Praying with the Psalms
Once again, the Mepkin community was fortunate to have three classes with Dr. Andrew Davis of the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College.
Our focus was on the psalms in Jewish and Christian tradition moving from an overview to specifically consider Psalm 27, Psalm 8 and Psalm 51, so pertinent to our Lenten journey. Including contemporary musical settings of these psalms sung in Hebrew, Professor Davis drew us to a deeper understanding of these texts by helping us receive them in the richness of the original language with its nuances and through bringing us to understand how successive communities pray these psalms from the circumstances in which they are living. “Psalms are not frozen in time but are transmitted in living communities of worship.”
Helping us to see the references in psalms to other scripture passages and how psalms are referred to in later periods of history, our praying the psalms has been enhanced through his insights and considerable knowledge.