This year I’m doing something different with my blog. I am using it as a gathering place for reading and reflecting on the Book of Psalms as a virtual collective. If you have been a previous follower you are invited to be part of this collective experiment. If you received an invitation to participate and you accepted the invitation, welcome to my website; feel free to browse previous posts on various topics. If you happened upon the site, welcome to you also! A reading schedule for the year is available when you click the “Psalms Project” tab above.
I have always liked the psalms but my appreciation intensified one spring when I participated in a monastic pilgrimage for two weeks and realized that monks recite the psalms every day, often going through the entire collection in a month. That same fall [2009] I was asked to teach a course on the Psalms and I have been teaching it ever since, even though I am not a biblical scholar. My approach is from the perspective of one who teaches spiritual formation courses. Indeed, the Psalms have been part of the spiritual expression and formation of God’s people for millennia!
In preparation for teaching I read through the Psalms in a different version each summer. It is fine for the Psalms to be used like this in private reading but they were originally composed, collected, revised, and utilized primarily by and for community. This project began a few years ago with a dream to write a yearly devotional book on the Psalms that could be used for “personal devotions” but again I was reminded of what I keep repeating every year in my class: “all psalms have their origin in the worshiping community of ancient Israel” and “are meant to be experienced in community.” I have also become increasingly aware of how the singular voices of educated, white, middle-aged men—that would be me—have dominated the field of theology and spirituality for the entire history of Christianity. If this is to change—and I think it should—my role needs to shift from speaking to facilitating the voices of others. I hope that my fifty odd posts will be outnumbered by the collective voices of 35+ participants [So far almost 2/3 of the participants are women, about 1/3 are under 30, a few are over 65, and a few are people of colour]. We have the communal experience of the Psalms in my classes for a semester but there is something unique about a calendar year and with the magic of the internet we can create a virtual monastic community to reflect on the Psalms for one year. Reading will begin in private but hopefully by knowing that a few dozen others are doing the same thing and by posting thoughts occasionally on the website, it will become a collective reading and reflection.
A very brief history of the Psalms is in order before we begin our journey. The psalm tradition probably began with David’s capture of Jerusalem in 1000 BCE but the golden age of psalm use was after the temple had been built by King Solomon. I will say more about authorship in a later post but for now just note that the Psalms were NOT written by David on a lonely hillside while tending his sheep and strumming his harp! The Psalms were spoken collectively, written down, used and collected, then arranged and rearranged and rewritten over hundreds of years! With the rebuilding of the temple under the Persians, the worship in the temple and the use of the psalms was revived. It is probably during this time [400-200 BCE] that the Book of Psalms as a collection began to take shape. The destruction of the temple in 70 CE ended the ancient psalmic tradition. The context of the Psalms was the messy ordinary life of the Hebrew people who were worried about dangers and droughts and were happy over peace and prosperity. This is human life on our planet, and that is why the Psalms continue to express our own cries today.
gareth brandt 
I am looking forward to this year of reading Psalms in community.
Hi Gareth. I look forward to experiencing the Psalms together with you and some others in a virtual community. Maybe sometime you can gather some of the local ones together for a beer and a conversation. 😊
I am excited about joining the rest of you on this journey Bro. Brandt has invited us on. I would love to know who it is I am traveling with. I assume that introductions will be made at some point in some way.
In his book, Answering God, Eugene Peterson suggests that Psalm 1 & 2 are intentionally placed at the beginning of the Psalter for they form the introduction to this collection of poetry.
With this in mind, I have chosen to think of the first two poems as the double gates into a profound experience. The Grim Reaper stalks the land. Our encounter with him and his gargoyles takes many forms. However, they more or less fall into two kinds. There are the personal—cancer diagnosis, son’s marriage failing, job loss. There are the public—suffering and oppression on Canadian First Nations, the election of Trump, Israel’s occupation of Palestine. All of these, in whatever way we encounter them, can be brought with us into the community and into our worship and search to find./hear/experience God’s Presence, Love, Caring, and Word. The personal is not private. The Public can be very personal. In the Ancient Poetry Collection, some speak out of the personal (though not private), like Psalm 32 and Psalm 88. Others, like Psalm 2 & 45 are public. Many dovetail. Whether personal or public, they all know of God. They variously speak of darkness/chaos, rescue, and wonderful life. Or to use Bro. Brandt’s from Walter Brueggemann’s labels—orientation, disorientation, new orientation.
One more piece that will impact my readings and reflections. I have fallen in love with this Anceint Poetry, led there during my cancer/chemo/post-chemo journey that began in spring, 2015, was most a journey into deep darkness and depression (hitting bottom in November, 2015) and a journey “out of that that will probably never be complete and has left me a changed person. I confess I have a new appreciation for the Ancient Poetry’s orientation (pre-2015), disorientation (2015) and new orientation (post-2015). That will shape my reading and sharing.
Okay, one more piece. During that journey, I created a Facebook group I called “El Camino.” It was a place where friends were invited to join me on the journey. It was for me a lesson in how absolutely crucial the community is even as the experience of life and reading of Poetry is very personal. Had it been also private, I would have “died.”
So, let’s travel together. It should be an adventure. Thanks again, Bro. Brandt for initiating this. You are what Paul of Tarsus calls you in Peterson’s translation of 1 Corinthians 4:1: [You] are guides into God’s most sublime secrets, not security guards posted to protect them.” Thank you!!
Introductions are a good idea as this is not meant to be an anonymous community. Perhaps a line or two of introduction with your first post would be appropriate.
I second Janet’s proposal, do we have third?
Excited about the Journey.
Garry Janzen here. I am excited about reading the Psalms together in community this year. Work-wise, I am Executive Minister with Mennonite Church BC. I have an office on the campus of Columbia Bible College, and generally show up there 2 days a week. I and my family live in Ladner, and I belong to Sherbrooke Mennonite Church in Vancouver.
I look forward to being part of this project that Gareth has created.
I am a Mom, and Grandma from rural Southern Ontario. I am very grateful to be a part of this project!
Efficiency is my modus operandi and I do everything in an allotted time, so this business of reading and rereading slowly demands a new type of discipline. Here is my takeaway from Psalm 1. The “law of Yahweh,” the Bible, provides our stability and in the word of the day, our orientation. Delight in it is what sets the “blessed” apart from the “wicked.”
I’m a student, hoping to spread the message of God’s love through missions
I’m a newly retired college instructor in the Fraser Valley. Being re-tired is like putting on a new set of tires for the next chapter of my life. I look forward to experiencing the Psalms in a fresh way with all of you.