Should today’s Christians sing psalms in public worship? For a long time — about eighteen hundred years — that question would not have been relevant. Throughout those years Christians of all kinds used psalms in worship. Some chanted them as prose texts in Greek or Latin, and some sang them in metrical versions (the Hebrew psalms rendered into lyrical poetry according to the forms of a given language and set to tunes suitable for congregational use). The situation began to change in the late eighteenth century, and since then psalm singing or psalmody has almost disappeared in many groups of English-speaking Christians.

The last few decades have experienced a revival of interest in psalmody in many quarters. The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America has produced two widely used ver­sions of the metrical Psalms, The Book of Psalms for Singing (1973) and The Book of Psalms for Worship (Crown & Covenant Publications, 2009).¹Great Commission Publications cooper­ated with Crown & Covenant to produce Trinity Psalter (2000), a companion to the well-known Trinity Hymnal (revised edi­tion, 1990) used by many congregations in the Presbyterian Church in America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, also in concert with Crown & Covenant, has published The ARP Psalter with Bible Songs (2011).

Meanwhile, the Free Reformed Churches, the Heritage Reformed Congregations, and the Protestant Reformed Churches continue to use The Psalter (1912), which was produced by a joint committee of nine Presbyterian and Reformed churches under the leadership of the old United Presbyterian Church of North America. Today it is published by Reformation Heritage Books. The Christian Reformed Church publishes two versions of its Psalter Hymnal (1975, 1987), both of which are based on the 1912 version. They recently also issued a third volume, Psalms for All Seasons: A Complete Psalter for Worship (2012). For those who love the Genevan Psalter, a large selection of psalms set to their proper Genevan tunes are included in all these books.

The complete Genevan Psalter has been published in Eng­lish by the Canadian Reformed Churches as part of their Book of Praise: The Anglo-Genevan Psalter (revised edition, 2014).

Finally, Blue Banner Books of Rowlett, Texas, has published The Comprehensive Psalter (2000), a new musical edition of the famous Scottish Psalter of 1650.

With all these resources available to us, it is good to con­sider the basic questions addressed in this and future articles: Should we sing psalms today? Why should we sing them? Per­haps the real question is why did English-speaking Christians ever give up singing psalms? Why don’t we sing them more? But it is always better to look at things in a positive light, so we shall proceed to answer the question as stated in a number of ways.

The Biblical Basis for Singing the Psalms⤒🔗

We who uphold the absolute authority of God’s Word should be directed by Scripture in all that we do. This is especially true of public worship, for there we must offer to God what pleases Him. Out of reverence for His holiness (Leviticus 10:3), we must worship God as He has commanded in His Word. Let me present three reasons from the Bible why we should sing psalms.

God Gave the Psalms for Israel and All Nations to Sing←↰⤒🔗

Where did the book of Psalms come from? Ultimately, the Psalms were inspired by the Holy Spirit (cf. Ephesians 5:18-21). Though several men contributed to the book²under the Spir­it’s inspiration, its principal composer was David, “the sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23:1). As God’s anointed king, David commanded that psalms be used in worship. He com­posed many psalms himself (about half the Psalter), and he organized the Levites under the leadership of Asaph to sing these psalms and play musical instruments for the service of the temple that Solomon would build. He even proposed a selection of his psalms for a special service of thanksgiving to inaugurate their use (1 Chronicles 15:16-17; 16:4-36).³Some of these temple musicians were also prophets, divinely inspired so that they too could write “the songs of the LORD” (1 Chronicles 25:1, 6-7). So began the composition and collection of what we call the book of Psalms. Its traditional Hebrew title is sêpher tehillim, meaning “Book of Praises.”⁴The Hebrew title could also be rendered as “Book of Prayers” or “Book of Hymns.”

Our English title is derived from the Greek and Latin versions, based on the Greek word psalmos, from the verb psallo, mean­ing “to sing psalms” or “to sing a hymn.” The name “psalter” derives from the Greek title of the book of Psalms (Psalmoi), which is often translated as “Praises.”

A metrical psalter is a singable translation of the book of Psalms. God intended Israel to sing psalms, especially in public worship. Psalm 92 is inscribed “A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day.” It begins, “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High” (v. 1). It is true that psalms may also serve as prayers, and they are rich sources of doctrine and practical instruction. But the Hebrew words for sing and song appear more than 180 times throughout the Psalms.⁵Psalms cry out to be sung. So it is no surprise that when King Hezekiah restored the worship of Judah, he “commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the LORD with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer” (2 Chronicles 29:30).

