This week’s Psalm has me thinking alphabetically. It is one of those word games poems that doesn’t translate into English. An alphabet poem – each line beginning with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
ALEPH
I will extol you, my God and King,
and bless your name forever and ever.
BET
Every day I will bless you,
and praise your name forever and ever.
GIMEL
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
Translation is a bit tricky because it is hard to keep both form and content – especially in poetry like this – so the Biblical translators chose content and reduced form to a footnote, But an important footnote, I think. Knowing the psalm’s alphabetical structure adds to our reading of the psalm.
Blue has just finished working through the alphabet at school. The system they use is phonetic with a gesture and sound for each letter. It is supposed to set them up to learn to read by Christmas. The trick with our Blue is that he already knows how to read, so I’ve been worried that he’ll find the slow phonetic approach a bit of a bore. He’s happy to build words at home with the Scrabble tiles, but can’t be motivated to do the homework sheets from school. I confess that I don’t push it. I’d rather he spend his time reading or playing anyway. And we went through the same thing with Beangirl. Both of them seemed to absorb the ability to read on their own. I asked her recently how it felt to learn letters like this at school when she already knew how to read. She said that some kids in her class knew the letter sounds and some didn’t and she needed to sort out which kind of kid she was. For her, that was the tricky part. It was a matter of social context rather than content. Blue also saw it in terms of his place in the class. He said I’m little, but I’m clever. Knowing his letters has given him a confidence and reading has given both of them a place for themselves in a bigger picture.
I wonder about the Psalmist. Why did he play with the alphabet this way? Was this psalm a memory game for children learning their letters? A clever bit of wordplay? A kind of game of praise?
Maybe I’ll do something similar with the Sunday School kids. We could write our own alphabet poems, finding a place for everything and everything in its place. I’ve found myself today playing along with this alphabet game. Apple sauce for Breakfast and leftover Banana Birthday Cake (Blue’s from yesterday evening). A Chat with a friend whose kid has the Croup. All Day, things to Do, and in the evening, a meeting For the church Family. And Everything, Everything for God.
I like the idea of slotting everything in together like this. A way of tidying up my day. It’s a bit like the trend of celebrating a wedding anniversary with a summary of personal numbers. 12 years, 11 moves, 10 job interviews… that kind of thing. It ties things together. It gives form to the scattered content of our living and helps us find our place and places.
We might read all the psalms like this, the whole collection as a form of alphabet. In the Book of Psalms, there are so many thoughts and feelings. So many joys and doubts and rants and pleas. The Psalms are sometimes referred to as Christ’s prayer book (Bonhoeffer, I think) or the Church’s songbook. But maybe it is useful to think of them like an alphabet, too. A spiritual alphabet that helps us build a strong and diverse vocabulary of faith. There are times when we need to go slowly, sounding things out as we go. And times when we realize that we have already learned these sounds, absorbing their meaning, helping us to sing praise and remember the great promises of God..
The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds. The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing. The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
