Walking through a local park recently, I had my ear buds in and was listening to music – all sorts of music, from secular to sacred, whatever popped up next in my fairly random music library. Eventually I found myself listening to a series of modern worship songs, one after the other.
Now they’re great songs, very catchy, and often inspiring. That’s why they’re in my music selection. But sometimes the theology in these songs seems to take second place to the rhythm and the energy. And given that a lot of us are as likely to get our theology from music as we are from reading scripture, that could be problematic. It struck me in particular just how often these songs use the possessive adjective – that is to say, they sing of ‘our God’, ‘my God’, ‘your God’ and so on and so on – Our God is a great big God! You can find yourself being reminded of the playground – ‘my dad is bigger than your dad’ kind of thing!
C S Lewis addresses something similar I think in his Reflection on the Psalms where he challenges himself to struggle better with his initial distaste for the psalmists’ tendencies to seek God’s wrath on and to curse their enemies. His way through that dilemma has been really helpful for me. He notes how in many (too many!) of the psalms there is such a spirit of hatred for the enemy, even in the ones that we tend to love the best. Psalm 23 is probably the most famous one that fits into this category – and the traditional King James version is the one best known:
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies
Or, as it’s put most categorically in The Message (and this is why I love The Message – being an interpretation rather than a translation, it can really open your eyes with the directness of its language):
You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies.
‘My God is a great big God indeed!
It does seem spiteful and Lewis resists explaining it away. He says: ‘At the outset I felt sure, and I feel sure still, that we must not try to explain them away or to yield for one minute to the idea that because it came from the Bible, all this vindictive hatred must somehow be good and pious’ (pp25-26)
Three points here – maybe we should not take it all too literally – maybe it’s the psalmist’s equivalent of us telling someone to ‘drop dead’ – we don’t mean it but we feel better for saying it (and the ancients were far less literal than we are). Secondly, of course, if the hatred and loathing were genuine, then, as Lewis rightly says, ‘ if the jews cursed more bitterly than the pagans, this is, I think, at least, in part because they took right and wrong more seriously. (pp35) – they were closer to God; thirdly, we should never impose twenty first century morality on 1st century longings – I discuss this in the blog on the commandments.
But it all becomes more problematic when we apply it to modern sensibilities and take it in any way literally. Our God is bigger than your God is the outcome!
Too often we say or do something spiteful and justify it by hiding behind the word of God. We do it in our everyday lives – we do it in our theology. God says this; the Word of God says that – I’m sorry, I’d like to be more sympathetic but ‘thus says the Lord’ as it says. I can do no other than obey however personally distasteful I find it.
Thus saith the Lord!”
This phrase appears almost exclusively in the Old Testament which shouldn’t surprise us – before Jesus superseded Scripture as the final ‘word’. It occurs exactly 415 times in 413 verses and in 161 chapters according to Mr Google. In the 39 Books of the Old Testament, it occurs in 19 books. The Book of Jeremiah has the phrase ‘thus says the lord’ or variations on it 148 times.
Sometimes, in our pain or as a defence, we put words into the mouth of God – ‘our’ God who unsurprisingly, always agrees with us, says this! How often have we Christians taken a line from scripture and used it to shut down all debate – thus saith the Lord, or more commonly in the vernacular, well, the Bible says…
I had not realised Lewis had so much to say on this subject but here he is again when he tells us in the same Reflections that perhaps this claim of ‘thus says the Lord’ – our God says – is what is really meant when we speak of taking the Lord’s name in vain – putting our words and opinions into the mouth of God, with the intention of supporting our own feelings and prejudices. Lewis doesn’t speak of Bible-bashing but it’s close to where he’s heading.
The psalms are beautiful, and modern worship songs are or can be inspiring. But we do have to take care – ‘our God’ is ‘their God’ too. And loves them. My dad is not bigger than your dad because there is only one Abba. I’m being a bit facetious but there is a serious point here. God is not on ‘our’ side. God is not partisan. These possessive adjectives, when applied to the God of all, can, at their extreme lead to these kinds of prayers that ask ‘our’ God to bless ‘our’ army; to bring ‘us’ victory. The trouble is, of course, ‘our’ God is ‘their’ God too. There is only one Abba and he loves ‘them’ as well as ‘us’.
C S Lewis: Reflections on the Psalms, published by William Collins
Thank you for reading – I look forward to hearing your thoughts!