However, we should not think of psalms as exclusively for Israel’s use. They summon all nations to join in Israel’s songs to the Lord. For example, Psalm 96:1 says, “O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth.” Psalm 100:1 says, “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.” Psalm 117:1 says, “O praise the LORD, all ye nations, praise him, all ye people.” Psalms have a missionary emphasis and expectation that all nations will turn to and worship the Lord (Pss. 22:27; 66:4; 67:1-3; 86:9). Psalm 96:3 says, “Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.” The goal of this declaration is to call all men to join Israel in singing these psalms of praise to the Lord. Citing the prophe­cies contained in Psalms and in Isaiah (Romans 15:8-12), the apostle Paul testifies of “the grace that is given to me of God, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:16).

Why should we sing psalms? The first reason is because God gave them to His entire church, Jew and Gentile alike, under both the old covenant and the new. As Bradley John­ston notes, “The Apostle Paul commanded the Ephesian (5:19) and Colossian (3:16) churches to sing the Psalter and commented on the Corinthians’ psalm singing (14:15, 26). James likewise commanded his readers to sing psalms (5:13).”⁶Someone, however, might object that psalms are old covenant songs and are poorly suited for Christ’s new covenant people. This leads us to consider the next reason for singing psalms.

The Psalms Reveal Christ in His Sufferings and Glory←↰⤒🔗

Though written under the old covenant, the Psalms are extremely relevant for God’s new covenant people. Of the many times that the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, over 40 percent of those quotations come from the Psalms — 116 direct quotations.⁷The epistle to the Hebrews alone quotes ten different psalms (2, 8, 22, 40, 45, 95, 102, 104, 110, 118).⁸Added to this are the many indirect allusions to the Psalms throughout the New Testament.

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us that the Psalms are about Him. Luke 24:44 says, “He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concern­ing me.” Though we are no longer under Israel’s civil and ceremonial laws in terms of their details, the Old Testament is not an obsolete document. The Old Testament testifies of Christ (John 5:39; Rom. 3:21), and “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning” (Rom. 15:4).

What does the Old Testament teach us about Christ? Our Lord sums it up in Luke 24:46-47: “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Therefore, when we turn to the Psalms, we should expect to find the themes of Christ’s sufferings and death, His resurrection and exaltation, and His triumphant work of saving sinners from all nations in the world. As Luther wrote in his preface to the Psalms in 1531:

Yea, the Psalter ought to be precious and dear, were it for nothing else but the clear promise it holds forth respecting Christ’s death and resurrection, and its prefiguration of His kingdom and of the whole estate and system of Christianity, insomuch that it might well be entitled a Little Bible, wherein everything contained in the entire Bible is beautifully and briefly comprehended, and compacted into an enchiridion or Hand Manual.⁹

The Psalms are full of Christ. There are statements that refer plainly to the glorious Son of God, such as Psalm 2 where God calls Christ His anointed Son set on His “holy hill” and Psalm 110 which says, “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (v. 1; cf. Matthew 22:41-46; Hebrew 1:13). There are poignant prophecies of Christ’s unique person and earthly ministry, of His natures and states, and especially of His death, as in Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (cf. Mark 15:34).¹⁰This psalm also speaks of the success of His redemptive mission in verse 27, heralding the time when “all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.” Moreover, the laments in the Psalms not only help us in expressing our own grief under trials but also assist us in meditating on the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would be revealed.

Furthermore, as David Murray says, it is not just the plainly messianic psalms that point us to Christ. In the Psalms we sing to Christ whenever we praise God as our rock, our shield, our king, and our Redeemer. This is because Christ, as the Son of God and the blessed Second Person of the Trinity, is the only Mediator of God’s saving works. The Psalms teach us to sing with Christ, for in His human nature the Lord Jesus was a faithful Israelite who grew up with the Psalms — a point to which I will return in a moment. And they lead us to sing of Christ. God sovereignly shaped the life of David so that in many of his experiences he was a type or pattern of Christ.¹¹The Psalms are not just the spiritual meditations of an everyday Israelite; they revolve around the Lord’s anointed King.¹²Thus even David’s prayer in Psalm 31:5 becomes Christ’s dying prayer: “Into thine hand I com­mit my spirit” (cf. Luke 23:46).

