The Psalters

In class today, we listened to the song “Dig It Up” by a group called The Psalters. "Dig It Up" is a great song to complement a study of empire and the Kingdom, particularly alongside our primary text, Colossians Remixed.  It implicates department stores, Wall Street, advertising and even skyscrapers ("tall, glass towers giving the finger to God") as symbols of the current empire of global consumerism, emphasizing the upside down nature of the Kingdom of God, made manifest in a "Middle Eastern hobo."

The Psalters have been at Calvin several times in the past few years and they’ll be here again in February for chapel (2/5) and a concert (2/6) during the Faith & International Development Conference. Their web site has a lot of information about who they are, including their manifesto. Embodying a calling to be refugees of the Kingdom in exile in the empire, they write songs that cry out against the empire in the voice and music of oppressed people. They also strive to model their status as refugees in their lives, living simply in community, dumpster diving, sleeping in the vegetable-oil-fueled bus they travel in. As we study the power and nature of the empire throughout scripture and in contemporary culture, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed to a point of paralysis. The Psalters demonstrate that even in the face of rampant globalization, it’s possible to do something practical as a radical witness of the Kingdom of God. They can’t live entirely outside of the empire—none of us can—but they can subvert it in communion with others…and have a pretty danceable, raucous time doing so.