Deer Park Alliance Church

"The words on the bone of song were close and small


And though their tongues were dead I found I knew them all


In the hieroglyphs of quills and quatrain lines


Osiris, The fall of Troy, and Auld Lang Syne,


Kathleen Mauvorneen, Magnificat, Your Cheatin' Heart,


The chords of a covenant king singing for the Ark."

 Josh Ritter, my favourite folk singer-songwriter-guitarist-Idahoan, wrote these words in a song called "Bone of Song."  The background to the lyrics are intriguing.  For centuries, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics remained indecipherable until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and the work of Jean-Francois Champollion.  The discovery resulted in a key that unlocked the hidden meaning to a previously mysterious language and the lost world that it represented.  What if something like that existed for all of the music that the human soul has ever produced?  Josh imagined that every musical note that has ever been composed is connected to a key that can unlock the deepest meaning to every song ever written.  From that imagination, he wrote "Bone of Song."

You can listen to the song here, for free, thanks to National Public Radio.  This particular performance of the song is my favorite.  It is a rare collaborative effort that Josh made with classical violinist, Hilary Hahn.  You'll find the song at about 14:30 in "Hilary Hahn and Josh Ritter together," and will enjoy what is simply one of the most beautiful songs you'll ever hear.

"The chords of a covenant king singing for the Ark."

When I heard the song first, I was struck by the phrase.  Here, King David is connected with other gifted songwriters.  David, "Israel's sweet singer," wrote, collected, sang and listened to song after song.  The man after God's own heart lived a soulful, masculine, passionate, and musical life.  I wondered about the deep human connection that the Psalms share with the songs of human history.  They unlock, as songs do, an identification with the common journey a man or woman travels through life.  They inform the reader’s experience of what it means to be wholly alive on earth.  Calvin called the Psalms, “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul”; “…for there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror.  Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions, with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated…”  Yes, the Psalms are distinctly human.

Yet, the Psalms are also uniquely divine.  They are, indeed, God’s inspired Word.  And so, the reader never remains the reader.  The singer never remains merely the singer.  All who experience life in the Psalms enter into worship.  To remain in the Psalms is to remain in the praise of God and the transformation of the soul.  These words not only unlock an identification with the common human journey, but also they unlock the meaning of the singer’s travels.  This musical meeting place in Scripture is where untouchable God and fragmented human souls are mysteriously together.  It is a place for people to touch and taste and see that God is real and there and good.

Here, in the collected “chords of a covenant king,” human beings are given the sole opportunity that only Holy Scripture gives, revelation.  Tremper Longman III writes, “The Psalms are such a divine-human encounter, and they find their actual setting within the formal worship of Israel.  As we read the Psalms, we are entering into the sanctuary, the place where God meets men and women in a special way.”  Paul Gerhard wrote, “The Psalter is a theatre, where God allows us to behold both Himself and His works; a most pleasant green field, a vast garden, where we see all manner of flowers:  a paradise, having the most delicious flowers and fruits;  a great sea in which are hid costly pearls:  a heavenly school, where we have God for our teacher:  a compend of all Scripture:  a mirror of divine grace, reflecting the face of our heavenly Father:  and the anatomy of our souls.”

This has been my experience with the Psalms.  King David’s playlist has become my default prayer list.  When I hunger for God and when I don’t.  When I am blown away with the joy of being human and being alive.  When I am discouraged beyond all playful prompting.  It does not matter what I have experienced in life, the Word of God in the Psalms has led my soul to worship and live more wholly.

I can’t wait to experience the Psalms with you this summer.

I and some of my friends are writing a series of Scripture mediations called “The Chords of a Covenant King:  A summer concert for the soul in the Psalms.”  If you can share the journey together with us at Deer Park on Sundays, it’ll be so great.  Or if your path intersects with ours by merely listening online, I’d love to hear from you.

Let the music of God’s Word be a pleasure!

"I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord" - Leonard Cohen