The Psalms reveal Christ in the whole of His person, natures, offices, states, and glory. Therefore, it is suitable for Christians to sing them, for they express our faith, hope, and love in the Lord Jesus. At this point, however, someone might object that while Christians should study the Psalms, there is no reason or warrant for us to sing them. Answering this objection leads to the next reason to sing psalms.

Christ and the New Testament Church Sang the Psalms←↰⤒🔗

The Lord Jesus Christ is our great example of a true man of God. Christianity is summed up in His words, “Follow me.”¹³It is therefore significant to us that when Christ celebrated His last Passover and instituted the first Lord’s Supper — right at the hinge between the old and new covenants — He was sing­ing psalms. Matthew 26:30 tells us, “When they had sung a hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives” (see also Mark 14:26). The words “sing a hymn” (humneō) mean to sing a song of praise to God. The tradition at Passover was to sing the Hallel, consisting of Psalms 113 through 118.¹⁴The night before He was crucified, the Lord Jesus, together with His chosen disciples, was worshiping God through singing psalms!

After Christ’s resurrection, as gospel preaching gathered the church from the Jews and Gentiles, they too sang psalms. Ephesians 5:18-19 says, “Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves (or to one another) in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Colossians 3:16 says, “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.” All three of these words — psalms, hymns, and songs (which overlap in meaning) — are used frequently in the Bible for the contents of the Psalms.¹⁵For example, all three words appear in the Greek translation of the inscription or title of Psalm 76.¹⁶

John Cotton (1584-1652) noted that these words are “the very titles of the songs of David, as they are delivered to us by the Holy Ghost himself.”¹⁷Cotton is reminding us of something many editors of today’s Bibles seem to have forgotten, namely, that the inscriptions attached to many psalms are part of the original Hebrew text and therefore part of the inspired Word of God. Furthermore, in Ephesians 4:8, 26, Paul quotes twice from the Psalms, before his command to sing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” in Ephesians 5:18-19. It would be very strange for Paul to use this language if he intended no reference to the Psalms. Therefore we may conclude that Paul taught churches to sing psalms as a rich and varied col­lection of sacred songs.

All three biblical reasons for singing psalms result from one great truth — namely, the uniqueness of the Psalms as part of Holy Scripture, God’s authoritative, eternal, living, and powerful Word. It pleased the Spirit to include a collection of hymns in the canon of Scripture. The unique divine origin of this collection implies that there can be no other songs like these as the gift of God to His church, and obedience to His will requires that God’s people use them as God Himself intends and commands — as the sacrifice of praise that we offer to Him.

We see, then, that there is a strong biblical reason for singing psalms. They are God’s gift to Israel and all nations to sing His praises. They glorify Christ as the One who suf­fered and entered into His glory to save sinners. And they were the songs of the Lord Jesus, His apostles, and the apostolic church.

The Experiential Benefits of Singing the Psalms←⤒🔗

Singing psalms is our biblical duty, but we may also rejoice that it is for our good. All of God’s Word aims at our profit, and there is much profit in singing psalms. It is good for our hearts to be enlarged (Ps. 119:32) and our faith and minds to be established and strengthened by God’s grace (Ps. 42:5, 11; Heb. 13:9; 1 Peter 5:10). Singing psalms, or psalmody, is a precious means of grace that, under the Spirit’s blessing, can do much good for our souls.

Singing the Psalms Causes the Word of Christ to Dwell in Us Richly←↰⤒🔗

Let us return to Colossians 3:16: “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.” The construction of this sentence shows that Paul equates these “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” with “the word of Christ.”

