I doubt that I am alone is believing that the vocabulary of the King James translation of the Scriptures has a way of capturing truth more accurately than do the perhaps more literal but less emotive translations that are more familiar to us Catholics. I am thinking, in a particular way, of Psalm 81 and its exhortaion to "make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob." Our more sanitary New American Bible translation tells us to "shout in triumph," and the New Revised Standard Version, "shout for joy." Make a joyful noise. It need not be words. It need not make sense. It need only be joyful. Laugh! Ululate! Yodel!
Make a joyful noise! This exhortation has come to my mind more than once as I have been home with my family for the last few days. My two siblings with their children (each under the age of three) have increased the volume of the household a good deal. Life here at home is louder than it is at the seminary. The men play guitars and sing. The kids play or demand to hear stories. The moms are cooking. I sit here, typing in the midst of this din, and I smile. The noise is joyful.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Joyful Noise
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6 comments:
PLASM 81????????????????????
1
For the leader; "upon the gittith." Of Asaph.
2
Sing joyfully to God our strength; shout in triumph to the God of Jacob!
3
Take up a melody, sound the timbrel, the sweet-sounding harp and lyre.
4
Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast.
5
For this is a law in Israel, an edict of the God of Jacob,
6
Who made it a decree for Joseph when he came out of the land of Egypt. II I hear a new oracle:
7
"I relieved their shoulders of the burden; their hands put down the basket.
8
In distress you called and I rescued you; unseen, I spoke to you in thunder; At the waters of Meribah I tested you and said: Selah
9
'Listen, my people, I give you warning! If only you will obey me, Israel!
10
There must be no foreign god among you; you must not worship an alien god.
11
I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open wide your mouth that I may fill it.'
12
But my people did not listen to my words; Israel did not obey me.
13
So I gave them over to hardness of heart; they followed their own designs.
14
But even now if my people would listen, if Israel would walk in my paths,
15
In a moment I would subdue their foes, against their enemies unleash my hand.
16
Those who hate the LORD would tremble, their doom sealed forever.
17
But Israel I would feed with the finest wheat, satisfy them with honey from the rock."
I think you missed his point, Tyler. He quoted you exactly: "Plasm" where you should have written, "Psalm". Thank you to the one who made the keen, anonymous comment; our brother's spelling error has been corrected.
I think the issue is over the former spelling of the word "psalm" and what historical critical research has told us the word should be "plasm". This is due to the right to left ordering of letters in most Hebrew words, except this one. Therefore he is quite right in saying "plasm 81".
=p
OK -- now that *that's* settled -- :) -- great post here, Tyler. As a father of four, the oldest of whom just earned an electric guitar for his tenth birthday, I can tell you that this translation comes to mind often. Perhaps not as often as it should, but often enough that I've yet to pull my hair out!
(I do, on occasion, "sound my barbaric yawp" in an effort to inspire silence -- but it is invariably short-lived, and rightly so ...)
I really wanted to find a way to include "barbaric yawp" in this post, but just couldn't do it. Thanks for finding a place for it.
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