Bono and Eugene Peterson: Psalms and Friendship

Eugene Peterson, a translator, formed a personal and faith-based connection with Bono, who valued his honest translations of the Psalms.

### Bono and Eugene Peterson Discuss the Psalms and Artistic Honesty
* 🎶 Bono praises Eugene Peterson's translation of the Psalms, thanking him for a version that **speaks to him in his own language**.
* 🙏 Peterson shares his early experiences with the Psalms, highlighting their importance in teaching him the **power of metaphor and imagination**.
* 🎨 Both artists emphasize the need for **honesty in art**, with Bono expressing a desire for **more realism in Christian music**.
* 💔 They discuss the Psalms' unique ability to **express intense feelings honestly**, including **anger and violence**.
* ✝ Peterson suggests reading the Psalms through Jesus' eyes to understand **God's response to violence**.
* 🏞 The conversation takes place at Peterson's home in Montana, where they discuss the **beauty and power of the Psalms**.
* 🌟 Bono and Peterson bond over their shared faith and appreciation for the Psalms, with Bono calling Peterson a "**companion in the faith**".
* 🙏 The video ends with a prayer, highlighting their **shared commitment to using poetry, art, and song** to engage with **God's work in the world**.

Mr. Peterson, Eugene. Um, my name is Bono. I'm a singer with the group U2 and wanted to send a sort of video message to you, my thanks, and our thanks from the band for this remarkable work you've done. There's been some great translations, some very literary translations, but no translation that I've read that speaks to me in my own language, so I want to thank you for that. Take a rest now, won't you. Bye. I had never heard of Bono before, and then one of my students, um, showed up in class with a copy of The Rolling Stones, and in it, there was an interview with Bono in which he talked about me and the message and he uses some, you know, slangy language about who I was. And, uh, and I said, who is Bono, and they were dumbfounded. I had never heard of Bono. But that's not the sort of area I traveled in very much, so that's how I ever heard about him.

And then people started bringing his music, and I listened to his music, and I thought I like this guy, and I was starting to. After a while, I started with struck being quite pleased. He knew be yes, but the rest of the story is when that he invited you to come and hang with them for a while, you turned him down. I was I was pushing a deadline on the message. I was finishing up the Old Testament. The time and I really couldn't do it. I am you may be the only person alive who would turn down the opportunity just to make a deadline. Okay, come on. It's Bono for crying out loud, Dean. He was Isaiah. Yeah, the Old Testament is a long, long book much longer than the New Testament. And it did take a long time and a lot of devotion on both of our parts to have that happen. I have to say in the last year's Eugene's writing has kept me

sane as As this has if you call its name, which you probably won't. Remove the horses. That's powerful Manual for me and includes a lot of in century ideas. You know, I hadn't really [thought] of of Jeremiah as a performance artist. Why do we need art? Why do we need the lyric poetry exams? Why do we know because the [only] way we can approach [God] is if we're honest through metaphor, through symbol so arts becomes essential not decorative. I Learned about art. I went to bed. The profits earned with Jeremiah with that book that really changed and then Several years later, this was about four years ago, four or five years ago [rana] would like this to come to Dallas to my jan and me to come to [Alison] for a concert. We saw where he went to the concert. He was very um Sensitive dyes. [he] was we were winning, but I'll care for had really good seats and I'd never seen [a] match bit before that was my introduction to the mass bed.

Is it a pit that's a mosh pit mosh pit. Okay. How you can see how uneducated I am in this world, and we had a it was a three-hour lunch, and we just had a lovely conversation. It was just very personal, relational. He didn't put me on any kind of a penicillin, I didn't him, so we were very natural with each other, but I was just Through that three-hour conversation, I was just really Taken by the simplicity of his life. Who he was, we is. And there was no pretension to him. And so I at that point, I just you know felt like he was a companion in the faith. I see I think it's one of his one of his best ones, and he sings a lot. I mean, he does this a lot. It's one of the psalms that reaches into that hurt and disappointment, and difficulty of being a human being.

and acknowledges that in a language that is immediately recognizable. You know there's something it reaches into the heart of a person and the stuff we all feel but many of us don't talk about. I waited and waited and waited for God. At last, He looked finally, he listened, he lifts me out of the ditch, he pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on the solid rock to make sure that I wouldn't slip. He taught me how to sing the latest Godson. We're at Eugene and Jan Peterson's home. [Bono] is coming here, flying here from Vancouver in order to meet, be together, connect as friends, but also have a conversation about the psalms, in order to share this common love for the psalm and bear witness to others of the beauty and power of the psalms. Cookies are jokes about field. Look at this. It's so good to have you here, great to see y'all. God bless you, God bless you, that's for sure. That's where you live.

