Revisiting the Psalms

Familiarity may not have bred contempt, but it might have bred low expectation or presumption when it comes to the psalms.

For many worshippers they are most commonly experienced as the obligatory interlude, spoken or sung, between readings from the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament Letters. For the less liturgically inclined, a narrow selection of metrical translations including
Psalms 23, 100 and 121, set to time-honoured tunes, may typify their use.

This day will attempt to deepen appreciation of the integral diversity of these 150 poems, their pastoral pertinence today, the kaleidoscopic images they provide with reference to God, and maybe even their ecological insights. The substance of the shared reflections will have much more to do with human intuition and experience than the rhyming schemes in Hebrew verse.

We shall bear in mind these days of pandemic as we reflect together.

Led by John Bell.