God be in my head
And in my understanding
What is the understanding?
And what does it mean for God — or any god — to be in it?
What if a devil gets into one's understanding?
I can't really say why, but the word 'understanding' in that phrase — or as in, for example Orlando Gibbons's O clap your hands together:
For God is the king of all the earth:
Sing ye praises with the understanding
— has always struck me as referring not so much to an activity as to an organ or faculty — you know, like the imaginatiön of one's heart or what have you.
(Well — in that case, it is partly because of the the. Which seems like it may be peculiar to Orlando's text—?)
If you are singing praises, — or talking, or whittling, or cooking, or something else, for that matter — how can you tell whether you are doing it with your understanding, or with some other part of you? And, again, what if there is no god in your understanding, but a devil, or a raccoon? What happens then? And how can you tell?
Sometimes one says: "Ah! I understand." — With what organ? The mouth, surely? — not the understanding?
Is it possible to sing praises both with the voice — and with the understanding — at the same time? I am not convinced. (On the other hand, who said the voice and the understanding had to act at the same time?)