For many years now in the distance by learning class I facilitate for a major university in the Southeast, on Hebrew and Christan scripture and church history, the reaction of people when they start reading many of the Palms is one of shock and revulsion at the blood lust and revenge so much of it is about.
When I tell them that my former church sang these songs as "inspirational" they all look aghast.
The average COG member thinks nothing about opening the day of worship with singing about marching off to war and bashing the heads of the persecutors in.
Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.
...deliver me from all who pursue me, or they will tear me apart like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
...let my enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust.
Lord, in your anger; rise up against the rage of my enemies.
...a God who displays his wrath every day. 12 If he does not relent, he will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow. 13 He has prepared his deadly weapons; he makes ready his flaming arrows.
You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name for ever and ever. 6 Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies, you have uprooted their cities; even the memory of them has perished.
The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, he hates with a passion.
6 On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot.
Rise up, Lord, confront them, bring them down; with your sword rescue me from the wicked.
May what you have stored up for the wicked fill their bellies; may their children gorge themselves on it, and may there be leftovers for their little ones.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed. 38 I crushed them so that they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet. 39 You armed me with strength for battle; you humbled my adversaries before me. 40 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
and I destroyed my foes. 41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—to the Lord, but he did not answer. 42 I beat them as fine as windblown dust; I trampled them like mud in the streets. 43 You have delivered me from the attacks of the people; you have made me the head of nations. People I did not know now serve me, 44 foreigners cower before me; as soon as they hear of me, they obey me. 45 They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.
9 When you appear for battle, you will burn them up as in a blazing furnace. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and his fire will consume them. 10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from mankind.
We sang songs week after week of blood lust and war. Imagine what this does to the mind of a child growing up! Look what it did to the mind of David C Pack and Gerald Flurry!
Granted, I do
know that many of the Psalms are uplifting and that many find them beneficial. That's not the problem. It was/is our extreme focus upon the world BEFORE Jesus and not upon what was brought into fruition on the day of his incarnation.
I was glad to see the other day that the All About Armstrongism blog has a great article up about this very subject.
Armstrongism has always looked backwards and never forward into new life in Christ. The Kingdom of God broke forth into the world and the COG still can't find it.
From THE DEPRESSIVE WORDS OF THE PSALMS IN THE TIME BEFORE CHRIST: WHAT IMPACT? Checkout the article for lots more in this subject!
For week after week, after week, every seven days and sometimes more,
the members, AND THE CHILDREN, of the Worldwide Church of God, sang the
Psalms of the Old Covenant, in the time before the revealing of the
Christ, who is Jesus, as worship songs. Though not every song was as
negative as the selected verses below, singing these hymns was for many
untruth, was very negative, and did not reflect the life of a Christian
who is in Christ.
These songs were composed and sang before the revealing of Christ,
before Jesus ever came to Earth. We sang them as if He never came. We
sang them as if they applied to each of us. Has it ever occurred to
anyone the intense and subliminal depressive negativity and effect on
the emotions of those who sang these hymns every single week?
Some of these songs were not appropriate to sing as worship songs.
They reflected the opinion of a person who thought of God, at least in
part, as a defense commander – a warrior – an aide in fight and battle.
Worst of all, they shaped the imagery of God not in the manner of
understanding the close relationship Christians can share in Jesus to
children, but in the imagery of warfare for the young minds unfortunate
enough to be molded and raised in Armstrongism. I have absolutely no
doubt the psychological impact, in my opinion, of the words of these
hymns, shaped and molded the perceptions of God into perceptions that
were absolutely scary and harmful to children. The children, who had no
Childrens Church of their own, but were forced to sit through adult
services with strictly inappropriate and sometimes violent imagery
content, had no choice but to sing the depressive words that are to
follow. Though some COG leaders today somehow believe it is appropriate
to sing these “psalms” as worship, I maintain it was not only
innapropriate, but over periods of months, years, and decades,
psychologically depressive and even emotionally destructive.
