Using the Psalms in Worship

[Esaias]

Worship occurs on two levels and in two modes. The two levels are personal and corporate, and the two modes are liturgical and ethical. By "liturgical" I mean specific ritual acts of piety, devotion, adoration, etc of God (prayer, praise, communion/Lord's Supper, etc) and by "ethical" I mean moral virtue as manifested in practical habits, ie one's daily living or conduct. Ethical worship then is that manifestation of our service to God that shows up in our obedience to his commandments, in loving him with all our being and our neighbour as ourself, in being honest, trustworthy, temperate, courageous, pious, kind, loving, pure, virtuous, and so forth. Liturgical worship is that manifestation of our service to God that consists primarily in what can be called 'rituals of service', such as prayer, praise, and so forth. Personal worship concerns our worship of God, both liturgical and ethical, on a personal, individual level. Corporate worship concerns our worship of God - both liturgical and ethical - as a community of believers assembled together (two or three gathered in his name, etc.). There is then our personal liturgical worship, our personal ethical worship, our corporate liturgical worship, and our corporate ethical worship. In this thread I am going to explore a little bit of one aspect of liturgical worship, both personal and corporate, specifically the use of Psalms in worship.

I. The Psalms are, technically, songs meant to be 'sung', often to an instrumental accompaniment.

As such, one of the first and most obvious uses of the Psalms would be as songs, for that is what they essentially are. The Book of Psalms is the only genuinely inspired hymnbook of the church. No matter how 'anointed' we may think other compositions and songs and hymns may be, there is no doubt that the Psalms (and other songs found throughout the rest of scripture) are uniquely qualified to carry the designation of 'anointed', for they are God-breathed and are Holy Scripture. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16 KJV) Here we see the purpose of singing: to teach and admonish one another. The word of Christ dwells in the assembly in part by the music we sing to one another. And, this singing is for the purpose of 'teaching and admonishing one another'. Whatever songs we sing in the assembly, they are to be for the purpose of teaching and admonition, and therefore need to be doctrinally correct. And there can be no doubt about the doctrinal correctness of the inspired Psalms. So in addition to whatever gospel songs and hymns are sung, the psalms themselves ought to be sung as well. This can be done several ways:
A. Sing the psalms as they are written. This will require original musical scores that can be adapted to the texts, and may involve adaptation of the text to the music as well (as long as the meaning is not changed).
B. Paraphrase or even re-translate the psalms into a metrical format with rhyme and meter. This has been done continuously since the 1500s and continues today as new metrical versions of the psalms are produced. (Metrical means that each line has specific number of syllables. 'Amazing Grace' is a metrical hymn in the meter of 8.6.8.6. (also called 'Common Meter' or CM) which means the first line has 8 syllables, the second has 6, the third has 8, and the fourth has 6, and this is repeated for each stanza. Any psalm that is in Common Meter or 8.6.8.6. can be sung to the tune of Amazing Grace, or any other Common Meter song such as 'Alas, and Did My Saviour Bleed'.)
C. Whole psalms or portions of psalms can be paraphrased into new songs. Isaac Watts began this way back when, and the tradition has continued ever since. New songs may or may not be metered.

II. The Psalms are not only songs, but are also prayers: The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. (Psalms 72:20 KJV) The Psalms then are not only meant to be sung, but also meant to be prayed. We see this in a corporate setting in the early apostolic church in Acts: And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. (Acts 4:23-26 KJV) Here we see that the church prayed together corporately using the words of Psalm 2 as part of their prayer. By incorporating the psalms into our prayers, both corporate and private, we are using them for what they were divinely ordained to be used for.

The psalms, as prayers, teach us a lot about prayer, about our God, and about ourselves. By studying and being familiar with them, and by using them in prayer, by actually praying the psalms, we become renewed in our minds. We begin to think and pray Biblically, rather than humanistically.

Some remarks:

A. It is often said that many of the psalms are not suitable for either singing or praying, as they express sentiments with which we cannot relate. For example, Psalm 22 speaks of offering bulls on the altar, Psalm 109 is a long-winded invective against enemies, etc. Yet, we should keep some things in mind. First, under the new covenant animal and grain offerings, incense, blood and so forth have been replaced with spiritual offerings and sacrifices of contrition, prayer, praise, thanksgiving, repentance, obedience, and so forth. So when we read, pray, and sing about offerings upon the altar, we can understand their meanings in a new covenant sense. Second, the psalms express a wide range of feeling and experiences, some of which we may not be familiar with individually. But, God's people have experienced these things, and by singing and praying the psalms we join in with them in their experiences, as it is written: Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. (Romans 12:15 KJV) Furthermore, we must understand the psalms in their Christological context. Psalm 109 for example is a prophetic psalm concerning Judas and his fate, and serves as a warning to any who would follow in the footsteps of the son of perdition.

B. The psalms include numerous declarations of thanksgiving, blessing God, benedictions, calls to worship, petitions, etc. When for example we read of Jesus taking bread and giving thanks, and blessing, it is certain that he knew what to say based on his familiarity with the Psalms and the benedictions found throughout them, as well as throughout the rest of Scripture. Have you ever found yourself not knowing what to say in prayer, or in saying the blessing over a meal, or some other situation? The Psalms supply your needs, and by constant recourse to them you will begin to develop your own unique, but Biblically informed 'manner' of praying, blessing, and giving thanks. For example one of the most common Biblical expressions is 'for the Lord is good, because his mercy is everlasting'. It recurs in ever verse of psalm 136, constituting a refrain or chorus. It occurs in several other psalms as well. Interestingly, it is mentioned as being a prescribed manner of praising God: And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. (2 Chronicles 20:21 KJV) We see it also again, in 2 Chron. 5:13, 2 Chron 7:23, and Ezra 3:11. Psalm 95 includes an awesome call to worship in its opening verses. Psalm 106 concludes with a 'doxology' or benediction that would serve perfectly as an ending to any prayer, or even as a beginning.

C. By using the psalms as part of regular worship, both corporate and personal, one is continuing the tradition of God's people from the most ancient of times. One is literally joining in with the ancient, divinely ordered worship of the one true God, Jesus Christ, the Creator. Nothing is more 'relevant' than that which has existed continuously from the ancient past, and which will continue into eternity...

[Esaias]

Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.
(Psalms 5:1-2 KJV)

One of the most recurring themes in the psalms is the request that God would pay attention to the one praying, that God would hear them, hear their cry, etc. It occurs over and over again in various formulations throughout the psalms. Might God be trying to tell us something? When was the last time you prayed and began with a request for God to actually hear you?

Keep in mind, prayer is not for God's benefit. God knows what we need before we ever ask. So why pray? Obviously prayer is for our benefit. It does something to us more than anything else. Namely, it helps put us into the right spiritual state for God to operate in and through us. God does what he does, but he uses means or methods to get the job done. And one of those methods is prayer. Our prayer.

And when we see repeatedly in the scripture, in the psalms, which were given for our instruction and admonition, when we repeatedly see the petitioner specifically requesting audience with the great King of the Universe, combined with a bold confidence that he has obtained audience with the King, perhaps we should learn something from that...

LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
(Psalms 141:1-2 KJV)

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
(Psalms 130:1-2 KJV)

In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.
(Psalms 31:1-2 KJV)

[votivesoul]

This is fantastic teaching.

One phrase from the Psalms I often seem drawn to, as a refrain in my own times of prayer, is from Psalm 65:2,

O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.

Additionally, because my name is Aaron, I sometimes quote Psalm 118:3,

Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

You are so right on that the Psalms, more than any set of songs, needs to be front and center in a church's worship. Keep up the encouragement!

[Esaias]

This is fantastic teaching.

One phrase from the Psalms I often seem drawn to, as a refrain in my own times of prayer, is from Psalm 65:2,

O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.

