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J is for John Donne
John Donne (1572–1631) was a poet and in later life an Anglican priest. The penitential psalms were dear to Donne, and of his many surviving sermons nineteen are based on these texts. Only one sermon, however, is on Psalm 51. This sermon, and his understanding of this psalm, is of great importance for understanding Donne, Continue reading
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I is for Iniquity
It is fair to say that iniquity is not a popular word in modern English. It sounds very old fashioned and is probably used almost exclusively in a religious context to refer to another unpopular concept: sin. In Psalm 51 both of these words can parallel each other, as they do elsewhere in the Hebrew Continue reading
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H is for Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah has a life of its own Western culture. I have lost count of the covers I have heard, and the number of films it has been used in. It is a riff on Psalm 51, the ultimate evolution from Allegri who we met in the first of these posts. It opens with Continue reading
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G is for Gillingham
Susan Gillingham is one of the best Psalm scholars of our day. She is Fellow and Tutor in theology at Worcester College, Oxford. She became Professor of the Hebrew Bible in 2014. Her work on the Psalms is wide ranging and multi-faceted. This makes her work especially valuable as much scholarship on the Psalms, throughout Continue reading
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F is for Fisher
John Fisher (1469–1535) was variously a Catholic cardinal, chancellor of the University of Cambridge and bishop of Rochester. It is sobering to remember, that he was a victim of the wrath of Henry VIII and was beheaded on Tower Hill on the morning of 22 June 1535. His head was displayed on London Bridge for Continue reading
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E is for Eleanor Hull
Dame Eleanor Hull (c.1390–1460) is primarily known for translating a French commentary on the penitential psalms. The original French work dates from the late twelfth century. Eleanor’s father, Sir John Malet of Enmore, in Somerset, was a retainer of John of Gaunt. Eleanor was well-connected not only by birth but in marriage too, as her Continue reading
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D is for Dante
Dante Alighieri is known for his poetic work Inferno. This work is not just famous, it is infamous. Nevertheless, infamy rarely means well understood. This epic fourteenth-century Italian poem recounts a journey through hell and is one of three poems that form a whole: The Divine Comedy or Commedia, to give it its simple Italian Continue reading
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C is for Contrition and Compunction
In English translations of Psalm 51 the word contrite is often used, for example as here in the NRSV: The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17, NRSV In the Hebrew text the ‘contrition’ centres on brokenness—it is the person who Continue reading
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B is for Bones
Psalm 51 is one of seven psalms that have been grouped together and known as the penitential psalms since the sixth century. These seven psalms frequently touch on what today is often judged to be an unsavoury and unwelcome idea—the notion that God not only exhibits anger but shows his divine displeasure as wrath. In Continue reading
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A is for Allegri
This is the first bitesize post of a series of twenty-six. The series will be an A to Z for two reasons. The first reason is that I am joining the #AtoZChallenge which is an event in which participants blog their way through April in twenty-six acrostic posts. The second reason is that our topic, Psalm Continue reading
About Me
This blog’s central aim is to explore all aspects of how the Psalter (the biblical psalms) functions as Scripture today.
To this end it will also include book reviews on the Book of Psalms and related topics.
Some posts will reflect more broadly on biblical interpretation or hermeneutics.
If you like what you see here and want to arrange for me to give a lecture, run a teaching event or a short retreat based around The Psalms then contact me so we can discuss how this might work.
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