Bono, Eugene Peterson and I on the Psalms

Listening to a wonderfully heart-warming, beautifully crafted and inspiring story about the connection between U-2 lead singer Bono and Eugene Peterson, including their conversation when they met at Peterson's home, which I would encourage you to watch yourself at www.commonword.ca/go/57, led me to think about my own experience with the Psalms.  Their connection started with Bono's discovery of Peterson's translation of the Bible, The Message, apparently now having sold 17 million copies, and his particularly being blessed by the way Peterson captioned and translated the Psalms.

I can't say that I have an early experience that shaped my memories in quite the same way these two discussants did. However, my strongest memory of beneficial experience with reading the Psalms and being blessed by them goes back to when I had just graduated from medical school in the spring of 1976. It had nothing to do with that though, but with the fact that the young woman I loved and was going to marry was lost to contact with me.

It's a long story but my fiancé Anne, then Chen, had returned to her family in Taiwan to try and smooth things over so we could get married. She planned to return to Canada for that to happen. However, when it looked like this was not going to happen in the short term, I had made plans to go and visit. Then I received a panicky call about things having taken a turn for the worse. That led me to change my flight to go a week earlier. However, unbeknownst to me, Anne had left her parents’ home and gone to stay at her aunt's (NO! not what you might be thinking, if you're thinking about those traditional stays of young women at their aunts…) because she was sympathetic to her plight and the atmosphere there would not be as cool. When I spoke to Anne's family members on my arrival, no one could or, more likely would, tell me where she was.

It seemed like I had no recourse but to spend a week in Taipei and then return to the airport and see if she would surface to meet me on the previously arranged time of arrival. That was an emotionally stressful week, as you can well imagine. I guess I had learned by that time that the Psalms were a place one could go to for comfort and support in such situations and that is what I did. I read them every night until the reassuring messages that generally come through at the end of the Psalms left me in a good enough state of mind to sleep. During the day I busied myself by helping my host, the Penners who were running the mission center, with some repainting. Mel and I both liked Olivia Newton John who was popular then (remember "Let Me Be There," "I Love You, I Honestly Love You,"?) and I remember listening to her while we worked. Anne says I have always been a (hopeless) romantic… I did go to the airport after a week and there she was standing and waiting forlornly (get the pun?) in the hot humid May Taiwan weather. What a wonderful reunion we had, particularly after we got back to her aunt's, where she had the place to herself as everyone else was working or in school during the day.

My first experience with the Psalms would have been as a child with The King James Version of the Bible, having received my own copy of the Bible at around age 7. In those days, it was common to memorize portions as part of the way to earn admission to summer camps. I remember memorizing Psalm 1, Psalm 23 and probably portions of other Psalms.

Some of the same questions that Bono and Eugene Peterson discussed are certainly topics that have intrigued me with respect to the Psalms as well. One of these has to do with the honesty of the writers. I have long been intrigued and fascinated by the way the Old Testament and Jewish people in general seem to be able to express themselves to God much more freely than we Christians often feel we can. I always remember the example of Tevye's discussions with God in Fiddler on the Roof as an example of this. Somehow, we Christians, particularly in the Protestant West, have this idea that we have to be good and nice and that includes when we talk with God. These writers of the past did not seem to have any hang-ups about niceties when it came to expressing what they really thought and felt to God. We could learn a lot from that.

Another topic that was discussed in this interview was the violence. Indeed, this is an issue in the Old Testament in general that is troubling to many Christians, especially those like myself of the Anabaptist persuasion. It did not seem to bother either of these gentlemen that much. Bono clearly stated that he did not see these writings as indicating that God was violent. As an Anabaptist, it was particularly refreshing to hear the interviewer ask them about how these passages could be seen through the eyes of Jesus, the New Testament, as that is the way we Anabaptists prefer to look at this literature.

Obviously, the Psalms has played a significant role in many lives, as much devotional writing will attest. Many songs are also based on the Psalms, which are, of course, in many cases, hymns to begin with. When I was reading them in Taiwan, I was reading them in the New English Bible, which I particularly liked at the time because it was the first full translation of the Bible that I was aware of that really addressed the literary structure of its contents. Thus, the prose was clearly delineated from what was deemed to be poetry and presented in those formats. Good News for Modern Man translation which became available about the same time did the same thing, although it was always regarded as a less formal translation because it was designed to use simpler language and be more easily understood.

The fact that many publications of just the New Testament also contain the Psalms as an addendum also speaks to the value that has been placed on this particular portion of the Old Testament. Indeed, I have often recommended the Psalms to those who need to read something like that for their own health, comfort and support, including patients of mine when I was still practicing. I am sure I will continue to be blessed by and benefit from reading the Psalms as I move on in my retirement as well.