{"id":78,"date":"2013-11-11T03:02:45","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T03:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glorytoyouogodalleluia.org\/?page_id=78"},"modified":"2017-03-23T22:24:02","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T22:24:02","slug":"about-the-psalm-103-project-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.glorytoyouogodalleluia.org\/?page_id=78","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Saint John of Damascus Society<\/a> has as its mission statement, “Revealing Orthodox Christianity through its sacred music”.\u00a0What that means is that we look for opportunities for outreach to the general public through musical means, and the Psalm 103 Project is an attempt to do just that. Let me explain.<\/p>\n

Hal Sabbagh, the president of our Executive Board, is an electrical engineer with a PhD. He\u2019s a scientist by any definition of the word; he\u2019s also, I can tell you, a very faithful man. He, along with our vice-president Vicki Pappas, had a big hand in starting\u00a0the Orthodox parish here in Bloomington, Indiana<\/a>\u00a0and building it into what it is now, and he is one of the cantors from whom I\u2019ve learned a great deal about what it means to pray while you sing. For Hal, there is no inherent conflict in being a scientist of faith; \u201cWhen I\u2019m working out an equation,\u201d he\u2019s told me before, \u201cI\u2019m talking to God in His own language.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CMS_Higgs-event<\/a>In July of 2012, Hal was very excited about CERN\u2019s discovery of the Higgs boson, the \u201cGod particle\u201d. We were having one of those conversations that was about everything all at once, including things like what he wanted inscribed on his casket (which I won\u2019t say, specifically, but it\u2019s very much in keeping with the kind of man he is; I just told him, \u201cHal, as far as I\u2019m concerned, you\u2019re going to live forever, but I\u2019ll make sure that it happens\u201d), when he brought up the Higgs report. \u201cYou see,\u201d he said, very intently, \u201cI think Orthodoxy has something to say about this through our liturgical music. What would be the hymn that could be relevant to this kind of thing?\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought about it, and what I came up with was the Vesperal psalm, Psalm 103 (104), with all of its language of God\u2019s glory being revealed in Creation, like in these first few lines:<\/p>\n

Bless the Lord, my soul! O Lord my God, you have been greatly magnified. You have clothed yourself with thanksgiving and majesty, wrapping yourself in light as in a cloak, stretching out the heavens like a curtain, roofing his upper chambers with waters, placing clouds as his mount, walking on the wings of the wind, making spirits his Angels and a flame of fire his Ministers, establishing the earth on its sure base; it will not be moved to age on age.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are many different musical versions of Psalm 103 used in the Orthodox Churches of North America, with\u00a0Fr. Sergei Glagolev\u2019s setting<\/a>\u00a0certainly being an old favorite for a lot of people (and rightfully so!).<\/p>\n