Illustrated Lectio

My church is doing something different on Wednesday nights, and last night I got to experience it.  We had a simple supper of soup and bread, and then we read Psalm 8.  Five people read these words:

Psalm 8New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Psalm 8

¹ O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.
²     Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
    to silence the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars that you have established;
⁴ what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
    mortals^[a] that you care for them?

⁵ Yet you have made them a little lower than God,^[b]
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under their feet,
⁷ all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

 

We had a variety of art supplies, and then we got to work creating.  Some of us focused on that imagery of hands:

 

 

 

Some of us worked in two dimensions, while others worked in three.

 

 

 

Here's my painting, made with watercolor. 

 

 

 

Do you see the purple hand in the bottom left of the page?  Do you see stars and fish and notations both musical and mathematic?

 

I was most fascinated by my spouse's approach:

 

 

 

He focused on this passage

 

Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark

 

Then, he created this response, as part of his picture.

 

 

 

 His response made me visit the text again--out of the mouths of babies come bulwarks.  Fascinating!

 

I have heard this psalm so many times, but never really heard that bit.  I find it very interesting how this practice of a sort of lectio divina helped me to a new hearing.