A Fit Form of Words

“A Fit Form of Words”: Entering God’s Speech Community by Praying the Psalms

The Arts are a vital component of human life.  Through visual depiction, sound planning and the organization of words they express political, social, personal, emotional and multifarious other conceptions of the world.  Throughout history, works of art have given shape to every cultural manifestation of human society.  In the arts, humans connect with one another and to God through poignantly expressive communication.  In so doing, the artist (and those so engaged with the artistic work) can fulfill the relational vocation of the imago Dei – communion with God and others.  Such relational expression is displayed paradigmatically in the artistry of the Psalms.  As I discovered through my experience of praying the Psalms, developing an intimate relationship with these ancient poems can greatly expand the artist’s communicative capacities.  Also, by sustaining the practice of praying the Psalms diligently, creative persons enter into Church’s transgenerational ‘universe of discourse,’ resulting in communicative work that communicates with greater precision, sympathy and power.  To elucidate how such transcendent communication might be made possible by this practice, I will briefly explore the theory of universe of discourse as it relates to such liturgical practices.  Then, the benefits of the emotional range and fullness of content of the Psalms for artistic practice will be investigated.  Here, Psalms 141 and 95 will prove exemplary in our study of this habitus.

Through the practice of praying the Psalms, one enters into the historic speech community of the Church found in the Word.  This community can be described as the universe of discourse, or the framework by which words, phrases, pictures and other communicative phenomena obtain their significance in communities.  In order for a communicative expression to be meaningful in the context of relationship, an agreement of specified significance of signs among speakers and hearers is necessary.[1]  A universe of discourse necessarily functions in religious and artistic contexts through providing systems by which “users of a common language presuppose the existence of a shared world of beliefs, ideas and experiences.”[2]  In Christianity, these “beliefs, ideas and experiences” are God’s communication with mankind throughout history as documented in Holy Scripture and can be accessed in a unique way through the practice of praying the Psalms.  In his book, Doxology, Geoffery Wainwright elucidates how a Christian universe of discourse,

permits communion between human beings and God by means of the word.  By divine grace, human words become the expression and vehicles of the traffic between humanity and God in which communion consists.  The continued reading of the scriptures in church [and through personal prayer] keeps the vocabulary, grammar and syntax of the biblical revelation before the people.[3]

In this context, this “common language” enables and enriches communication between humans and God as they enter into the divine speech community provided by God for His people.

In the sphere of artistic communication, artists often encounter the glorified notion of independent expression.  Such a conception of art venerates the “genius” of the self-determining, isolated artist and devalues any shared or communal aspects of the creative act.  A purely autonomic approach to the artistic realm can disregard communal absolutes as valid parameters for internal research and discovery, leaving the resultant artifact irrelevant and unable to communicate.  Yet, the artist who creates from a within the structure of the biblical speech community presented in the Psalms is provided a holy language of words, signs, and metaphors which guarantee and intensify a communicative expression with others and with God.  By working creatively within the language of scripture, artists engage signs which God himself has signified, resulting in a work that communicates with greater theological resonance.

As we have already seen, through the practice of dialoguing with scripture, an artist can enter into a Holy universe of discourse, and therefore most effectively communicate with others and God.  Though a liturgical rehearsal of the whole of scripture is advantageous for forming this holy language, praying the Psalms is of particular benefit for artists for two reasons.  First, it has been noted that in these 150 passages the Psalmist documents his responses to the entire breadth of human emotion and experience.  In his letter to Marcelinus on biblical interpretation, Athanasius says of the Psalter, “Within it are represented and portrayed in all their great variety the movements of the human soul.”^[4]  Second, through praying the Psalms, artists are also exposed to the entirety of biblical themes present in the wider canon.  The primary biblical subjects in both the Old Testament and the New Testament are all treated in some form within the Psalter.  The breadth of content available in the Psalms provides artists participating in this speech community with an almost inexhaustable storehouse of possible expressions.  Let me now explore how these two views are made manifest in particular Psalms and how they can inform an artistic practice.

