With that in mind, then, today's entry will be a psalm. Maybe you can keep it with you today and savor it while you worship the Lord. Without further comment, then, here is Psalm 92.
1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
2 To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning And Your faithfulness by night,
3 With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, With resounding music upon the lyre.
4 For You, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.
5 How great are Your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep.
6 A senseless man has no knowledge, Nor does a stupid man understand this:
7 That when the wicked sprouted up like grass And all who did iniquity flourished, It was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.
8 But You, O LORD, are on high forever.
9 For, behold, Your enemies, O LORD, For, behold, Your enemies will perish; All who do iniquity will be scattered.
10 But You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil.
11 And my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes, My ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me.
12 The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Planted in the house of the LORD, They will flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap and very green,
15 To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
I think we are missing out in our predominantly non-psalter church music. I hear so often from pastors exalting the Psalms and telling us to look to the Psalms when we are needing relief. But that never seems to trickle into the worship leader relying heavily on them. Other music isn't necessarily bad, but God gave us the Psalms for a reason.
ReplyDeleteI know there are Christian groups that on principle do not include anything but the Book of Psalms in their church services and also exclude musical instruments--both unnecessary restrictions, in my view. (As you point out, Paul recommends “… singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” in Col. 3:16, and all these are edifying for the assembled saints--with or without instrumental accompaniment.) I found it striking that Isaac Watts described the God-breathed Book of Psalms as “boring” and that his father (apparently) did not reprimand him for denigrating Scripture. And that reminds me of an incident when I was a brand-new Christian and newly attending church services in NJ: When I remarked to an older Christian friend that the hymns we sang there had no tune, she was shocked. (I was so used to the highly singable popular music of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s that I found “church music” sung with organ accompaniment “boring.” I guess I was a modern-day Isaac Watts of sorts [albeit without writing anything better myself].)
ReplyDeleteOne good memory I have about the Book of Psalms is that to open every Sunday morning service (at that same church), our pastor would stride up to the podium and recite a few verses from memory as a “call to worship.” I came to learn later that he was quoting from the Book of Psalms, using a different passage each time.
Another personal memory from the 1970s that I have about Psalms is that a Christian friend challenged me and a third friend to memorize an entire Psalm (a longish one of her choosing). Having an excellent memory, I easily met the challenge (while my two friends did not do so!). To this day, I cannot remember which Psalm I memorized and have even read through them all to prompt my memory, but I have never recognized it. So much for hiding God’s Word in my heart for later reflection!
OK, enough reminiscing on my part. (You start doing a lot of that once you turn 70!)