Psalm 73:14-28 chanted in the Sarum Use by Sarah James

Themes: The Psalmist speaks of God's goodness to his people, shows how much he has stumbled at the prosperity of the wicked, describes their state, details the process of the temptation and the pain that he suffered in consequence, shows how he was delivered, reveals how the dismal reverse of the state of the once prosperous ungodly man in consequence of his own false views can be corrected, places his own confidence in God, and affirms the good consequences of that trust. This is the commencement of the Third Book of the Psalter. The title in the Hebrew is מזמור לאסף mizmor leasaph; "A Psalm of Asaph:" and it is likely that this Asaph was the composer of it; that he lived under the Babylonian captivity; and that he published this psalm to console the Israelites under bondage, who were greatly tried to find themselves in such outward distress and misery, while a people much more wicked and corrupt than they were in great prosperity and held them in bondage. (From the Adam Clarke Commentary, 1831)

In the opinion of Walter Brueggemann (1984), "in the canonical structuring of the Psalter, Psalm 73 stands at its center in a crucial role. Even if the psalm is not literarily in the center, I propose that it is center theologically as well as canonically.” It was the favorite psalm of Martin Buber, who said about it: "What is it that so draws me to this poem that is pieced together out of description, report and confession, and draws me ever more strongly the older I become? I think it is this, that here a person reports how he attained to the true sense of his life experience and that this sense touches directly on the eternal." (Wikipedia)

Nine hundred years ago, the Cathedral of Salisbury, England developed a unique form of chant and liturgy known as the “Use of Salisbury,” or “Sarum Use.” Differences from the Roman rite are both melodic (more florid in the Sarum) and textual (Elizabethan English rather than Latin). The best repository of Sarum Use tones is the St. Dunstan's Plainsong Psalter, from which Sarah has sung this psalm. Additional resources on Sarum Use plainsong at https://canticasacra.org.

“Saul,” an 1899 oil on canvas by Jozef Israëlis, and “Pandemonium,” an 1841 painting by John Martin are in the public domain in their respective countries of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. “Beautiful evening sun view (at Imagoura of Kasumi Coast in Kami, Hyogo prefecture, Japan),” is an unchanged 2010 photo by 663highland at Wikimedia Commons where it is a Quality image, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/deed.en.