“Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;2 my rock and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues the peoples under me. O Lord, what are human beings that you regard them, or mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a passing shadow. Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down; touch the mountains so that they smoke. Make the lightning flash and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them. Stretch out your hand from on high; set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false. I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you, the one who gives victory to kings, who rescues his servant David. Rescue me from the cruel sword, and deliver me from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false. May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars, cut for the building of a palace. May our barns be filled, with produce of every kind; may our sheep increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields, and may our cattle be heavy with young. May there be no breach in the walls, no exile, and no cry of distress in our streets. Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall; happy are the people whose God is the Lord.” Psalm 144

Notice the shift in language in Psalm 144 from the first 11 verses and the use of the singulars “I” and “me” to verses 12 through 15 to the use of plurals “our” and “people”. It is shifts like this in the language of ancient manuscripts that make biblical scholars search for logical explanations. One of the interpretations of this Psalm that I have read concludes that Psalm 144 is a re-reading of Psalm 18 that has been re-applied, re-written to meet the needs of the people in a different situation. What it suggests is that, like our switch from the “Red” SBH hymnal to the “Green” LBW met with complaints that our familiar hymns and liturgies had been re-written, here we see that this practice was in place thousands of years before us. If we are looking for someone to blame, we have our culprit.

In the Jewish tradition, the Talmud is the body of teaching that is comprised of discussions regarding the Mishnah or Jewish laws divided into six categories including Sabbath and festivals, marital relations, etc. The Talmud (of which there are two, the Babylonian and the Jerusalem) was most important in shaping Judaism. Within the Talmud, it is stated about Psalm 145, “Every one who repeats the Tehillah (Psalm 145) thrice a day may be sure that he is a child of the world to come.” The repetition of Psalms has a long and wonderful history.

Pastor Dave