3,000-Year-Old Poetry Today

Image credit: “Shiviti with Hebrew text in the form of a menorah,” Wikipedia, public domain

In reading Augustine’s Confessions for Lectio Humana, perhaps the most prominent aspect I’ve encountered so far is the author’s desire for worship. In fact, humans across thousands of years and civilizations have felt a need to approach and worship God. 

For some of you, worship may be a familiar concept. Some of you may have grown up with very set patterns of worship in a church, while others may have grown up with changing or even inconsistent forms and ideas of worship. You may be new to a church as you learn a new form of worship. You also might be annoyed by my opening claim and/or the concept of this article generally – in which case, keep reading anyway! And some of you (if I may flatter myself with a broad audience) may not know how to worship God, or even who God is that we should worship him. In all of these cases, I have something for you.

Around the middle of the Bible there is an oddball book called the Psalms. Even a cursory examination will reveal that it is nothing like most of the other books of the Bible. While it is almost always simply read nowadays, the book is actually a series of songs composed and sung throughout Israel’s history. They range in topics all the way from praises of God to lamentations and even to curses (probably a topic for a different article). However, all 150 are expressly for the worship of God in music, and I now make the claim that they should be used for this purpose. In fact, I will make a far bolder claim: the Psalter gives us the biblical pattern for worship music. 

Just reading the Psalms will probably elicit a fair amount of confusion, primarily because they are not poetic monologues. Rather, they were written conversationally, as some parts, it seems, were meant to be spoken by David, the king of Israel (and his successor), some parts are from the people generally, and some parts are God himself speaking. Most of the Psalms were written by David and his proxies, and it seems that David actively was the musical leader of these Psalms in worship, so these parts were literally sung by David.

However, David does not sing with us today, nor could he ever act as the king described in the Psalms. In Psalm 89 he’s supposed to be the highest of the kings of the earth, in Psalm 72 he’s supposed to have dominion from sea to sea, and then from the river to the ends of the earth, and most blasphemously, in Psalm 2 he not only will smash the nations but is called God’s son! However, when we sing the Psalms, we can sing together with a worship leader who does fulfill all of this – Jesus.

This is the unique feature of the Psalms as worship: they are King-led. Jesus sings with us, he mediates our worship before God, and makes even our unworthy praise such that it can come to God with boldness. 

In conclusion, sing Psalms, not merely as beautiful poetry of cultural artifacts, but with Jesus in worship. 

If you sing nothing else, sing Psalm 22, the Psalm Jesus spoke on the cross, a Psalm which begins with so much despair but ends with hope that all ends of earth will turn to God.

While you’re at it, sing Psalm 98, a song which overflows and rejoices with praise to God for his rule and justice, and for the kingdom that is here and yet to come. The same theme is found in Psalm 67, an echo of the Aaronic blessing, a prayer, and a declaration of confidence that the blessing of God is for all nations.

Sing Psalm 42, merely the top of a deep well of laments, expressing some of the deepest emotions in any poetry, speaking of despair and distress, but confessing a hope in God through it all.

Finally, sing the two most well known and ecumenical Psalms: 100 and 23. The former is a call to nations and peoples to praise God, and the latter is an image which has brought comfort to so many – the Lord as a shepherd, guiding and protecting his sheep even through the shadow of death.

Acknowledgement: This article steals heavily in structure and thought from Michael Lefebvre’s Singing the Songs of Jesus: Revisiting the Psalms. If you are interested in learning more about the Psalms (much better than the ultra-abridgement here), that’s a great place to start. 

Recommended reading:

The Book of Psalms for Worship (2009), The Trinity Psalter (1994), and The Trinity Psalter-Hymnal (2018) all provide English translations of the Psalter to metrical tunes. They can be found  here, here, and here respectively. Also, if you want some support on music, you can play around with www.psalter.org, which has the tunes and harmonies of the first two psalters.

In Roman Catholicism, the Book of the Hours gives psalms for daily use.

Whether you’re up to singing or not, you can listen to a number of Psalms from The Book of Psalms for Worship on YouTube, Spotify, or, if you’re an old soul, CDs can be bought here.

If I may briefly make a plug, my cousin has been putting Psalms to original compositions and arrangements. Just as above, YouTube, Spotify, old souls.

Additional beautiful Psalm music to listen to is Anglican choral Psalmody, which you can listen to in the Psalms from St. Paul’s recordings. 

El Himnario gives a selection of Psalms in Spanish. Also, my brother-in-law made an awesome translation of The Book of Psalms for Worship into Spanish which Crown and Covenant should get done editing any day now (hopefully).