the scottish psalter is amazing. it is eloquent, honest, poetic and goes to the depth of human experience - to the orgasmic highs of joy in God.(hmmm) and to the abyss of the shitty mess that we constantly find ourselves in, individually and communally.
and it is always sung to a dirge, brilliant.
He changed parched land to flowing streams,
The hungry there he led.
He found a city safe and strong,
Which they inhabited. (Psalm 107)
"Of how many heroic characters have these old temple songs been the inspiration! Jewish saints and patriots chanted them in the synagogue and on the battlefield; apostles and evangelists sung them among perils of the wilderness, as they traversed the rugged paths of Syria and Galatia, and Macedonia; martyrs in Rome softly hummed them when the lions near at hand were crouching for their prey; in German forests, in Highland Glen, Lutherans and Covenanters breathed their lives out through their cadences; in every land penitent souls have found in them words to tell the story of their sorrow, and victorious souls the voices of their triumph; mothers watching their babes by night have cheered the vigil by singing them, mourners walking in lonely ways have been lighted by the great hopes that shine through them; and pilgrims going down into the valley of the shadow of death have, found in their firm assurances a strong staff to lean upon."
(from an excerpt of the The Psalms in Worship, 1907)
SOLI DEO GLORIA! woop.
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