Sing the Psalms

December 29, 2013 in Bible - NT - Hebrews, Bible - OT - Psalms, Christmas, King Jesus, Meditations, Singing Psalms, Word of God, Worship
Hebrews 4:11-13 (NKJV)
11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must giveaccount.
Much has transpired in the last week. We have moved out of the time of Advent and into the time of Christmas. And in the season of Christmas we celebrate! We celebrate the arrival of the long anticipated One; we celebrate the fulfillment of God’s promises in the life and death and resurrection of His Son. The Lord our God has come!
In our sermons this Advent and Christmastide, we have focused upon Jesus in the Psalms. One of the things that we have emphasized is that Jesus is the true Singer of the Psalms. In Him the psalms, all the psalms, reach their fulfillment and culmination. Throughout His life Jesus sang these psalms, meditated upon these psalms, absorbed these psalms into His life and made them part of His being.
Our text in Hebrews urges us to have this same type of faith. After exhorting us to enter into God’s rest, Paul directs us to the Word of God, which is able to slice and dice us, able to show us our faults and illumine our shortcomings. Why direct us here? Why direct us to the Word of God? Because this is the same place that our Lord Jesus went to direct His own walk with His Father. He was a student of the Word of God. He allowed the Word of God to make and fashion Him into the type of man His Father desired Him to be. And though He was free from sin, free from the necessity of going back and redoing things that he had messed up, He nevertheless grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man through the things that He learned in the Word.
And so the author of Hebrews directs us to be students of the Word of God. We are called to be disciples. To hear what He says to us that we might correct our faults and that we might be reminded of the great promises that He has made to us.

So reminded of our calling to be singers of the psalms, let us kneel and confess that we have often failed to permit His Word to shape us and have instead been shaped by other, contrary voices.

Awake and Sing!

December 22, 2013 in Bible - OT - Isaiah, Christmas, Church Calendar, Eschatology, King Jesus, Meditations, Singing Psalms, Worship
Isaiah 51:9-11 (NKJV)
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in the ancient days, In the generations of old. AreYou not the arm that cut Rahab apart, And wounded the serpent? 10 Are You not the Onewho dried up the sea, The waters of the great deep; That made the depths of the sea a road For the redeemed to cross over? 11 So the ransomed of the Lordshall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
In our passage today Isaiah calls upon the Lord to fulfill His promise to rescue His people Israel from exile; indeed, not only to rescue His people Israel but to rescue all the peoples of the earth. The nations that sat in darkness needed the light of God. And so Isaiah cries out to God to fulfill His promises, “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord!”
Isaiah calls to the Lord’s mind His previous acts of deliverance and implores Him to act again. “Was it not You, Lord, who acted to destroy Egypt? Was it not You who dried up the Red Sea? Who made the depths of the sea a road for Israel to cross upon? Yes it was You, Lord, who did this.” So Isaiah calls upon this same Lord, the Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, Yahweh, the Creator of all men and nations, to fulfill His promises, “Awake! Awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old.”
And this, brothers and sisters, is what we pray in Advent. During Advent we recall the cries of our fathers like Isaiah and issue cries of our own. We rejoice because God answered Isaiah’s cry by sending our Lord and Savior Jesus to rescue the world from sin and darkness. But we not only rejoice that God has fulfilled Isaiah’s prayer, we also lift up prayers of our own. For the Lord has yet to fulfill all His promises. He has yet to fill the earth with the knowledge of His name, yet to spread justice to all the ends of the earth, yet to bring history to a close in the return of Christ and the resurrection of the just and unjust. And so we are instructed by our Lord Jesus to cry out, “Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!” In other words, “Awake! Awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old.”
One of the chief ways that we issue this cry is in our singing – we praise the Lord who has acted and beseech Him to act yet again. Note that Isaiah’s vision of God’s redemption in Jesus is filled with singing. “So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, And come to Zion with singing.” Because God has answered Isaiah’s cry to “Awake!”, we ought to sing and praise the Lord, to come to Zion with singing. And even as Isaiah, remembering the Exodus from Egypt, remembering God’s past deliverance, petitioned the Lord to rescue Israel again, so we cry out in song for the full revelation of Christ’s kingdom.
So how ought we to sing? Isaiah models and instructs us. Note that his cry to God is filled with passion, conviction, entreaty, hunger, longing, joy, and delight. “Awake! Awake!” he cries. Then he describes our singing, So the ransomed of the Lordshall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. May God make it so and fill us with joy and peace in believing and in singing.

