Zeven maal = Seven times, 1970 - 1988

The main title of this piece is Heard in the Psalms. Psalm 119:164 sings, Seven times a day I have given praise to you. The text also refers to the importance of seven times, the number being sacred in both the Old and the New Testaments. The seventh day was the one day of Creation where God did absolutely nothing, rested, as in the sense of Psalm 95 of enjoying shabbat, perfect peace and contentment.

In the Gospels, not seven but seventy times seven - a numbers symbolizing infinity - is the number of times we are supposed to forgive. Seven is considered a sacred number, the number of perfection and completion. In this context, 10 corresponds to the number of commandments on which Judaism was built, while 70 (7x10) also reflects the multiplier 10, which is a factor of 2 x 5, each also a sacred number: 5 is the number of books of the Law, and 2 is the number of the two foundational commandments. In the Scriptures, the numbers game holds an unending fascination. It was not coincidental the Council of Trent, 1545 determined that 7 should be the number of channels, sacraments, through which God would pour grace to the People of Covenant.

This Oosterhuis text is very minimal text, and Huijbers likewise uses minimal elements in his repetitive music setting. Verse one refers to the experience of being born, squeezed out into life. Having been confined for the first nine months, to be born is a liberating experience, freed of all the restraints and constrictions which have so far bound us. At last, we are free to grow and to become people. Verse 2 is a metaphor, describing the trees (70 times!) blossoming around our homes )perhaps an allusion to Ps. 128) and the light streaming over the waters at the dawn of Creation (Gen 1:1-10), the eaters of Exodus (Ex 15) or the life-streaming baptismal waters of the Jordan (Mk 1:1-11) What wonderful imagery for life in its fullness, life in all simplicity, in its basic beauty. - Tony Barr