My voice to God—let me cry out. My voice to God—and hearken to me. In the day of my straits I sought the Master. My eye flows at night, it will not stop. I refused to be consoled. Psalm 77:2-3 (Hebrew Bible) Robert Alter Refused – “You’ll feel better in the morning.” “This too will…
Let me praise God’s name in song, and let me extol Him in thanksgiving. And let it be better to the LORD than oxen, than a horned bull with it hooves. Psalm 69:31-32 [Hebrew Bible] Robert Alter Than oxen – There’s no problem with the translation here, or in most English Bibles. The Hebrew is…
I will also praise You with a harp, and Your truth, my God; I will sing praises to You with the lyre, Holy One of Israel. Psalm 71:22 NASB Harp/ sing – Music is emotional catharsis. It doesn’t take just words to move you. The sounds of the instruments, the percussion, the rhythm is enough—to move you…
I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. Me He drove off, led away—darkness and no light! Lamentations 3:1-2 Robert Alter Affliction – I’ve lived long enough to know. To know defeat. To know heartache. To know loss. To know distress. To know evil. To know adversity. To know…
The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s. Song of Songs 1:1 NASB Of – A friend of mine spent a lot of time working in Asia, particularly with Chinese people. Of course, communicating usually meant translating, especially when business contracts were involved. But translating wasn’t just a matter of finding a Mandarin word for an English…
Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Psalm 96:1 NASB New song– For a long time I’ve known that the Blues reach into my soul. I find myself among those sad refrains, those struggling lyrics. Give me Clapton, B.B., Stevie Ray, Ronnie Earl, Aretha, Robert Cray, and Kenny Wayne any day. Oh,…
I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you O LORD, I will make music. Psalm 101:1 ESV Steadfast love/ justice – What are the themes of David’s praise and worship music? What motivates David to sing to the Lord? The answer is found in this psalm. It’s an answer that can set out…
Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to YHWH Exodus 15:1 Sang – shiyr is the Hebrew verb, “to sing.” Most of the time the word is used in connection with worship. The pictograph tells us that the word is about deeds or work that consumes the person. In other words, singing…
Paul J. Meyer, the founder of the self-improvement industry, once said that he is an inverted paranoid. He believes that the whole world has conspired to do him good. That powerful idea alters everything about life. It shifts all of our being and doing from a posture of defense and protection to a posture of…
