Out of Egypt:

psalm

As I've been discovering in the past few months, writing paraphrases from the Scriptures can be a great spiritual exercise, for those of us with creative aspirations.

Sometimes seeing the Scripture in a new translation helps the familiar become striking to you. This was actually inspired by seeing the Scripture in a new language - the Portuguese for Ps. 23:1, which was on the bumper sticker of the car in front of me as I parked tonight. A providential sighting, although I am convinced life is full of these, if we only have eyes to see them. That is why true conversion must be a conversion of the imagination.

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not stumble.
In the green pastures, He makes me to lie.
He leads me beside still waters - He fills me,
Restoring my soul in righteousness.

Yes, for Thy glory I am restored:
In death's shadow valley, I shall not fear.
For Thou art with me; Thy right hand upholds me.
Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

Before my foes, the table is spread:
Thou hast anointed; my cup now runs over.
Surely Thy goodness shall seek after me - 
I rest in Thy mercy for all of my life
And will dwell in Thy house forever.

Admittedly, "faltara," the word that first caught my eye, does not mean "stumble," at least according to Babelfish Translation, but the idea of God keeping us from falling is present in the text, as well as throughout the Psalms. Seeing the way that the theology of the Psalms fits together as a whole can help us to make David's prayers our own.

Note: My paraphrase above is not free verse, despite appearances. It's actually a kind of trimeter, and to me could be sung easily to a 3/4 melody - a plain melody, almost like chant, ascending and descending the scale. Cadences would come at the end of sentences, partial cadences at the dashes and semicolons. Any musicians out there care to take me up on composing a tune? Someday, Lord willing, I'll be able to write down the melody in my head, but I'd like to see what others can come up with, also.

Um, I wouldn't put the cadences/half cadences at the ends of the sentences because the emphasis would come on the second beat of each measure (i.e. "Lord," "shep-", which, though it might flow in speech, is awkward when constructed musically. You want the first beat to be the one emphasized (unless you are Bartok or doing rock n roll...in which case you are using 4/4 and not 3/4). That's just my initial gut reaction to a brief read-through. Of course, the melody in your head is probably very different than the one that comes to my mind.

Posted by: funke at August 15, 2007 11:32 PM

Emphasized words in the melody I have in mind for the first three lines: Lord, shep-, I, stum-, green, pas-, makes, lie. It's a syncopated melody.

I think the melodies we are imagining are different. That's why I'd like to see/hear yours.

Posted by: Evan Donovan at August 16, 2007 1:30 PM