Thus far, my reading and interpretation of the psalms has come with quite a bit of resistance, mainly due to the battle to fully understand what is meant to be communicated to the reader. While the glory, power and punishment cast on enemies is ever present in many of the Psalms, reading Psalm 104, I came across quite a few notable aspects that I actually really enjoyed.
What jumped out to me the most was the vivid imagery. Lines 3-5 “Setting beams for his loft in the waters, making his chariot the clouds, he goes on the wings of the wind” really provided a vibrant description of the supposed existence of the “upper chambers/lofts” that god created. In line 13, the “loft” concept is again exposed with a dramatic description” He waters mountains from His lofts, from the fruit of your works the earth is sated”. Moving on from the vivid imagery that exists in, what has been created and the dependence on the lord is also exposed. Lines 21-22 state “The lions roar for prey seeking from god their food” and lines 28-29 state “When you give them, they gather it in, when You open Your hand, they are sated with good”. Both of the excerpts show the powerful need that exists from earths creatures for gods gifts.
Changing subjects, the Hymn of Aten is written in the context of the ancient Egyptian gods. Unlike Christians, the Egyptians worships multiple gods, however quite a few comparisons can be drawn, particularly the vivid imagery, and the presence of a great need for what is created. The line “ All distant lands, you make them live, for you set a Nile in the sky that it may descend for them” is quite similar to lines 3-5 of 104 in both the vivid images, and the topic it concerns, water in the sky. The excerpt, “When you rise, they live: when you set, they die. You are a lifespan in yourself; one lives by you” is quiet similar to lines 21-22 of Psalm 104 citing the dependency of the gods creation, and what he gives/descends upon them.
From examining and comparing these texts, it is evident that both the Israelites and the Egyptians had similar beliefs regarding their god(s) and similar ways of expressing his grace through vivid imagery, as well as projecting the dependence of the gods respective creations on the graces descended upon them.
Tom - I agree with your initial point that the psalms are a challenging to get a grasp on because that is a lot of uncertainty in way of who said it/how it is supposed to be sung. And since the psalms have been translated so many times I wonder wether they are really what we read them to be.
ReplyDeleteI think that the hymn to Aten, though it comes from a polytheistic culture, it is only focused on the god Aten at a time when there was a religious revolution towards monotheism or something close to it any way (perhaps monolatry or henotheism). And I think that is why the hymn of Aten was a perfect choice for a psalm to based off of. I like the point you bring up of the Israelites and Egyptians agreeing upon most imagery found in both psalm 104 and the Hymn to Aten. It is almost funny to think that they might be so similar because they are two very different cultures and people with different Gods.