compline

Years ago I began playing a set of pieces a friend of mine wrote after spending a weekend at a monastery. He wrote a musical sketch for each of the divine offices or canonical hours. When I first programmed them, I wanted to include a scripture for each and wondered if in fact the hours had been inspired by scripture. I did a lot of research and came up with nothing, so I assigned passages myself. Much later I learned that the inspiration for the hours comes from Psalm 119:164. But for specifics, I kept my passages.
My favorite has always been the last prayer of the day, compline. For it, I chose, "The Lord commands his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night, his song shall be with me - a prayer to the God of my life."
On Friday night, King's X played "over my head". "Grandma used to sing every night while she was praying over my head I hear music, O Lord." I thought of my Psalm passage, "and in the night, his song shall be with me", while Doug Pinnick was singing. I thought about how the phrasing of the melody obscures any punctuation and makes ambiguous the meaning of Doug's line - and the psalm. Most translations make more clear the meaning of the psalm line by translating that God is the singer, or that I am the singer. Even the last line, the prayer, is attributed to God in the message. "My life is God's prayer." All this confusion fascinates me. It reminds me of how Isaiah used a singular verb with the phrase, God and HIs Spirit, but it has been "corrected" in most translations. I don't think its confusion at all. Our prayers, our songs, intermingle with God's. When his song is with me, we are singing together. That's what prayer should be, a conversation, a duet. My prayer sparks God's song, his song inspires my prayer. We sing together.
When sought, God's song can be heard above the din of all the junk of life. But can be so easily drowned out by the faintest distraction.
Today I played compline upon a very sad occasion. I thought about how hard it is sometimes to hear God's song. But I played anyway. I offered a musical prayer in hopes that it could accompany God's song.
In a world where music can so easily drown out God's song, I pray with all my heart mine will always be an accompaniment.
Then GOD promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night!
My life is God's prayer. (MSG)