Sunday, April 8, 2012

Awake, my soul! I will awake the dawn!

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Happy Pesach to Jews!
Happy Easter to Catholics and Protestants!
Happy Palm Sunday to Orthodox, Armenian, Syrian, and Coptic Christians!

Lots of celebrating going on.

But it is also PsalmChallenge day, like every Sunday, hosted by Robert at Daily Athens Photo and today we are on Psalm 57.

As a treat I offer you Psalm 57 chanted in the Coptic Orthodox way, but in English!



1.
To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.

Be merdiful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in thee my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of thy wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.

2. I cry to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me.

3. He will send from heaven and save me, he will put to shame those who trample upon me. [Selah] God will send forth his steadfast love and his faithfulness!

4. I lie in the midst of lions that greedily devour the sons of men; their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongues sharp swords.

5. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let thy glory be over all the earth!

6. They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. [Selah]

7. My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody!

8. Awake, my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn!

9. I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to thee among the nations.

10. For thy steadfast love is great to the heavens, thy faithfulness to the clouds.

11. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let thy glory be over all the earth!

UPDATE: Today's Jerusalem Post has a very interesting article about Egyptian Copts who are now here on Holy Week pilgrimage.

Apparently many of them now feel freer to come to Jerusalem since their pope died last month.
The leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt for four decades, Shenouda III was the spiritual leader of the Middle East’s largest Christian community (about 10% of the Egyptian population).
The late pope had issued an edict banning pilgrimages to Israel as long as Jerusalem is “occupied” by Israel.

Most of the hundreds of Coptic Orthodox pilgrims are elderly peasants who for the most part live impoverished lives back in Egypt and their pilgrimage costs a lifetime of savings.

I also learn from the article that the ancient Coptic liturgy is in the language that was the language of Egypt before the Arab conquest of the Nile Delta.
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11 comments:

  1. Happy Pesach
    Happy easter


    may the light of dawn bless you and may God bless you beautiful Dina.

    love and hugs shalom

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  2. That is a quite complicate schedule for a Holiday!

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  3. What a great treat, Dina! Beautiful and appropriate for this psalm.Thank you!

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  4. amazing !

    thank you very much for this joy. have never heard alike before. thank you very much for your kind participation. please have a good new week ahead.

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  5. beautiful and melodious chanting!
    We had lots of that at our Easter Vigil service last night. Thank you for sharing your meaningful photos. I am so happy to have discovered your blog site. I don't visit every day, but I will be here often.

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  6. Happy Pesach!
    I did enjoy the chant of Psalm 57

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  7. and also to you. thank you for your wonderful blog. it's always so interesting.

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  8. Fabulous, Dina!
    It is quite interesting to learn that the Coptic language was once the language of Egypt.

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  9. Interesting post on many levels. I'll look into the article. In my neighborhood of Los Angeles, we have one of the oldest synagogs as well as a rare and old coptic church.

    You'll like this story. A tiny elderly population was hanging on by a thread to the synagog. Now it seems, with the real estate boom, young people were priced out of the market and as a result, discovered Highland Park in the process. Now young jews starting families have discovered the synagog and are infusing it with new energy. Win win

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