Sing an old song: the words of scripture should sound like music to our ears--because many of them are.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]WHEN MARY AND ELIZABETH GOT TOGETHER for their now-famous visitation, they gave birth to a song. This shouldn't surprise us. Momentous occasions often inspire folks to "sing a new song." From inaugurations and commencements to very private hours when we give our hearts away to the beautiful other, we often deliver up our hopes in lyrics minted for the hour. Old and familiar tunes also serve us well at such times. Think the national anthem, "Happy Birthday to You," and "Danny Boy."
It only makes sense that the Bible, jammed with momentous occasions, should also be chock full of music. If you shook out the songs from scripture, you'd find yourself holding a much skinnier volume. You'd lose the entire psalter for starters. But there's a lot more music in the Bible than those 150 psalms in the middle. Which leads to the question: Why does the Bible serve as an ancient sacred iPod?
Scripture writer Father Paul Boudreau notes that preschool demonstrates the power that song holds over memory. How else could we have learned our ABCs? The first line of Genesis, "In the beginning..." was probably a chant drawn from the Israelite experience of Babylonian captivity. The Book of Job even imagines that creation was composed with a soundtrack: "The morning stars sang together" as the pillars of the earth were set in place (Job 38:7). It would seem natural that any scripture intended for recitation, religious ed, or devotional use was easily memorized if put in lyrical form and set to music.
Boudreau offers this example: "If you grew up in American culture, you probably know the story of Leroy Brown. He was from the South Side of Chicago. He was tall. He liked to wear fancy clothes and show off his diamond rings. He drove a custom Continental, and he also had an El Dorado. He carried a gun in his pocket and had a razor hidden in his shoe. And he was bad. How bad? 'Badder than old King Kong, meaner than a junkyard dog.'" To know Leroy Brown, you don't have to read the story. Jim Croce's ballad handily delivers the goods.
Songs offer potential perimeters for our hope or resignation, expressing aspiration and exasperation. They help us celebrate--and assist our grief. Elton John noted simply, "Sad songs say so much."
SCRIPTURE'S CANTICLES, PSALMS, HYMNS, AND LAMENTS provide us with a landscape of lyrics to underscore our emotional world. One of the oldest is found in Exodus chapter 15, sung at the shore of the Red Sea as Miriam led the victory dance and her brother Moses gave voice to the national sigh of relief as the waters closed behind them. Like most biblical songs, the canticle at the Red Sea contains ancient phrases as well as modern ideas, such as references to a Temple that won't exist for hundreds more years. An antique folk song with later revisions added is something we find in most church hymnals today.
Victory hymns are prevalent in scripture, whether it's "horse and chariot cast into the sea" or "Hooray, I just chopped the general's head off." OK, that second one is a slight rephrasing from Judith's hymn of praise and thanksgiving. What is actually sung of this holy femme fatale is this: "Her sandals caught his eyes, and her beauty captured his mind. The sword cut through his neck" (Jth. 16:9). This song is reminiscent of that other female warrior prophet, Deborah, who immortalized how a simple housewife once defeated the enemies of Israel by driving a tent peg through a general's skull. Meanwhile, his poor mother poignantly waits for him at the window at home (Judg. 5:1-31).
Another story in Judges tells how Jephthah's lovely teenage daughter runs to the door with timbrel and dance steps ready to celebrate her father-general returning from a victory. Desperately bad timing: Her father has just sworn to sacrifice the first person he sees as a thanks offering to God. Little Miss Jephthah winds up singing a last lament with her girlfriends before her father keeps his bitter word (Judg. 11:29-40).
Such laments play a considerable role in the Bible. David sings the "song of the bow" when he hears "how the mighty are fallen" in the double loss of King Saul and his beloved friend Jonathan. David sings another dirge for the general Abner in his turn (2 Sam. 1:19-27; 3:33-34). The Book of Psalms, often attributed to David in its entirety, probably contains some examples of his compositions in the first 41 psalms.
But the ultimate biblical "sad songs" are those collected in the Book of Lamentations. Attributed to Jeremiah, the great prophet of the Babylonian exile, Lamentations appears to be the work of five other writers of the period of captivity. These mournful words remain central to the liturgical sensibilities of the Jewish community today as they continue to commemorate the past, present, and future losses of their assembly.
BESIDES OCCASIONS OF WAR AND DEVASTATION, THE BIBLE also sets to music seasons of celebration. Motherhood is a big one: Hannah is the first on record to sing of an unlikely pregnancy (1 Sam. 2:l-10)--a song sampled generously, shall we say, within Mary's New Testament canticle (Luke 1:46-55). Scholars note wryly that Hannah's song has nothing whatever to do with her present joy nor does it seem to suit her personality, but no matter. It's probably something she (or the writer of Samuel) repurposed from another occasion, and it helps give expression to her excitement. Mary's Magnificat, a song whose scope is much greater than her present circumstance or even that of her generation, shows a similar ambition of purpose.
Biblical songs celebrate babies, along with another auspicious symbol of the future: water. The "song of the well" in Numbers makes a lot of sense if you live in the desert, after all.
Israel sings about water, why not about the fruit of the land? Isaiah's "song of the vineyard" isn't exactly a love song to grapes or wine (Isa. 5:1-7). It stands in a genre of songs about the love between God (the vineyard owner) and the nation. Like most love songs, the story of God and the people has its ups and downs. Read (or sing) the Book of Psalms for more information.
Perhaps the greatest extended allegory about God and humanity is in the Song of Songs. At least that's how some interpret this sensual love song, which never mentions God at all. It makes a lot of people nervous to think that an entirely positive expression of human sexual desire could be enshrined at such length in scripture. Maybe this song really does express what it was like the day God gave the law at Mount Sinai, or rescued the people at the Red Sea, or encountered the people nightly in the desert. Or maybe it's just about a woman who's crazy about her man, and vice versa.
SONG CONTINUES TO PLAY A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN THE CHRISTIAN scripture. Luke shows Mary, Zechariah, Simeon, and not a few angels singing before we hit Chapter 3 of his gospel. The Pauline letters contain fragments of Christian hymns almost casually, presuming the readers can finish the songs themselves from liturgical or catechetical familiarity. If you took all the songs out of the Book of Revelation, the whole work would fall apart.
Maybe the ancients were right: From creation through apocalypse, the history of the world can be held together by music.
By ALICE CAMILLE, writer of the series, "Exploring the Sunday Readings" (Twenty-Third Publications) and other works available at alicecamille.com.
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Title Annotation: | testaments |
|---|---|
| Author: | Camille, Alice |
| Publication: | U.S. Catholic |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Aug 1, 2010 |
| Words: | 1277 |
| Previous Article: | Quotable. |
| Next Article: | Where do we get the Marian dogmas? |
| Topics: | |