Faith Matters

150 prayers and songs make up the book of Psalms, one of the first prayer books of the ancient Jews and later of Christians. Read as poetry, they number among the great works of world literature. They venture a thing never heard nor seen in writing before their time: a personal response to God. In the earlier books of the Old Testament, He had saved, liberated, consoled, chastised and called to account. In the psalms, we finally hear the echo - the voices of those people who put their faith and trust in this God. In these prayers, they call upon their creator; they invoke, they praise, they lament. Peter Schlögl's documentary looks at a musician, a vicar and a young girl - at how they understand and feel inspired by the psalms, transcending all quaint embroidered and handicrafted piety. The journalist sets out to plumb the mysteries of a prayer book that, though replete with the pain and horror of Earthly existence, sings out in praise and exaltation.