Sing a song

Last time, we studied about the psalms being poetry. Not the type of poetry that we are accustomed to, but poetry, none the less!

The Psalms in our Old Testament are also songs. 

I guess we could think of the Book of Psalms as a hymnal!

I think we can prove our point by looking at the languages of the ancient world: how they said the title of the compilation of psalms. 

In the Hebrew Bible, the title of the Psalms is "Tehillim," which means "songs of praise."  And in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, we see the term "Psalmoi." Looks a lot like our English word for the psalms, right? The verb form of this Greek word referred to the plucking of strings with the fingers. (In my mind's eye, I immediately see a banjo, but ancient Greeks were thinking more of harps and lyres!) Eventually, the word "psalmoi" came to mean "sacred songs sung to musical instruments."

We see other clues besides the titles for the Book of Psalms. There are numerous musical terms in the book that tell us these were written to be sung. The word we read as "psalm" would have been "mizmor" in the Hebrew, and we see it fifty-seven times! The Hebrew word "sir" means "song" and it's found in the heading of thirty of the psalms! 

In fifty-five of the psalms we see a reference to the "choir director," too. And there are many times that musical instruments are referred to: stringed instruments and wind instruments, too. The scholars have some difficulty with some of the musical terms -- I wonder if they are instructions for the different voices? Sopranos? Altos? Tenors? Basses? (grin) The scholars tell us, too, that in Psalms 45 and 69 it's possible that the reference to "Lilies" is the name of a familiar tune, and that the words of the song were to be sung to that tune. When I look in some of the translations, I also see the note "a wedding song" and if you read that psalm, you can see how lovely it is, and how it would fit that occasion!

Looking to our New Testament, we have mentioned that the references to "psalms" are found to be in the context of music -- songs and hymns that believers are encouraged to sing.

speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:19-20)

Psalms are not, however, always cheery. Some of them are laments and some are meditations. Some are downright sorrowful and others speak in a meditative fashion of how the writer is trusting in God. One thing that they seem to have in common though, is that they glorify God. Kinda hard to figure why some peeps have been so resistant to the idea of music in worship, no? (Grin)  Music plays such an important role in our lives and in our worship.

While the lyrics of the Psalms remain with us, the notes do not. I guess the possibility is there for the Jewish people of today to sing these, and that they might be following pretty closely in the tunes of the ancient worshipers. But I don't think we can find specific notes or documentation for the tunes for each and every psalm . . . I wonder why? Perhaps this is another example of God's providence: maybe God allowed this to be, so that each culture down through the ages could compose music which sounded "just right" to them. I expect that those who have tried to set the psalms (in part or in whole) to music have grown to appreciate them all the more, as they pondered the words and allowed them to sink into their thirsty souls.

I know that as I embroider verses (I have a habit of doing so) I am able to contemplate them and let God speak to me in ways that are different from when I am studying them with my Bible in my lap. It's a peaceful way to draw His Word inside and keep it there for when Satan buffets me.

I think that each generation must learn to appreciate the poetry and the musical characteristics of the Psalms. I hope this study will help us to use them as we worship our Father.

More tomorrow . . . . . 

Heaven came down (verses that inspire)

 

 

The old hymn, "Heaven Came Down," is a wonderful and uplifting song. I thought of it as I read these verses recently:  

"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:38-40)

Have we ever sat down and really thought about what it took for Christ to come to earth? To come to a sinful world? "Blinders" were a favorite subject with my grandma; she used them in several expressions that she would repeat. "Take your blinders off and look around...." and "put your blinders on and don't let anything distract you."  Blinders were pieces of a horse's harness that made him look straight ahead. He wouldn't be able to see anything out of the "corner of his eye." With his peripheral vision obstructed, his attention would be directed straight ahead and he would focus on what his rider or coachman wanted him to do.

Well, today let's put on our blinders and focus on those verses up there!

