The Blessing of Singing the Psalms

Like many children, when my kids were little, they used to love to sing in the bathtub. They would sing their Veggie Tale favorites, “The Hairbrush Song” or “The Belly Button Song.” But some of my most precious memories were when they would sing Ps. 117 “From all that dwell below the skies, O let Jehovah’s praise arise! Alleluia! Alleluia!”

Or Ps. 121, “I to the hills will lift my eye, from whence shall come my aide? My safety cometh from the LORD who heaven and earth has made.” This was a Psalm, I wanted them to remember, especially when in trouble, or lying on their deathbeds. The God who made the world would help and keep them always.

Over the last few years, we have sought to recapture Psalm singing to reinforce truths like this. Col. 3:16 makes it clear that we are to sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” in our worship services. And while there is some debate about whether all three musical designations are just different types of psalms, what is clear is that we are to be singing songs from the book of Psalms in public worship. That does not mean we are to exclusively sing the Psalms. The Jews didn’t in the prophet Habakkuk’s day. Habakkuk 3:17-19 is a song outside the Psalter that was meant to be sung in worship. And Paul’s letters have numerous early Christological hymns and creedal songs—Ph. 2:5-11, Col. 1:5-20. Furthermore, there are tons of songs sung in the books of Luke (1:46-55, 1:68-75, 2:14, 2:29-32) and Revelation (4:8-11, 5:9-14, 7:10-12, 11:15-18, 15:3-4, 19:1-8), where God’s people are encouraged to join in praising the Lord.

The point is, especially over the last 50-100 years, the singing of Psalms has been neglected in Evangelical and even Reformed Worship. We want to encourage this practice for the glory of God and the good of the church. As a result, we have been trying to sing one Psalm per service, or a version of one from the Trinity hymnal. Starting this Sunday, you will notice the pew racks reorganized a little to include blue Psalters entitled, The Book of Psalms For Worship. Moving forward, many of our psalm selections will come from this book. We were able to purchase these Psalters thanks to a large grant from one of the churches in our Presbytery (Midway Presbyterian), who paid for half the cost.

The singing of psalms will bless our souls because it will entrench the truths found in the Psalms into our minds, and it will comfort our hearts as we declare, “The LORD’s my Shepherd, leading me; I will not be in need. He’ll make me lie in pastures green; By quiet waters lead. What love and goodness all my life will follow after me; And in the LORD’s house evermore my dwelling place will be.” (Selection Ps. 23A)

—Pastor Clif