By Jeremy Bell
This is my personal study on Psalm 31 using groupings from my motif analysis, further displayed in my book, Psalms in Motif Visualization. I have taken these groupings of the Psalm and put them together. So, the entirety of the Psalm is posted, but these groupings will present the text in a different order.
Accidentals
Accidentals in music are notated next to notes that tell the musician to change the pitch of that note by a semitone. Sharps raise a note, flats lower the note, and a natural sign brings the note back to its’ original tone. For example, a flat sign next to a B natural note, lowers the note to a Bb. A sharp sign next to the A note makes it an A#. Two notations are acceptable as well, so, an A double sharp brings the note up two semitones, producing a B natural note. By the way, if you’re ever around someone who is nervous, you could just tell them to A double sharp. It’s code for B natural. (Be natural… get it?)
Accidentals in music are part of music composition and composers use them to tell their story. Lowering the right notes can produce feelings of sadness or foreboding while raising notes can trigger optimistic feelings and the lifting of spirits. The mood is broken when the musician makes a mistake. Editors and producers can fix this in editing with current technology and they can be sure that their music is heard, accidentals included, but mistake free.
The Analysis Summary:
Psalm 31 is in VerseArrow, Refrain motif form. A verse is one idea that still has a breakdown of pattern, but those patterns are contained in one idea. In this form, the motif rises and falls from a center point, or center idea within a verse. Look for it. The refrain is a bigger picture truth. A refrain could go anywhere as many times as desired. Read how this Psalm writer uses it and try repeating it more often as you reread the Psalm.
The high points of this Psalm are so powerful together I want to start and end with them. There is a crescendo point, the D section, to the verse, and there is also a crescendo point in the refrain. Watch how these go together.
Psalm 31, grouped by motif patterns with a repeating refrain.
[ Psalm 31 ]
In you, Yahweh, I take refuge.
Let me never be disappointed.
Deliver me in your righteousness.
Bow down your ear to me.
Deliver me speedily.
Be to me a strong rock,
a house of defense to save me.
Let me not be disappointed, Yahweh, for I have called on you.
Let the wicked be disappointed.
Let them be silent in Sheol.
Let the lying lips be mute,
which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt.
Praise be to Yahweh,
for he has shown me his marvelous loving kindness in a strong city.
As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.”
Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.
For you are my rock and my fortress,
therefore for your name’s sake lead me and guide me.
Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me,
for you are my stronghold.
Into your hand I commend my spirit.
You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.
I hate those who regard lying vanities,
but I trust in Yahweh.
But I trust in you, Yahweh.
I said, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.
Oh how great is your goodness,
which you have laid up for those who fear you,
which you have worked for those who take refuge in you,
before the sons of men!
In the shelter of your presence you will hide them from the plotting of man.
You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues.
Oh love Yahweh, all you his saints!
Yahweh preserves the faithful,
and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly.
Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who hope in Yahweh.
I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness,
for you have seen my affliction.
You have known my soul in adversities.
You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy.
You have set my feet in a large place.
Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors,
a horror to my acquaintances.
Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man.
I am like broken pottery.
For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side,
while they conspire together against me,
they plot to take away my life.
Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress.
My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.
For my life is spent with sorrow,
my years with sighing.
My strength fails because of my iniquity.
My bones are wasted away.
Accidental History
Accidentals in music were named accidentals because they occur occasionally, but not often enough to make noting them unreadable. These regular but occasional signs are easy to spot for the musician. Accidentals take the current state of a note and do something with it. The note is changed, elevated, lowered, or returned to its’ natural state.
Much of life is mundane and routine, in whatever the general natural state of a person’s life is. But there are times when life is elevated. Circumstances are better than we thought they would be or what we’ve known. Many times, they are lowered, things go badly. Life may be like accidentals in music, but they are not the same as mistakes. Accidentals may be played incorrectly and that is a mistake. But the composers’ finished product contains no mistakes.
When I was learning to play music, I made lots of mistakes, especially recognizing accidentals. My music teacher reminds me that I still do. Mastering the art of music will never end, mistakes will always happen. In todays’ music world, recorded music can be edited and adjusted to correct mistakes. A missed accidental can be refined in an editor’s software, if the musician can admit the mistake, and the editor wants to take the time to fix it. Otherwise, the mistake ridden recording is likely thrown out.
Blending the Accidentals and Mistakes
In life, the natural state is a lot of routine with mistakes and accidentals. Mistakes are a problem that cannot be edited out, but the composer may choose to make music with them, nevertheless. That is, if a person can admit they make mistakes, and the composer wants to take the time to fix it.
There is good news in Jesus, Christ, because He is the fix. God already took the time and paid the price to fix mistakes and accomplish His plan to bring glory to Himself throughout His good creation. The accidentals are part of the composition, God is the composer and producer, Jesus the editor, and we are the musicians. Jesus was a musician too and had to play music with the accidentals. But he never made a mistake. He is willing to superimpose His recording over ours and delete ours, so no mistakes are heard.
The Musician Plays, the Producer Judges
But people can also keep their mistake ridden copy and, in the end, the producer is going to throw it out. The key thing to remember, is that the musician has no real final say, the producer does. Christians who appeal to the producer, God, humble themselves and ask that Jesus record over their lives and that the producer would forget they ever made mistakes. Those who make themselves the producer in order to keep their mistake ridden copies are going to find an eternity of trash around them. Accidentals make life hard, often. But playing through them, trusting in the editor and producer, makes for a beautiful song. In this is The Nature of Joy.
Resources and Notes
All scripture in this article is from the WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE (WEB). The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible. The World English Bible is based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament.
For more related to this blog, check out my post on Practical Life Strategy Steps Created in Root Cause Abundance.
This is a reliable translation, but it is always good to read other translations as well. Biblegateway.com has a multitude of translations to read from. It is a great resource.
Another great resource is Biblehub.com. There are multiple translations, commentaries, and so much more. Great research can be done on this platform.
One more I use regularly is Gotquestions.org. This is a great site to answer questions and find threads of related questions.
There are many resources. The key is that God wants relationship directly with you, the individual. His primary source for revealing who He is and growing in intimacy is His word, the scriptures. Don’t just read for instruction. Analyze and read for understanding. Explore, ask questions, and be transformed in Jesus every moment you possibly can. There is no dispute this is a key desire of God. People are brough to the Father, in the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This… This is the Nature of Joy.