Psalms#
Sunday school lesson, Webster Groves ward, 2018-07-08
“Common to the liturgies, histories, and the spirit of Judaism and Christianity, the Book of Psalms is one of the most widely familiar and most frequently quoted books of the Hebrew Bible. As literature, the Psalms are also basic to Western culture.”
Sing#
Psalm 30:4 “Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.”
Hymn 119
{blockquote} Come, we that love the Lord, And let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord, And worship at his throne. Let those refuse to sing Who never knew our God, But servants of the heav’nly King May speak their joys abroad. {/blockquote}
Text: Isaac Watts, 1674–1748
Cf. Elder Holland’s talk
Hymn 73 (vv. 1-2): Praise the Lord with Heart and Voice
Hymn 70 (v. 1): Sing Praise to Him
Read from the First Presidency preface to the hymnbook (most of the 2nd page). Class exercise: each identify one thing you want to do better on from this First Presidency revelation
See Psalm 100:1 if you can’t sing :) (“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord”)
Praise#
Psalm 104:33 “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.”
Psalm 146:1-2 “Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.”
Hymn 72: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
Psalm 69:30-31 “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.”
Psalm 148 (all) and Psalm 150
Thanksgiving#
Psalm 92:1-5 “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.”
Psalm 100 (q.v.) “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.”
Group exercise: Psalm 116:123. “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” identify points in vv. 12-19
Gratitude for:
The Creation of Heaven and Earth
The Savior’s Mercy, Forgiveness, and Love
Scriptures
Temple
Modern musical settings#
Psalm 46 (paraphrased) A Mighty Fortress
18:2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer (2 Sam 22:2)
24 Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.
69:20; 16:10; 24:7-10; 2:1-4, 9 (YouTube) Handel’s Messiah
Hymnal#
https://www.lds.org/music/index/hymns/scripture?lang=eng
23 Hymns 108, 109
55:22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord … Hymn 110
Prophecies of the life and mission of Jesus Christ#
See section 1 in the lesson manual
Quotes#
Temple Psalmody#
{blockquote} In effect, the Psalter served as the Temple music manual, songbook, and prayerbook. In addition to the discussion in talmudic, Midrashic, and medieval exegetical literature, modern Judaic as well as objective musicological scholarship confirms that Levitical choral singing of the Psalms to instrumental accompaniment occurred along with the sacrificial ceremonies in the ancient Temple. The musical renditions were complementary to that cult, not part of it; the Psalms contain no information about, and no references to, sacrificial procedures, but they appear to have formed the centerpiece of the aesthetic-spiritual dimension. Their messages of personal experience and human emotions were not necessarily negated by their performance by de facto professional musicians—the Levites—nor by their association with the formalized, aristocratic priestly rituals. To the contrary, Temple psalmody may have counterbalanced the more mysterious, anagogical, and symbolic sacrificial system—almost as a tangible reflection of popular expression versus the ultimate patrician manifestation of Israel’s religious life at those stages.
Late biblical books, together with some Psalm superscriptions as well as other ancient sources from the region (the 17th-century B.C.E. Annals of Sennacherib, for example), offer some insights into musical matters pertaining to the First Temple, in which choral psalmody can be demonstrated to have played a prominent part. Naturally, thanks to talmudic and other postbiblical descriptions and references, we are in a position to piece together much more about the musical format and practice in the Second Temple, which was inherited from musical models in the First Temple when the service was reconstituted after a forced hiatus of seventy years. Some of these sources offer suggestions about the size, makeup, and training of the Temple choirs, as well as about their performance, although there is disagreement among the rabbis in the Talmud on various related matters (how Hallel was performed, for example). There is ample evidence of antiphonal (two choirs alternating) and responsorial engagement (soloist alternating with choir), which is easily reflective of the parallel structure of the Psalms.1 {/blockquote}