Psalm 149
Hallelujah!
Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing his praise in the congregation of the faithful.
Let Israel rejoice in his Maker;
let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
Let them praise his Name in the dance;
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
For the Lord takes pleasure in his people
and adorns the poor with victory.
Let the faithful rejoice in triumph;
let them be joyful on their beds.
Let the praises of God be in their throat
and a two-edged sword in their hand;
To wreak vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples;
To bind their kings in chains
and their nobles with links of iron;
To inflict on them the judgment decreed;
this is glory for all his faithful people.
Hallelujah!
“Flash and Flame”
The word “psalms” in Hebrew – tehillim – means “praises.” That same root is in “Halleluyah” which we are always happy to encounter, so familiar in our theology. Behind this word “praise,” throughout the Bible, there are echoes of the question about what praise really means. In some contexts, it is paralleled with “seeking” the presence and divine initiative that calls us. Also, deep within the Hebrew root of “praise” is a sense of brightness, a radiance, like the flashing of living fire. The glow of that inner meaning is even carried into English in our word “halo” – from the same root as “psalm.” A halo is a sort of “visible psalm” – a light by which we can seek and find the very best in a saintly person.
Psalm 149 is a classic “Halleluyah Psalm” – filled with loud joy and a sense of revelry. But it also reflects the paradox of much biblical poetry, with verse after verse dark with swords, vengeance, chains and judgment. It seems impossible to understand the bliss of divine freedom and the misery of human violence with the same heart – but that is exactly what we are challenged to do here. Reading the psalms is never easy, never simple, since these ancient words can evoke very contemporary traumas.
In my rendering of the first half of Psalm 149, following the theme of “praise” as radiant light, I render the unknown divine Name (YHWH) as “Becoming Light.” Faithful to the original sense of “praise” as “flashing radiance,” I hear this part of the psalm as an ancient “call and response,” a bright cadence to be danced with torches in the town square, not to be read solemnly in a dark dungeon.
Light comes first, then freedom; the Burning Bush precedes the Exodus. Only with becoming-dances like this, can we as individuals gather gracefully and become a people, a "sacred us.” Maybe after “wrestling with God," we can be broken open and become attentive also to the "sacred them" - those "others" who are so different from us. We have all walked a long way in the sad parched land; we all desire the same joy of freedom.
PSALM 149: 1-4
Shine bright, Becoming Light!
Sing it all anew and coming into being;
strike sparks as the graceful ingather.
You wrestled with God, now feel your joy;
rest still after all your doings.
Parched-earth children, now feel your bliss,
good counsel you’re freely possessing.
Flash and flame in the dancing Name,
with drums and strings come singing,
raising still higher our deepest Desire,
our sad people’s freedom bringing.
Rendered from the Hebrew by Henry Ralph Carse