xxxxxxxxPsalm 151
(The Call to the) Artists Psalm
O Come, let us worship God
with songs and poems
and paintings and calligraphies
and carvings and dances
and all manner of musical instruments
For we are his children,
the sculptures of his hands
and the breath of his breath
We are created in his image to create
Let us do what he does
Shall he that was formed from mud
not make pots?
Shall she who was spoken into existence
not speak in rhythm and rhymes?
Arise, ye artists
Let the artists arise from their slumbers
Let them wipe away the crusts from their eyes
The cobwebs from their brushes
Visual artists, strengthen your feeble arms,
Performing artists, your weak knees
Awake, ye artists
Let God fill our eyes and minds and hearts and hands
with visions of his kingdom
Come, let us enter his temple with paintings,
his courts with strange videos and
heavenly guitar music layered with looping computer software
Let paintings and photographs fill the walls
and dances the aisles
Are we not the children of the most high God
The creator of all
Is not his name The Creator?
Shall we not be known as creators, with a little “c”?
Come all ye artists
and let us create a feast for the church of our God
(Ah, let us not say, “I only have 2 small loaves and a few fishes.”)
For has not our God done marvelous things in our eyes?
Has not he who made the mountains and the sunsets
also made our hands,
and all the pigments you can imagine,
and available for an unbelievable price down the street at Jerry’s or Michael’s or Hobby Lobby (not on Sundays)?
Has not he who made the baby goats gambol
not created our limbs and bodies (pregant or otherwise)
for dancing and equal gamboling?
Is he not the Potter that on the sixth day of creation scooped up dirt
and fashioned it into a thing
and then breathed his own breath into it
and claimed it as his own child?
Would he not have us do the same?
Be imitators of God, dear children!
Do all paint?
Do all dance?
Do all sing?
Do all play a musical instrument?
(I would that ye all sculpted in clay.)
But we earnestly desire to bless the whole body of Christ
So, see to it that you do not refuse him who speaks
Therefore, since we receive creative visions that cannot be shaken,
let us worship God with symbols
and tubes of paint
and those horns with long sliding things.
For our God is a consuming fire!
The paint saw you, O God;
the paint saw you and writhed
Are we not well-acquainted with grief?
Are there not pockets of mourning hidden within us, yearning to come out?
Knowing that joy follows mourning.
Come Lent!
Come Easter!
Come all ye artists
and let our tears be salt
and our laughter light
Let the congregation clap their hands.
Psalm 151 (The Call to the) Artists Psalm by Rick Van Dyke is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.