102.2: Psalms and Gratitude; OT Lesson 25 (Study Notes) 

“Let Every Thing That Hath Breath Praise the Lord”

Music permeates our lives in addition to playing a central role in our worship. This lesson explores the “hymn book” of ancient Israel as well as music more broadly. This portion also explores gratitude, a central theme of the Psalms and principle of the gospel.

This portion of the episode covers

II. Scholarship

• Psalms in literary and historical context
• Psalms and the New Testament
• Return to the Reading
• Psalms in popular culture

III. Study Notes

• Understanding gratitude and happiness
• Hymns and LDS culture
• Music and human nature
• And finally, as befits an episode on music, we have a selection of songs inspired by the Psalms from several different traditions

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Class Member Reading: Psalm 69:20; 22:7-8; 22:16; 22:18; 22:1; 16:10; 23; 51; 59:16; 78:38; 86:5, 13; 100:4-5; 103:2-4, 8-11, 17-18; 4:5; 5:11; 9:10; 18:2; 56:11; 62:8; 118:8-9; 5:7; 15:1-3; 24; 27:4; 65:4; 84:1-2, 4, 10-12; 122; 134; Mark 14:32-41; Matthew 27:35, 39-43, 46; Mark 15:25; Acts 2:31-32; Acts 13:34-35 (See the Annotated Reading link below for the readings)

Additional Reading: None

Other Reading: Look through the rest of the Psalms as well as your favorite Hymns

Music aficionados Michael, Jared, and Greg join the class.

You can access the Annotated Reading here (or PDF)

You can access the Lesson Notes here (or PDF)

We will get the full audio posted tomorrow (Friday 7/4); in the meantime you can listen to the Lesson audio here: Lesson 25.2

Resources

•  President Monson, The Divine Gift of Gratitude
• Elder Eyring, Remembrance and Gratitude 
• President Bonnie Parkin, Gratitude: A Path to Happiness 
• Elder Steven Snow, Gratitude 
•  History of Hymns, Mormon Channel
• Mormonism and Music: a History by Michael Hicks
• Elder McConkie, Purifying Power of Gethsemane
• Dan Gilbert on Happiness, TED
• The Relationship between Gratitude and Happiness, David Steindl-Rast, TED
• Robert Gupta, Music and Health, TED
• Psalms Bibledex video 
• A superb academic introduction to the Psalms 
• Guide to the Psalms
• Iaian Morely, “The Musical Brain”, Oxford Human Sciences Symposium 
• Review essay of “The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body” 
• Review essay of Iaian Morely’s “The Prehistory of Music: Evolutionary Origins and the Archaeology of Human Musicality” 

 

Hearty thanks to Nathan Jones for content editing and to James Estrada for audio post-production. As always, thanks to Steven Nelson for the bumper music!