Perhaps It Does Need Some Translation....

My Best Beloved came home from church today (she had gone to her parish, and I had supplied elsewhere), and commented, “The words of worship need to make sense to the people worshipping.”

I answered, “That’s the primary argument for periodic revision of the Prayer Book.”

“Yes,” she said, “but you wouldn’t rewrite the Psalms.” I agreed that, while the translation for the 1979 Prayer Book was original for that book, the basic text would not change. “So,” she said, “much of the language just doesn’t make sense to us. I almost lost it when I heard in the Psalm,

'1 Oh, how good and pleasant it is, *

when brethren live together in unity!

2 It is like fine oil upon the head *

that runs down upon the beard,

3 Upon the beard of Aaron, *

and runs down upon the collar of his robe.'

“All I could think,” she said, “was, ‘God, that’s a household nightmare! Who’s going to clean up that mess?’”