Psalms Through the Centuries, Volume 3. Susan Gillingham. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Susan Gillingham
Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited
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isbn: 9781119542261
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to the pre-existent Christ who achieved such salvation ‘in the midst of the earth’ through the womb of a Virgin, by his incarnation.37 *Cassiodorus read ‘God my King’ in the same verse also as a reference to Christ, and verse 13 (‘you divided the sea by your might’ as not only an allusion to the crossing of the Red Sea but also a prefiguring of Jesus’ Baptism, when the water was purified by ‘breaking the power of the heads of the dragons’ (unclean spirits), also in verse 13.38

      These different illustrations also reveal the use of the psalm in various forms of Christian liturgy: at Christmas in the western churches, at Easter in the eastern churches, and at Epiphany in both traditions when the Baptism of Christ was commemorated.

      An interesting musical association of this psalm with Christmas is found in J. S. *Bach’s ‘Gott ist mein König’, composed in 1708 for an annual church service in Mühlhausen. Parts I and IV were based on Psalm 74, verses 12 and 16: God in Christ has been born as a King, working salvation from of old.

      As men with axe on arm

      To some thick forest swarm,

      To lop the trees which stately stand:

      They to thy temple flock,

      And spoiling, cut and knock

      The curious works of carving hand.

      Why always angry, God? Why smoke against us and inhale

      Sacrifices? Zion’s rubble. Temple hacked

      To splinters, they burn children with their teachers…

      You taught us, now deliver us

      From those who worship templed darkness. Look,

      We blush for you, your name,

      Though we are poor, and weak, and strangers roar.

      Psalm 75: God’s Abode is in Zion (i)