Few activities stir up our hearts more than singing. Music engages the affections and imprints words on the memory. What better way, then, to stir up our hearts with the Word of God than by singing it? William Ames wrote that singing psalms has the following advantages over merely reading them:

1. “it brings a kind of sweet delight to godly minds”;
2. it enables “a more distinct and fixed meditation”; and
3. it results in more “mutual edification.”¹⁸

Singing psalms will enrich our hearts with the truth of God. John Calvin said that “we should sing with voice and heart” with our minds focused on “the spiritual meaning of the words.”¹⁹What better way to do this than to sing God’s own words? Calvin quoted Augustine: “When we sing these songs ... we are certain that God puts the words into our mouths as if he were singing in us to exalt his glory.”²⁰

Furthermore, Christ Himself leads His people in offering praise to God. Hebrews 2:12 calls attention to the prophecy of Psalm 22:22, in which Christ says, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.” As those who by faith are grafted into Christ and filled with His Spirit, we never sing alone. According to His promise, Christ is present in our assemblies for worship, and He assists us by His Spirit in offering the sacrifice of praise to God (Heb. 13:15). Surely the more we fill our worship with psalms, which were inspired by the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1:12-14), the more we take hold of the means Christ has given us to be true worshipers of God. The word of Christ dwells in us richly as we sing psalms.

Singing the Psalms Helps Us to Be Filled with God’s Spirit←↰⤒🔗

Earlier I quoted Ephesians 5:19, and now I want to put it in its context with verse 18: “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” The contrast is between drunkenness and the filling with the Spirit. Some sinners give themselves over to the control of mind-altering substances in search of momentary euphoria. Saints must give themselves over to the control of the Holy Spirit, who alone gives real comfort and joy (Acts 9:31; Rom. 14:17; Gal. 5:22). We must let the Spirit be the wine of our souls. Thomas Ford wrote, “The Spirit is not only water to cleanse and wash, but wine to cheer and refresh.”²¹We drink this refreshing wine of the Spirit as we sing these inspired words of the Spirit.

Practically speaking, how do people experience the fullness of the Spirit? The apostle goes on to tell us how in what follows: “speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Paul Bayne said, “The exercise of Psalm-singing is a means of increasing in us the Spirit.” Just as singing the devil’s songs fills people with immorality, Bayne wrote, “so God’s song is of great force to make us be filled of his good Spirit,” for psalms are “from the Spirit.”²²This is another way of saying that they are truly spiritual songs.

Do you want the Holy Spirit to fill you? Do you desire to give young people an alternative to immoral music and substance abuse? Use the means of grace. Sing psalms. Singing psalms with grace in the heart helps us to be filled with God’s Spirit.

Singing the Psalms Enables Us to Worship God in Every Experience←↰⤒🔗

We do not come to the worship of God as blank slates, but full of thoughts and feelings from the days of the preceding week. We should not view worship as a form of escapism where for a little while we can pretend that none of the evil and grief in the world is really there. Instead, we should come to worship bringing all that we are to God, and, as Psalm 62:8 says, “pour out your heart before him.” Paul not only spoke of the Spirit moving us to praise the Lord (Eph. 5:19) and rejoice in Him (1 Thess. 1:6), but also of the Spirit moving us to cry out to the Father (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6), even with groaning (Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 5:2, 4).

Psalms are immensely helpful to us in this work of pouring out our hearts before God. Calvin said, “I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, ‘An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul’; for there is not an emotion of which one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror.”²³Certainly many psalms are full of exultation and joy, but that is not all.

• Are you deeply convicted of sin? Follow the counsel of Psalm 32:5: “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”
• Are you persecuted? Psalm 3:1-3 says, “LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.”
• Are you depressed? Psalm 42:11 says, “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.”
• Do you feel forgotten by God? Psalm 13:1 asks, “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?” Faith’s answer is at hand: “But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart will rejoice in thy salvation” (v. 5).
• Are you in danger of thinking that it is better to sin than to obey? Psalm 73 says, “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked ... until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end ... How are they brought unto destruction, as in a moment!” (vv. 2-3, 17, 19).
• Are you troubled by the sinful attitudes of those around you? Take comfort in the words of Psalm 120:5-6: “My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.”
• Are you fearful of the times and dismayed by current developments that pose a threat to the well-being of God’s people? Psalm 56:3 says, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.”²⁴

Worship is shallow if it constantly projects a happy face. But the Psalms wear no such mask. They deliver us from such hypocrisy. Yet they also deliver us from self-absorption by lifting our gaze from ourselves and our troubles to the Lord. They are a model for our personal and intercessory prayers and a comfort for our souls, especially in times of temptation and adversity.²⁵

