Augustine and the Psalms

In Book II of On Christian Teaching Augustine describes the difference between ‘natural’ and ‘given’ signs, signs people use to communicate, and the interpretations of these signs. Augustine claims that people are often mislead by ambiguities and misunderstanding leading to a false interpretation of certain texts, such as the Bible. The difficult nature of the Bible, according to Augustine, is ‘divinely predetermined’ so that only hard work and intellect may lead to the correct interpretation of the text. He gives an example from the passage of Song of Songs where a church is addressed as a beautiful woman (a metaphorical sign). He claims that any other interpretation rather than one supported by imagery gives him much less pleasure.

This fact alone is quite helpful in the process of interpretation of the psalms. It’s easy to see why beautiful metaphors and strong language are so enticing, thanks to the text by Augustine. Interpreting the psalms as metaphors helps to understand the full meaning of the songs. The knowledge needed to understand these difficult passages comes in 6 stages according to Augustine, beginning with the fear of God and ending in wisdom. Within the process to wisdom one must comprehend the literal and metaphorical signs and the knowledge of language. These compiled together help to fully understand the psalms and many other difficult texts.

Reincarnation Within the Psalms

While an overwhelming majority of Christians reject the idea of reincarnation, the Jewish religion accepts at least some form of being reborn. Within Yiddish literature, you will find talk of human souls being reincarnated into other forms, which might not even be humans, there also is mention of Prophets being reborn. Some say that to believe in reincarnation is to have a non Jewish belief; although many Orthodox Jews believe and even pray about reincarnation. One prayer in particular asks God for forgiveness for sins they might have committed in a past life.

Just as we read in psalm 104, God is constantly renewing the earth and its inhabitants. The idea of reincarnation (whether it exist only in animals, or if humans too can be reborn) is prevalent within the psalms. Psalm 51 states, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.". While not explicitly stated, the idea of being reborn is obvious.

The idea of a soul living on forever is a spiritually enlightening idea. It helps give meaning, and belief in religion and life. In religion there is a need to create self awarenes of the past and death and reincarnation encompases a form of religion that many practice today. It is outstandingly interesting that the Jewish religion, in the Old Testement, even bring to mind the idea of being reborn because the New Tesetment so harshly rejects the idea.

God's Might (smite?)

Ethics are defined as "the principals of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or group". Within the psalms the ethical stance takes on a uneasy, harsh tone. Many passages ask God to use his power against the enemies of His followers. For example, psalm 69 states "May their eyes grow too dark to see, make their lions perpetually shake. Pour out upon them Your wrath, and Your blazing fury overtake them." The consistent call to God to invoke punishment on ones enemies and forgive His followers is in clear contradiction to many parts of the Bible, from which the psalms came.

Jesus is depicted as a peaceful man who would never think of hurting an enemy, even after one had struck him directly. He says in that situation to simply turn your cheek and allow for another punch. A large majority of the psalms directly apposes this ethic and rather than being peaceful, asks God to smite their enemies so that they may prevail. There is a definite distinction between those God will save and those he will condemn, and the psalms describe the right ethics as those of the followers of God.

Living by these ethical standards makes for chaos. If your enemies were bothering you, all you had to do is call upon God and he would punish them accordingly. One must wonder, if you are taught in Sunday School to love thy neighbor, then why ask for things such as in psalm 55 where the author pleas to God "May death come upon them. May they go down to Sheol alive."?

It is difficult to understand why so much anger and punishment are embedded in the psalms when in comparison to ethics associated with Christianity or Judaism. One would think that these religions were peaceful but the psalms shows desires of individuals for warth and punishment. I feel as though there should have been more psalms on the harmony of enemies, and not the distruction of those who do not follow in Gods path.

David's Psalms

As we began to talk about how the psalms fit into religion, and reflected on David's psalms, I was immediately intrigued. I think the psalms are a wonderful read because they are poetic and meaningful and I truely appreciate the background stories on David that we discussed. Also, here is a clip of Robert Alter talking about his translation of the psalms:

http://audio.nextbook.org/podcast_feature688.mp3

David was a messiah in the eyes of God, or literally translated he was "the chose one". Upon reading Samuel 16.14-23 and Chronicles 16, the story behind David's psalms gave the songs meaning and helped me to better understand the moral implications of the Bible. I went back and re-read psalm 51 and 18, both of which are David's Psalms. In psalm 51 the adultery David commits with Bathsheba, is announced in the beginning. An individual asks for forgiveness and is granted it, just as David was for his adultery. The psalm ends with David as a role model for repentance. He helps others to find a way to be free of their sin by asking God for forgiveness. David is an important figure in God's eyes and in the eyes of those who read the psalms.

Psalm 18 is named A Song for David and some suggest he might have been the author of this particular psalm. It is a song about the celebration of God's power because he has saved the author in military battle and in life. God provides comfort here for enemies in battle and presumably off the battle field.

