Nathan E. Lewis

In preparation to preach Psalm 84 I have been listening to Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem over and over again, allowing the beauty of the music wash over me. Most of the memorials and funerals I have attended have rightly given time for loved ones to speak about the deceased and yet I have come away wishing to hear more divine consolation flowing from the very words of God. Brahms intentionally chose the words of Scripture (and yes, a few Apocryphal texts) as the words of his Requiem and I would rest well in my casket until the final day of resurrection should the Requiem be the only words spoken at my funeral (if only I could afford the Oregon Symphony and a choir!) In the fourth movement, the center of the Requiem, Brahms set some of the lines of Psalm 84 to music and it is a moving and abiding comfort. Indeed for many in western civilization, Psalm 84 is ever connected to this masterpiece. Recently, members of the congregation I serve have laid to rest their beloved and I can think of few sources of comfort so powerfully assembled as Ein deutsches Requiem. Below is the text of the Requiem with my inserted notes. (more…)