Let's add one more to the pot for today:

how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. (Acts 10:38)

In our first verses, Jesus is telling His disciples that He came down from heaven to do the will of the Father. That it was Father God Who sent Him down from heaven. And then, just in case the disciples don't "get" what the will of God the Father is, Jesus tells them "why" -- for everyone who believes in the Son to have eternal life, and to look forward to Jesus raising him/her up in the "last day." That is the whole reason why "heaven came down!"

Our Redeemer left the glories of heaven. For us. He left the shining light of the Father's presence to come to the darkness of this sin-filled earth. He left the singing of the angels to come to the raucous, rowdy clamor of this world. He left peace and came to strife and conflict. The human part of Him must have wanted to close His eyes and just not see the terrible things that humans did to other humans. Surely His sacrificial love should inspire us to try to be like Him!

Paul told us in I Corinthians (chapter eleven, first verse) that the secret of living for Christ is to choose to follow Him. Paul said if he had plans to go somewhere and the Spirit said "no" -- he doesn't go. If the Spirit says to go somewhere and the prophets say "it's dangerous!" -- then that is where he will go. Paul said that Jesus didn't back away from the cross, so he would refuse to back out of dangerous tasks.

How do we imitate Jesus? Read of how He lived. How He loved. How He talked to the people. Cared for the people. Read about how He forgave. How He showed kindness. How He comforted the distressed showed mercy. Re-read the passages about how He took the side of the poor and the weak around Him; how He suffered for the people He loved, and introduced them to His heavenly Father.

That is how to live for Jesus. To imitate Him. 

And to bring a little of heaven down to earth again.

 

Laying a foundation for our study

Many of us have had the experience of reading or telling a story to a child, and saying these words: "Once upon a time..."  Usually, this signals that the story that comes after those words will be fictional; sometimes fanciful. A story - perhaps a fairy tale. We know what to expect.

In the same way, it's important to remember that the Psalms are basically poetry.  It's meant to be different from say, Genesis, where we read of history. It's different from the gospels, which tell of what our Lord and the disciples did. When we read of rivers or trees clapping for joy, or we see the mention of trees singing, we realize that this is poetry. When we read that David said he dissolved his couch with tears, we don't take that literally -- we just accept the truth behind the words -- we realize that he was so overcome with sorrow that he couldn't stop crying.

The Psalms are not just poetry; they are Hebrew poetry, with unique structure and style -- and that might make them a bit unfamiliar to us. After all, how many times have you read or pondered a poem lately? (Grin)

If we look at the pages of our Bibles, we notice that the printing format is virtually identical in the Psalms to the book of Genesis. How would we know that we were reading poetry? The scholars tell us that the translators of the KJV overlooked the poetic structure of the Psalms when they were working on the Old Testament. But before we start bashing the translators, we should remember that Hebrew poetry is much different from the poetry they knew, or that we know today. Our poetry is based on rhyme and rhythm, and Hebrew poetry is very different; it may be that the translators didn't recognize it as such, or that they just didn't know quite how to translate it and show it as poetry. 

In Hebrew poetry, we don't see rhyme or rhythm as we are used to; instead it's the relationship of two lines of poetry that is the heart of the poetic style. This is usually referred to as parallelism. I read one scholar's account that suggested a good analogy was that of stereo sound: the same music coming from two speakers! C. S. Lewis suggested that parallelism was "the practice of saying twice the same thing in different words."

The second line of poetry may clarify the first, or it may actually complete the first line. Sometimes there is a stark contrast between the two lines. All of these are types of parallelism.

The second characteristic of the poetry of the Psalms is that we see "figures of speech." We do not, as we mentioned at the start, approach them in the same way that we approach a book documenting a historical event. Instead, we interpret the expressions in the light of their context and use. How about an example to make things clearer? In Psalm 1, the godly are compared to a tree planted by streams of water, while the wicked are described as chaff, a waste product: the debris of preparing grain for human use. In Psalm 23, the Lord is pictured as a shepherd, caring for us as His sheep. These raise images in the mind of the reader and encourage meditation and thought on the meanings of the verses.