Additionally, because my name is Aaron, I sometimes quote Psalm 118:3,

Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

You are so right on that the Psalms, more than any set of songs, needs to be front and center in a church's worship. Keep up the encouragement!

One of the things that has bothered me for years is that a lot of people often simply don't know HOW to incorporate the psalms into their private, much less corporate, worship. 'Praying the psalms' is often seen as being stilted and programmed, or 'catholic'. We want to pray our own prayers, we want to be 'genuine and spontaneous'. We can't see how repeating the words of a psalm really constitutes 'praying'.

But consider, how did any of us ever learn to talk? By imitating our parents and others we heard. How many singers begin by trying to imitate other singers? How many musicians start off imitating the styles of other more well known musicians? It's a basic part of education called 'modeling'. Excellence in anything is generally acquired by imitation at first. If a person wants to write well, they should model and imitate the writings of those who write well. If a person wants to sing well, they should model and imitate those who sing well. Once that is done, the individual begins to adapt what they are imitating to themself, and they begin to develop their own style or method.

I now find myself praying routinely in a manner that is very 'Biblical', ie it sounds a lot like the psalms, even if I am not directly repeating the specific wording of any particular psalm. But my praying has been informed by the psalms, due to a conscious, intentional effort to pray the psalms as prayers. And I find my praying has grown by leaps and bounds since I began to do this several years ago.

I have had three major 'leaps' in my prayer life. The first was many years ago when I went to prayer meeting with old half blind Brother Blair. He and I were the only ones there, and I learned that night what 'fervent, spiritual prayer' was all about. I learned it from his example. I discovered the Bible really means 'cry aloud' when it says 'cry aloud'. I discovered what it means to
'travail', and what 'groanings which cannot be uttered' are all about. Brother Blair taught me to pray until I came to the end of my own natural ability and understanding an then to press on, relying on God's help. 'Pray without ceasing' to me came to mean 'don't give up, when you run out of energy and wisdom in the natural, that's when the Holy Ghost is poised to take over, if you'll just let Him.'

The second major leap was when I began to view the Our Father aka Lord's Prayer as a model or template for praying. With that, I always had an 'outline' of things to pray for. And without any hesitation I thank that crazy charismatic preacher Larry Lea for that perspective, that's who I first heard it from. Whatever else he might have been into, he was correct about THAT issue lol.

The third major leap was when I discovered the psalms were not just songs but prayers, and that there was apostolic precedence for praying them (Acts chapter four, eg). Old Brother Blair taught me about the manner of praying, Larry Lea taught me the outline, and from the psalms (and other prayers in the Bible) I learned the content of praying.

I don't claim to be some great prayer warrior, but I can personally see where my prayer life progressed exponentially at each of those three stages.

[Scott Pitta]

We sang Psalm one during church this morning. It was a different arrangement than the one I knew.

I do enjoy singing the psalms at church :)

[Michael The Disciple]

The Jesus Movement was instrumental in putting the Psalms to music. We used to sing them a lot. The Charismatic movement picked up on it and some of the greatest praise and worship ever was born.

[Esaias]

The Jesus Movement was instrumental in putting the Psalms to music.

Christians have been singing the psalms from the beginning as their primary music. It was only in the 19th and 20th centuries that most Protestants abandoned psalm singing.

The charismatics have barely scratched the surface in rediscovering the music of God's people.

[KeptByTheWord]

We were a part of a house church some years ago and the songs sung were primarily out of the Psalms. I think I compiled a list of the Psalms songs then, and they were beautiful, and powerful to both sing and pray.

Is there a thread that shares songs from the Psalms with the music to them? I could probably post the list of the psalms that we sung in that group, but have no way to share the actual tune that they were sung to.

[Esaias]

We were a part of a house church some years ago and the songs sung were primarily out of the Psalms. I think I compiled a list of the Psalms songs then, and they were beautiful, and powerful to both sing and pray.

Is there a thread that shares songs from the Psalms with the music to them? I could probably post the list of the psalms that we sung in that group, but have no way to share the actual tune that they were sung to.

We use several methods (we have various psalms on our yout00b page illustrating some of those methods).

1. We use the 1650 Scottish Metrical Version (SMV) of the Psalms (can be had online for free) which has all 150 psalms translated into common meter. Any of them can be sung to the tune of "Amazing Grace" or any other common meter hymn, or even "Gilligan's Isle" if one were to so choose. We primarily use Amazing Grace, Martyrdom, and one or two original psalm tunes. We're working on learning more tunes. There are hundreds of common meter psalm tunes and hymn tunes, a good older metrical hymn book is a great help, or google "common meter hymn tunes" for sound files. The only thing is the 1650 SMV has some quaint archaisms that may come across as strange to the newcomer. lol There are other, more contemporary metrical Psalters available, though. Isaac Watts also made a metrical psalter paraphrase in addition to his hymns.

2. Some psalms we sing straight from the KJV text or a very close paraphrase.. This of course requires composing an original melody to fit the words. We have done several that way. It also can be done by taking the first verse of a psalm as a refrain or chorus, which is sung responsorially after each verse (antiphonal or call and response). A third way of course is to go verse-by-verse in a responsorial or antiphonal reciting (one person recites a verse, the assembly recites the next verse, back and forth through the psalm). Or men recite one verse, women the next, back and forth to the end. Or one can recite the psalm with the worshippers responding with an Alleluia or similar refrain after every one or two verses.

3. A smaller portion (1 or 3 or whatever verses) of a psalm can be made into a song, praise chorus, etc. Also, portions or verses of different psalms can be woven together to make a new song (origin of the ancient Canon and Ode in Christian hymnody, this is also an ancient Jewish method of psalm singing). This of course may require new melodies to fit the text.

[houston]

Many Reformed are exclusive psalmody.

[votivesoul]

Anyone familiar with La Musique de la Bible revelee (Music of the Bible Revealed) by Suzanne Haik Vantoura?

See:

https://www.amazon.com/Music-Bible-Revealed-Deciphering-Millenary/dp/094103710X

and:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Ha%C3%AFk-Vantoura

[Esaias]

Anyone familiar with La Musique de la Bible revelee (Music of the Bible Revealed) by Suzanne Haik Vantoura?

See:

https://www.amazon.com/Music-Bible-Revealed-Deciphering-Millenary/dp/094103710X

and:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Ha%C3%AFk-Vantoura

Yes, but I think she's really stretching.

[KeptByTheWord]

Thanks Esaias for the great info about using metered songs to sing the Psalms. :)

[Esaias]

Thanks Esaias for the great info about using metered songs to sing the Psalms. :)

Thank you. Just please don't use the Gilligan's Isle tune, it may be common meter but it just doesn't conduce to a spiritual state of mind. :heeheehee

[Esaias]

Ok, let's look at another way to sing the psalms. Introducing the word 'chant'. (Okay, now that you've all had some knee jerk reaction, hold on a moment and follow me on this, just for grins.)

The word chant (known as 'cantillation' in Judaism or 'chant' or 'cantus' in Christianity) is a type of singing and speaking. It's about halfway between normal speech, and outright singing. There are numerous types of chant, each with a unique sound and feel, almost all types of chant being regional (that is, originating in some particular regional or ethnic location and culture). There is Arabic chant (used in both Arabic Christianity and Arabic Islam), there is Greek chant, Russian chant, 'Anglican chant' used in England, various types of Latin chant used in the Roman Catholic church and Western Rite Orthodox churches (Gallican, Gregorian, Sarum, Old Roman, etc). There is Sephardic Jewish chant (cantillation), Askenazi cantillation, etc.

Most people when they think of chant they think of Gregorian or Byzantine/Greek chant, but those are only two flavours. Did you know that chant is something commonly found in almost ALL cultures and ethnic groups? Including America.