Reminded that we are yet in need of the Lord’s mercy, that the Lord has exhorted us to sing and pray for the full arrival of His Kingdom, let us confess that we are often complacent and do not cry out to the Lord to fulfill his promises.

Called to Sing

December 2, 2013 in Bible - NT - 1 Peter, Christmas, Meditations, Singing Psalms, Worship
1 Peter 2:4–5 (NKJV)
4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the time of year when we recall both God’s promise to our fathers that one day He would send a Son of Adam to rescue us from sin and death and God’s promise to us that one day that Son shall return in glory to vindicate all who trust Him. It is this Son who is the subject of Peter’s epistle. Peter describes the Son as a living stone, rejected indeed by men – so deep was our ailment as human beings that we rejected the One who would deliver us, killed the physician who would heal us, stoned the king who would rule over us, crucified the Lord of Glory. Yet it is this stone that was chosen by God and precious.
So Peter calls upon us to remember the life of our Lord Jesus as we consider our own plight in the world. As Christians we dare not assume that we shall be treated better than our Master. Sometimes in His kindness God grants periods of peace and prosperity to His Church. But when He chooses to send trial, hardship, or persecution we dare not grumble or imagine something strange is happening. For we, like Jesus, are living stones, stones which are often rejected by men but chosen by God and precious. It is with these stones, with us, that God is building a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.
So why has God rescued us from sin and death? Why is he constructing a spiritual Temple from these living stones? Why establishing a holy priesthood from these sinful men and women? Peter gives us the answer – to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. God has chosen us that we might worship God. Listen to the 9thverse of this same chapter:
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
God has chosen the Church in order that we might worship Him, sing His praises, declare the wonder of His grace, join our voices in the congregation of the righteous and extol the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
This Advent our sermons focus on Jesus in the Psalms. As we consider the psalms, I would remind you why God has given them to us in the first place – they are meant to be sung. God saved you that youmight proclaim His praises, that youmight offer up spiritual sacrifices, that youmight offer up the fruit of your lips to God. Singing praise to God is not optional – it is the reason God delivered you from your sin. So sing – don’t be self-conscious. Sing; don’t make excuses. Sing; don’t deprive the assembly of the righteous of your voice.

And as we gather in His presence to sing, let us acknowledge that we often put the cart before the horse. We often imagine that it is we who are the center of salvation – but it is not we who are the center but God. God saved us so that we might praise Him – because He is worthy of praise. Does this benefit us? Absolutely! Our greatest delight as human beings comes when we learn to extol God’s wonder more fully and completely. Is it centered on us? Absolutely not! We were delivered to sing His praises, not our own. Yet often we put ourselves at the center. So reminded of this, let us kneel and seek the Lord’s forgiveness through Christ.

Do not be Afraid

December 27, 2012 in Bible - NT - Mark, Meditations, Singing Psalms, Worship

Mark 6:45–51 (NKJV)
45 Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitude away. 46 And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray. 47 Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land. 48 Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by. 49 And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out; 50 for they all saw Him and were troubled. But immediately He talked with them and said to them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” 51 Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled.
This morning we study Zacharias’ song of praise, commonly called the Benedictus. Zacharias meditates on the wonder of our Redeemer – that God acted in fulfillment of His promises to save and deliver us as His people.
The consequence of this action is that we need not be afraid. But we often are afraid. We forget who it is who is on our side and we tremble at the challenges that face us. Like the disciples in the boat, we are thrown into a dither and rather than remember the One who is with us, the One who has promised to protect us and care for us, we grow fearful. It is in such times that Jesus speaks to us and says, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
So as we come into worship this day, I remind you to hear the words of Jesus afresh. He is the Lord. He is our Redeemer. And he says to us, “Do not be afraid!” So hearing his words of assurance and reminded that we often do fear, forgetting who He is, let us kneel and confess our sin to the Lord.

