{"id":2717,"date":"2023-12-20T03:11:36","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T03:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=2717"},"modified":"2023-12-20T03:11:38","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T03:11:38","slug":"evensong-78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=2717","title":{"rendered":"EVENSONG 78"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1025\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/PSX_20231219_220952-1025x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2716\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/PSX_20231219_220952-1025x1024.jpg 1025w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/PSX_20231219_220952-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/PSX_20231219_220952-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/PSX_20231219_220952-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/PSX_20231219_220952-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/PSX_20231219_220952-2048x2048.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1025px) 100vw, 1025px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Like an old-time ballad singer, Asaph turns to storytelling in this psalm. It\u2019s the second longest of all the psalms \u2014 some 72 verses spread over five pages \u2014 as it recounts \u201cdark sayings of old, \/ Which we have heard and known, \/ And our fathers have told us,\u201d stories that can\u2019t be forgotten.<br><br>It\u2019s not unusual for ballads \u2014 or story songs \u2014 to be lengthy. I remember seeing all the words to \u201cMatty Groves\u201d once and wondering how John Jacob, Jean, Joan and Doc could ever memorize all those verses and then sing the whole blessed song without dropping a single quatrain or two.<br><br>Well, Asaph does tell a familiar tale \u2014 one that\u2019s a staple in everything from Jewish synagogues to Southern Baptist Sunday schools. He tells how the Children of Israel \u2014 or more precisely, the tribe of Ephraim \u2014 kept pissing YHWH off and, as a result, had to keep wandering in the desert.<br><br>Nothing YAH did for them was enough, sings Asaph.  Part the Red Sea, YAH! Yes, my children. Show us the way by day and by night, YHWH! OK, sure, I shall. We thirst, YAH! We want water! I can do that, too \u2014 on the rocks, even. And food! We\u2019re hungry! Sure, here\u2019s manna and meat.<br><br>Still, those children kept acting like children and never learned their lessons. They\u2019d forgotten all the bad stuff \u2014 those 10 plagues \u2014 that YAH had used to get the Egyptians to set the Israelites free \u2014 like killing every firstborn child. (Yes, YHWH waited until they were born to murder them.)<br><br>So, just like \u201cMatty Groves,\u201d this story psalm is a murder ballad of sorts. But Asaph\u2019s main point in telling it transcends macabre entertainment. Asaph knows that people who forget the morals of their collective stories will surely repeat them \u2014 that is, their mistakes \u2014 over and over again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like an old-time ballad singer, Asaph turns to storytelling in this psalm. It\u2019s the second longest of all the psalms \u2014 some 72 verses spread over five pages \u2014 as it recounts \u201cdark sayings of old, \/ Which we have heard and known, \/ And our fathers have told us,\u201d stories that can\u2019t be forgotten. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=2717\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">EVENSONG 78<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2718,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions\/2718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}