3 Reasons Why You Should Sing the Psalms
Most people reading this have never sung the Psalms. They know that the Old Testament believers did, and maybe they know the believers in the New Testament did also. But the practice has been lost. We don’t know the songbook of the Church. You should sing the Psalms because they are the Scriptures, they show the nature of God, and they are the same words Jesus sung.
1. They Are the Scriptures
You should sing the Psalms because they are the Scriptures.
When you sing them, you are breathing out in praise the same words God breathed. They are imperishable, undefiled, and unfading words.
We believe that when we preach the Bible, read the Bible, and pray the Bible that it is inspired and infallible. We should say the same about the words we sing, because the Wesleys, Isaac Watts, and John Newton could never do what the Holy Spirit did.
Think of it this way: of the millions of songs ever written for worship, only 150 are inspired and infallible.
As
has told me before, “We know God likes the Psalms. We think he likes some of our hymns.”
2. They Show Us God
You should sing the Psalms because they show us the nature and character of God.
Songs teach, and most teach the wrong things. It is through song that we learn some of the most rudimentary lessons. Our songs do same; they will teach us something about who God is.
The Psalms have much to say about who He is: “abounding in steadfast love and mercy”, “just”, “sweet”, “slow to anger”, and more. These 150 Psalms were used to teach the people of Israel the history of God’s mercy towards them, particularly in Psalm 105, 106, 135, and 136.
But the Psalms are not limited to just the Old Testament. They are directly quoted about 70 times in the New Testament, and alluded to a combined total of 200 references. The Psalms are the most book quoted from the Old in the New.
If you want to know the doctrines of the New Testament, read the Psalms.
3. Jesus Sung Them Too
And finally, you should sing the Psalms because Jesus sung them too.
There is no other group of songs that you can say you are singing with Christ. It should be our delight to sing with the author of them.
Not only are they the words Christ wrote, but are the ones He embodied. The Psalms display the anatomy of the human soul from grief to joy; delight to despair; anger to peace; the whole man is showcased. This is a great comfort to our inner man in two ways: First, when our souls are brimming with any one of these emotions we may choose a psalm to sing. Second, Christ fulfilled these words on our behalf.
God, being very gracious, gave us this songbook to the Church as a recourse for the times when our “joy must be expressed” (Psalm 16:9) and when our “tears have been [our] food” (Psalm 42:3. God cares much about our whole person, so much so that Christ incarnate came to fulfill them. The Psalms tell of Christ and His great salvation. They tell of his steadfast love that endures forever, even through His sufferings as purchased for us our redemption and inheritance.
Christ fulfilled the words of Psalm 63 by “thirsting” after God and having His soul “well satisfied” on our behalf. He desired God for us. His longings and thirsting was applied to our accounts.
When you sing the Psalms, you are singing the Gospel.
Sing the Psalms
If you want to begin singing the Psalms, here is a free Psalm Singing Guide that you may use at your pace whether it is once a month, twice a month, or once a week.
To begin singing the Psalms, you need a Psalter. The most common Psalter you will find is the Trinity Psalter. It is the one the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) uses. The PCA Bookstore sells them for $10. Its tunes are from memorable hymns that you may know already. If not, they can be easily found online. Just look down at the end of the Psalm or in the index to find the tune and meter.
If you would like the format of a hymnal, then you could use either the Trinity Psalter Hymnal or The Book of Psalms for Worship, which is what the RPCNA (Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America) uses.
There is a wonderful Spotify playlist of The Book of Psalms for Worship that was done which includes all of the Psalms and the various tunes for each one. It is included below.