Psalms as the Engine of the Church with Susannah Black Roberts

Susannah Black Roberts: "Singing the Psalms, chanting the Psalms moves the plot of God's kingdom forward." What an intriguing thought! Here is the larger context: Psalms as the Engine of the Church with Susannah Black Roberts.

A new Dutch psalter: De Nieuwe Psalmberijming

One of the features of language is that it changes over time, usually slowly and incrementally, but sometimes surprisingly quickly, as in the shift from middle to modern English. It is good to keep this in mind as we look more closely at the new Dutch versification of the biblical Psalms produced in 2021. Called De Nieuwe Psalmberijming, it follows at least four previous versifications of the Psalms, as set to the historic Genevan tunes. But we should also be aware that liturgical language tends to lag behind contemporary usage, as I noted in this article more than a decade ago: Liturgy and archaic language. Thus many updates of liturgical material leave some archaisms untouched, primarily because parishioners are used to them and prefer to worship in familiar albeit older words. This explains the continued affection in some circles for the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the King James Version of the Bible, the 1650 Scottish Psalter, and even the Revised Standard Version's retention of the old second-person-singular pronouns in addresses to God, a usage now in decline amongst English-speaking Christians.

Psalm 51 in Aramaic

This is a plaintive rendition of Psalm 51 (50 by Septuagint numbering) sung in Aramaic by the Trio Mandili. Who could fail to be moved by this?

Psalm 121: De Nieuwe Psalmberijming

Singing from the new Dutch versification of the Psalms: Psalm 121:

Advent I: Psalm 25 and Wachet Auf

Ancient tradition associates Psalm 25 with the First Sunday in Advent. Here is our new friend, the Rev. Detlef Korsen, singing the Genevan version of this Psalm while accompanying himself on guitar:

And while we are on the subject of Advent, here is Korsen singing Philip Nicolai's famous Advent hymn, Wachet Auf, or Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying, in its original rhythmic form: