The thought occurred to me today that scripture, psalms, whatever, are like a self-contained movie.
A movie's got sound and music tracks, it has a story line, it grabs the viewer and pulls them in, it creates an experience that's akin to real life, it changes people, it's multi-dimensional, it hits all our senses.
Since we believe that scripture is life, that it's supernatural, that it's written from the very finger of God, why shouldn't it be seen this way?
Thus when folks come together, it takes a collective effort to wrap one's hands around any given chunk. Everyone contributes their insight and suggestions. And the end result should be: all of the above.
Unfortunately we tend to approach it mainly as literary. Two-dimensional. In the Methodist Church, worthy only as responsive reading and for preaching purposes.
It seems to me that we're looking at the bible with too many filters on our ears and eyes. In super-reality, it's just itching to burst out with life, just like a great movie does. An operatic movie, a music video, a documentary--all rolled up into one.