By Jeremy Bell
I am going to share my personal study on Psalm 95 using groupings from my motif analysis. I have taken these groupings of the Psalm and put them together. So, the entirety of the Psalm will be posted, but these groupings will present the text in a different order. These groupings are color highlighted in my book, Psalms in Motif Visualization.
I have been blessed to live in Germany, visit the Alps, and even witness traditional German Alp folk music known as Alpine folk music. Alpine folk music is traditional folk music that covers more than Germany. It includes Slovenia, Northern Croatia, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. The German words for Alpine folk music directly translates to people’s music and is heavy in dialect, regional lifestyles, and traditions, particularly focused around farmers.
Farming in the Alpine
Farmers taking care of livestock are working in pastures between 2,400 and 2,800 meters and many utilize transhumance. Transhumance is seasonal movement of the livestock, choosing different grazing areas and different altitudes depending on the winter and summer season. Farmers will have a permanent home in a valley but will move the herds around. Moving the herds around also serves the different smaller communities around them. The primary livestock production is in mild, butter, yogurt, and cheese.
Alpine folk music goes back at least to the 15th century and could be older. The instruments used were often not built with a wide range of notes. Many were produced much like a trumpet, using the embouchure to effect notes. Therefore, a lot of music may sound simplistic without a wide range of what we know today as colorful notes.
However, even in simplicity, there is still a generous employment of improvisation and harmony. Typical alpine instruments include alpenhorns, hackbretts, zithers, acoustic guitars, violas, and harmonicas. It is also common to hear yodeling. They are certainly used as forms of entertainment, but the alpenhorns are loud and echo through the mountains. They have been used for communicating through long distances between mountains.
Horns
My favorite is the alphorn because it is something I do not see in the U.S. Alpine Alphorns are also called labrophones and are quite long, even longer than the height of a person. They are made of natural wood, a mouthpiece that reminds me of a trombone and a cone on the end that reminds me of a saxophone. These cones are often hand painted and beautifully hand crafted and decorated. As a standard the wood is made from the red pine tree, but could be spruce, and the bending of this tree due to snow affects the bend in the mouthpiece.
My personal motif analysis demonstrates this Psalm as three verses. Here, I will group all the motifs together, please read the Psalm as is for proper understanding. My hope here is to highlight the motifs for a fresh perspective on the writer’s intent.
[ Psalm 95 ]
Grouping A
Oh come, let’s sing to Yahweh.
Let’s shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!
Let’s come before his presence with thanksgiving.
Let’s extol him with songs!
Oh come, let’s worship and bow down.
Let’s kneel before Yahweh, our Maker,
for he is our God.
We are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep in his care.
Forty long years I was grieved with that generation,
and said, “It is a people that errs in their heart.
They have not known my ways.”
Grouping B
For Yahweh is a great God,
a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the deep places of the earth.
The heights of the mountains are also his.
The sea is his, and he made it.
His hands formed the dry land.
Today, oh that you would hear his voice!
Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers tempted me,
tested me, and saw my work.
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They won’t enter into my rest.”
Environmental Reminders
As a city dweller, the music that mostly comes to my ear on the balcony is the sound of trains, car horns, and late-night revelry from late night establishments. When I think about the Alpine mountains, it’s nice, but they are far away and not presently majestic. But when I do visit the mountains, I hear the singing of the wind in the trees, the birds, and have even heard the decay of a trumpet through the mountaintops reminiscent of the sound of music. The mountains are past majestic, they are a very real reminder of the glory of God. They are magnificent, threatening, comforting, and wildly beautiful. I forget in the city but remember in the mountains. If they were to quake, I would tremble.
My Father made all of this. As an Earth dweller, I forget and minimize who He is and what He has done. But I have been blessed to be in countries where His Alpine Music plays once a week and calls me to gather with His people. Then I go and hear the music of the saved, the message about Almighty God, and have opportunity to meditate on His glory. He allowed me to bend with the snowfall, hand crafted and painted me, and calls me to join with others in the music He created. God is creator, the maker of heaven and earth and they sing to Him. By His grace, through His Son, we can join in nature’s song as we sing with Him in 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 Steps to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
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.
Jeremy is an author, musician, and business intelligence manager. His mission is to equip and encourage those in Christ, to equip and encourage others in Christ. Jesus, Christ, is the Nature of Joy and melody of the heart. Jeremy unites business analytics (business intelligence), songs, and Scripture for Christian living in the power of the Holy Spirit.