Sing Psalms Well and With Joy

Seeking to Get Better in the Congregational Praise of the Church

Good Morning,

Today for our confessional Thursday devotion from the Directory of Public Worship we are once again going to be looking at the singing of the psalms. This works well since I have been at the ARP Family Bible Conference all week giving lectures on the psalms and their use in the praise and worship of the local church. As I was telling someone today it is impossible to have a bad time at Bonclarken, and we are blessed to be together here hearing God’s word proclaimed from our Canadian brother in the evening as well. There is joy in the Bible, and the cool thing of course about singing the psalms is that they are always God’s word. They, like Jeremiah’s promised mercies, are fresh every time we allow them to pass our lips into the world.

Whatever Ephesians 5:19 means (and I have an opinion, as you might imagine) it tells us in no uncertain terms that we are to be singing the psalms. They are a repository of praise, of lament, of hope, of joy, and of the sure and certain peace of Christ. There is little that can compare of joining in with our savior in lifting up our voices to heaven with the same words He used in Matthew 26:30 and the apostles did in Acts 16. The psalms preach the gospel plainly, and with power and glory, testifying to the victory won at the cross and the empty tomb, and contain our marching orders to go and tell others of His wondrous grace and glory. There is an emptiness to a service of worship that does not contain the psalms. It would be like serving the Lord’s Supper and not using bread. That there is such a paucity of their use in our day is a sad thing.

As we get into the sentence below that comes from the DPW’s admonition towards psalm singing there is an interesting aspect to it that has also been a part of my lessons this week, and that is when we are singing praises to God in worship it is vital that we engage our hearts and souls and seek diligently the hope and peace of Christ as our minds are driven to embrace the promises that Jesus Himself sang in the synagogue, and with His disciple friends. There is a depth to the Scriptures inspired by the Holy Spirit which no hymn or spiritual song will ever be able to match. Another thing to think about is how ecumenical and universal the psalms are. It is certainly the case that the psalms unite us in worship regardless of language or culture because they come from the same word that also unites us in salvation and redemption in the blood of our common savior. We rejoice as one body, one flesh, one baptism in the words of comfort.

Here is today’s section from the DPW:

In singing of psalms, the voice is to be tunably and gravely ordered; but the chief care must be to sing with understanding, and with grace in the heart, making melody unto the Lord.

When the directory uses the phrase tunably and gravely we are to take that in a way that does not mean no shouting or loud use, but that we are to focus our singing in a reverent manner which will not bring shame on the words we are singing. No fake voices, no mocking tone, and also even those of us who may not outwardly show talent for singing we are to work at getting better at singing. We should desire to praise God well with our voice just as much as we study His word with our eyes and mind. If we are going to seek to understand better the sermon and to pray with more impetus and focus then our souls need to likewise encourage our tongues and lips and voiceboxes to find themselves improving. How do we do that? Through asking. Same way we do anything else. If there is a choral savant in your congregation don’t be shy, just walk right up and find out if they can help you learn things like reading music and knowing what pitch is, how tempo works, etc… It is just like any other muscle. If you want to have big biceps well then you need to lift. You can have the desire to sing well, but if you do not act on it then you will be as noodle armed as you are noisy. To be found tunably and gravely then our singing means taking seriously the command in the Bible to sing.

However, there is even another aspect of this that we cannot overlook, and that is paying attention to what you are singing. I don’t mean necessarily about content, though that is obviously important as well. What I am on about is that as we sing we need to be learning and agreeing with the words exiting our mouths. To be gravely is to sign with understanding and faith. To find joy in the eternal hand of God expressed in Psalm 19 for example. The more we lift up the word of the Lord in our praise the more we will know of and about Him for all of the blessings of this life, and the life to come. We rejoice in all things in Him who strengthens us as we are hopeful in the power and work of the Lamb. If we see a weakness in our willingness to do that this then that is a good time to ask the Lord for help. We have not because we ask not. Joy comes in the fulfilment of doing those things that God asks you to do in His grace. We cannot fake it till we make it with the singing we do on Sunday morning. We need to lean into and embrace all the benefits and blessings which come from those times of worship and praise.

In closing, as the sentence makes clear singing with grace and melody in the heart begins with a heart which understands and assents to not just the precepts of the gospel, but the gospel itself. Coming to the knowledge of the truth takes effort, and we cannot be lazy and expect good results. We need to always seek the Lord where He can be found, and what better place to look that in His word in the psalms. As the congregation of the holy join together with one voice to do this do you not then want to encourage your brethren in your singing in order to achieve these goals? Singing ought to be a central part of the worship of God’s people, especially in the day that He has made and declared holy as we sing our victory song of praise to our Redeemer.

Last word:

https://reformation21.org/singing-with-the-saints/

Blessings in Christ,

Rev. Benjamin Glaser

Pastor, Bethany ARP Church