DAVID & THE PSALMS

At the age of 12, I was a fan of David. He felt familiar, like a pop star could feel familiar. The words of the psalms were as poetic as they were religious, and he was a star. 1999 ー Selections from the Book of Psalms (Introduction by Bono) ー Pocket Canons​

That's what a lot of the psalms feel like to me, the blues. Man shouting at God ー “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me?” (Psalm 22). 1999 ー Selections from the Book of Psalms (Introduction by Bono) ー Pocket Canons​

David was the first blues singer. As well as praising, he was there shouting at God ー you know: “Where are you when we need you?”… “We’re surrounded.”… “Your people are starving.”… “Are you deaf?” That type of thing. He’d be wailing, this militant mind, this poet musician with enough faith to believe he had a deal with God… believed it enough to get angry when it looked like He wasn’t coming through. 1994 ー Race of Angels: The Genesis of U2 ー John Waters​

Abandonment and displacement are the stuff of my favourite psalms. The Psalter may be a font of gospel music, but for me it's in his despair that the psalmist really reveals the nature of his special relationship with God. Honesty, even to the point of anger. “How long, Lord? Wilt thou hide thyself forever?” (Psalm 89), or “Answer me when I call” (Psalm 5). 1999 ー Selections from the Book of Psalms (Introduction by Bono) ー Pocket Canons​

They have this rawness. The brutal honesty, of ー whether it’s David or not ー it doesn’t matter. The Psalmist is brutally honest about the explosive joy that he’s feeling, and the deep sorrow or confusion.  And it’s that that sets the Psalms apart for me. April 26, 2016 – Short film “Bono and Eugene Peterson – The Psalms” (Fuller Studio)

David was a star, the Elvis of the Bible… And unusually for such a “rock star,” with his lust for power, lust for women, lust for life, he had the humility of one who knew his gift worked harder than he ever would. 1999 ー Selections from the Book of Psalms (Introduction by Bono) ー Pocket Canons​
 
Psalm 40 is interesting in that it suggests a time in which grace will replace karma, and love will replace the very strict laws of Moses (in other words, fulfil them). I love that thought. David, who committed some of the most selfish as well as selfless acts, was depending on it. 1999 ー Selections from the Book of Psalms (Introduction by Bono) ー Pocket Canons​

“40” became the closing song at U2 shows, and on hundreds of occasions, literally hundreds of thousands of people… have shouted back the refrain, pinched from Psalm 6: “How long (to sing this song).” I had thought of it as a nagging question, pulling at the hem of an invisible deity whose presence we glimpse only when we act in love. How long hunger? How long hatred? How long until creation grows up and the chaos of its precocious, hell-bent adolescence has been discarded? 1999 ー Selections from the Book of Psalms (Introduction by Bono) ー Pocket Canons​
 
The blues are like the Psalms of David. Here was this character, living in a cave, whose outbursts were as much criticism as praise. There's David singing. “Oh, God — where are you when I need you? You call yourself God?” And you go, this is the blues. Both deal with the relationship with God. That's really it. I've since realized that anger with God is very valid. November 3, 2005 ー Interview with Jann Wenner (Rolling Stone)
 
First of all, David's a musician and so I'm gonna like him. He's promised he's gonna be King, correct? He goes up and he ends up playing harp for King Saul, who's agitated, and music will still him. So, he meets Jonathan. They hang out together. It's all going well. David must be thinking of the prophecy by Samuel ー it's all gonna work out. This is great. Next thing, Saul tries to kill him, throws a spear at him. His life is turned upside down and he lives. He has to run for his life. And in that cave that he hid at on the edge of Israel is where he wrote the Psalms. We call that “The Blues” in music. And what's so powerful about the Psalms are, as well as they're being Gospel and praise ー songs of praise ー they are also the Blues. June 25, 2013 ー Interview with Jim Daly (Focus on the Family)

The Psalms are to me like the first Blues. You know you have this character David in the Bible. He was like really whacked, really mental, really off his nut a lot of the time ー danced naked in front of his troops, got his girlfriend’s boyfriend killed off. The Bible is full of some really funky, seriously dangerous people. And yet his one secret was he was really honest with God, so a lot of the Psalms are him shouting, howling at God, “Where are you when I need you? My enemies are all around me. Call yourself God?” All things like that. And it felt to me like the first Blues. I’ve always seen that thing as the Blues. The Psalms are the Blues. October 26, 2000 ー Interview with KROQ Breakfast (California, USA)

Having feelings is perfectly normal. And let them out. Why do I like the Psalms? David, I like David very much. He danced naked in front of the troops. That’s one reason I like him. And his missus was not at all happy. It’s this abandonment… you’ve got to get it out, it’s important. April 26, 2016 – Short film “Bono and Eugene Peterson – The Psalms” (Fuller Studio)

It took U2 fifteen years to get from Psalms to Ecclesiastes. And it's only one book! 1996 ー U2 At The End Of The World ー Bill Flanagan
See Themes
Broken Heart
Challenging Christ