Is it quite a spot, you know? I just realized I've never been to Montana. Haven't you really? So many gifts already, just, just, just since being here. And welcome to the Flathead. That's what I always like to say to people when they come. What is your earliest memory of the Psalms, and what sort of impression did it have on you both? I was 12 years old, and I discovered the Psalms. I picked up the Bible, and I started reading. And somebody who told me that the Psalms were important, so I started with the Psalms, and I was totally confused. Um, because I grew up in a culture where every word of the Bible was the word of God literally. Don't mess around with it. It's just, that's the way it is, and I was starting to read on that he keeps my tears in this bottle. I shoes on javelins rock. God is our rock. Come on and um.

After but two or three weeks, this sister was just confused, and I thought I'm missing something and uh I'd never heard the word metaphor before, but I learned what a metaphor was not by knowing the name but by [just] observing what's going on in that psalms. So I think the psalms are important because they, for some people like me at 12 years old, they showed [me] that imagination was a way to get inside the truth. [I] remember the songs from the Little Church of Ireland church, some the child's going. [I] remember thinking right words, shame brother Qin's except for The Lord is my shepherd, which was great [June]. [I] Really like that. This is good words and melodies, ah. They have this rawness, the brutal honesty of whether it's David or not doesn't matter. The psalmist is brutally honest about the explosive joy and that is feeling. I'm the deep sorrow or confusion and

It's that that makes that sets the [sams] apart from me. And I often think, Gosh, why isn't church music more like that? The Lord's my shepherd, I not one. He makes me down to lie in pastures green. He leadeth me the quiet waters by that [rights] beautiful. He was right, oh boy, this is magic. Wow, he quite. How when did you get the place? When did you get this place? Oh, it's been in the family. My father brought the author property just towards the end of the Second World War, 1945-46. So then we expanded. We doubled the size of this 'cause we knew it. We'd have a lot of guests. When you, we'd have you foolishly made room for the Irish. I got started with a sin translating the psalms by translating a song for us distress certain person, just a single person, uh-huh. To try to get them to realize that.

Praying wasn't being nice before God. I would translate a song that I thought fits them. And you know the songs are not pretty, they're not. They're not nice. And um, and I would ask them to spray this song using my translation. I think I'm doing it as about as close to the Hebrew as I can get it. And what it's, it's not smooth. It's not nice. It's not pretty, but it's honest and I think we're trying for honesty, um, which is very, very hard in art in our culture. I'm talking about dishonesty that I find a lot of in the in Christian art, a lot of dishonest. Yeah, and I in it and I think it's a shame because I got these are people who are venerable to God in a good way, in a vulnerable. I'm in poorest open. I I would love if if this conversation would inspire people who are writing these beautiful voices and writing beautiful say gospel songs.

write a song about their bad marriage. Write a song about how they're, you know, pissed over the government because that's what God wants from you. That truth, the way, the truth, and that truthfulness. Know the truth, the truth will set you free. He'll blow things apart. Why I'm suspicious of Christians is because of this lack of realism, and I'd love to see more of that in art and in life and in music. The Psalms have an honest quality to the feeling that is expressed. The psalmist is saying, I'm mad about this. I'm happy about that. I'm confused about this. I'm despairing about that. What is the work of the artists in the making of the work to acknowledge the intensity, the reality of the feeling without indulging the feeling, self-indulgence? What? You know, I'm an opera singer, and so I let those feelings go through me and come out. Having feelings is perfectly normal and let them act. Why do I like the Psalms, David? I like David very much.

