Dear Friends

On Sunday, we held a Songs of Praise Service, in which people donated towards Glenorchy’s Mission Fund for our 3 charities this year to have their favourite hymn sung, either during worship, or after a shared lunch at a good old sing along (we’ll let you know how much we raised once we know!)

Music and song have been a joyous way of praising God for many thousands of years.

Read Psalm 150

Trumpets, horn, lute, harp, tambourine, strings, pipe, clashing symbols, everything that has breath is to sound, move and dance to God’s praise

Some of the hymns that we still sing were written several thousand years ago. They are Psalms set to music, as some of them were at the time they were written

Jesus knew the words of the Psalms well. I suspect that, like us, he had what I call a ‘remembered hymn book’ words from hymns that come readily to mind (although I can sometimes can’t remember the first line!) Like us, Jesus would have easily remembered some of them because they were set to music.  For example, Jesus would have sung the Psalms 113 – 118, traditionally sung every year at the Passover meal (take a look at them sometime).  The Gospel writers, Matthew and Mark tell us that, after they had finished eating and drinking the Passover meal, and ‘when they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives’

Some Psalms we know very well indeed, Psalm 23 for example ‘The Lord’s my Shepherd’. The tunes help us to remember them, long after other memories have vanished into thin air.

Psalm 8 was a Psalm set to music. How do we know? Because (depending on the translation you read) before the Psalm ‘text’ it probably says “To the leader: according to the Gittith. A Psalm of David”. ‘The Leader’ would have been the music leader and ‘the Gittith’ the tune the words were set to.

We assume that King David wrote this Psalm… well because it says so! And all those thousands of years ago, he was saying WOW! Wow to God, whose handiwork he saw all around him.

Read Psalm 8

I wonder ‘What things make you say WOW! to God?’

Have a go at writing your own version of the Psalm! Write your own words on the dotted line

O Lord, our Lord, your greatness is seen in all the world!
When I look at……………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

O Lord, our Lord, your greatness is seen in all the world!

And there you have it, your own Psalm!

Why not sing your own favourite hymn at the top of your voice, bash some pan lids together, let your body move (even if it’s only a little) in praise of God, who gave us the gift of music and movement to enrich life and soul and who sings and dances with us! And enjoy!

Through God’s Spirit, God can make divine music and dance a divine dance with us! We are God’s partners, each and every one of us!

Rev. Janine