The Eternal Relevance of the Songs of God

Why We Need the Psalms More Than Ever Before

Heather Ferngren Morton
The Gospel Coalition  ©

Recent events have left many of us reeling. A pandemic that has taken more than 100,000 American lives. Soaring unemployment. Footage of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd’s brutal murders. National and local leaders who seem unable to bring unity when we need it most.

Worry may be a natural response to the crises facing our nation. It’s also an ancient response. “Fear not” is the most repeated command in Scripture. Yet as I hear newscasters’ predictions of a “second wave” of the coronavirus, or see yet another violent image, it’s a difficult one to obey. The charge to “be anxious for nothing” (Phil. 4:6) may orient me to the goal, but it doesn’t always help me achieve it.

In such moments I need the Psalms.

All of Scripture is helpful for life (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Yet some passages prove especially fitting for particular circumstances. “Like apples of gold in settings of silver,” Proverbs 25:11 says, “is a word spoken at the right time.” The songbook of God’s people is uniquely designed to transform our fears into vivid prayers that lead us into the presence and peace of God.


Language for Our Distress

Many psalms were written in distressing situations far more dire than mine. I’ve never hidden from wicked men bent on killing me, a common theme running through many psalms. I’ve never suited up for war. But I have experienced other crises—some potentially life-threatening, some emotionally devastating.

Pouring It All Out Unto a Holy God

What Do Angry Christians Sing?

Warren Peel

Some years ago I read Carl Trueman’s helpful article entitled ‘What do miserable Christians sing?’ His argument was that we need the God-breathed language of lament in the psalms to enable us to articulate our grief in the face of a broken world in a godly way.

I was reminded of it over these past weeks while reading of how the world and the Church have responded to the killing of George Floyd. Where can we find the vocabulary to pray about injustice? Here in the UK this week the government at Westminster voted to allow abortion for non-fatal foetal abnormalities in Northern Ireland, in spite of the fact that the majority of politicians in the Northern Ireland Assembly (who are supposed to have the authority to legislate on this issue) opposed it. A baby can now be legally ripped apart in their mother’s womb simply because he or she has Down’s Syndrome, a cleft palate or lip, or clubfoot. At a time when that same government’s slogan has been ‘Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’ and their imposing of stringent measures to keep safe those most vulnerable to covid-19, it is more than a little sickening to see their utter disregard for the lives of the most vulnerable in our society.

We ought to feel righteous indignation and anger in the face of these and a thousand other daily kinds of evil. But how do we express our outrage in a God-honouring way?

Singing the Songs of Zion

Many Servants, Manifold Testimony

One of the most encouraging things for Kingdom servants is to realise that the Spirit of God is working His ministries throughout the world in many, many different ways.  These ways are not necessarily our ways.  God's thoughts are not our thoughts.  One thinks of our Lord's encouraging rebuke to Elijah, when he feared he was the last man standing.

We recently came across a vid of an encounter between Bono (of U2 fame) and Eugene Peterson ("The Message").  The conversation had to do with the Psalms.  The discussion covered the nature of the Psalms, the essential importance of metaphor, and the nature of the Psalms as "brutally honest" and "not pretty".  It includes some excellent thoughts about the Imprecatory Psalms, which the Church has pretty much ignored for over three centuries.

Maybe that is one reason why the Church is appears in many places to be so anemic, so confused, and so busy trying to win the approval of the Gentiles.

You can listen to the discussion below:

Satisfied in God

Why Are You Cast Down, Oh My Soul?

There are many Christians who struggle with sadness and depression.  Amidst all the grief of soul, the everlasting arms always remain, always sustain, always hold up.  Below is a rendition of Psalm 42 written by one of the sons of Korah during a time of deep personal distress which affirms this.

The rendition is by by Brian Eichelberger of Mars Hill Church’s Sing Team, who writes:

The song begins by following closely to Psalm 42 singing, “As the deer pants for water so my soul thirsts for you.” The second verse then dives more into my personal response to the Psalm. A lot of times my tendency is to go into a depression looking into myself which only spirals me further down.
The song is meant to preach to myself and call me to remember the times when I experienced the glory and goodness of God which can help bounce me out of that vicious cycle. It’s meant to get my eyes off of me and be satisfied in God alone.

I have lost my appetite
And a flood is welling up behind my eyes
So I eat the tears I cry And if that were not enough
They know just the words to cut and tear and prod
When they ask me “Whereʼs your God?”

