I don’t remember how or where the copies of Psalms for Christian Prayer by Bede Griffiths came into my possession. The HarperCollins publication date is 1995. Griffiths’ foreword is dated March 1992. As I recall, Griffiths died in 1993. If I bought them somewhere in Dallas -- which is kind of what I think -- it couldn't have been later than 1996. Not that any of that is important. I do know at one time I had probably ten copies of the little black hardback – they are only slightly over six by four-and-a-half inches and a half inch thick.
Griffiths is one of those Catholics, like Merton and others who found compatible and complementary truth in much of Hinduism. While he recognized the powerful tradition of the Psalms as a means of communicating with the Father, he was troubled by the expressions of anger, violence, hatred, and vengeance carried in some of the passages. I am not; however, I was put off by the Griffiths’ introduction, the fact that he had omitted some Psalms entirely, and his audacity in cutting verses even from Psalm 23. Come on, really. Still, I liked the idea of what he had done in making the Psalms very accessible as prayers. I must have given away some of my copies over the years. I am down to perhaps one or two. I have never seen the book in any Christian bookstore – not that I particularly looked for it.
Over the weekend I did some cleaning out here in my office. I straightened and rearranged some of my bookshelves and got a little of the dust knocked down. I moved several haphazardly if conveniently stacked boxes of ammunition to more suitable locations which freed up some shelf space. I was able to move a double row of books to a more-or-less single row, and in the process, I found one of my Psalms for Christian Prayer copies. I started to stick it back on the shelf but, instead, tossed it onto my desk. It got tossed onto my chair later when I cleaned the desk. I considered the Tim Allen approach of duct-taping everything to the desk and bringing in the leaf-blower. I’d let it get pretty bad. Eventually the little book made it back to the much neat-ified desk along with a much needed and well-deserved-if-I-do-say-so-myself cup of coffee.
Griffiths’ introduction still annoyed me, as did the fact that the Psalms start with number four. But when I started reading again, I mostly forgot my annoyance. As presented, the passages are potent vehicles of prayer and contemplation. There are no verse notations. This is not a book of study but a book of prayer.
Here's an excerpt from Psalm 33:
Let all the earth fear the Lord,
All who live in the world revere Him.
He spoke; and it came to be.
He commanded; it sprang into being.
His own designs shall stand for ever,
The plans of His heart from age to age.
They are happy, whose God is the Lord,
The people He has chosen as His own.
From the heavens the Lord looks forth,
He sees all the children of men.
From the place where He dwells he gazes
On all the dwellers on the earth,
He who shapes the hearts of them all
And considers their deeds.
A king is not saved by his army,
Nor a warrior preserved by his strength.
A vain hope for safety is the horse;
Despite its power it cannot save.
The Lord looks on those who revere Him,
On those who hope in His love,
To rescue their souls from death,
To keep them alive in famine.
Our soul is waiting for the Lord.
The Lord is our help and our shield.
In Him do our hearts find joy.
We trust in His holy name.
May Your love be upon us, O Lord,
As we place all our hope in You.
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3 comments:
...he was troubled by the expressions of anger, violence, hatred, and vengeance carried in some of the passages. I am not...
Nor am I. In fact, that's what draws me in to the Psalms because many of them cry out from common human weaknesses and work from there into loftier regions. I can grab on to the lowest branches and climb along.
As for verse numbering, it's a good way to find things and to memorize, but for sheer reading and contemplation, they can be a gauntlet. Think if LOTR was numbered every couple sentences; the story would be all but lost by the need to stop and analyze every 30 seconds.
Griffiths performs a fine service in this regard. So kudos for that.
That's the way I feel about it. I find it reassuring that the psalmists were as freaked out as I am sometimes. It's one thing to be all pacifist and relaxed in an ashram somewhere. But when you are dealing with psycho neighbors, lazy relatives, ambitious project managers, the IRS, not to mention lawyers, accountants, and megalomaniac politicians, sometimes you think it would be nice if the Lord would pound a few of them into fine dust. The psalmists know how we are really feeling and they help us own up to it, then they always bring us back to the Lord. They enable us to shift our focus back to the Solution.
Dear Mush,
I pray the offices of Shorter Christian Prayer (the condensed form of the Daily Office, suitable for layfolk), or try to, every day.
They're about 25% Psalms. Over a four week cycle, you hit quite a few.
Nothing like contemplative religious, of course, who work through the whole Psalter in a week.
The variety is very useful and sometimes spookily apt.
I agree with your take and find Fr. Griffith's bowlderization prissy and nanny-ish.
Something we'r eall on the alert for now.
Happy Easter!
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