Sermon | The Rev. Peter Sipple | July 30, 2023
SERMON – Proper 12A
When the creative team here at Trinity suggested that sermon topics this month consider the role of music and the liturgy, I thought first of the Psalms. We at Trinity are fortunate to hear a psalm sung every Sunday in beautiful Anglican chant by our superb choirs. Other denominations and churches present the psalms in different musical settings—whereas some, too many in my view—simply read them. Why do the psalms, and the Psalter as it’s known collectively, presume musical settings at all?
First, some comments on the language of the psalms. Here is Thomas Merton:
“The Psalms are perhaps the most significant and influential collection of religious poems ever written. They sum up the whole theology of the Old Testament…and have been used for centuries as the foundation for Jewish and Christian liturgical prayer…. The Psalms acquire…a surprising depth, a marvelous and inexhaustible actuality.” And here is Peter Gomes, the late minister at Harvard’s Memorial Church: No one can read the Psalms without a sense of the Psalmist’s psychological insight into the depth and breadth of human experience.
This being so, why then do the psalms lend themselves to music, both choral and instrumental? According to Prof. Jay Williams of Hamilton College,
The word “psalm” comes from the Greek “psalmos,” a word denoting the playing of a stringed instrument. Psalmos, used by translators to render the Hebrew word “mizmor,”… indicates a religious song accompanied by string instruments. ”Psalter” refers to a collection of Psalms ordered for liturgical purposes, and is derived from psaltery, an ancient musical instrument mentioned in the psalms... Many of the Psalms have superscriptions which apparently give directions concerning how the psalm was to be performed musically. For instance, Psalm 5 is marked “To the choirmaster: for the flutes.” And this heading precedes Psalm 6: “To the choirmaster; with stringed instruments; according to the Sheminith.” What “the Sheminith” means, we don’t know…Probably it refers to a style of playing or traditional melody or mode used by the Temple musicians…Perhaps one day an archaeologist will discover a musical handbook that will explain these designations. Until then, readers must be satisfied with wholly speculative theories about them.
Well, these speculative theories have led musicians to set the psalms in a variety of ways. They were conceived, probably over centuries, as religious songs with lyrics that expressed the whole range of human experience and emotions. When you and I sit in a congregation that reads a psalm together, it would behoove us to think about, or create in our minds, a tune to fit the text. How might our tune complement the theme of the psalm? These themes include songs of praise and joy; affirmations of trust in God; songs of supplication and penitence; songs for Covenant renewal; and songs of grief, frustration, and disappointment. The last five in the collection, Psalms 146-150, praise the name and works of God and make the link to music unforgettable. In these psalms, music is the obvious and compelling way to utter praise: Psalm 149 invites us to sing to the Lord a new song. “Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.” And then the Psalmist breaks into an even more jubilant orchestration in Psalm 150 where we are urged to praise God with a trumpet, lute, harp, tambourine, strings and pipe, and cymbals both clanging and clashing! Wow! Which of us could remain in our seats in the midst of such a glorious noise!
Twenty-some years back, the idea of providing tunes for the psalms struck me as interesting, and I began by writing melodies that tried to complement the text. Many years before, as choristers, Margaret and I were introduced to the psalm settings of a Roman Catholic priest, Joseph Gelineau. Here’s the formula that Gelineau used and that I appropriated:
One line of the psalm is made a response or antiphon which a soloist or cantor sings so the congregation can learn it; then all sing it together. The verses of the psalm are sung by the cantor. The response or antiphon is performed again by cantor and congregation every two or three verses. Both response and verses are accompanied by a keyboard: organ, piano or, in today’s world, something electronic. Gelineau’s settings take some practice to read, so I wrote out music for the whole setting: the congregational response, verses for the soloist, and a simple, chordal accompaniment. The goal was to make these settings usable in relatively small congregations with limited musical resources. The approach gives a singer the chance to solo on fairly easy music, so all that’s needed is an accompanist, a soloist, and people prepared to sing one line of the psalm.
Our Revised Common Lectionary assigns all or part of 107 psalms—107 of the total of 150. Over the years I have written settings for all 107. However, the number of assigned psalms far exceeds that number: for example, sections of Psalm 119 are called for eight times during the three-year cycle of lessons in the Common Lectionary, including this Sunday. Because the themes of the psalm remain fairly constant, I’ve used the same music for all eight sections of Psalm 119—the longest in the Psalter.
Let’s suppose you are the organist at a church without the rich musical resources of Trinity. You’d like to add music to the psalm of the day and give the congregation a chance to enter in. The parish includes a singer with an attractive voice who has asked to solo on occasion. So let’s pretend we are that church, with Walden as its organist—lucky place! You will be the congregation, and I will serve as cantor for the verses of Psalm 105. Incidentally, parts of 105 are assigned for this Sunday in Track 1 of the Lectionary. The organ will play the response tune through once, then I will sing it alone; then we’ll sing it together. I will also indicate when the response tune comes again after certain verses.
Then, using the same formula, we’ll try the portions of Psalm 119 assigned in Track 2 for today—which our choristers sang beautifully earlier. Sarah Reed will introduce the response and sing the verses of Psalm 119: 120-136, and thanks to her for doing so.