“Hidden in the loss was another life.” What a great summary of the gospel! Maybe “Savage Light” for the title?
One of my fave psalms, too. I haven’t spent much time thinking about how Paul’s reading of scripture would have changed after his conversion… It makes sense to me that he would use it less for self-justification than for wonder. Congrats on getting 1/5 of the way through these renditions! It’s a lovely project.
I love the poem, but I wished there had been a fifth stanza between the 3rd and the 4th to know what happened between the blinding nausea and the sweating out of the fever of his reality. I revere your words and would like to have known what you thought or even imagined about those days.
In the poem, this line sounds so familiar -- “Hidden in the loss was another life” -- I feel sure it’s an echo from one of the other poems, but I can’t recall which. 🤔
Really love how this retelling of Paul’s story turned out. From his views of Stephen to his final reflection on the psalms in the last stanza. Worth waiting for :)
Oh my goodness. I always seem to get stuck in the Psalm rendition with so much fresh food for thought from familiar & beloved verses. (The renditions are like summer gardens where you taste fresh tomatoes and wonder whether you’ve ever tasted anything so good before . . . even though you tasted them fresh last summer!)
All of which is to say, I so love these lines from the Psalm rendition:
“Those who sell themselves to other gods
Will find that sorrow billows out all around them.”
&
“The lines of my life have fallen in pleasant places.
All around me grows a beautiful inheritance.”
And it’s so good to revisit this psalm itself right now. Thanks for these renditions :)
I needed to be reminded of Psalm 16 today. Thank you, and wonderful rendition. I wonder which Psalm (s) would fit in Paul's theology based on my favorite sermon of his in Acts 14:
[17] Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
Beautiful, Andy. The rhyme at the end of the last stanza hits like a truck.
I vote 'A Whisper of Wings' for the title, it's the hinge line, so worth underlining, but not a spoiler (no-one likes the punchline in the title).
Congrats on the house, and the publishing, that's huge.
All our love from Scotland.
Thanks, Jamie. Hey... come to Hutchmoot UK next week and I'll see you there. K?
“Hidden in the loss was another life.” What a great summary of the gospel! Maybe “Savage Light” for the title?
One of my fave psalms, too. I haven’t spent much time thinking about how Paul’s reading of scripture would have changed after his conversion… It makes sense to me that he would use it less for self-justification than for wonder. Congrats on getting 1/5 of the way through these renditions! It’s a lovely project.
Thanks, Liz. I like both those ideas.
I love the poem, but I wished there had been a fifth stanza between the 3rd and the 4th to know what happened between the blinding nausea and the sweating out of the fever of his reality. I revere your words and would like to have known what you thought or even imagined about those days.
In the poem, this line sounds so familiar -- “Hidden in the loss was another life” -- I feel sure it’s an echo from one of the other poems, but I can’t recall which. 🤔
Really love how this retelling of Paul’s story turned out. From his views of Stephen to his final reflection on the psalms in the last stanza. Worth waiting for :)
It is indeed... https://darklingpsalter.substack.com/p/psalm-147rendition-notes-and-a-poem
Aha! And it was even the title :) Thank you!
Oh my goodness. I always seem to get stuck in the Psalm rendition with so much fresh food for thought from familiar & beloved verses. (The renditions are like summer gardens where you taste fresh tomatoes and wonder whether you’ve ever tasted anything so good before . . . even though you tasted them fresh last summer!)
All of which is to say, I so love these lines from the Psalm rendition:
“Those who sell themselves to other gods
Will find that sorrow billows out all around them.”
&
“The lines of my life have fallen in pleasant places.
All around me grows a beautiful inheritance.”
And it’s so good to revisit this psalm itself right now. Thanks for these renditions :)
That makes me happy to hear!
I needed to be reminded of Psalm 16 today. Thank you, and wonderful rendition. I wonder which Psalm (s) would fit in Paul's theology based on my favorite sermon of his in Acts 14:
[17] Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
Maybe 104, 145-150?
I liked "nausea and wonder" from your article epigraph/subtitle. "The one I hated, the one I loved" also stood out to me. Or just simply: "Zeal."
Also stoked for EMHv3. Glad to know your work will be featured!
Thanks! It is a liturgy for playing board games.
Okay, I might have screamed when I read that. Brett is right next to me and he flinched.
Ha ha. It'll be very familiar ideas to you, of course.