The poetry of the Psalms can be a blessing to us. The words found here are so vivid at times to communicate the deepest feelings of a believer's life. They are not designed simply to inform. They contain the language of experience; the author may be living through times of sorrow or of ecstasy, loneliness or congregational worship. 

Another thing that makes the poetry meaningful is the sacrifice demanded of the author. 

Huh?

Here's what I mean . . . . have you ever tried to write a poem? My dad-in-law liked to sit down and express himself in poetry. He would write something for a birthday or other occasion and include it in a card. One of our family's treasures is a poem that he wrote for his dear wife of sixty-plus years for their anniversary. Each poem that he wrote was an indication that he cared enough to spend time to express his love. Since the Psalms are poems addressed primarily to God, we can consider the time involved by the author in expressing adoration and praise to be yet another form of sacrifice to Him. And I totally believe that He is pleased and delights in this!

The Psalms can speak to us across the ages in spite of any difficulties in translation because of the parallelism and the imagery used in them. Truly they are an invitation to us to "sing the glory of God."

I hope that our studies here will be a blessing.

Friday slowdown

One of the most beloved Psalms is the twenty-third psalm; I recalled singing this hymn and this tune many years ago. This congregational singing reminds me of the way the psalms might have been used in the worship in the temple. 

I hope that we can all linger to hear the singing -- read the lyrics as the congregation sings. Hoping you receive a blessing . . . 

Psalms and worship

Let's notice another thing about the Psalms - not only do they speak to us, and speak for us, but they are so helpful in dark times, like those we face in our world today.

"Have a nice day!"

It's one thing to be able to praise God when we have had "a nice day." It's another thing entirely to praise God when it seems like the bottom has fallen out of life. If there is any time when believers have turned to the Book of Psalms, it is in their hour of deep soul struggle; it's in their time of adversity.

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord 
    Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy. (Psalm 130:1-2)

The Psalms offer us comfort, consolation, and words to praise God in our darkest hours. Maybe this is why the Psalms are usually neglected in preaching and worship in many churches. Many of us have simply had it too easy. Like the church of Laodicea in Revelation, we have become comfortable and even complacent. A psalm of lament may seem out of place. But it's when we are suffering and the presence of God seems strangely far away that our attentions turn to this precious book. Let's pray that we will not need tragedy or trouble to motivate us to study the psalms!

Lastly, the psalms can be a pattern for our worship. 

 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. (Colossians 3:16)

If I am understanding the commentaries and articles that I read, they can provide us with examples of how the people of Israel worshiped, and even be a pattern for us to follow, if we choose to. We see examples in the scriptures of individuals and congregations using psalms as worship. Sometimes it was in singing, like the psalm of praise that the Israelites sang after passing through the Red Sea. Deborah composed a song of praise after God rescued His people (you can read about it in Judges) and Hannah sang a psalm of praise and worship for the gift of her son, Samuel.

Other worship times included a leader who would read some of the text and then the people would respond.  In some churches today, this same practice is used and sometimes called "responsive readings." 

All of this just to say that I believe if we study the Psalms we will find that they speak to us and that they can make us more faithful worshipers of our Father God.

Let's go back to Psalm 22 for a minute:

Yet You are holy,
O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. (Psalm 22:3)

That verse was an eye-opener for me. I just got a picture in my minds eye of a throne . . .  If our God were enthroned on our praises, how glorious would that throne be? How glorious would He appear?

Many churches today are focused on evangelism, or fellowship, or edification, or discipleship, or church plantings. I could be wrong but I think this verse tells us that our praise and worship is the foundation for all those things. I don't think we can have those without worship. Fellowship? I think that's best around the Lord's table, instead of the television set or even the missions potluck. Evangelism? That's the effect of worship -- when people see our praise and our way of life that makes them ask, "What is it that is so different?" Remember when the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, "What must I do to be saved?" Why did he ask? Because in the midst of their jailtime and their persecution, they were singing hymns of praise and praying -- they were having a worship service in the jail!

