Thomas Webster, The Village Choir, oil on panel, 1847 Image public domain
Years ago, when I began regularly reading through scripture myself, I grew to love the Psalms. I often wondered why we didn’t sing them in the church, especially on the Lord’s Day. It seemed obvious that this was a songbook built into the Bible. I would hear reasons like ‘that was for Israel, not the church’. But the New Testament seems to point to the Psalms as the early church’s song book. In Colossians 3, the apostle Paul commands the saints to sing Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Ironically, and tragically, most modern churches do the opposite of Paul’s instructions. Of the three types of song, the only one that is clear and not subject to interpretation is singing Psalms (this is setting aside the understanding that Paul is actually referring to the psalter with all three types of song). And yet, the steady diet of most churches is spiritual songs (see contemporary praise songs) with a sprinkling of time-tested hymns. And if a church tries to sing Psalms, it’s usually a few lines from a Psalm set to contemporary musical style. We need to recover a robust practice of singing the Psalms, and striving for excellence in our singing. Surely there are other reasons, but here are six reasons why our churches should sing Psalms.
1. Psalms allow us to sing the full counsel of God.
Expository preaching is the method of preaching that preaches the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:17), not skipping over anything that is hard or uncomfortable. The Psalms provide the same idea for our worship. The goal of churches should be to sing God’s inspired and authoritative Word and aim to cover all of it. This helps ensure that we are not cherry-picking our favorites or skipping the difficult Psalms. A goal would be to work through the Psalter over the course of time to be able to sing a version of all 150 Psalms.
Imagine learning 1-2 new Psalms a month. You could learn 150 Psalms in six years. Maybe that sounds daunting, but what an incredible gift to have a song to sing for each Psalm in scripture. Now imagine hosts of churches all striving for this same thing.
2. Psalms provide the full spectrum of emotions and experiences.
If we are singing the full counsel of God’s Word, that means we might sing about topics we don’t often hear in modern worship. Psalms give words to the feelings of life, for times of joy and difficulty. The Psalms help us tether our emotions to biblical truth, rather than allow our emotions to drive our actions and view.
“The beauty of the Psalter is that it contains a vast array of emotions that the people of God experience in their Christian life. Contrary to what passes today as ‘worship music’ where everything is ‘happy clappy’ and people must always have a smile on their face, the psalms remind us that the people of God do not always walk around with this arbitrary grin as if everything is okay. There are real trials, real challenges, and the Psalms help us see that the inspiration of the Spirit, God’s people of old went through those same kinds of difficulties as well.” (Sean McGowan, Psalms that Curse p6-7).
3. We see the hope of Christ’s rule.
One of the major themes in the Psalms is the future rule of Christ. The Psalms are filled with the rich theme of victory. The New Testament quotes Psalms 2 and 110 more than any other Old Testament passage. Even in Psalm 22 where Jesus’ crucifixion is described, it resolves with Christ’s victory (22:27-31).
If you want to understand the Bible’s view on the millennium, don’t begin with Revelation 20. When we look at the breadth of scripture, including and especially the Psalms, we see a glorious picture of Christ’s reign. And all the more glorious when we gather to sing and pledge allegiance to our king.
4. Psalms hide God’s Word in our hearts.
The word of Christ is meant to dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16) and the result of this rich dwelling is that it will not only come out in our singing, but in our lives as well. Imagine our children singing 4-5 Psalms weekly, in addition to regular family worship. How many Psalms might our children memorize over the course of their first 18 years? Further, there is something in the way our memories work that is enhanced with singing. What if we had an array of Psalms to draw from during the weekly grind of life? When we are joyful, sing Psalm 95. When we have sinned, sing Psalm 51. And when we are discouraged, sing Psalm 42.
5. The Psalms remind us of our history.
Psalms like 78 and 89 recount God’s faithfulness and salvation of Israel, we should see this is as our history. We belong to the covenant people of God, these Psalms help us remember our place in the grand scheme of redemptive history. We sing to remember the mighty signs and wonders of God and the triumph over his foes. We sing to remember and have our faith strengthened. We join with all of the saints who have gone before us, singing these glorious Psalms.
6. It is our battle hymnal
The spiritual battles described in Ephesians 6 are fought in faith with the Word of God. When we begin to understand that worship is warfare, singing the Psalms is one of our main weapons. And these weapons include the imprecatory Psalms, asking the Lord to do what we cannot do: come to our aid and vanquish our foes. Do justice to the wicked.
“The psalmist had enemies, and he dealt with them in the music. If we are serious about conquering the world with the gospel through biblical worship, we will soon discover that it cannot be done without the psalms. (Wilson p 64, Primer on Worship and Reformation).