“How long to sing this song?”
These lyrics from the 1983 song “40” animated the deepest groanings of a generation—or two!—through the music of the band U2. I (Kara) have actually sung these lyrics live with Bono (well, along with the 40,000 other fans at the same U2 concert in the late ’80s). The words resonate so deeply because they speak authentically about human experience.
Pain.
Loss.
Questioning God.
Questioning life.
The words are directly from Psalm 40, one of the many lament psalms that articulate these questions and cries in expressions that translate across centuries. Except when the words and phrases leave us even more confused.
Eugene Peterson describes reading the psalms as a 12-year-old boy and being utterly perplexed by the language. But through the psalms he was introduced to the power of metaphor, and ultimately, the psalms “showed me that imagination was a way to get inside the truth.” Pairing that imagination with biblical scholarship, eventually Peterson rephrased the psalms—and then the rest of the Bible—into modern language in The Message translation.
The Message translation deeply moved Bono and U2 in the early 2000s, and when Peterson found out about this, his first response was, “Who’s Bono?” (The above is from a recent email newsletter I receive from the Fuller Youth Institute.)
The school I (Jeff) went to, Fuller, works a lot with the intersection of faith and pop culture. They recently produced a short film on Bono meeting Eugene Peterson, the translator responsible for The Message. I found the video (see above) interesting. It’s a little over 20 minutes, but it may be of interest to some of you. Enjoy!
…oh, and this would be a good time to remind you of the upcoming class we have on the psalms:
Beauty of the Word: The Poetic Structure of Psalms
An inductive study of the book of Psalms, giving attention to the various forms of the psalms — including their function within ancient Israel. The course will focus on the formulation (lament, royal, pilgrimage, wisdom, messianic, praise, etc.) and interpretation of the psalms.
This will be a 4 week class with some teaching on the structures and an interactive time exploring the psalms together. It will be on Thursday nights at 6:45pm beginning April 20 (the week after Easter).
Comment below if you’re interested or connect with Jeff on Sundays or look for the signup.