February 19, 2013

Today’s Readings:

AM Psalm 45; PM Psalm 47, 48  
Deut. 9:4-12; Heb. 3:1-11; John 2:13-22 

                                      Strega Nona and Psalm 45

¹⁰ Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear;
 forget your people and your father’s house,
¹¹   and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your lord, bow to him…

¹⁶ In the place of ancestors you, O king,^* shall have sons;
 you will make them princes in all the earth. –Psalm 45

This psalm is said to be an allegory of the heavenly wedding between God (the King) and God’s love for Israel (the bride). I found these words offensive, since they sound sexist to me. How could I find gospel in them?

As a first grade teacher, my students and I listen to, read, and compare and contrast various versions of classic literature every day. We adapt and retell the stores in our own words until they become our own. Taking a clue from my seven-year-olds, I got busy searching for adaptations of this psalm.

First, I found Lutheran Nadia Bolz-Weber explaining that the psalmist makes the king appear a bit “nerdy,” in her opinion. Hear her in an audio here, beginning at about 1:00. http://castroller.com/podcasts/TheEmergentPsalter/1402575

Next, I found Barbara J. Monda’s Rejoice, Beloved Women, which retells the psalm as if it was written by a woman:

Your consort takes his place at your side.  He is clothed in gold but is blind to everything, save your beauty. He renounces all he has just to please you…Your daughters will proliferate…

If God is neither male nor female, it can’t really matter if God is portrayed as a king, or a queen, can it?  It’s refreshing when adaptations turn things on their head!

And finally, in Psalms in Ordinary Voices, edited by Andrea Ayvazian, I read:

I … follow the woman who leads

And follows well,

But is not led

Into forgetting…

I breathe the infinite wind of justice strong and kind to be remembered in all generations.

Given the hundreds of translations and interpretations of the psalms down through the centuries, who can say what the “best” is?  A few days ago, as I was reading aloud to my students Tomie dePaola’s classic, Strega Nona’s Magic Lessons, the main character’s words caught my attention.  The wise witch, Strega Nona, counseled her apprentices about the wisest way to learn magic. I think her words can apply equally to the work I am attempting with this psalm. They can also help in appraising other scripture:

You must learn to see and not to see.

You must learn to remember and to forget;

To be still and to be busy …

But, mostly

 you must be faithful to your work.

Julie Mankowsky