The discussion of the psalms and different translations has gotten me thinking about symbolism and how people interpret it differently, based on their own beliefs. Everyone sees things and reacts to things differently. For instance, if two friends are listening to a new song that comes on the radio they each will interpret it in unique ways, which relates to them personally. If one boy just got dumped the song may remind him his recent heart break and if the other’s parents recently divorced, the song to him may relate to the separation. Psalms work just like modern songs in that they have a meaning but there is leeway for interpretation. Symbols are also open to interpretation.
When Christians looks at a cross they see at a symbol that represents Jesus, God, and their religion as a whole. For a minute let’s pretend that we have an individual who has never heard of Christianity or seen a cross and we gave him a definition like this: A ‘t’ shaped device made out of wood where individuals had their hands and feet hammered into the boards for torture or execution. Now, let’s tell him that a certain religion uses the cross as a divine symbol, what kinds of things do you think he would assume about a religion that celebrates a torture device? It is basically like telling a person now that a new religion started worshipping the guillotine or a noose.
The man would probably have some pretty wild notions, but we did not give him any information about why the cross is significant or any information about Jesus, all he knows is that the cross is one of the main symbols of Christianity. So, without giving the reasons why a symbol is significant, different interpretations will misconstrue its actual meaning. Symbols have a lot of meaning when it comes to religion but without the understanding that backs that symbol’s significance, the interpretation will be extremely far off. Interpretation is good but there is a point where it can be so far off that the original given meaning is completely lost.
Not to be too metacognitive, but I think a key reason conceptions and disposition play such a large role in interpretation and experience, as your blog discusses, is simply your curiosity about the subject. The human sense of curiosity, be it academic or just interest driven, is the root of desire to explain or to know. Fascination with the Psalms as great literary works, religious guides or as musical expressions is the main reason people study them in the first place. It is this subjective nature of their study that gives way to interpretation and the epistemological question of how much truth value this interpretation has.
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