Yesterday morning the Bridge St. Choir sang a setting of the 23rd psalm by Marty Haugen as the anthem:
Shepherd me, O God,
beyond my wants,
beyond my fears,
from death into life.
God is my shepherd,
so nothing shall I want,
I rest in the meadows
of faithfulness and love,
I walk by the quiet waters of peace.
A couple of days ago I saw the words of the 23rd psalm from a 17th century psalter which will soon be up for auction:
“The Lord to mee a shepheard is,
want therefore shall not I.
Hee in the folds of tender-grasse,
doth cause mee downe to lie.”
Neither this recent setting or the very old one jibe with the words which most of us know, either from the King James Version of the bible or the New Revised Standard Version.
The Bay Psalm Book was the first book printed in the colonies and the first book printed in English in the New World. In 1640 a locksmith printed 1700 copies but eleven still exist. The historian for Old South Church quit over the decision to sell it, but there is always controversy when these decisions are made. A copy belonging to Boston’s Old South Church will be auctioned by Sotheby’s on Nov. 26th and is expected to fetch $15 million to $30 million. If it realizes much more than $15 mil it will become the most expensive book ever sold at auction.
If only we would treat the psalms as extremely valuable for our everyday lives, rather than establishing a monetary value for one particular text. The 150 psalms of our psalter invite us to put God first in our lives. There is a certain irony that a fragile little book creates such a stir because it is worth a lot to collectors. The notion that we "want nothing" other than God is often far from our reality.
What do you think about big-bucks-bidding for a religious text? Do you ever search out the psalms for solace and encouragement?
2 comments:
Pretty wild stuff. And you're right: there's a certain irony in this text assuming a large dollar figure on "the open market", given the lessons and messages of humility and modesty contained inside it.
I was humming that anthem in Markham yesterday am, while visiting family here - it is much more worthwhile, and of much greater value, to store up these wonderful words in the mind and heart!
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