Cotton says singing the Psalms “allayeth the passions of melancholy and choler, yea and scattereth the furious temptations of evill spirits, 1 Sam. 16:23.”²⁶Robert Sanderson (1587-1662) called the Psalms “the treasury of comfort.” He certainly knew whereof he spoke. Once the bishop of Lincoln, Sanderson was ejected from his professorship at Oxford and imprisoned by Parliament, but he continued to find precious comfort in the Psalter. He described the Psalter this way:

(It) is fitted for all persons and all necessities; able to raise the soul from dejection by the frequent mention of God’s mercies to repentant sinners: to stir up holy desire; to increase joy; to moderate sorrow; to nourish hope, and teach us patience, by waiting God’s leisure; to beget a trust in the mercy, power, and providence of our Creator; and to cause a resignation of ourselves to his will: and then, and not till then, to believe ourselves happy.²⁷

The Psalms link our subjective experience to the reality of God. We are compelled to look at our own circumstances from the vantage point of God and His power to save. As Geerhardus Vos says, the Psalms “voic(e) the subjective response to the objective doings of God for and among his people.”²⁸They show us the depth of communion we may enjoy with our covenant-keeping God as we worship Him privately and corporately, committing our all to Him. They prompt reliance on God’s promises, promote zeal for Him and His house, and move us to love Him as God’s children, God’s flock, and God’s bride. They enable us to pray against God’s and our enemies and find comfort under the shadow of our Savior’s wings.

In this connection, it should be noted that there is no problem in singing the so-called imprecatory psalms which, as Johnston says, “call for God to blot out, desolate, and utterly destroy the wicked. It is important to remember that each of these psalms utters to the Lord a cry for justice that places the problem of evil in the hands of the Lord and then waits upon his vengeance.²⁹These psalms do not, as has been said, express unchristian sentiments. They are not mere expressions of personal pique or resentment. Rather, they are a solemn acknowledgment that we live in a fallen world among people who fight against God and His Christ and that such people’s doom, except they repent, is both just and sure. Consequently, in the imprecatory psalms we do not pray for personal vengeance but for God’s glory and the good of the church.

Moreover, the imprecatory psalms are consistent in praying for the salvation of the church’s persecutors. But if the church’s persecutors who lash out against God and the church with vehement hatred and anger refuse to repent of their sin, these psalms teach us that the righteous may, with fear and trembling, exercise a godly anger against those who blatantly defy God and His law and gospel. Such cries are “really the outpourings of a heart provoked by evil, righ­teously indignant, and zealous for God and righteousness (Rom. 12:19; Eph. 4:26).”³⁰Thus, “these psalms demon­strate faith in the Lord from within the trauma of real-life situations and teach us to express a holy, moral indignation toward those who would set themselves against God’s King and his kingdom.”³¹

There are rich experiential benefits of singing psalms. It is a means by which the word of Christ dwells richly in us and by which the Holy Spirit fills us. Singing psalms also imparts an authenticity to our worship, for the Psalms reflect every dimension of human experience. No matter what our state or condition, we can find a starting point in the Psalms for binding our way back to God and to the riches of His grace. In fact, sometimes when believers have been in a very low condition spiritually, emotionally, and physically, finding it difficult to read or pray, God has lifted them up by bringing the Psalter back to their memory with little effort.

The Beauty and Glory of Singing the Psalms←⤒🔗

We have seen that the Psalms comprehensively address human experience. Yet they take us beyond our present situation. They lift us up into a glory that transcends our little lives and immediate problems. How they do so provides my third and last set of reasons for singing psalms.

The Psalms Unite Us with Believers of All Times←↰⤒🔗

Man-made songs of worship can have great personal meaning, but they are often limited in their scope or “shelf life.” Each family, church, or denomination has its own favorite songs. Many praise songs pass quickly from history, disappearing after a few years or decades at best. A small minority of such songs remains in use across the centuries. Most are forgotten as time passes.

