Psalm 34, Taste and See – David, Joe Rigney, and Shane Barnard

 

What an answer, and what a circumstance! This most famous biblical-era songwriter and king-in-waiting, David, sure didn’t try to hide from God and shrink from a dangerous episode, even if the solution to a certain tactical situation required some guile. Perhaps the particularly unusual escape method he employed in this case allowed David to savor more than usual how God had cared for him. “Taste and See” that the Lord is good, is David’s invitation in verse 8 of Psalm 34 (see him here playing a harp), even to us today some three millennia removed from him. Tasting God was a metaphor that this desperate future-king borrowed to emphasize from whom he drew spiritual sustenance. That songwriters like Joe Rigney and Shane Barnard in 2015 are still extracting nourishment from David’s poem and passing that food along is a tribute to how fertile his words – and the God they describe – have remained. God is able to deliver in any situation, using whatever technique He chooses…that makes His food and how He provides something to relish. What do you suppose Joe Rigney and Shane Barnard were experiencing that made Psalm 34 seem so relevant?

 

David was on the run, and was afraid (1 Samuel 21: 10-15) because some people recognized him in Gath where he had gone. In a moment of extreme anxiety, David faked insanity to avoid prosecution by the Philistine king. How did he think on his feet so quickly, and believably? David was a refugee, with so much reputation that he was the enemy of not only these foreigners, but his own treacherous King Saul. So, with his life, and the life of the nation God had already anointed him to lead, in jeopardy, David cleverly adopted a persona that saved his neck in a flash. In an instant when his mouth might have gone dry, David tasted the rescue that he surmised God had delivered in this desperate incident. You can hear hints of it still ringing in the song that Joe and Shane have reproduced, with words like ‘deliver/delivered’ and ‘fear’ in verse 1, and the ancient poem’s title words echoing in verse 2, reminding us of either end of the emotional spectrum that David experienced that day. Ever been in mortal danger? What kind of situation produces the lightening-quick reflexes except a battle zone, or some other crisis that makes the knuckles turn white while gripping the steering wheel? David must have grown somewhat accustomed to this, while also learning to recognize the telltale signs of His Deliverer. It’s a pretty special person who not only carries a pedigree like David’s, but reacts in the wake of a life-threatening incident to preserve the moment of danger and his deliverance in a song.   

 

God is uniquely capable of delivery. Just thumb through your bible…Noah and his family in an ark…Joseph in prison…Moses and God’s people in the Exodus. And, that’s just the start. How many times were Paul and his companions in danger? And yet, read what he said about suffering and becoming like Christ (Philippians 3:10). He’s got a big mission for His people, and His shield goes with those whose courage puts them in harm’s way. Does He always bail out those who are being threatened? Someone says ‘how about Stephen?’ (Acts 7), the first martyr for the cause of Christ. Do you think Stephen had already tasted and decided that God was good, despite what proceeded to happen to him in the next few moments after his speech to the Sanhedrin? Just read what he said at that crucial moment (7:55-56) – he knew nothing better than the God whom he trusted and the home where he was bound. He’d fulfilled the mission. So, ask yourself ‘Am I on God’s mission?’ David and Joe and Shane remind us when we might taste and appreciate God the most.    

 

The following is one source for comments in the above story: The NIV Study Bible, New International Version, edited by Kenneth Barker (General Editor) and others, Zondervan Bible Publishers,1985.    

See here for some information on one of the authors: Shane & Shane - Wikipedia

See here for album information: Psalms II (album) - Wikipedia

See image of David here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:King_David,_the_King_of_Israel.jpg    (the public domain status of the picture: The author (Gerard van Honthorst  [1592–1656]) died in 1656, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.

Rescue Me – David and Keith Lancaster

 

He felt his life was in danger. Does risk get any more personally menacing than that? It’s safe to assume that this hazard dogged David for a good portion of his life, both before and after he became king, so pinpointing just when he cried out “Rescue Me” is really an exercise in guesswork. (It might have been any of the multiple times he was fleeing from Saul, as shown here in this 17^th Century painting by Jusepe Leonardo). That this desperate, foxhole-like prayer was a psalm (17) suggests that it became widely known, and that is one assumption we see underscored by a 21^st Century composer named Keith Lancaster. His musical rendition of David’s cry is intense, unlike probably any other psalm that you or I have sung. So, when he echoes the words of the song title, you best be prepared. It calls upon the worshipper to put him- or herself in the most unfamiliar place – calling for vengeance from God upon a fellow human being. It might make you wonder, ‘Is this worship that God will accept? How could this be one of my fragrant sacrifices (see the book of Exodus, for example) to Him in song?’

 

Perhaps Keith was emboldened to write ‘Rescue Me’ for a couple of reasons, though there’s not any record of what he was thinking about when he wrote it (perhaps he might share that, if he reads this!). Keith was one of the large team of people involved with something called the Timeless project, as the first decade of the 21^st Century neared its conclusion. This group is still at work (as of 2023) to bring new life to all of the Psalms, so skipping any of them is objectively a departure from their purpose. Just how Keith drew, or gave himself, the Psalm 17 assignment would be an interesting question for him! That it is one of the psalms may have been reason enough for Keith to tackle Psalm 17, to ‘pounce’ on it with vigor, as David might have said regarding his enemies’ pursuit of him, with similar words in this prayer (like verses 11-12 in the psalm). It certainly seems to break some new ground, musically attacking the words of the psalm – like ‘…bring them down’ (chorus). It could be relevant for anyone who feels like David did at the time. Just think of how Dietrich Bonhoeffer might have felt in Nazi Germany in the 1940s, or today imagine how you might react in worship if you are Ukrainian. Did Keith have some circumstance like that, maybe one on a smaller scale even, on his mind? Among the vindictive psalms (otherwise called imprecatory or cursing psalms), Psalm 17 is in fact tamer in light of some of the others. Try on Psalm 58, which is more bitter and has virtually no words to praise God, and is still more startling in that some of the superscriptions in its title provide firmer evidence, compared to Psalm 17, that it was sung corporately (words like ‘for the director of music’, ‘to the tune…’, and a potential musical term ‘miktam’). Could it be that David, like others before himself, had concluded that it did no good to try hiding his feelings, vicious and raw as they may be, from God?

