I’ve noticed that there are quite a few Psalms in the Bible that start off by explaining how the words are actually to the tune of a certain song. For example, from Psalms 9:1:
For the director of music. To the tune of “The Death of the Son.” A psalm of David. I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
To be completely honest I have no idea what these “to the tune of …” scriptures actually mean. But I do have a few thoughts.
When I was growing up in the 90’s it was popular for rap artists to write their own original lyrics, while putting their vocals over another artist’s sound. The rappers Puffy & Mase come to mind because they did it so often that they became well-known for this style. I can only speak for myself, but I think a lot of my peers must have thought the same; I was naïve to the fact that most of this music was sampled from artists of a previous decade.
Here are a few:
- “Mo Money Mo Problems” sampled from Diana Ross
- “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” sampled from Grandmaster Flash
- “Been Around the World” sampled from David Bowie
They weren’t the only ones doing this either:
- MC Hammer sampled Rick James
- Coolio sampled Stevie Wonder
- Vanilla Ice also sampled David Bowie
- Eminem sampled Dido
I could go on for a while because of how prominent this practice was.
These sampled songs introduced a new generation to artifacts from previous generations. If you chose to go down the rabbit hole of learning more about the backgrounds of any of these individual songs it was like realizing there were entire worlds of information we were unaware of behind the world we already knew.
But what I find most interesting is how these guys had messages and stories that they wanted to tell in their own words, and they chose corresponding beats that would accentuate the attitudes and emotions of their lyrics.
Is this what David and Solomon did?
When we read the Psalms today (without background music obviously) are we doing so while missing a large piece of the author’s originally intended presentation? Is it like reading the lyrics of a good song without ever getting to listen to it? Or–like a naïve teenager listening to contemporary music without any background knowledge–could the Psalms point back to historical roots that are much deeper & richer than the words alone can express?