Welsh preaching and reading of Scripture was done using a Welsh type of chant, which comes from antiquity. The same chanting or cantillation was common among the Scottish, the Irish, and the English as well. Not the same in style or sound, but the same concept. This Celtic-Anglo style of chanting was imported to the colonies (America) during the colonial period. It has largely died off but actually persists in a few places.

The 'auctioneer' at an auction, usually in the South or Appalachia, uses a speaking style called 'cant' or 'caunt', ie 'chant'. Auctioneer-speak is a vestige of the old chanting style of singing and preaching which came from the British Isles. The chanting also persists in many southern and Appalachian preaching styles. You know when the old country preacher gets into his preaching voice, and starts to speak in a sort of sing-song, somewhat melodic way? That's American chant.

This style of singing and speaking was taught to the slave populations in the South. They combined it with their own African musical and speaking styles, and their chant survives in some of the older black churches, both in their singing and in their preaching.

It doesn't sound anything like 'Gregorian chant' but it is chant nonetheless. And it is a unique, traditional, and distinctive way to sing the psalms.

Take the following psalm:

Psalms 138:1-8 KJV
(1) A Psalm of David. I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.
(2) I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
(3) In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.
(4) All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.
(5) Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.
(6) Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.
(7) Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.
(8) The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

Now, let's take the first verse and make the first part of it an antiphon (refrain, or 'chorus'). So the chorus is : I will praise thee with my whole heart.
Now, we need a precentor (a chanter, or cantor, or reader, the person who will be chanting the verses), and we need a choir (a group to sing the refrain, this can be the whole congregation). The cantor will sing/speak ie chant the verses, and then everybody will sing the refrain. The cantor begins by singing the refrain two times, as the congregation joins in. Obviously, the tune for the refrain needs to be very simple so everyone can sing it right off the bat after hearing it one or two times. The cantor will carry the psalm, meaning he or she will sing with as much amplitude and presence as possible, so that the others can 'hide their mistakes' behind the cantor's voice. This is easier done than read about, by the way, it's not hard at all.

So, what kind of tune goes best with a repeating line 'I will praise thee with my whole heart'? Let's make it a slow, powerful, primitive, spiritual tune. The beat is irregular - chanting has no meter as we commonly think of it.

Each chant will have a dominant pitch or note. This is the note around which everything revolves. Let's just say the note we will use is 'D'. Now, we want certain words to receive musical emphasis, depending on their value. Words like 'praise' which signify spiritually uplifting, should receive a raise in pitch, for example. Another way to emphasise words is to prolong their duration (draw them out), and/or add melismata (tremolo, add extra syllables with a variation in pitch). Think of singing Amazing grace, how sweet the sound... And when you sing '///zing///' in Amazing, you go up high, prolonging the syllable, then dropping down several notes, then back up on 'grace' which you prolong on the same pitch. It's called 'adding flair to your singing', you all know what I am talking about. So we will add some melismatic flair to the words 'will, thee, whole, and heart'.

The tempo will be slow, 'with feeling', like a slow, emotional rendition of Amazing Grace (but not a funeral dirge of course).

We begin a step below the dominant on 'I'. The word 'I' will contain two syllables, the first on 'C' then stepping up to 'D' and holding it - 'i-IIII', sort of an 'ah-EYE...'

The word 'will' starts at F# (F sharp) for a brief moment then drops down with some 'flair' back to 'D' and holds for a moment: 'WEE-ee-yullll'.

The word 'praise' begins on 'G' with a quick slide up to 'A' which is held for a moment, then a quick slide up to 'B' or so at the end of the word: 'pra-AAAAAYYYYY-zz'.

Then immediately drop back momentarily to 'F sharp' to begin 'thee' while using all the flair you got to slide down to and settle on 'D' for the word 'thee': 'THE-e-e-eeee'. You've arrived back where you started. Take a deep breath and begin he next part:

'With' begins on 'E' and just holds there for a moment: 'wiiiiith'

'My' is a quick two syllable word beginning on 'E' and dropping to 'D': 'MAH-eye'

'Whole' is drawn out and prolonged for emphasis, pretty much on F sharp, although you could start on F and slowly slide up to F sharp or even a half-tone between F sharp and G with a touch of flair: 'whoooooooooooole'. Might be better to add some drop at the '-le' at the end of the word, dropping quickly back down to 'D'.

'Heart' begins a step below the dominant on 'C' then stepping up to 'D': 'hah-ARRRRRRT' and is prolonged, almost a repeat of the first 'I' in the verse.

Looks kinda like this:
ah-EYYYYE WEE-ee-yullll, pra-AAAAAYYYYY-zz THE-e-e-eeee, wiiiiith MAH-eye whoooooooooooole hah-ARRRRRRT.

So there's the refrain. After singing the refrain once or twice or however long it takes to get everyone else on board, the cantor will then sing/recite the rest of verse 1: 'Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.'

The primary pitch will be the dominant of the refrain, ie 'D'. Start higher than the dominant, then drop to it, all within the first word: 'BEEEEE-FOOO-ooore'.

The rest of the verse will pretty much stay on 'D', although some 'flair' needs to be added (just a bit) to make it non-monotonous. For example, the words 'the', 'will', the last syllable '-to' in 'unto will be a step below the dominant (on 'C'). The last word, 'thee', because it refers to God, needs to be emphasised, plus it needs to be emhasised so the rest will know the verse has ended and they are to begin the refrain. So the word 'thee' will start on say F sharp and with some flair will come back to D resulting in a three or four syllable 'THEEE-ee-ee-eeeee'. The word can be prolonged at the end to signal that the refrain is coming up.

Each verse is then sung/chanted in the same basic way, with some improvisation thrown in (don't get ahead of yourself and don't try to become a showoff lol), and the refrain repeated. At the end, the refrain can be repeated twice or however many times depending on how things are going, other verses can be repeated as needed, some preachin' and testifyin' can be thrown in between refrains, include generous amounts of 'Amen' and 'hallelujah' and 'praise God', and you will find yourself chanting the psalms, southern Pentecostal style.

:)

[Esaias]

And if you want to hear what the above sounds like, here you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KuDfh_sd20

[Esaias]

And this is just one way to do it. There are probably a near-infinite number of different ways to do this kind of thing, different styles, different melodies, different flavours.

[Esaias]

Some resources:

Metrical psalters: http://cgmusic.org/library/index.htm <===FANTASTIC resource, been using it for years.

MIDI files of tunes listed by meter : http://www.cyberhymnal.org/mid/met/met.htm <===notice, 'CM' means common meter or 8.6.8.6., CMD means common meter doubled or 8.6.8.6.8.6.8.6., LM means long meter or 8.8.8.8., SM means short meter or 6.6.8.6.

mirror of above site: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/mid/met/CM.htm

Note: the tunes have names, often the name of a tune does not match the name of the song(s) it is commonly associated with. For example, 'Amazing Grace' is actually usually sung to a tune called 'New Britain', that's the one we are all familiar with.

A lot of psalm and hymn tunes are old, and have that 'old' feel to them. There are however composers currently constructing new metered tunes for use with psalms. The church needs new melodies, metric melodies. There are many old hymns in addition to the psalms that are beautiful, but need updated music and melodies to sing them with.

[Esaias]

We just learned a new tune, Spancil Hill. It's an Irish-American folk song written back in the late 1800s, but has an AWESOME melody. We used it for psalm 103 a couple days ago on the day of atonement, and psalm 147 today (both using the metrical psalter). It has an ANCIENT, haunting feel to it, very reverent and I would say definitely a keeper.

We just need to get better at staying in key with each other lol.

