Panel Discussion: Introducing The Psalms Experience

Ahead of the special concert series The Psalms Experience, WNYC’s John Schaefer and guests explore the history of the Psalms, their many musical traditions, the challenges of translation, and their contemporary resonance in a more secular world. Panelists include scholar and Psalms translator Robert Alter, musicologist Neil W. Levin, and David Van Biema, Time magazine’s former chief religion writer.

[@markh.harris9271]

I agree with Robert Alter; the Psalms are the high model of lyric poetry. The Psalms are "high" poetry (not as high as Job, mind you) but high poetry from a literary standpoint in Hebrew. Robert Alter's translation of Hebrew Bible, and particularly the Psalms, is a fantastic contribution for a new generation of Bible readers in English; finally, we have an adequate translation to rival the Canonical King James translation of 1611, and a breath of fresh air for some of us older Bible scholars, and contemplators.

[@chorgzent.3978]

Agreed! You set a table for me in the midst of my foes, you moisten my head with oil my cup overflows