Why are you downcast, oh my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
I can remember when you showed your face to me
As a deer pants for water, so my soul thirsts for you
And when I behold Your glory, You so faithfully renew
Like a bed of rest for my fainting flesh

I am satisfied in you. When Iʼm staring at the ground
Itʼs an inbred feedback loop that brings me down
So itʼs time to lift my brow
And remember better days
When I loved to worship you and all your ways
Singing sweetest songs of praise

Why are you downcast, oh my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
I can remember when you showed your grace to me
As a deer pants for water, so my soul thirsts for you
And when I survey your splendour, You so faithfully renew
Like a bed of rest for my fainting flesh
I am satisfied in you.

Let my sighs give way to songs that sing about your faithfulness
Let my pain reveal your glory as my only real rest
Let my losses show me all I truly have is you
Cause all I truly have is you

So when Iʼm drowning out at sea
And your breakers and your waves crash down on me
Iʼll recall your safety scheme
Youʼre the one who made the waves
And your Son went out to suffer in my place
And to tell me that Iʼm safe

So why am I down?
Why so disturbed?
I am satisfied in you I am satisfied in you I am satisfied in you.

You can listen to the whole album here for free or download it for $4.
Hat Tip: Justin Taylor

The Triumphalism of "Joy, Joy, Joy . . ."

Do Our Worship Songs Have Room for Lament?

Perhaps . . . [the Western church] has drunk so deeply at the well of modern Western materialism that it simply does not know what to do with such cries (of lament) and regards them as little short of embarrassing.

Carl Trueman, “What Can Miserable Christians Sing?” in The Wages of Spin (pp. 159-160):

A diet of unremittingly jolly choruses and hymns inevitably creates an unrealistic horizon of expectation which sees the normative Christian life as one long triumphalist street party—a theologically incorrect and a pastorally disastrous scenario in a world of broken individuals.

Has an unconscious belief that Christianity is—or at least should be—all about health, wealth, and happiness corrupted the content of our worship?

. . . In the psalms, God has given the church a language which allows it to express even the deepest agonies of the human soul in the context of worship.

Does our contemporary language of worship reflect the horizon of the expectation regarding the believer’s experience which the psalter proposes as normative?  If not, why not?

Is it because the comfortable values of Western middle-class consumerism have silently infiltrated the church and made us consider such cries irrelevant, embarrassing, and signs of abject failure?

H/T: Justin Taylor

The Language of Poetry

Poetry and Words

Dr. Michael Flinn

Poetry (and this is true of all literature) makes use of words. If there were no words, there would be no poetry. The reason why there are words is because God himself is the Word (John 1:1). To use a title from one of Francis Schaeffer’s books, He is There and He is not Silent, God speaks. In Genesis 1:3ff we read that God created the world by speaking words. Of course, God’s ability to create something out of nothing merely by speaking words is something that is unique to him. As human beings, we cannot create in this way. But this is not the only way in which God uses words. As Schaeffer indicates in his book, God reveals both himself and his plan of redemption for the world by speaking to his image bearers in language that can be understood by them.

This last sentence needs an important qualification. Although God’s words to man are clear and true, and able to be understood in and of themselves, man has chosen to deny and suppress God’s clear revelation of himself (cf. Romans 1:20,21). The sinful mind is hostile to God and does not (in fact: cannot) submit to God’s laws (Romans 8:7) and it cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God without the Spirit’s enlightenment (1Corinthians 2:14).

Because we human beings are created in the image of the One who made us, we also possess the ability to communicate with others by means of words. God has made us with the ability to express thoughts in language. We can articulate emotions, instincts, concerns and needs. We can speak of beliefs and aspirations and we can express theories and viewpoints. We can express with words not only what is happening in our lives, or what the world is like, but we can also explore why it is happening or why the world is the way that it is and how we feel about the answers we have given to these questions.

In the following post, we’ll explore some of the ways in which poetry uses words.

Poetry and Word Choice

In a novel or even a short story, the author has more time to develop his or her ideas or to “paint a picture” using words. By contrast, in poetry, there is a premium on words. Words are chosen very carefully by the poet. They often evoke or picture something that the reader is expected to think about and “fill in” rather than describe or express something in great detail, leaving nothing at all to the imagination.

As an example, have a look at this well-known sonnet by Percy Shelley, called Ozymandias of Egypt:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal those words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Ozymandias is another name for Ramses the Great, Pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt. The central theme of the poem is the inevitable decline of human empires and dictators no matter how intimidating, perpetual, and enduring they might appear when at the height of their power. Ramses the Great had a monument built to his own greatness. Calling himself “king of kings”, a title reserved for Christ in the Scriptures, he wanted all other great men to look with wonder and awe at his works, knowing with despair that they could never compete with him.

