Common Ground Song 93 ‘O God, you are my God alone’
Words / Music: John Bell © WGRG / Iona Community
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik0u7hr3Obg
Featured image: A jackal with her prey © Yathin S Krishnappa CC-by-SA 3.0
Like my last post, this one is about one of John Bell’s Psalm settings, to a Scottish folk tune. This time it is Psalm 63, and also like the last one, not all the psalm is paraphrased here, only verses 1 to 8, which are the ‘nice’ verses about longing for God, enjoying his love, praising him in words and music, and meditating on him day and night. All very noble and good.
But there are three other verses of the psalm (9 to 11). They speak of being pursued by enemies and liars, wishing their souls to be sent to the underworld, their bodies killed by the sword and left as food for jackals. That last is not an invented fate: in 2013, the bodies of 87 women and children, migrants from Niger on their way across the desert to Algeria, were found severely decomposed and partly eaten by jackals, after their vehicles broke down. (Source)
It is a sudden change of mood from the first eight verses. But it makes sense. The closer we feel to God, the starker the contrast between our life and that of those who only live for themselves, and the more strongly we long for justice to be done where other people are harmed. If we believe the whole Bible was written by people inspired by God, and that ‘all scripture can profitably be used for teaching, refuting error, guiding people’s lives and teaching them to be holy’ (2 Timothy 3:16, JB), why are we not singing the whole psalm?
No doubt it is because we go to Church hoping to be comforted by the songs we sing. We like singing about the nice things in life, about warm feelings, love and acceptance. But not about the difficulties in our lives. Which is odd, because if you listed to any other genre of song (pop, folk, country, even Renaissance madrigals) then you will find songs about rejection, bereavement, frustrated hopes and so on. Why is the Church reluctant to include these emotions and circumstances in our songs?
It has not always been so. The tradition of the Catholic and Anglican churches is to work through the whole Psalter in rotation, leaving nothing out, so that even these difficult passages are said or sung regularly. Why omit them from the congregational repertoire? Here, then, is a new Verse 4 for the song, based on the Jerusalem Bible translation of the psalm.
May those now hounding me to death,
and lying through their teeth,
their souls be sent where God lives not,
down to the world beneath.
Their bodies slain be wild beasts’ food
and telling lies no more.
Then shall I praise the living God
both now and evermore.