[Avodah] Tone of Tehillim

[Harv Perchere]

I have been reading with great interest as a new subscriber the Avodah list
thread about
Tehillim, and their Tone.

IMHO, regarding tone, I think it's axiomatic, that once a group of people
are gathered together
for prayer for a severe situation R"L, it would be hard to change the nusach
mid-tune so to speak
then suddenly switch to something upbeat, once the call and response psukim
are being
read in a serious tone, which is certainly appropriate.  In other words,
there's probably
no such thing as ending on an up note.

Regarding the psukim we sing on Friday night in Kabbalas Shabbos, and how a
lot of those
pesukim are somewhat negative in comparison, ArtScroll Tehillim, in my
2-volume set
goes on in some detail listing many mefarshim who commentate on the nature
of these
kapitlach in the 90s that we sing on Friday night.

In short, the theme seems to be, Shabbos is M'Eyn Olam Habah, and therefore,
come, let's
realize that we are now zocheh to a taste of this, perhaps in contrast to
the Dor HaMidbar,
which may not have been.  I would be doing the ArtScroll's masterful job
injustice to
describe the myriad pshatim, further, but that's essentially the pshat in
the mix of
themes in these psukim.

Best,

Harv Pechere
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