Notice the way in which Shelley describes the scene and the words that he chooses. Egypt is not an ancient land, but an antique land. Antiques are ancient things of rarity and value. The “antique” that is presented in the poem is the monument that was constructed in order to perpetuate the memory of this ancient king and his greatness. But this monument, once a thing of splendour and greatness, is now a “shattered visage”, “lifeless”, a “colossal wreck”. It is a thing of death and decay, broken and worthless. Notice also that what remains upon the statue, etched in the stone itself, is the attitude and demeanor of the king. His “frown and wrinkled lip” and his “sneer of cold command” have been carved in stone by the sculptors who “well those passions read”. These are the things that survive, on the “half sunk” and “shattered visage”. In this way, it is not the king’s greatness that is commemorated in the broken statue, but his futile human pride and the disdain he showed for others. Now the king and his empire are no more. And the only “companion” that the statue has is the “lone and level sands” that “stretch far away”, “boundless and bare”. The sand has survived unchanged across the centuries; the monument, however, is a lonely, pathetic and broken relic.

With his careful choice of words and his graphic word pictures Shelley has expressed in 14 lines of poetry what historians, philosophers and theologians might take chapters or even volumes to describe and discuss. His poem asks us to think carefully about the ideas that it expresses and to interact with them.

Words are also carefully chosen in biblical poetry. As an interesting contrast to “Ozymandias of Egypt”, take, for example Psalm 102:3,10. Here the psalmist writes:

For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers...
My days are like the evening shadow; I wither like grass.

The reader is being asked to think about these verbal pictures: smoke vanishing quickly in the breeze of the day; shadows lengthening as the sun goes down in the evening; glowing embers gradually flickering and dying down; grass withering in the hot sun - and then apply these pictures to the psalmist’s awareness of his life and the passage of time. These verbal pictures are much more evocative and beautiful than a simple description using prose, which might go something like this: “I am not happy. I am discouraged and depressed. There is nothing in the day to interest me. I feel old. I am sick. I feel sad, weak and small.”

Interestingly, even in the midst of his sadness and distressing circumstances, the psalmist can still express himself and his feelings in beautiful poetic language, which in itself is a positive and edifying thing. Ultimately, however, the psalmist’s comfort is in God and in his perfect plan for his people. For this reason, the psalm moves away from contemplation of self to focus instead on the Lord (vss. 12ff). This is the biblical answer to the problem posed by Shelley in his poem. Man’s comfort and consolation in the face of his transience and finitude lies not in self-glorification, but in the eternal Lord and in his sovereign purposes.

Poetry and Word Art

We have already seen how words are carefully chosen in poetry in order to express ideas and evoke (sometimes very beautiful) images in the mind. Further to this, poets often use words, and even carefully place words in a sentence, in order to express their ideas clearly and powerfully. I like to call this word art. For some examples let’s look first at these lines from S.T. Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around;
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!

These lines are part of a long poem describing the experiences of a sailor after he shot an albatross at sea. Notice how the words have an accent and rhythm that carries the reader along: “The ICE was here, the ICE was there, the ICE was all AROUND… Notice also the way in which some of the words chosen sound like what is being described. “Cracked” and “growled”, “roared” and “howled” all sound, when spoken, like the sounds made by the ice as it shifts. This is a literary device called onomatopoeia. Finally, notice the rhyming scheme. In every stanza the last word of the second line, rhymes with the last line of the fourth. This explains in part why the word “swound” was chosen. It’s an archaic word for “swoon” or “faint”.

In Hebrew poems, although there are some examples of word play in which the word is chosen for its sound, much more prominent is the use of parallelisms to express ideas. That is: an idea will be stated in a line of poetry, and then restated in the next line in order to show either a similarity of idea or a contrast. Here are a couple of examples:

The cords of death entangled me;
The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave coiled around me;
The snares of death confronted me. (Ps. 18:4,5)

Notice how line 3 expresses a very similar idea to line 1 and the same is true for lines 2 and 4. This is an example of what is called synonymous parallelism.

The wicked borrow and do not repay,
But the righteous give generously. (Ps. 37:21)

Here the lines express a contrast. The wicked do one thing; the righteous, by contrast, do the opposite. This is an example of what is called antithetic parallelism. (Antithetic parallelisms are very common in the Proverbs that express a contrast between the behaviour of the wise person on the one hand and that of the fool on the other, or the righteous on the one hand and the wicked on the other.)

Derek Kidner makes the interesting point that this type of poetry is more readily “transposed” into other languages than other types that require an exact correspondence of rhythm and form in order to retain the poetic element.

It is the striking fact that this type of poetry loses less than perhaps any other in the process of translation. In many literatures the appeal of a poem lies chiefly in verbal felicities and associations, or in metrical subtleties, which tend to fail of their effect even in a related language. The programme notes of any Lieder recital are enough to prove the point! But the poetry of the Psalms has a broad simplicity of rhythm and imagery which survives transplanting into almost any soil. Above all, the fact that its parallelisms are those of sense rather than of sound allows it to reproduce its chief effects with very little loss of either force or beauty. It is well fitted by God’s providence to invite ‘all the earth’ to ‘sing the glory of his name’. (Kidner, Derek. The Psalms, Vol. 1, p. 4.)

