There’s a new sound emanating from the 欧文康考迪亚大学 campus — old lyrics put to new melodies that express timeless theological truths about God.
诗篇图书馆，一个项目 敬拜领导中心, is bringing together gifted co-writers who have musical and theological depth, to create excellent contemporary music grounded in the rich doctrinal history of the Lutheran church.
“We want these songs to be useful to all congregations, 尤其是路德教会, within the context of our church calendar and the doctrines of our church body,03届校友基普·福克斯(Kip Fox)说, who was enlisted as the songwriter for the first psalm in the project. Fox serves as a worship leader at St. 梅萨的路加路德教会, 亚利桑那州, and as director of the CWL’s "Songwriter Initiative" which connects and supports Lutheran songwriters across the country.
是CWL神学主任牧师. Steve Zank ’06 who recruited Fox and 牧师. Dr. 保罗·艾略特合作.
“I had no real ambition to be a songwriter, but it sounded like an exciting opportunity,埃利奥特说。, who teaches Old Testament and Hebrew 在欧文的康考迪亚大学. “我愿意尝试新事物.”
Elliott and Fox got acquainted by email and phone, then chose Psalm 72 as the first song to be written. Elliott performed an exegetical study on it the same way he does when preparing an academic paper or a seminar.
“我用希伯来语读了很多遍, identified all my questions about the text, and dug through dictionaries and commentaries to make sure I was understanding each part correctly,他说.
One challenge he identified was to convey how the poetic elements brought out different meanings of Hebrew words. 例如, the psalm repeats the words “righteousness” and “justice” but uses them in different ways and contexts in the course of the poem, 他说.
“This was a key to understanding the poem, that the same vocabulary was used multiple times and in multiple senses of the words,他说.
古老的诗篇, 他提醒我们, were not meant to be read without music, 或者用直白的散文来解释.
“I’m a firm believer that you can’t reduce poetry to prose,” Elliott says. “总有一些东西丢失了. Poetry conveys levels of meaning that aren’t in the prose version.”
So the opportunity to express Psalm 72’s meaning in lyrics was novel.
“We tried to break down barriers which put cultural distance between the psalm and the reader, so they can think about the text in ways they might not by just reading an English translation. 要做到这一点, we had to find the theological themes that really made it tick, pull those out and express them in a modern idiom that makes sense.”
Elliott emailed Fox a fresh translation of the Psalm and identified elements he thought important to include in the final song. 小狐对他所看到的印象深刻.
“It’s pretty amazing, the depth and wealth of knowledge that a scholar brings to the table,他说. “There are so many things going on in the psalm, 从上下文来看, 观众, 当它被写出来的时候, and amazing nuggets about what Solomon was really saying. My heart was moved in a new way based on all the new information I was getting.”
Elliott’s “strong exegetical work on every aspect of Psalm 72 guided me through the main themes,小狐说. “这真的很酷. I’ve co-written with a lot of writers but never in this way.”
Fox “pinged” Elliott a lot of questions to get a handle on what the psalm was saying. The thing that stood out to both men is the song’s joyous, celebratory nature in describing the reign of King Solomon and, 更紧密联系, 耶稣基督的统治. Verse 15 focuses the theme with the words, “Long may he live.”
“The whole theme points to the messianic nature of the psalm,小狐说. He tweaked “Long may he live” to “Long live the king” which is “more natural to our modern vernacular and sang better than the original line,他说.
With Elliott’s approval, it became the song’s hook and title. 最后, 当这首歌结束时, Fox brought musicians together to record it, and 欧文康考迪亚大学 alumnus Brandon Li ’18 produced a video available on the internet.
“Fox was a joy to work with,” Elliott says. “We were very much on the same wavelength. He did some cool things I wouldn’t have thought to do. I’m hoping as people listen to this song that they will think about the Psalm in new ways. I was delighted that it came together so well.”
CWL will release free lead sheets and song charts as resources to the church. Zank plans to produce at least two songs per year, and to expand its number of songwriters and theologians.
If the first collaboration is any indication, 应该是硕果累累, psalmic ministry flowing from 欧文康考迪亚大学’s songwriters and theologians for years to come.