Review: Letters to a Young Calvinist

November 8, 2012 in Book Reviews, Church History, Creeds, John Calvin, Singing Psalms, Worship

I recently read through James K.A. Smith’s Letters to a Young Calvinist. Having also just read his work Desiring the Kingdom I thought I’d pick this up. There were a number of things I liked; others I didn’t. Overall helpful but not sure that it’s what I’d give to a young Calvinist. Maybe. Pretty decisive, eh?
So for the good. His warnings against spiritual pride are very apropos. I remember years ago reading a great edition of Credenda/Agenda entitled, “Tender Mercies: How to Avoid Sinning Like a Calvinist.” That was a great collection of articles – very helpful as a young Calvinist. In fact, it’s probably what I would recommend handing out rather than this book. The magazine hit this issue of pride repeatedly and well – as does Smith. I did feel, however, that in his slightly condescending tone toward Calvinistic Baptists that he was being a tad inconsistent. I have my share of criticisms for Calvinistic Baptists as well – but the tone struck me as wrong at points.
Second, his insistence that the center of Calvinism is an insistence on grace was delightful. Loved it. Grace all the way down – everything is a gift. So what should our fundamental attitude be toward the world and one another? Well what do we do when others give us a gift? We say thanks! Overflowing with thankfulness!
Third, I loved his analogy comparing the creeds to grammar lessons. Very helpful! He says:
Or, finally, you might think of the creeds and confessions as articulating the grammar of the language of faith. They’re not meant to be a substitute for speaking the language! Rather, they provide a way for one to learn a ‘second’ language. If I’m studying Greek grammar, it’s not so that I can know Greek grammar; it’s so that I can read Greek, and perhaps the Greek New Testament in particular. So also, I learn the ‘grammar’ of faith articulated in the creeds and confessions, not as ends in themselves, but as an invitation to read Scripture well, and as guides to faithful practice.
Fourth, his historical consciousness and respect for the corporate nature of the church, the voice of the church over time was very helpful.
Fifth, his criticism of the incipient Gnosticism in much of Calvinistic Baptist and even Reformed writings is helpful. The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains – so let us receive it and give thanks. I’ll never think of Shedd in the same way again.
The bad? First, his definition of semper reformanda as a means of abandoning teachings of the NT was troubling – in particular his egalitarian tendencies in his approach to the relationship between men and women, especially the role of women in ministry. His grammatical ambivalence for using the traditional English “he” and “him” for a generic person reveal his staunchly egalitarian stance. All this while professing reverence for the text. No wonder the CRC is heading the wrong direction.
Second, the centrality of the psalms for corporate worship is not given the attention which I think it deserves. I know that Smith considers the psalms important for worship. His Desiring the Kingdom gives a tangible taste of liturgical worship incorporating the psalms. But I fear it is “psalms-lite” and what we need is to be psalm saturated. This is important for many of our younger Calvinists because they’re embracing a form of worship that, in principle, undermines many of the doctrinal convictions of Calvinism. And the truth is lex orandi, lex credenda – the law of prayer is the law of faith. We become what we worship and if the God we worship is not approached with reverence and awe, as a consuming fire, then our theology is going to begin heading down the wrong trajectory. The psalms are the key – as they have been historically in the Reformed churches.
Overall a helpful, easy to read book. Reviewing it helps me see there was more I appreciated than not. It was a useful complement to his book Desiring the Kingdom which I also recommend.

Centrality of the Psalms

July 9, 2010 in Bible - NT - James, Meditations, Singing Psalms

James 5:13 (NKJV)
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

What are we to do when facing the ups and downs of life? When we are suffering and weighed down, heavy of spirit – what are we to do? On the other hand, when cheerful, full of joy and wonder at the world in which we live – what are we to do? Today James tells us. “Is anyone among you suffering – feeling poorly, enduring trouble? Let him (an imperative, a command – this isn’t simply good advice) Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him (again, an imperative, a command), Let him sing psalms.”

