PeaceBang

Psalm 139

July 25, 2005 on 3:49 am | In Uncategorized |

Don’t you love how Psalm 139 is this glorious, soaring hymn of praise, and it just goes on and on for millions of verses about the beautiful intricacies of how fearfully and wonderfully we are made and how we can never be forsaken by the Holy Presence, and then all of a sudden the Psalmist just goes psycho in verse 19 and takes out a knife and starts wailing to God about how He should kill all the Psalmist’s enemies? And then by verse 23 he’s realized he’s frothing at the mouth with vengeance and hatred and calms down and says, “oh wow, um, sorry, I kind of lost it there, Lord.”

Read it in the King James version. Just smashing.
It would make the most amazing aria. Donizetti should have done something with it, like the mad scene in “Lucia.” I see a soprano in a white nightgown floating around for the first 23 verses, lovely coloratura stuff, and then ree ree ree, here comes the knife for verse 19!! She flails around thrashing and screaming, and it comes to a lovely resolve at the end. Gee, I can hear it now.

It’s really my favorite.
Well, no. Psalm 23 is my favorite (SO ORIGINAL, I know).
Psalm 19 also knocks me out.

I never get tired of them. They’re like 150 little tiny soap operas.