[KeptByTheWord]

I just listened to the video you shared. I like what you have done here, having a refrain/chorus to sing, and then one person singing the accompanying verses. Perhaps people in the congregation could be appointed to sing different verses as well, to include everyone who might want to sing.

You are right, there are a lot of Psalms that would be beautiful sung in this way. A great memorization tool for sure!

I just googled Spancil Hill and am listening to it now. I am going to let my daughter listen to it, as she can pick up these kind of melodies easily.

Thanks!

[Esaias]

The Psalms are not the only songs/prayers in the Bible. There are also the 'Canticles', a fancy word for 'songs and psalms and singable prayers other than the book of psalms'. Many different Canticles or 'Songs' have been identified by various Christians - and Jews - over the millennia. Different traditions have different listings of what is or isn't a canticle. Here are the ones we use:

First Song of Moses - Ex 15:1-18. Notice, verse 20 indicates that Miriam took the first verse of the song and made it into a refrain or chorus.

Second Song of Moses - Deut 32:1-43 No tune yet

Song of Hannah - 1 Sam 2:1-10 No tune yet

First Song of Isaiah - Isaiah 12

Second Song of Isaiah - Isaiah 26:1-11 No tune yet

Third Song of Isaiah - Isaiah 26:12-21 No tune yet

Fourth Song of Isaiah - Isaiah 38:10-20 Also known as the Song of Hezekiah. No tune yet

Song of Jonah - Jonah 2:2-9 No tune yet

Song of Habakkuk - Habakkuk 3:2-19 No tune yet

Song of Mary - Luke 1:46-55 No tune yet

Song of Zacharias - Luke 1:68-79 No tune yet

Song of Simon - Luke 2:29-32 No tune yet

The ones for which we have no melodies are slowly being worked on. In the meantime, we either will read them responsorially, or collectively, or someone will simply read them as the rest of us listen prayerfully. But, melodies for singing them should be developed this year, Lord willing.

A few other scripture songs we use:

Arise, Shine - Isaiah 60:1-3

Among the Gods There Is None Like Unto Thee, O Lord - Psalm 86:8-10
Great and Marvelous Are Thy Works - Rev 15:3-4
It Is of the Lord's Mercies - Lamentations 3:22-25 - All three are sung together as one hymn. Great and Marvelous is called 'the Song of the Lamb' in Revelation 15.

Behold the Tabernacle of God - Rev 21:3-5

Currently working on the following:

Gather Together, O Ye Nations - Isaiah 8:9-9:7 or maybe to verse 8

Come and Let Us Return Unto the Lord - Hosea 6:1-3

Some choruses we use:

And the Spirit and the Bride - Rev 22:17

As Many of Us As Were Baptised - Romans 6:3-5 slightly paraphrased

Be Merciful Unto Me - Psalm 57:1a

Hear, O Israel - Deut 6:4-5

[Esaias]

Calls to Worship

The Psalms contain several wonderful calls to worship. What is a call to worship? It is a formal call for the congregated people of God to lift up their hearts to God in praise, prayer, and adoration. A lot of churches have substituted instrumental music, either a piano piece or an organ selection, for the call to worship. This is when everyone is gathered together and then the piano or the organ starts playing, to 'set the mood' and cue everyone that 'church is about to begin'. I believe this is a mistake. It is also not practical in smaller gatherings where there is no pianist or organist. There is value in having someone vocally, powerfully, and reverently call the people of God to worship the risen Lord. And remember, a call to worship is not just a call to sing, although singing may be part of the congregation's response to a call to worship. It is a call to publicly and corporately acknowledge the Lord's presence, to seek His face, to pray, to adore Him, to praise Him, to testify of His goodness and mercy and grace.

Some calls to worship:

Psalm 100
Psalm 95 verses 1-3, or verses 1-6, or even the entire Psalm could be used.
Psalm 105:1-4
Psalm 66:1-5 or as much of the Psalm as desired
Psalm 117
Psalm 148
Psalm 150
Psalm 106:48

Other calls to worship:

1 Chron 29:20 A very simple 'Now bless the Lord your God.'
Nehemiah 9:5 'Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever.' A variation of this could be a simple 'Let us stand and bless the Lord our God' etc.

[Esaias]

Bless the Lord

Just how do you 'bless the Lord'? Surely the lesser is blessed by the greater, right? So how then do we, mere humans, bless God?

Look at Psalm 104. It begins with a command to 'bless the Lord, O my soul'. In other words, the psalmist is telling himself to 'bless the Lord'. He then proceeds to do just that.

'O Lord my God, thou art very great.' He just comes right out and starts off saying the truth, God is great. But he is not just saying this ABOUT God, he is saying this TO God. YOU, Oh Lord my God, are very great.' He then begins to enumerate just how and why God is great. He takes the time to work his way through a list of reasons why God is great. He is clothed with honour and majesty, He covers Himself with light as with a garment, He stretches out the heavens, like a curtain. He goes on for 32 verses listing reason after reason why GOD IS GREAT. He then wraps it up by re-affirming that he will continue to praise God for all his days, that his thoughts and reflections of God will be sweet, that he will be GLAD in the Lord. He concludes with a plea that the sinners be consumed out of the earth and that the wicked would be no more. This is not a mere plea for sinners to be 'struck dead', but rather that sinners either be converted, or that the righteous judgment of God be carried out, that 'Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done On Earth, As It Is In Heaven.'

So the lesson is that to bless the Lord, we need to first, remind ourselves to actually bless the Lord. Don't just say 'bless the Lord' or 'praise the Lord' but remind yourself to actually do it.

Second, to bless the Lord involves a listing of His greatness. It means to rehearse WHY God is good and great. This is not for His benefit, He doesn't need us to butter His bread. It is for OUR benefit, because we often need to be reminded that yes indeed, God is great AND HERE'S WHY. And prayerfully going through a list of reasons why God is great, and addressing them to God, does wonders for the soul. Try it, there's a reason this is in the Bible. God knows just what you need.

Psalm 103 is another example of the same thing. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and DO NOT FORGET ALL HIS BENEFITS.

[Esaias]

Praying the Psalms

The Psalms are prayers (Psalm 72:20) and therefore are given to us from our Father not only to be sung as "psalms" (songs) but to be prayed as prayers. Praying the Psalms is an apostolic custom from the earliest times. In Acts chapter 4 we see the early church praying from Psalm 2 as part of their corporate prayer in response to persecution:

Acts 4:24-26 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: (25) Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? (26) The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

They incorporated the words of the Psalm into their prayer. It says they lifted up their voice "with one accord, and said". This clearly implies they all prayed together, out loud. And their prayer included Psalm 2:1-2, which could only be possible if they prayed the words of the Psalm together, corporately.

So, how does one pray the Psalms? "What, I'm supposed to read the Psalm out loud and call it prayer? How can that be genuine?"

At first, yes, you will have to read and pray along. This is only because you haven't yet memorised the Psalm! Once you've done this enough the Psalm will be memorised and you will be able to pray it as easily as you would the Our Father/Lord's Prayer. But we want to do more than merely recite a Psalm from memory. We want to pray it.

To do this requires a few things.

Intention. We have to intend to pray the Psalm, and not merely read it or recite it aloud. Our Father knows what we are doing, and what we are trying to do. He hears the feeble prayers of the ignorant, of children, and of great multitudes of people whose prayers might not impress their neighbours (or themselves!) but which nevertheless reach heaven's throne. If we come to our Father and say "Lord, I'm trying to use the tools you gave us, I may not really know what I'm doing, but accept my offering, let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense, a sweet smelling aroma from your child," then it is certain He will hear. As long as we have faith...

Faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, AND that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). You MUST believe that God will hear and respond to your prayer. By seeking to learn to use the Psalms as prayers, you are "diligently seeking Him", you are being studious and applying yourself to do His will and practice His word. Faith says He will hear. God does not respond to eloquence, but to FAITH! So, be assured that even though at first you may feel awkward and even "silly", you are simply doing what God's people have done from the beginning, and that God definitely hears your prayers.

