While many churches are contemporary and many others are slowly drifting that way, the Lord has me looking back. The more I study church history, the more I study how different churches did things, and even some of the things they debated over, I am learning that worship meant something to them. Church worship ought to mean something to us. It ought to mean something to the people of God as a rule.
Over the years, I have eliminated and incorporated practices that were the norm in the churches of old. I would say they were true OLD PATHS. My goal is to saturate the worship time with praise, prayer, and scripture. The church environment should be reverent and meditative. People are taking time out of their day to go to church and worship God, and so they should expect the service to be biblical and conducive to worship. One of the ways to accomplish this is through the song service; singing the hymns is one of the more common ways, and then, of course, singing the Psalter. Some churches sing only the Psalter, others sing the Psalter and the Hymns, and others sing hymns only. The goal at Bible Way Baptist will be to sing both.
It will be a nice addition to our services, especially singing after the prayer of confession and pardon and after the Lord’s Supper.
The text – “speaking to yourselves” – carries with it the implications of edification, promoting unity, faith, and a spirit of praise and thanksgiving towards our God. The context really implies more of a command than a suggestion, so we can conclude that this is an important part of our worship and should not be neglected.
Matthew 26:30 says – And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives. If Jesus would sing the Psalms, then how much more should his church? It is most likely he would have sung what is considered one of the Hallel Psalms, 113 to 118. These psalms were sung during the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. These songs were meant to evoke memories and joy and would have been mostly sung around the table. Jesus practiced this, as did the apostles and so didn’t the “primitive church”
The Psalms are important because they point to Christ, they are the language of devotion, and they make an important part of the worship both at home and at church.
Another reason why singing the hymns is important is that the Psalms are a more “authentic expression” of God’s relationship with the believer. The Psalms are important because they bring us in touch with the human condition, fear, joy, sorrow, depression, anxiety, praise and so on.
Singing the Psalms nourishes the souls of God’s people!
I’ll have more to say as we get further along with their implementation. For now, I leave you with a quote from J.I. Packer.
“We need to discover all over again that worship is natural to the Christian, as it was to the godly Israelites who wrote the Psalms, and that the habit of celebrating the greatness and graciousness of God yields an endless flow of thankfulness, joy, and zeal. “
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