is perhaps the most difficult: "Vengeance: Human and Divine." The imprecatory psalms make most Christian uncomfortable, and understandably so. However, Brueggemann says that the presence of real anger and desire for revenge is a reflection of our own brokenness--"The real theological problem...is not that vengeance is there in the Psalms, but that it is here in our midst." To avoid the psalms of vengeance is to ignore a fundamental, if embarrassing, piece of humanity: our ability to hate. When thoughts of hatred enter our minds, they seem frighteningly powerful and destructive; but the Psalms offer us an opportunity to let go of these desires, and when we express them, we find that they are not as destructive as we feared. Dietrich Bonhoeffer pointed out in his book Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible that the imprecatory Psalms never call for a person to take vengeance, but for God to do so. Brueggemann says that the act of acknowledging God's right and ability to take revenge releases us from its power. God bears our vengeance--and the crucifixion of Christ was a staggering act of God bearing his own vengeance for our sakes.

I love this book for how it demonstrates the Psalms' understanding of the whole of humanity, even our anger and despair. This helped me feel encouraged that whatever we may be dealing with, God can take it--even if that means screaming at him. God wants our whole selves, and praying the Psalms gives us a Scriptural basis for how to offer that to him.


Favorite Quotations

"While we all yearn for [equilibrium], it is not very interesting and does not produce great prayer or powerful song."

"[The Psalms] assert not that God will be or has promised to be a refuge, but that God is refuge right in the present circumstance."

"Thus the use of the Psalm of trust while still in the pit is an act of profound hope which permits new life. Expressing one's trust in God's sheltering wings is a bold assertion that the power of the pit has been broken."

"To pray with the Jews is to be aware of the solidarity with the chosen of God whom the world rejects."

"When we learn to pray these prayers faithfully, we shall all be scandalized."

"To affirm that vengeance belongs to God is an act of profound faith. Conversely, to try to keep some vengeance for self and to withhold it from God is to mistrust God, as though we could do it better than God. Affirmation of God's vengeance is in fact a yielding."

0 comments:

 

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