Another thing that may help your faith in believing that your prayers will in fact be brought before God, is to understand something about how prayers work. Look at this description of the spiritual dimension of worship:

Revelation 8:3-5 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. (4) And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. (5) And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

Here we see that angels are involved in our worship and our praying. Just as the priest entered the Holy Place with burning incense to offer before the mercy seat, in heaven the angels bring our prayers before God. See, you don't have to somehow "force" your prayers into heaven to be heard by your Father. His angels are standing by ready to take your prayers and put them in the censer and light them up, and set that sweet smelling aroma before the Almighty King of Creation, your heavenly Father. What can stop an angel from entering the throne room of God? There is no power on earth, no demon, no devil, no man, no cloudy skies that can keep your prayers from reaching God. You don't like the "aroma" of your prayers? You think they are weak and childish, lacking "power" and eloquence? Don't worry, the angel mingles your prayers with holy "incense" to assure they are sweet to the Lord! The only thing stopping your prayers is your failure to put them in the angelic censer by faith...

Perseverance. Jesus said that men ought always to pray and not faint (Luke 18:1). This means we ought to always pray and not give up. Don't surrender! Don't say "Ah, what's the use, it's no good." Pray! You don't feel like it? Pray anyway! We OUGHT to pray. That means praying is the right thing to do, because Jesus said so. Not because we feel like it. In regards to learning to pray the Psalms, this means persevere, do not faint, do not give up, regardless of how you may feel like it. Press on. Spiritual exercise is just that - exercise. Just like physical exercise it takes EFFORT. It's uncomfortable at first, it's difficult. but with practice it gets easier. You adapt to it, and what was previously nigh impossible becomes as easy as tying your shoe laces. And you become stronger, you build up endurance, you perform the action more efficiently. If you want your spiritual muscles to get bigger and stronger, you got to work them out with things that at first seem difficult. We are disciples - that means we are submitted to the Lord's discipline. We follow His training regimen, so we can achieve what He has set out for us to achieve.

Understanding. We have to have understanding of the Psalm we are praying. Not just merely of the bald meanings of the words and phrases themselves, but their New Covenant meaning. I will demonstrate this aspect with a model Psalm in the next part, with more detailed advice on how to pray that Psalm.

(cont in next post)

[Esaias]

(continued from previous post)

The model Psalm is Psalm 25. I have chosen this Psalm because it is a rather comprehensive Psalm. It pretty much includes all the elements of prayer that our Lord specified in His model prayer (the Our Father/"Lord's Prayer"). I will give the text of the Psalm, and break it down verse by verse.

Psalms 25:1-22
(1) A Psalm of David. Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.

David begins by asserting to God that he is "lifting up his soul to Him". It is good to announce what we are doing. It focuses our own thoughts and prepares our hearts. It declares that we are praying not to ourselves, or for the benefit of others who may be nearby, but that we are praying to the Lord.

(2) O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

David reaffirms his trust and confidence in God. And in consequence of that, he petitions God to not let him be ashamed (put to shame, defeated, made a laughing stock). He asks God to not allow his enemies to triumph over him. We have enemies. YOU have enemies. Not only people, but all the forces of hell are arrayed against you. Surely you don't want to be put to shame on the field of battle with the forces of darkness? Surely you don't want them to triumph over you? Sin, devils, the flesh, the world, fear and doubt, all of these things and more lie in wait to attack and destroy your soul and your walk with God. If you will be victorious, you must ASK GOD FOR VICTORY. David reminds God he is trusting in Him. Remind God that your trust is in Him, and that you are counting on Him to give you victory. You are his, and He is your GOD. Just as you have obligated yourself to trust in Him, He has obligated Himself to protect and defend you and give you victory. It is perfectly Biblical for God's people to remind God of the covenant relationship. It is not because God is forgetful, but because WE are prone to forget just exactly what it means to be in COVENANT WITH THE ALMIGHTY JEHOVAH.

(3) Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

David extends this to all the saints. He prays for ALL God's people, that they would ALL have the victory. Defeat belongs to those who transgress without cause, those who do evil and wickedness without any valid reason (there is no valid reason to transgress the will of God). Notice he ASKS GOD TO BRING THE TRANSGRESSORS TO SHAME. This means he is praying not only that the schemes of the wicked would fail, but that they would be brought to shame for their sin. Do you not desire the wicked to repent? They will never repent unless they are ashamed of their ungodly deeds. So pray for their repentance! Pray that they would be ashamed, so they may find grace and salvation just like you have.

(4) Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.

We cannot figure out God's ways on our own, we MUST have Divine Guidance. Jesus came to show us the Way, He takes up residence in us by His spirit to show us the Way, to show us God's ways and God's paths. We must rely on the Lord. This is what it means to "trust in God", it means to get our directions from Him and not our own carnal understanding. We rely on him, and ask him to lead us, confessing our dependency on Him. And not our dependency only, but our DESIRE to follow his ways and his paths. His ways and paths are revealed in His Word, they are made real and understandable to us by His Spirit who empowers us to follow his Divine map, that we may be where He is as we follow Him.

(5) Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

We ask God to lead us and teach us, again admitting we both desire and require His Divine guidance and instruction. And the reason? Because He is our God and we serve Him continuously! We can ask God for guidance from His Word by His Spirit and we have a valid lawful basis for our petition - He is our God, and we are in covenant with Him. This gives us faith to trust He will in fact lead us, because He has promised to, because we are His children and His people. Learn to pray on the basis of Covenant, and you will be learning to pray Biblically and effectually.

(6) Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.
(7) Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.

In these two verses David asks God to think on him on the basis of mercy and grace. We don't want God to look at us through the perspective of Judgment, because then who could stand before Him? We need His mercy, I need it, you need it. So ask for it! God's mercy has been around an awful long time. It's not some new thing, as if He might change his mind all of a sudden. God has always been looking for opportunities to show mercy! We should certainly be willing to ask God to NOT REMEMBER OUR SINS but to have mercy on us, just as He told us in His Gospel, "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors". And we ask His forgiveness on the basis of HIS GOODNESS. There is no other basis upon which to be forgiven except the goodness of God.

(8) Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
(9) The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
(10) All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

Many of the Psalms are not only songs for worship, not only prayers, but also they provide instruction (see Psalm 1). Here David reminds himself that God is good and righteous, and because of that He is willing to teach sinners in "the Way". God is willing to teach sinners the good and right way! He will guide the meek in righteousness, and will teach them His way. the meek are those who are humble with God, confessing their dependency and need of Him, those who rely on Him. Those who keep God's covenant will find that all God's way are mercy and truth. This is important to remind yourself, that God is good and those who trust in Him and stay faithful to Him can expect to walk in that goodness.

(11) For thy name's sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

Again, David asks for forgiveness of iniquity. Previously he asked God to forget about his sins and not remember them, now he asks specifically for forgiveness. Even if you are not immediately conscious of any sin, even if you are entirely sanctified, you can only enter in and continue in that sanctified state as you rely on God's grace to cover your iniquity.

(cont in next post)

[Esaias]

(cont)

(12) What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
(13) His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.
(14) The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

Some more instruction. Why should we pray instructional material? God knows what we need before we ask, so why pray at all? Because prayer is the mechanism appointed by God by which we commune with Him. It's not for His benefit, but ours. Prayer changes us. And when we pray the verses just listed, we are reminding ourselves of the blessings that come from obedience, from fearing the Lord. God himself shall lead us, teach us, and show us the way He has chosen for us. This re-affirms our faith that God will show us His will for our lives. It also affirms for us that we shall be blessed with peace, we shall "dwell at ease", and our offspring shall inherit the earth. The promises of God are to us and to our children (Acts 2:39).

