I wanted to toss out a thank you to Rick Lee James for his wonderful E-Book, Out of the Depths: A Song Writer’s Journey through the Psalms. Ive been using it as a resource for a class I am teaching on the Psalms at Christ Anglican Church in Overland Park, Kansas. In his treatment of Psalm 42, a psalm of lament, he suggests the music of the Blues as perhaps a better way to think of the desperation of the psalmist in his expression of his need for God and loss of his presence than the almost lullaby approach of the well-known, “As the Deer,” by Marty Nystrom. What a refreshing and honest approach to the emotion of the lament. As a result of moving my thoughts in that direction I tried to think of a way to communicate that thought to the class of mostly people in their sixties. So after the Evensong liturgy, as we took a brief break to get coffee and snack before the teaching, I played Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble performing, “Texas Flood.” It made the point very effectively. Thanks, Rick, for bringing fresh eyes and heart to the Psalter. BTW- the difference between playing Stevie Ray Vaughn in a Nazarene Church (spoken from almost four decades of experience as a Nazarene pastor) and an Anglican Church: in a Nazarene church the sixty-somethings would go, “Huh?” In the Anglican church ladies asked me to dance with them. (Should my DS, Jeren Rowell come upon this post, Chris, my wife was there with me). So for your listening pleasure if you are in a lamenting mood this morning:
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 12:24:56 +0000