James tells us that when we are suffering we are to pray. We are to take our troubles straight to the Lord. “Lord, I don’t understand; God help me; Father, lift me up; My God, my god, why have you forsaken me, why are you so far from my groaning?” When we are suffering it is not simply a good idea to take our pain to the throne of God, we are commanded to do so. Cry out to God; He wants to hear; He wants to be the one to whom you direct your cries. And where do we find examples of what faithful cries to God in sorrow look like? In the psalms.

Balancing this imperative comes James’ imperative for times of joy. When we are cheerful, we are to sing psalms. Why? Because singing enables us to funnel the joy that we are experiencing in the right direction – in praise and thankfulness to our Creator and Redeemer. When we are joyful there is only one proper response in James’ mind: praise. And where do we find examples of what faithful praise to God in joy looks like? In the psalms.

Notice then the priority that James places upon the psalter for the life of God’s people. What are we to do when suffering? We are to pray the psalms. What are we to do when joyful? We are to sing the psalms.

So here’s the question for us – do we know our psalter well enough to fulfill James’ exhortation? How well do you know your psalms? Do the psalms, when you are burdened and weighed down, come to your mind and fill your soul with cries to God? Do the psalms, when you are cheerful and lifted up, come to your mind and fill your home with praise and thanksgiving?

I dare say that if you are like me there is some lack in this regard. Not many of us grew up singing the psalter. This is a new experience for us. Many of the psalms may be strange and foreign to us. Some of the tunes that we have in our English psalters are hard to learn. Some of the words of the psalms are difficult to understand and believe. But is the problem with the psalter? Hardly. It is with us. We need to grow in our ability to sing and to understand the psalms.

Consequently, one of the things we are committed to do as a congregation is to become more excellent in our ability to sing the psalms and more knowledgeable of their content. We have psalm sings every month so that we can learn them, we sing the psalms in our corporate worship together so they become intwined with our corporate life, and we are hosting again our Savoring the Psalms BBQs this summer to revel in them. All these things are specifically geared to help us fulfill the exhortations given to us by James – is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

Reminded that in our suffering and in our joy God expects us to cry out to Him with the psalms and to praise Him with the psalms, let us kneel and confess that we have neglected to do so.

Our Singing Savior

June 23, 2009 in Bible - OT - Psalms, King Jesus, Singing Psalms

(This is an email sent to our congregation discussing the idea that Jesus sang portions of Psalm 118 as He entered into Jerusalem.)

All,

This past Lord’s Day I argued that Jesus was likely singing portions of Psalm 118 as He entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. One of the folks in the congregation had a great question for me and a good catch – that the text never explicitly notes that Jesus was in fact singing. How do we know that He was?

First, this was a great question. It forced me to think about the issue and why I would argue that Jesus was singing.

Second, given that this is an implication of the text and not an explicit assertion of the text, this is certainly not a hill anyone should die on. It is possible that He did not sing on this occasion. But whether Jesus sang Psalm 118 on this occasion or not, we do know that He sang the psalms frequently and that He did so during Passover week (cf. Mk 14:26). Further, the NT frequently asserts that the words of the psalms are the words of the Lord’s Anointed, His Christ, and so they are most appropriately Jesus’ words (cf. Heb 2:11ff). Consequently, it is fitting to consider how the words of Psalm 118 reflect the faith of our Lord – even as we did in our points of application on Sunday.

Third, I would argue that frequently when the Scriptures cite a verse of a psalm in the context of a “worship” or “praise” moment, that verse frequently serves as a pointer to the psalm in toto. So, for instance, as Jehoshaphat and the people of Israel marched out against the Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites, they were singing “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever” (2 Chr 20:21). Most commentators would argue that this verse is stuck there to point us to Psalm 136 (and possibly Psalm 106). So the quotation from the psalm in the book of Chronicles is a pointer, telling us that as Jehoshaphat and Israel went forth to battle they were singing Psalm 136 from the Psalter. This is why I would argue that Jesus was singing part of the psalm. I think the quotation of the psalm in Mark serves a similar “pointer” purpose. Be that as it may, you should be aware that this is an implication of the text not an assertion of the text – and weigh it accordingly.