Ultimately, we can understand and appreciate this word art because we are made in the image of God, who is the great Creator and “Artificer” of this world.

Poetry and Words of the Soul

More than any other form of literature, poetry often puts into words the thoughts and feelings that are experienced at the level of the heart or the soul. Take a look at this typical selective list of categories in this anthology called the Library of World Poetry (edited by William Cullen Bryant):

Poems of the Affections
Friendship
Compliment and Admiration
Love
Marriage
Home
Filial and Fraternal Love
Parting
Absence
Disappointment and Estrangement
Bereavement and Death
Poems of Sorrow and Adversity
Poems of Sentiment and Reflection
Poems of Fancy
Personal Poems
Humorous Poems

This anthology runs to nearly 800 pages!

The Hebrew poems in Scripture also depict and express a vast array of emotions including joy, sorrow, fear, longing, anger, reflection, praise, etc. These poems, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, clearly and powerfully express what the poet was thinking and feeling at the time:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent… (Ps. 22:1,2)

How many of us, going through some difficult or challenging experience, have found great comfort by turning to the psalms? The psalms put into words exactly what we are thinking and feeling, in both a beautiful and compelling way. Moreover, the psalms take us through the challenging experience and help us to refocus our thoughts on the Lord and to find peace and comfort in him:

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations (Ps. 22:27,28)

Precisely for this reason, the psalms are a veritable goldmine for those seeking to offer pastoral comfort and encouragement to others.

Conclusion:

In good poetry, words are never wasted. The poet thinks long and hard about which word to choose, and even where to place it in the line or sentence in order to express his ideas and the beauty of his art. This is true of poetry in every language, including the Hebrew poems that are found in Scripture. Poetry is also the language of the soul, often expressing in a few words, and in a very telling way, feelings and experiences that others can readily understand and identify with. I hope this article has inspired you to read more poems, especially the poems in Scripture, with a new appreciation, and maybe even have a go at writing some poems for yourself.

Celtic Psalmody

New Parish Psalms

Justin Taylor has profiled a new CD presented by Ligonier. It is entitled My Cry Ascends: New Parish Psalms.

The introductory blurb reads:

My Cry Ascends is a graceful collection of new Psalms and hymns for the church composed by Greg Wilbur. The music is recorded in a folk tradition with elements of Celtic style and southern harmony. Listeners will enjoy the hardy musical instrumentation: piano, viola, flutes, tin whistle, acoustic guitar, mandolin, bagpipe, hammer dulcimer and percussion. Rich biblical texts and expressive tunes feature the singing of Michael Card, Steve Green, Wes King, Katy Snow, Nathan Clark George and Bruce Carroll. The songs were written with congregational singing in mind, and it is our hope that this CD will bring these wonderful pieces into wider familiarity as an appropriate offering to the Most High God as He calls His people into worship.

Here are the tracks:

1. Now Unto Jehovah—Psalm 29 (2:39)
2. Come Ye Souls (3:06)
3. Savior and Friend (3:34)
4. Mighty Lord, Extend Your Kingdom (3:26)
5. Call Jehovah Your Salvation—Psalm 91 (3:14)
6. O God To Thine Anointed King—Psalm 72 (3:12)
7. O Bless the Lord My Soul—Psalm 103 (2:30)
8. Come Ye Disconsolate (3:18)
9. Lord, Hear My Prayer—Psalm 102 (4:00)
10. Alas and Did My Savior Bleed (3:31)
11. How Blest the Man—Psalm 41 (4:36)
12. Let God Arise—Psalm 68 (3:28)
13. Lord Jesus Think on Me (2:51)
14. From Depths of Woe—Psalm 130 (3:59)
15. Blest Is the Man—Psalm 32 (2:56)

About the Composer

Gregory Wilbur is the Chief Musician and liturgist at Parish Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Franklin, Tennessee, where he also serves as a Ruling Elder. He is the Dean of the Chapel, Senior Fellow, and helped to found New College Franklin, a Christian classical college in Franklin. In addition to writing congregational worship hymns, he also composes choral and orchestral works. He has written numerous articles about worship, the arts, and education as well as several books including Christmas Spirit, a family guide for Advent, and Glory and Honor, a leadership biography of J.S. Bach. Greg lives near Franklin with his wife and young daughter.

You can download a sample and one entire track here.

There is no doubt that singing Psalms via a Celtic musical idiom makes the music immediately accessible to New Zealand congregations--indeed to any congregations in nations tracing their roots to the UK and Western Europe.