David has written many psalms to commemorate an event in his life for the pleasure and comfort of God's followers. He has powerful experiences to show the goodness of God when he is on your side. He also helps to bring people back after sin. This ties in very well with our definition of religion as a spiritual finding and a group feeling. It also provides an ethic in which God rewards those who follow and punishes others.

Psalm II Comparisson

After reading Psalm II from The Bay of Psalms book, it is clear that there are many changes to the original Hebrew Psalm text. The word which stands out the most is Heathen, from the Bay of Psalms. Heathen is a term defined by the dictionary as a person who does not believe in your god, or a non-christian. The puritans were said to disapprove of the Hebrew translation of some of the psalms and hired some thirty poets to rewrite them for their own pleasure. Here, the translation of the word "peoples" to "heathen" seams directed towards the Jewish religion in a demeaning tone; however the puritans have not been recorded as disliking the Jewish religion. In fact, puritans are direct descendants of Judaism.

None the less, the Bay of Psalms book changes the meaning of the original Psalm compleatly. In the original text, the word Lord is all capitals and in the Puritan Psalm Lord is in all lower case lettering. The word Lord in capitals is a refrence to the Jewish religion and the Puritans did not keep the same meaning in the Psalm. Another difference is that the original text has much stronger venacular. Instead of saying "Master derides them", as it says in the original, the Puritans say "the lord will mock them". The original text implies a worse implication for conspireing against the lord and his annoited.

In early colonial America it is understandable that the Puritans would change the meaning of some Psalms to fit their own interpretation of the Jewish Psalm text. Just as we talked about when the early residents of America changed the meaning of effigy munds to fit their own world view, the same seams to have happened here. The Jewish text was not too far off from what they wanted to sing about; however the Puritans wanted their own religion to be preached the way they thought it should be.

The Last of the Mounds

As we talked about the effigy mounds, I think the most interesting point to be made was the initial disbelief that the Native Americans were the builders of these monumental structures. The first settlers of the United States drove the Native Americans from their land and named them 'savages', so naturally they did not believe the Native Americans had the ability to create such meaningful mounds. I think it is awful that only because the mounds did not fit their Christian world view the first settlers denied all Native Americans of any credibility for their wonderful creations.

I suppose I understand that religions tend to fit ideas into their stories for their own favor, but I must be honest, I am not looking forward to reading Psalms because the Christian world view is much too skewed. I am a nanny for a woman in town and they are a good Christian family, sometimes the little girl I babysit asks me if I have taken Jesus as my Lord and Savior. To be frank, its hard to keep my thoughts down. The reaction to the effigy mounds is just one more reason why religions should be less harsh and more peaceful.

Effigy Mounds and Lasaux Cave

Upon reading the blog question for this week, I decided to look up some photos of effigy mounds. I came across a web page that quotes Robert Birmingham the author of our book, Indian Mounds of Wisconsin. It may be helpful for those of you who read this blog so here is the link:

http://whyfiles.org/135salv_arch/3.html

In the question we are asked to talk about the 'form' of the mounds, a confusing word choice I must admit so I am going to talk about forms in the sense of an artistic media. The effigy mounds are burial sites in the form of important animal figures where as Lascaux Cave contains paintings of large animals in a seemingly personal cave. The two medias are different forms of representations of related ideas, although to create the effigy mounds a group of people are needed. The simple fact that the effigy mounds have been thought to bring different tribes of people together suggests a ritualistic and spiritual gathering. This, combined with the burial of humans and materials, is (in my mind) undoubtedly religious. There was confusion and ambiguity in the Lascaux cave on whether the paintings were religious; contrastingly, the effigy mounds strongly suggest religious gatherings to create forms (or symbols) which are worshiped.

The mounds are absolutely different than the use of animals in sports teams today. We do not worship the Chicago Bear and expect to gain something in the afterlife. The suggested religious significance of the mounds as a symbol which establishes a conception of death and purpose cannot be compared to a sports team.

Grizzly Man - Crazy or Spiritual?

Some say Timothy Treadwell was insane, others call him a martyr. None the less, his eccentric nature and love for grizzly bears provides for an entertaining documentary. To me, it is clear that Treadwell was searching for a sense of self, his worth, and what he could do while on Earth to live out his purpose. In this search he found his love for animals, in particular Grizzly Bears and began what he thought was his life long goal. Living 13 summers with the Grizzlies of Alaska, Treadwell's connection with the bears became a dangerous disrespect for the boundary between human and animal (in particular an animal that can rip human flesh apart with ease).

Treadwell's child like nature lead him to 'play' with bears, rather than protect them, as he had set out to do. His argument when people told him he was crazy was that bears are misunderstood, although his point was refuted in the end of his life. The simple fact of the matter is that Treadwell had mental illnesses throughout his life, and even though he traveled around the country educating people on the protection of his beloved Grizzlies, he was not mentally stable. I believe whole heartedly in protection and admiration for all types of animals. Each animal has a spirit and every human has a spirit animal, Treadwell's was a Grizzly Bear; he just did not understand the invisible boundary between the two worlds. As Ziggy Marley says "Hey miss butterfly I see you look at me with your beautiful eyes, you must be wondering what type of creature am I".