Psalms, however, unite us with the church of Jesus Christ of all times and places, thereby emphasizing a robust covenant theology that helps us read the Bible more profitably. We are singing the same songs that David, Isaiah, and Daniel used to worship God. We worship, as Vos said, in “vital unity” with the Old Testament saints, for “we are sons of the prophets and of the (covenant) God made with Abraham.”³²We join with Jesus and His apostles, for these are the songs they sang and promoted “in synagogues (e.g., Acts 13:32-39; 17:1-3) and churches (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16) across the Roman Empire ... Jesus and his apostles quoted the Psalter more than any other Old Testament book in their preaching and writing.”³³We also stand with the early church, for the ancient church historians, together with Augustine and Chrysostom, tell us that they sang psalms.³⁴Singing psalms was the heart of daily worship in the liturgy of the church down to the Middle Ages.³⁵

When Luther led the Reformation, he sent out a call for men to translate the Psalms so that the common people could sing the word of Christ.³⁶Calvin and his coworkers heard that call and produced the first metrical versions of the Psalms for congregational use — that is, the Hebrew Psalms were translated into vernacular poetry in French, Dutch, English, and many other languages and were set to simple tunes. After the Reformation, the Psalms were the dear companions of the Scottish Covenanters and the Puritans both in England and New England through all their trials and sufferings.³⁷The Bay Psalm Book was the very first book printed in the American colonies!³⁸When William Perkins, often called the father of Puri­tanism, was asked why he still sang the psalms of Israel, he said that the faith of the church of all times is “always one and the same.” They share the same graces, feelings, needs, and sorrows, and therefore the same psalms are as fit for the church to sing today as when they were written.³⁹That belief has preserved psalm singing in many Reformed churches to this day.

When we sing psalms, we fulfill the multigenerational prophetic vision of the Psalms themselves (Pss. 78:3-8; 79:13). We join our praise with the offerings of all the past generations of the saints. We reach out to future generations, passing on to them a legacy of biblical worship (Pss. 78:4; 145:4). We say with Psalm 102:18, “This shall be written for the generation to come; and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.”

The Psalms Lift Up Our Eyes to the Hope of Glory←↰⤒🔗

Though the Psalms address our personal problems and longings for deliverance, their vision is much grander. They look forward to nothing less than the coming of God to judge the world and complete the redemption of all creation (Pss. 96:13; 98:9). Vos says that the Psalms teach us that “the prospect of the future is God-centered in the highest degree.”⁴⁰God’s kingdom will come, and the psalmist teaches us to sing of it as though it had already happened: “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” (Ps. 96:11–13).

Therefore, singing psalms cultivates in us a God-sized hope that transcends our personal concerns, contemporary issues, and national problems. Anthony Selvaggio writes, “The Psalms hold before our eyes the reality that God has intruded, and will intrude, into history in cataclysmic ways, ultimately yielding everlasting peace and rest for His people.... Psalm singing equips the believer to be on watch for God’s kingdom.”⁴¹This is tremendously helpful, delivering us from our constant tendency to pettiness and fixing our hearts and minds on things above.

The Psalms Keep God Supreme in Our Worship←↰⤒🔗

Psalm singing has always been a hallmark of biblical faith, devotion, and daily life. And no wonder! The Reformed vision of the sovereign God who has made all things for His own glory, who works all things according to the counsel of His own will, and who has revealed His glory and steadfast love supremely in the person and work of His incarnate Son, Jesus Christ — this sight of God is rooted in the Psalms and is confirmed and elaborated at every point. There is no book of praise more perfectly suited to the faith of Christians.

The Psalms teach us to sing of these attributes of God:

• His sovereignty: “The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength” (Ps. 93:1).
• His wisdom: “O LORD, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches” (Ps. 104:24).
• His love: “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever” (Ps. 136:1).

The heartbeat of Christian devotion is precisely the heartbeat of the Psalter: “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name!” (Ps. 96:8). “From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD’s name is to be praised” (Ps. 113:3). “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts ... My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever” (Ps. 145:4, 21).

Conclusion←⤒🔗

Church history records that when men began to turn away from a God-centered faith, they also turned away from the Psalter. The vision of the sovereign God found in the Psalms proved to be unpalatable to those who wanted to make much of man’s free will and fancied ability to be his own savior. Conversely, how can we hope to recover biblical faith in our day if we do not feed our faith with the “iron rations of the soul” found in the inspired Psalms?⁴²

If you consciously strive to learn the Psalms better through singing, you will soon discover for yourself that there is divine life and power in these songs and that they are a means of drawing near to Christ and feeding on the riches of His grace. God will appear all the more glorious in your eyes, and your heavenly Father’s provision for all your needs will appear all the more abundant. You will learn by firsthand experience that these are truly the songs of the Lord, the word of Christ, and a divinely appointed means of grace to your soul.