(15) Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

Again, a declaration of faith in God. Because you trust in him and because you are following Him alone, He will deliver from whatever traps the enemies of your soul may have set for you. Keep your eyes on Jesus!

(16) Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.
(17) The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.
(18) Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.

Here, he confesses his need, his desolation and affliction. Even if you do not at the moment feel desolate and afflicted, distressed on every side, and in pain, still you can join in with other saints in their affliction. Are we not to weep with them who weep, and rejoice with them who rejoice? By praying the Psalm, you join in with all God's saints suffering affliction and distress. You aren't here on your own, you are part of something much bigger than yourself. In prayer, we can empathise with our brethren and their troubles, and we can pray in their stead. And if you are the one suffering, TELL GOD ABOUT IT! Notice, a third time David asks for his sins to be overlooked and forgiven. Deliverance and healing of whatever kind it may be is always connected to forgiveness of sins (see the Gospels for numerous instances where Jesus connected healing and forgiveness). We need deliverance from various afflictions, but the greatest affliction and distress we need deliverance from is the affliction of our sins.

(19) Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.

You have enemies. Here we ask God to consider them, to look upon them, to take them into consideration. They are many, they hate us with cruel hatred. These are not only wicked men who hate the saints, but SINS, DEVILS, and our own lusts which war against us. We need God to "consider them", to cast His sin destroying Divine gaze upon them, so that the enemies of the Lord melt like wax before him, are driven away like smoke, are scattered before His terrible and awesome presence.

(20) O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

Again, a petition to be kept and delivered by God. A petition to not be put to shame. And the basis? "FOR I put my trust in Thee." The basis upon which we can ask for and expect deliverance and victory is the fact we trust in God alone, that we are HIS people. We do not belong to some other god, we aren't trusting in money, power, prestige, or anything the world has to offer. We trust in God, we follow HIS ways rather than the ways of the heathen and their "gods" so-called. And THEREFORE we can ask for and expect His salvation to be brought to us!

(21) Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

Here we pray to be preserved by integrity and uprightness. "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." We need to be praying to walk uprightly in innocence and holiness. We are to pursue holiness (Hebrews 12:14) but we can't do that on auto-pilot. We can't just assume if we dress right and talk right we are following holiness. We have to actually desire to be preserved from the lake of fire by righteousness and integrity, we have to actively desire and seek and petition God and trust in God to deliver us from any and all threats, and that He would do this by integrity and uprightness, that is to say, by holiness and righteousness. THIS is "sanctification", it requires our active pursuit of it, our active intentional desire and trust in God to do it.

(22) Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

Here, we conclude with a petition for all God's people, to be delivered out of ALL their troubles. We are supposed to pray for one another. So we ask God to redeem His people out of their troubles. This is no mere prayer for Jews to have victory over Palestinians or Arabs, or some other such nonsense. Israel is GOD'S people, under Messiah. The CHURCH is the Israel of God. So pray for the church to be delivered out of whatever is afflicting her.

So, we look at this Psalm as a prayer, and understand it's applicability to our own personal life, and to the life of the church. We aren't merely reading or reciting some historical data that David left behind, we are taking the Psalm and owning it, taking ownership of it, making it ours, our prayer and petition. Our needs are no different than David's. So his prayers can be our prayers. And indeed this is the very reason God preserved them and kept them in His Word, so that we can learn not only about prayer, but how to pray and what to pray.

In the next post, I'll leave a few comments about how to pray this (or any other) Psalm, from a practical perspective.

[Esaias]

(cont)

To begin just read the Psalm out loud. Tell God you are going to pray the Psalm, that this is your prayer, that it expresses the desires of your heart in Divinely inspired words. And then read it, with the understanding that it shall ascend like incense before the Lord's throne.

Do this several times, say for example before going to bed, or upon waking, or maybe at lunchtime. Every day, open your Bible and pray the Psalm. Or write it down on paper and keep it in your wallet or purse, and pull it out and read it, pray it, mean it. After awhile, you will have memorised parts of it. The parts you memorise, are the parts you don't have to concentrate on reading. You've got the words "hidden in your heart". Eventually, the whole Psalm will have been memorised.

Do not be daunted or intimidated at the thought of memorising an entire Psalm. Christians in China memorise entire books of the Bible! Many other Christians have memorised not only whole Psalms, but entire books as well. It can be done, it's not hard, it just takes repetition.

Once the Psalm is memorised, it can be prayed from memory, so that you can really focus on what you are praying. And this is beneficial. One of the problems people often have is they find their mind wandering while praying. They may forget something they intended to pray about, or may find themselves at a loss for words. They've "run out of things to pray". This is a handy, Biblical, apostolic practice that will help prevent such things from happening.

And you will find that your own prayers will begin to take on a more Biblical pattern. You will find yourself, even with your own spontaneously composed prayers, praying Biblically. Not merely using phrases and such from Scripture in your prayer, but praying with Biblical IDEAS and CONCEPTS. You will be praying from a Biblical, apostolic paradigm or viewpoint.

And that's a good thing.

[Aquila]

Awesome original post. A couple house churches I've known used the Psalms for worship. Very powerful worship experience.

[Wilsonwas]

We just learned a new tune, Spancil Hill. It's an Irish-American folk song written back in the late 1800s, but has an AWESOME melody. We used it for psalm 103 a couple days ago on the day of atonement, and psalm 147 today (both using the metrical psalter). It has an ANCIENT, haunting feel to it, very reverent and I would say definitely a keeper.

We just need to get better at staying in key with each other lol.

Old "haunting melodies" are often done in minor keys. I have heard it preached that all church music should be 4/4 time, and in the key of C as that is the only pure measure, and does not use sharp or flat in that key.

While I think the cadence of Psalms lends perfectly to old Gaelic melodies, and most of us would find the original keys in which David played dissonant- I wonder if there are still stubborn billies that will stick to the 4/4 c-major route, lest any of that "loud, lewd, lascivious junk that they call rock n roll" be used. This might because of translation, screw up the natual cadence of the poetry of Psalms.

By the way the Wilbanks did an awsome version of one a couple of years back....still like that one.

[Esaias]

Old "haunting melodies" are often done in minor keys. I have heard it preached that all church music should be 4/4 time, and in the key of C as that is the only pure measure, and does not use sharp or flat in that key.

While I think the cadence of Psalms lends perfectly to old Gaelic melodies, and most of us would find the original keys in which David played dissonant- I wonder if there are still stubborn billies that will stick to the 4/4 c-major route, lest any of that "loud, lewd, lascivious junk that they call rock n roll" be used. This might because of translation, screw up the natual cadence of the poetry of Psalms.

By the way the Wilbanks did an awsome version of one a couple of years back....still like that one.

All church music should be 4/4? Why not 6/8? Amazing Grace is 6/8...

lol

[Evang.Benincasa]

Awesome original post. A couple house churches I've known used the Psalms for worship. Very powerful worship experience.

https://media1.tenor.com/images/e8416571759f69a4af6e8811210aab59/tenor.gif?itemid=8974218

[Evang.Benincasa]

Praying the Psalms

The Psalms are prayers (Psalm 72:20) and therefore are given to us from our Father not only to be sung as "psalms" (songs) but to be prayed as prayers. Praying the Psalms is an apostolic custom from the earliest times. In Acts chapter 4 we see the early church praying from Psalm 2 as part of their corporate prayer in response to persecution:

Acts 4:24-26 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: (25) Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? (26) The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

They incorporated the words of the Psalm into their prayer. It says they lifted up their voice "with one accord, and said". This clearly implies they all prayed together, out loud. And their prayer included Psalm 2:1-2, which could only be possible if they prayed the words of the Psalm together, corporately.