 

Some authors have called Psalm 17 and others like it ‘problem’ Psalms, because of their malicious tone.  How am I to square singing Keith’s ‘Rescue Me’ with good Christianity and ‘loving my enemies’? Answer that with another question, perhaps. Did God punish Job further for his spleen-venting tirade? One author, Philip Yancey, suggests that Christians can use these psalms (you might in fact call them pslams, as you demand that God slam someone to relieve your distress) to good effect.  Yancey reminds us that God demands authenticity in our relationship with Him. So, bring Him these spiteful feelings, lay them at His feet, and ask Him to mete out justice and righteousness on His own schedule. And, there are plenty of verses in the New Testament also, in which the Savior Himself or someone else brings strong imprecatory language to bear on people (see John 2:13-17 >> Ps. 69:9 and Acts 1:20 >> Ps. 69:25 and 109:8) for their wrongdoing. You and I need be only as real with our Creator as our forefathers and our Lord were, so don’t think you’ve improved upon the human model with your reticence and apparent tolerance of wicked enemies. God’s not impressed with your attempt, and He really knows that deep inside you feel differently, OK? Is unsuppressed anger toward others eating at your gut? Try giving that to the One who made you, and see if His remedy doesn’t help you.

 

Read here about the Timeless project, which includes the song that Keith Lancaster wrote for the Praise and Harmony group to sing as part of that project: https://timelesspsalter.com/pages/about

 

Source of the picture of David fleeing from Saul: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jusepe_Leonardo_001.jpeg  

Public Domain status of picture: {{PD-US-expired}}

 

See also Philip Yancey book The Bible Jesus Read, and chapter 4 (Psalms: Spirituality in Every Key), pages 133-39, Zondervan Publishing House, 1999.

A Mighty Fortress – Nathan and Christy Nockels

 

They were 30-somethings and parents, three-times-over. Nathan and Christy Nockels might say that was a chief motivator for them as they thought about how best to maximize their example as God-believers before their children, and before the Atlanta area where they had recently arrived in 2008. And so, “A Mighty Fortress” and its original pedigree acquired some five centuries earlier seemed to fit the attitude that Nathan and Christy sought – that a believer, Martin Luther, whose very life was in mortal danger or who witnessed other episodes of danger or death for people close to himself, did not shrink when faced with these things. (See this blogger’s entry for Martin Luther’s great classic hymn in the August 29, 2009 post.) Courage is a trust in God that doesn’t give up, these two parents might have said to their three kids. And so, they must have reasoned that since they were musicians at heart, a song to underscore this confidence in God would be the best way to emphasize this.

 

This is not the Martin Luther song that we all know, though the Nockels did borrow one line from Luther’s hand – his original song title. The Nockels’ version of ‘A Mighty Fortress’ has lots of awesome metaphors for God…He’s not only the ‘mighty fortress’, aka ‘bulwark’ that Luther wrote about, but also a ‘consuming fire’ (Ex. 24:17, Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews 12:29), a ‘burning holy flame’, the ‘righteous judge’, a ‘sacred refuge’. These are all great ways to address Him, especially in music, and you can sense, when you turn the pages of scripture for yourself, that Nathan and Christy must have found a lot of these names for Him also in the Psalms. Christy spells out for worshippers that she feared for her children when she looked at her surrounding world. She needed reminders from Him, especially about His promises, all believers’ future reign with Him, and the certain strength of His kingdom’s foundations. Those are things she thought she and Nathan could lead their kids to hold close to themselves, in unshakeable trust. ‘…Keep (ing) our eyes on You’ must have been a personal declaration they wanted their offspring to adopt into their beings. Perhaps they thought of it as similar to other habits or skills parents might best teach their kids when they’re young, like learning to swim, playing an instrument, or reading and writing (perhaps even in a language other than one’s native tongue). Want to be really fluent and treat as implicit to one’s character some things? Then, begin practicing them as a child. Then, as adults, not only are eyes fixed on God, but ‘hearts are…’ too.

 

Nathan and Christy evidently wanted their children to know other things about this ‘Mighty Fortress’, other characteristics of Him that would in turn shape their own characters. ‘Glory and freedom’, along with ‘kindness and wisdom’ (v.1) are part of His multifaceted nature, as is His ‘jealous(y) for His own’ (v.2). Yes, He’s many things that are to be praised, especially ‘love and mercy’ (v.2), without which all of us mortals would be extinguished if they were not present in our Creator. He’s ‘exalted on His throne’ ‘above the heavens’ (v.2).  An everlasting worthiness (v.2) is therefore intrinsic to this unique Being. He alone has all of these powers and attributes. It’s a fearsome, even uneasy sensation of God that the Nockels’ song inspires, with some minor chords and an ending that does not bring the worshipper ‘home’ (to the root chord). Those might seem like kinda obscure, music-nerdy, inconsequential details, but Nathan and Christy seemed to know what they were doing, and how to introduce their kids to the real God. He’s breathtaking and beautiful all at once…and so much more.  

 

 

See here for information about one author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christy_Nockels

 

See here for some comments on song by authoress: https://www.last.fm/music/Christy+Nockels/+wiki