I pray that worship will be something we give high priority. I pray that we will study and make the Psalms a part of our prayer and study life. Let's commit to grow in our faith and in our worship of our Redeemer. 

If you have paused here with us, and you have never become a child of God through faith in Christ Jesus, I urge you to click on the tab on the right side of our study blog and learn how to be born again. The way to worship God is through the Lord:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6)

I hope you will join me as we journey through Psalms. 

The Psalms speak

Why have the Psalms been such favorites over the years? Why have they been so beloved, meant so much to believers?

I believe it's because they "speak."

Sometimes when we read in the Psalms and it seems as if the writer has been looking at the pages in our journal, or reading our emails or texts! They were written centuries ago by someone who lived in a completely different culture -- how is it that these psalms can so closely describe our feelings? Our fears? Our hopes? 

Of course, the answer is that we are reading words that are divinely inspired; they were meant to be a word from God to us.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (II Timothy 3:16-17)

It seems that no matter what our circumstances are, we find the psalms to be appropriate to where we find ourselves. They meet our needs as if they were written just for us. They tell us of God's promises in a way that is unique.

The Psalms were written when Israel were situated between the start of God's Kingdom and the advent of the Messiah. We believers live in similar circumstances - we live between the life or our Redeemer and His return to the earth. We are awaiting Him in much the same way that Israel of old did. We have the same anticipation and the same sense of longing. It helps us to identify with the writers of Psalms and it helps the poetry to speak to us today.

In addition to speaking to us, we can also see that the Psalms speak for us.

Jesus expressed His grief at being separated from His Father on the cross by repeating the words of Psalm 22:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish? (Psalm 22:1)

Jonah's words in the belly of the fish were original to him, but borrowed from the book of Psalms. So many times, down through the years Christians have found that the Psalms speak for us. We have often prayed the words of a Psalm, and found them to be an accurate expression of our souls' desires.

Paul alluded to this in Romans:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  (Romans 8:26)

The Spirit speaks those things for us which are unutterable. Certainly some of our unutterable desires may have been spoken or written by the psalmists, when inspired by the Spirit. Often, we read in the psalms and feel that the writer has placed his finger right on a problem that we have struggled with! Or that he has put into words some feelings that we could not find words for!

So, the Psalms not only speak to us, but also for us. 

I truly believe that the Psalms are provided to us, God's people, to sing or say or pray -- to the praise and the glory of our Father God.

More on our upcoming study tomorrow . . . 

Prayer requests

These are turbulent times. 

Some of us have said we are wary of turning on the news. Or listening to the radio.

Some of us can't stop looking and listening.

The unrest has us jittery.  Stressed. Wondering if it can happen "in our neighborhood."

What's the best thing that we can do?

Show love and mercy?

Of course.

Show respect and dignity?

Absolutely.

And we must remember to spend time in prayer, talking to the One Who can calm this unrest. The One Who can protect us in these times.

Our hearts go out to those who are in need of comfort, encouragement, and hope. May they feel the effects of the prayers of believers and may God's love be shown to them by caring people of mercy. Let neighbors, religious leaders, first responders, and medical workers show them grace.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
    slow to anger and rich in love.

9 The Lord is good to all;
    he has compassion on all he has made. (Psalm 145:8-9)

We pray for justice. We pray for those who are our leaders; we ask God to guide them and give them wisdom. We pray for those who enforce our laws; we ask Him to protect those who stand in harm's way to protect us. 

How blessed are those who keep justice,
Who practice righteousness at all times! (Psalm 106:3)

We pray that God will create places of refuge for those affected by this time of unrest. We pray for the children, the ill, and the elderly. We ask that He would show us those around us who need our help and encouragement, so that we can be God's hands and feet in this time.

God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)

We ask that He will bless our hearts and our country with peace, and that factions will sit down and talk about solutions instead of shouting past one another.

If you would like to leave a comment noting a prayer request or a praise, please feel free to share in the comment section below.