So, how does one pray the Psalms? "What, I'm supposed to read the Psalm out loud and call it prayer? How can that be genuine?"

At first, yes, you will have to read and pray along. This is only because you haven't yet memorised the Psalm! Once you've done this enough the Psalm will be memorised and you will be able to pray it as easily as you would the Our Father/Lord's Prayer. But we want to do more than merely recite a Psalm from memory. We want to pray it.

To do this requires a few things.

Intention. We have to intend to pray the Psalm, and not merely read it or recite it aloud. Our Father knows what we are doing, and what we are trying to do. He hears the feeble prayers of the ignorant, of children, and of great multitudes of people whose prayers might not impress their neighbours (or themselves!) but which nevertheless reach heaven's throne. If we come to our Father and say "Lord, I'm trying to use the tools you gave us, I may not really know what I'm doing, but accept my offering, let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense, a sweet smelling aroma from your child," then it is certain He will hear. As long as we have faith...

Faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, AND that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). You MUST believe that God will hear and respond to your prayer. By seeking to learn to use the Psalms as prayers, you are "diligently seeking Him", you are being studious and applying yourself to do His will and practice His word. Faith says He will hear. God does not respond to eloquence, but to FAITH! So, be assured that even though at first you may feel awkward and even "silly", you are simply doing what God's people have done from the beginning, and that God definitely hears your prayers.

Another thing that may help your faith in believing that your prayers will in fact be brought before God, is to understand something about how prayers work. Look at this description of the spiritual dimension of worship:

Revelation 8:3-5 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. (4) And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. (5) And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

Here we see that angels are involved in our worship and our praying. Just as the priest entered the Holy Place with burning incense to offer before the mercy seat, in heaven the angels bring our prayers before God. See, you don't have to somehow "force" your prayers into heaven to be heard by your Father. His angels are standing by ready to take your prayers and put them in the censer and light them up, and set that sweet smelling aroma before the Almighty King of Creation, your heavenly Father. What can stop an angel from entering the throne room of God? There is no power on earth, no demon, no devil, no man, no cloudy skies that can keep your prayers from reaching God. You don't like the "aroma" of your prayers? You think they are weak and childish, lacking "power" and eloquence? Don't worry, the angel mingles your prayers with holy "incense" to assure they are sweet to the Lord! The only thing stopping your prayers is your failure to put them in the angelic censer by faith...

Perseverance. Jesus said that men ought always to pray and not faint (Luke 18:1). This means we ought to always pray and not give up. Don't surrender! Don't say "Ah, what's the use, it's no good." Pray! You don't feel like it? Pray anyway! We OUGHT to pray. That means praying is the right thing to do, because Jesus said so. Not because we feel like it. In regards to learning to pray the Psalms, this means persevere, do not faint, do not give up, regardless of how you may feel like it. Press on. Spiritual exercise is just that - exercise. Just like physical exercise it takes EFFORT. It's uncomfortable at first, it's difficult. but with practice it gets easier. You adapt to it, and what was previously nigh impossible becomes as easy as tying your shoe laces. And you become stronger, you build up endurance, you perform the action more efficiently. If you want your spiritual muscles to get bigger and stronger, you got to work them out with things that at first seem difficult. We are disciples - that means we are submitted to the Lord's discipline. We follow His training regimen, so we can achieve what He has set out for us to achieve.

Understanding. We have to have understanding of the Psalm we are praying. Not just merely of the bald meanings of the words and phrases themselves, but their New Covenant meaning. I will demonstrate this aspect with a model Psalm in the next part, with more detailed advice on how to pray that Psalm.

(cont in next post)

All excellent :highfive

[Esaias]

We've learned a new psalm-tune, called "Ballerma". Here's the tune (not us) for those who'd like another Common Meter tune for singing psalms to (we do the tune a wee bit faster):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67jbBYbcqao

[Esaias]

And if that was "too slow" for you, here's us doing Psalm 47 from the KJV. It's a little more hand clappy... :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkLiV8u4MfM

[Esaias]

Here's Psalm 145:

I will exalt thee, my God, my King. And I will bless thy name forever and ever.

Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
Generation after generation shall praise thy works, and proclaim thy power. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wonders.
And men shall speak of the power of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion, slow to anger, and abundant in mercy. The Lord is good to those that wait upon him, and his compassions are over all his works.
Let all thy works give thanks to thee, O Lord, and let thy saints bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy dominion;
To make known to the sons of men thy power, and the glorious majesty of thy kingdom. Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all ages, and thy dominion endures through all generations.
The Lord upholds all that fall, and raises up all those that are bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their food in due season.
Thou openest thy hands, and satisfieth the desire of every creature. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
The Lord is near to all that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him, and he will hear their supplication and save them.
The Lord preserves all that love him, but all sinners he will utterly destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord; and let all flesh bless his holy name (forever, and unto the age of the ages).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH9RJGEclzs

[Evang.Benincasa]

And if that was "too slow" for you, here's us doing Psalm 47 from the KJV. It's a little more hand clappy... :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkLiV8u4MfM

Awesome!!!

[Amanah]

I like to pray this psalm, but can't imagine making a song out of it.

Psalm 42 King James Version (KJV)
42 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
8 Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

[Esaias]

From the Genevan Psalter:

As the deer seeks flowing rivers,
so I long for you, O God.
How my soul longs for his presence,
for the ever-living God.
When shall I behold his face
in his holy dwelling place?
Now I feed on tears from weeping,
while they say, "Is your God sleeping?"

All these things I call to memory
and I ponder in my heart:
how I streamed with throngs rejoicing
to his temple's sacred court.
Why, my soul, be in despair;
why this worry and this care?
Hope in God, my soul's salvation;
him I'll praise with jubilation.

When my heart despairs within me,
then will I recall once more,
as the headwaters of Jordan
from the Mount of Herman pour.
Deep to deep roars out its sound,
waves and rapids surging round.
In the day GOD's love comes freely,
and at night his song is with me.

To my God, my Rock, I murmur,
"How could you forget me? how?"
All my foes oppress and taunt me:
"Where's your God?" they ask me now.
Why, my soul, be in despair;
why this worry and this care?
Hope in God, my soul's salvation;
him I'll praise with jubilation.

O my God, bring vindication
and defend my worthy cause
from the godless and deceitful
who defy your holy laws.
For you are my refuge strong;
why now let them do me wrong?
Why must I continue grieving
while my foes keep on deceiving?

Send your light and truth to guide me
to your holy dwelling place.
Then will I approach your altar,
singing songs of joyful praise.
Why, my soul, be in despair;
why this worry and this care?
Hope in God, my soul's salvation;
him I'll praise with jubilation

[Amanah]

I love it!

[Esaias]

Something that really helps is to have a Christological understanding of the Psalms. That is to say, to understand the Psalms as prophecies of Christ, to interpret them with Christ in view. This of course does not deny or overlook the historical relevance of the Psalms, their application to the psalmist and his contemporaries, etc. But it means to look at the Psalms first and foremost as they speak of Christ.

And, this is not just limited to thinking of the Psalms as prophecies of what Christ would do historically. Rather, they provide much more, they provide an insight into the very mind of Christ and His experiences. When we combine that with the understanding that we are identified with Him, that we are in union with Him, so that His experiences become our experiences in a sense, then we begin to see how the Psalms apply to us. Not merely that some of the Psalms express things we have personally experienced in our own lives, but that the Psalms express Christ's experience in us. When we sing the Psalms, pray the Psalms, we are singing and praying from Christ's perspective, we are declaring what Christ has experienced and done, and making it our own. We are being conformed to the image of God's Son, we are identifying with Him.

