[CatherineTorpey]

Hi all,

I thought I’d already posted this, so forgive me if it shows up twice.

Marty will be kind enough to lead us tomorrow. I hope to join you, but I’m going to be making my way down to the church (yay!).

Jacqui is preaching on “Since we’re a little less than God…” and her scripture is Psalm 8.

Here is the translation of this psalm by Robert Alter, who translated the entire Hebrew Bible.

PSALM 8
Translation by Robert Alter

1 For the lead player, on the gittith, a David psalm

2 LORD, our Master
How majestic Your name in all the earth!
Whose splendor was told over the heavens.
3 From the mouth of babes and sucklings
You founded strength
on account of Your foes
to put an end to enemy and avenger.

4 When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars You fixed firm,
5 “What is man that You should note him,
and the human creature, that You pay him heed,
6 and you make him little less than the gods,
with glory and grandeur You crown him?
7 You make him rule over the work of Your hands.
All things You set under his feet.
8 Sheep and oxen all together,
and also the beasts of the field,
9 birds of the heavens and fish of the sea,
what moves on the paths of the seas.”
10 LORD, our Master,
how majestic Your name in all the earth!

Alter maintains the tradition of translating the divine name YHWH (Yahweh) into LORD in all capitals in English.

Psalms frequently have brief notes for the music director such as this. We do not know what a gittith is, though it would presumably be a type of musical instrument.

Alter doesn’t explain what made him choose to put verses 5-9 in quotation marks,

Alter says that he translates “master” and “majestic” in part to mimic alliteration in the original Hebrew. He also notes about the last verse, 10: “Although Biblical literature, in poetry and prose, exhibits considerable fondness for envelope structures, in which the end somehow echoes the beginning, this verbatim repetition of the first line as the last, common in othr poetic traditions, is unusual. It closes a perfect circle that celebrates the harmony of God’s creation. The “all” component of “all the earth,” which at first might have seemed like part of a formulaic phrase, takes on cumulative force at the very end of the poem. God’s majesty is manifest in all things, and the creature fashioned in His image has been given dominion over all things. The integrated harmony of the created world as the poet perceives it and the integrated harmony of the poem make a perfect match.”

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