the Psalms — songs to sing and scream
and a little chat with Eugene and Bono
I want to begin by mentioning a 20-minute video of a meeting in which Eugene Peterson (pastor, theologian, author) and Bono (self-proclaimed “opera singer” for an obscure band, U2) discuss their mutual love of the Psalms. It occurred in 2015 at Eugene’s and Jan’s house at beautiful Flathead Lake in Montana. The video is entitled, oddly enough, “The Psalms.”
In an appearance at Point Loma Nazarene University, Peterson notes being told of an article in a magazine he called “The Rolling Stones” in which Bono speaks approvingly of him and his work on the translation of the Bible, The Message. (Actually, it is more a paraphrase than translation.) He was on stage with Dr. Dean Nelson.
Peterson notes a deadline he had with his book. Bono had extended an invitation to get together, which Peterson declined. Nelson notes, amid laughter, “You may be the only person alive who would turn down the opportunity just to make a deadline. I mean, come on. It’s Bono, for crying out loud!” Peterson responds, “Dean, it was Isaiah!” amid even greater laughter.
It would be a crime to ignore the look of love between Jan and Eugene while she is baking cookies. It’s a love that has taken decades, born of joys and sorrows. (Apologies, I’m digressing into the romantic.)
Peterson, who passed away in October 2018, spoke of (among other things) the imprecatory psalms — the pleas for vengeance, for curses. “We need to find a way to cuss without cussing.” Bono liked his description. “It’s going to stay with me.”
We too often think of the psalms as praise, and they surely are that! There are psalms of wisdom and lament. But many of them sing, many of them scream, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore.” God, do you hear me?
One of my personal favorites of those anguished prayers for scores to be settled is Psalm 58, especially its ending.
Verses 10 and 11 scornfully and hopefully proclaim, “The righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done; / they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked. / People will say, ‘Surely there is a reward for the righteous; / surely there is a God who judges on earth.’” That’s from the NRSV.
In The Message, Peterson renders it in an equally delicious fashion: “The righteous will call up their friends when they see the wicked get their reward, / Serve up their blood in goblets as they toast one another, / Everyone cheering, ‘It’s worth it to play by the rules! / God’s handing out trophies and tending the earth!’”
There is an almost vampiric celebration when the bloodletting of the evil fills the goblets. Slake your thirst. There is the ferociously righteous cry as the blood of the malevolent affords a foot washing.
And then there is the baby dashing psalm, #137. “By the rivers of Babylon — there we sat down, and there we wept when we remembered Zion.” The exiles were cruelly taunted by the Babylonians, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” (vv. 1, 3).
The psalmist ponders their just deserts: “O daughter Babylon, you devastator! / Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! / Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!” (vv. 10–11). Yikes.
How can we cuss without cussing? Is there a way to express displeasure, even extreme displeasure, without resorting to a stream of expletives? Although there’s no doubt it often feels good to let one of those little boogers fly. But they aren’t nearly as colorful or creative as bathing one’s feet “in the blood of the wicked.”
Do we need language to express the feeling of wanting to strangle someone? Or spread hateful rumors about them? We do well to remember that the Lord says, “Vengeance is mine” (Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:19). We might think, “Right, as if that settles it once and for all.”
Please understand, I am not saying revenge and justice are the same thing. Perhaps we can use a metaphor and say revenge is a child of the dark and justice is a child of the light.
The desire to curse is acknowledged. Could one not say, even honored? However, the desire for vengeance weighs us down. It burdens our soul. Jesus would have us unburden ourselves on him. It is a liberation.
The road to vengeance can take baby steps. For example, we might find ourselves in factions with competing interests, perhaps by political party or by ethnic group. A proposal by one side could be rejected out of hand simply due to the one offering it. However, if one of “ours” said the same thing, it would be deemed worthy of discussion. It is an attack on the person offering it, rather than a consideration of the idea itself.
Maybe we can see things escalating from there.
We live in a time in which the failure to invoke curses too often suggests a weakness of character. No quarter is to be given! That tendency results in sloppy thinking and lack of compassion.
So why those apparently vile psalms? One would hope justice will soon appear. But what if justice never arrives, at least not in this lifetime? I’m afraid we must admit human life is messy. On a sadly regular basis, the world is unfair.
How can I explain this? Many of the greatest minds in Christianity have argued this very question. It has been posed, to put it simply, how can a God of love allow evil, if God is all-knowing and all-powerful? That school of theology is called theodicy. Alas, no single explanation has proved definitive. Alas, no single explanation of mine has proved definitive. I’m afraid I must refer to a quote by Joan Chittister: “Faith is the capacity to understand that for some things there are no answers.”
How can I explain this?
One of the powers of poetry, which the psalms surely are, is the ability to open our minds to the power of the possible. And the psalms are the divinely inspired possible.
Maybe we can learn to hear beneath the clamor of our culture and discover the still small voice which the prophet Elijah heard.
Maybe we can hear the wisdom inhabiting the conversation of Eugene Peterson and Bono.