But some will say, "What about when the Psalmist complains of his sins and iniquities? Jesus has no sin, so how does that apply?" Indeed, He was without sin. Yet He bore OUR sins and OUR iniquities, He was "made to be sin" even though He "knew no sin". So when the Psalmist cries out in remorse for his sins, Christ Himself feels the weight of them, bearing them upon Himself to the cross and into the grave, to leave them there that He may arise "apart from sin", so that we too can arise in newness of life, having become dead to sin.

And some will say "But what about when the Psalmist prays imprecations and vengeance and destruction upon his enemies? That isn't very Christian." Look at Psalm 109. It is almost a non stop litany of destruction and cursing upon David's enemies. Yet it is also a prophecy concerning the fate of those who persecuted and condemned and killed Jesus, and indeed of all who reject Him. There is no salvation outside of Christ, there is no future, there is only PERDITION. Those who oppose Christ doom themselves to fulfill the curses of Psalm 109. As it is elsewhere written:

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
(John 3:36)


Notice this interesting part of Psalm 109:

Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy: That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.
(Psalms 109:26-27)

The Psalmist is praying that God would save him by His mercy and grace, in order to let the adversaries know that all his calamities, as well as his deliverance, were by the hand of God. Jesus was rejected, arrested, tortured, and killed. Yet in raising Him from the dead, God demonstrated that all that bad stuff was part of the Divine Plan, and under His control. When we understand our identification with Christ, we can pray likewise, with faith that all the attacks and apparent successes of the enemy against us are under God's control, and happen for a reason, as is our deliverance and salvation by His grace.

We often undergo trials and tribulations, and get caught up in wondering "Why, Lord?" Yet we should keep in mind, as long as we are in the will of God, as long as we walk with the Lord, EVERYTHING that happens to us happens by His permission and by His hand - the good, the bad, and the ugly, and it is all for a purpose. And just as God may have allowed your enemies to enjoy a season of apparent triumph, God will surely deliver His chosen ones. JUST LIKE HE DID FOR CHRIST.

[KeptByTheWord]

Excellent thoughts about praying/singing the Psalms scriptures!

[Esaias]

A new psalm tune, called "Martyrs". Actually, quite an old tune, but new to us. Here is one psalm being sung to it, though the tune can be used with any common meter psalm:

https://https.youtube.com/watch?v=_oOZ7JkPjO0

[Barb]

One of the things that has bothered me for years is that a lot of people often simply don't know HOW to incorporate the psalms into their private, much less corporate, worship. 'Praying the psalms' is often seen as being stilted and programmed, or 'catholic'. We want to pray our own prayers, we want to be 'genuine and spontaneous'. We can't see how repeating the words of a psalm really constitutes 'praying'.

But consider, how did any of us ever learn to talk? By imitating our parents and others we heard. How many singers begin by trying to imitate other singers? How many musicians start off imitating the styles of other more well known musicians? It's a basic part of education called 'modeling'. Excellence in anything is generally acquired by imitation at first. If a person wants to write well, they should model and imitate the writings of those who write well. If a person wants to sing well, they should model and imitate those who sing well. Once that is done, the individual begins to adapt what they are imitating to themself, and they begin to develop their own style or method.

I now find myself praying routinely in a manner that is very 'Biblical', ie it sounds a lot like the psalms, even if I am not directly repeating the specific wording of any particular psalm. But my praying has been informed by the psalms, due to a conscious, intentional effort to pray the psalms as prayers. And I find my praying has grown by leaps and bounds since I began to do this several years ago.

I have had three major 'leaps' in my prayer life. The first was many years ago when I went to prayer meeting with old half blind Brother Blair. He and I were the only ones there, and I learned that night what 'fervent, spiritual prayer' was all about. I learned it from his example. I discovered the Bible really means 'cry aloud' when it says 'cry aloud'. I discovered what it means to
'travail', and what 'groanings which cannot be uttered' are all about. Brother Blair taught me to pray until I came to the end of my own natural ability and understanding an then to press on, relying on God's help. 'Pray without ceasing' to me came to mean 'don't give up, when you run out of energy and wisdom in the natural, that's when the Holy Ghost is poised to take over, if you'll just let Him.'

The second major leap was when I began to view the Our Father aka Lord's Prayer as a model or template for praying. With that, I always had an 'outline' of things to pray for. And without any hesitation I thank that crazy charismatic preacher Larry Lea for that perspective, that's who I first heard it from. Whatever else he might have been into, he was correct about THAT issue lol.

The third major leap was when I discovered the psalms were not just songs but prayers, and that there was apostolic precedence for praying them (Acts chapter four, eg). Old Brother Blair taught me about the manner of praying, Larry Lea taught me the outline, and from the psalms (and other prayers in the Bible) I learned the content of praying.

I don't claim to be some great prayer warrior, but I can personally see where my prayer life progressed exponentially at each of those three stages.
Back in the day Bishop NJ Wilson taught us to pray the Word... open the Bible and speak it out loud in prayer. It is powerful!

[Esaias]

Back in the day Bishop NJ Wilson taught us to pray the Word... open the Bible and speak it out loud in prayer. It is powerful!

Amen! Sounds like you had some good teaching. :thumbsup

[coksiw]

I like praising like the psalms as well:
* Bringing to memory what he has done for me, and retell it to myself. "I remember oh Lord when you ...", "you forgave....", "you healed me when..."
* Then declare by faith things like: "you are my salvation and my rock", "Your mercy will follow me all of the days of my life", "your mercy is forever', etc...
* Then commit! "I will bless your name forever", "Your praise will continually be in my mouth", "I will sing to you and serve you my whole life".

That's what I actually teach others too: Remembrance, Faith, and Commitment, in your praise during prayer. :). But I also tell them that praises include more than that but those are basics to keep in mind when elaborating praises to the Lord.

[Barb]

Amen! Sounds like you had some good teaching. :thumbsup

The best! :nod

[mizpeh]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKX61GpxmY0

[mizpeh]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OBRvxrzhqs

just a couple of my favorite contemporary songs based on the psalms

[Esaias]

A new song... of SALVATION and of JUDGEMENT.

There are THREE PSALMS which open with the words "Sing unto the LORD a new song", Psalm 96, Psalm 98, and Psalm 149.

Psalm 96 opens thus:

O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth. Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.
(Psa 96:1-4)

Psalm 98 opens thus:

A Psalm. O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
(Psa 98:1-4)


Psalm 149 opens thus:

Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.
(Psa 149:1-5)

Now look at how each song ends:

Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.
(Psa 96:11-13)

Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
(Psa 98:8-9)

Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD.
(Psa 149:5-9)

[Esaias]

I noticed that there are 15 Psalms identified as "Psalms of Ascents" or "Psalms of Degrees", literally "steps". And in Ezekiel's apocalyptic Temple, the steps at the outer gates number 7, and the inner steps number 8, for a total of 15.

The Psalms of Ascents/Degrees/Steps are traditionally thought to have been sung by Israelites during their pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the main annual Feasts.

Fascinating.

[KeptByTheWord]

With the book of Psalms having the most chapters of any book in the Bible... I think it speaks as to how important music is to our hearts. Music reaches deep into our emotional being, and speaks to our hearts in a way spoken words alone cannot do. I am thankful for the many times I have prayed the Psalms, and found the rest my soul needed.

[Steven Avery]

When I stayed with Adventist communities, including Uchee Pines, and we sang Psalms outdoors, like Psalm 19:

Psalm 19 7-10 (AV)
The law of the LORD is perfect,
converting the soul:
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple.

The statutes of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart:
the commandment of the LORD is pure,
enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the LORD is clean,
enduring for ever:
the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold,
yea, than much fine gold:
sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

the singing and fellowship was very beautiful. A good part of this was their sincerity to the Decalogue, the 10 commandments, including keeping the sabbath.