For those interested, much of my thinking on this matter of Jesus as the singer of the psalms was shaped by a book written by James E. Adams entitled, War Psalms of the Prince of Peace: Lessons from the Imprecatory Psalms published by P&R. He has a chapter in there on Jesus as the proper singer of the psalms. He notes that in passages such as Hebrews 2:11-13 Jesus is represented as the One truly singing the words of the psalms. I would highly recommend his book if you haven’t read it – I think there may be a copy on the book table.

May the Lord continue to heighten our love for His Word and our desire to understand and apply it!

Singing for the Kingdom

December 8, 2008 in Bible - OT - Isaiah, Meditations, Prayer, Singing Psalms

Isaiah 51:9-11 (NKJV)9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in the ancient days, In the generations of old. Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart, And wounded the serpent? 10 Are You not the One who dried up the sea, The waters of the great deep; That made the depths of the sea a road For the redeemed to cross over? 11 So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

In our passage today Isaiah calls upon the Lord to fulfill the promises that He is making through Isaiah himself. The Lord has promised through the prophet Isaiah to rescue His people from exile; indeed, not only to rescue His people from exile but to rescue the entire earth. And so Isaiah, seeing the promise, longing for its fulfillment calls out to the Lord in the midst of writing these promises – Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord!

Isaiah calls to the Lord’s mind His previous acts of deliverance and implores Him to act again. Was it not You, Lord, who acted to destroy Egypt, was it not You who dried up the Red Sea, who made the depths of the sea a road for Israel to cross upon? Yes it was You, Lord, who did this.

And so Isaiah calls upon this same Lord, the Lord who delivered Israel from Egypt and who was presently revealing His purposes to Isaiah – Awake! Awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord!

And this brothers is the heart of true prayer. The heart of true prayer is to consider the promises of God and then ask Him, plead with Him, urge Him to do the very things that He has promised to do. Lord, act! Lord, save!

Today is the second Sunday of Advent – the beginning of the Church calendar. In this time we have the immense privilege of recalling the cries of our fathers – Lord awake! Lord act! Do that which you have promised.

But we too find ourselves in this position. For the Lord has yet to fulfill all His promises. The Lord has yet to fill the earth with the knowledge of His name, yet to spread justice to all the ends of the earth. And so we are instructed by our Lord Jesus to cry out, Lord awake! Lord act! Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven! Vindicate your Name, O Lord! Rescue your people!

One of the chief ways that we as the people of God issue these cries is in our singing – we praise the Lord who has acted and beseech Him yet to act! And this is what Isaiah tells us. “So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, And come to Zion with singing.” For what was the response of Israel following the Exodus? Miriam and the daughters of Israel composed a song and praised the Lord for his deliverance. But now Isaiah is asking for more – deliver us yet again. Israel praised the Lord for His deliverance and looked forward to deliverances yet to come. And we, brothers and sisters, are in a similar position. Christ has come – Hallelujah! Christ has yet to extend His rule throughout the earth – Maranatha!

You’ll notice that the hymns and psalms we have chosen for Advent are endeavoring to give expression to this reality. We are endeavoring to be consistent with the thrust of the season. And so as you sing – consider. Why are we singing what we are singing? Is the song a song of praise for deliverance accomplished or is it one of deliverance desired or is it one of both? For we as the people of God have the immense privilege of celebrating the incarnation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and of praying that His Kingdom would reach its full fruition. We are praying as we sing, Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And so how ought we to sing? Well, what is the tone of Isaiah’s call? Awake! Awake, put on strength O arm of the Lord! Is it not one of passion, conviction, entreaty, hunger, robustness?

Reminded that we are yet in need of the Lord’s mercy, that the Lord has exhorted us to sing and pray for the full arrival of His Kingdom, let us kneel and confess our complacency to the Lord.