He danced naked in front of the troops. That's one reason. I like him. His missus was not at all happy. You know, it's this abandonment, you know. Ever, you've got to, it's got to get it out. It's important. And dancing, very important. And understanding are our bodies as well as our minds and our spirits. And the three percent, God, the Trinity, is reflected in our body, mind, spirit. And we have to ignore. We really do ignore this. What do we do with violence, violence in our own hearts, the sense of wanting to do violence, and the violence in the world? That's a hard question. We need to find a way to cuss without cussing. And the imprecatory song is sure you do that. They just lay it out. And I just, I think they're really important if we've got to have some way in context. And the context is our Bible and the whole salter, some way in context to tell people.

How mad we are today one of Eugene's and translations? 35 punched the nose punch. There's at 35. It's Fantastic and punched the nose of the bullies. God But I love the idea. You got a cuss find a way of cussing without crossing and you have to give vent to That. I like that that's going to stay with me. Do you have songs that have given some kind of expression Narrative Poetic to violence to this violence nS. Violence in the world yes, and It's called raised by Wolves to song. I Like try to make it real try to bring people to that place because it must have had an effect on me and I want to understand violence and a bombing that I missed in Dublin myself and three car bombs time to go off at 5:30 on Friday night in 1974 any other Time I would have been on the street where the bomb went off because I used to travel through the City Centre.

I'm going get two buses home from school and but it was [a] bus strike that day, and I [took] a bicycle and I have no problem with the old testament. I don't see god as a violent God, but I think the world is a violent place, and it does reflect that and and either is a terrifying thing some to some of the old testament [but] but but it is real. In a way, I kind of prefer it to the airy-fairy Stuff where we don't get really don't where we don't get real? Is there a way to read the psalms through Jesus's eyes that helps us understand? Why? [odds] are non-violence. Well yeah, a crucifixion. There's violence. There's got to be some kind of response. And is it more violence or less? I'm glad we have a Process in every room in this house, but I when I look at those I think I don't think of Decoration. I think this is the world we live in and it's a world with a lot of crosses.

And I just would like to spend my life um doing something about that through [scripture], through preaching, through friendship, ah [yeah]. My, you know, my years are getting shorter and I? Don't have nearly as many left, but [I'd]. I don't want to escape that, escape the violence. Be with us as we [continue] our lives of serving you with poetry, with the [arts], with song, finding ways to Enter into what you're doing, already doing. Not calculating the chances are blessing. I needed. I've been doing what's right there, but you've already started doing. He was just a thank you for this day, the hours of this day, your blessing, Lord. Lord, give us your blessing, amen. Together, alright, see you guys, bye. Don't run you.

Bono & Eugene Peterson | THE PSALMS

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Bono's Thankful Message to Eugene Peterson

Bono thanked Eugene Peterson for his unique and relatable translations of The Bible into modern language.

Despite not knowing Bono at first, Peterson eventually became a fan of his music.

Peterson's writing had a profound impact on Bono, who later invited him to a concert, marking the beginning of their friendship.

Bono had a profound and personal three-hour conversation about faith and the simplicity of life.

The Psalms' ability to resonate with the human experience and express hurt and disappointment deeply impacted Bono.

Bono is set to meet with Eugene and Jan Peterson to discuss their common love for the Psalms and share its beauty and power with others.

The Impact of Psalms on Imagination and Truth

The psalms played a significant role in sparking imagination and understanding the concept of metaphor for the speaker at a young age.

The rawness and honesty of the psalms, different from typical church music, left a lasting impression, leading the speaker to prioritize honesty in their own art.

The speaker expresses a desire for more honesty and vulnerability in Christian art and hopes to inspire others to prioritize these qualities in their work.

The Importance of Truth and Realism in Art and Music

The Psalms' honest expression of emotions sets a powerful example for artists to acknowledge intense feelings without self-indulgence.

The speaker, an opera singer, emphasizes the importance of letting emotions flow through without indulging them.

They also discuss the need to address violence and the impact of personal experiences, referencing a song called "Raised by Wolves" that aims to realistically portray the effects of violence.

Reflections on Violence and the Old Testament

The speaker is unbothered by the violence in the Old Testament and sees it as a reflection of the real world.

They contemplate the role of violence in response to Jesus's crucifixion and express a desire to address the violence in the world through their life's work.

The reflection ends with a prayer for blessing and a commitment to serving through poetry, arts, and song.