By praying Psalm 141, the reader is able to engage with the dramatic emotional range of the Psalmist while being trained the vocabulary of Scripture.  This psalm is a plea to God for protection and defense against an unnamed enemy.  The opening lines display the anxious fear apparent in the author, whose trembling is almost evident in the very words written, “come quickly to me!”[5]  The desperation of this cry for help is conflated with the following lines that reverently beg for the merciful reception of his prayer.  This deference sharpens the author’s further request for a “guard over my mouth” which displays a keen awareness of his own depravity.[6]  These guilt-ridden, grieving lines intensify his petition for protection from not only his enemy, but also his very self.  The drama builds to a gruesome climax in the next stanza, as his awareness of his own corruption is turned against the enemy, whose bones he desires to see “strewn at the mouth of Sheol.”  In the final stanza, the Psalmist turns away from the pit of his rage back towards the heavens in the lonely hope of “refuge.”[7]  His final entreaty to God for salvation from the enemy echo loudly with despair as the reader is left wondering, where is God?

These echoes might resound all too clearly in the artist’s heart as she finishes praying such a Psalm.  For, the Psalms are, “like a picture, in which you see yourself portrayed and, seeing, may understand and consequently form yourself upon the pattern given.”^[8]  Although these viscerally familiar emotions are brought to a zenith through such an experience, the artist is not left “defenseless.”[9]  Instead, she finds herself newly armed with a set holy language of metaphors, phrases and images with which to construct her expression in the speech community.  It might be a haunting sort of affirmation for an artist to realize that the Holy Spirit has inspired such violent imagery.  Such images provided the visual vocabulary for the menacing prints of Durer and might make a conservative viewer reconsider a harsh judgment on a violent film.  It is by humbly entering into this universe of discourse that the fullness of human emotional capacity can be explored artistically.  In a skillful hand these supple signs produce an effect on their viewer similar to that of the Psalm on its reader, a visceral reminder of her fear, rage and despair.

            Yet, artists are not left to conjure their own comparable experiences of human emotion when considering their subject matter.  Through praying the Psalms, the fullness of the canon of scripture is made manifest, bringing together stories, themes and images found throughout the biblical narrative.  This is the case with Psalm 95, which is the author’s call to worship and obedience.  Here, the Psalmist directs his communication not to God, but instead to the author’s fellow creatures.  They are reminded of their creatureliness through a brief recounting of the creation story found at the beginning of Genesis.  “The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.”[10]  As the reader’s imagination is filled with images of creation, another prevalent biblical image is brought forward, “we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand.”[11]  This pastoral theme of the shepherd is meant to elicit trust from the “sheep,” as they are cared for by the omnipotent “shepherd.”

The Psalmist hearkens back to Torah in the final stanza, as Israel’s distrust in God at the edge of the promised land is recounted briefly.  “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah; as on the day at Massah in the wilderness.”[12]  As a consequence of Israel’s actions at Meribah, the resulting hurt and shame of this distrust have been deeply embedded in the nation’s history.  Through recalling this story, the Psalmist evokes these difficult emotions to encourage an obedient response to God in a contemporary context.  In a similar manner, artists can effect a meaningful connection with their viewers and/or readers by recounting the stories and themes present in the biblical universe of discourse.  As we have seen, by gaining an intimate knowledge of the Psalms the artist is equipped with an exhaustive knowledge of biblical imagery.[13]

The entrance of the artist into the biblical universe of discourse through praying the Psalms enables an informed expression uniquely poised to communicate with God and others in a deep and meaningful way.  Athanasius characterized the Psalter as a treasury of expressive means:

A fit form of words wherewith to please the Lord on each of life’s occasions, words both of repentance and of thankfulness, so that we fall not into sin; for it is not for our actions only that we must give account before the Judge, but also for our every idle word.[14]

In the Psalms, the artist is equipped with words, images, signs and metaphors that distinctively reflect a right response to God and others.  The language of the Psalms is truly holy because it has been inspired and blessed by the Holy Spirit.  In learning and using this language, artists can appropriately engage the speech community intended, founded and sustained by God in the Church.  Such Holy communication is surely relevant to our modern context, affecting the cultures of our contemporary societies and bringing God’s kingdom closer to earth.