Slogging through Psalms Again

Carl and I are back from our travels, where I must confess, we weren't very diligent about getting our reading done. And now we're back to Psalms, which we're still trying to read straight through and which I'm still finding difficult (we're in a bloodthirsty section--lots of calls for God to punish everyone who has worked against the Psalmist).

I keep thinking of many monasteries, where monks chant their way through the entire Psalms, which takes them about 2 weeks (they're in chapel more than 15 minutes a day). Do they notice the vengeful tone? Does it bother them?

I sometimes wonder if the words fade into the background a bit, much like the liturgy did for me as a child. Do the words become sounds once you've chanted them so often? For lifelong monks, would it be like some LANGUAGE poets who choose words based on their sonic quality, not on their meaning, because they're going for a sound in the poem, not a meaning?

I can't decide whether or not to take a break, or whether to press on. I'm ready for some New Testament theology! Love, forgiveness, that kind of thing.