Singing the Psalms

Scripture Reading: Luke 24:36-44

Introduction

How would You Feel if Next Sunday I Said:

“I’m No Longer Going to Preach from the Bible.”

“From Now on, I’m Going to Preach from Commentaries.”

“I’ll Reference Scripture Here & There…”

“But I’ll Mostly Being Quoting from Uninspired Commentators of the Scriptures.”

What would You Think of that?

You wouldn’t Like it, would You?

You’d Probably Look for Another Church

And Rightfully So

But Why would that Be So Wrong?

Because We Value the Inspired Words of Scripture…

More than We Value the Uninspired Words of Men

The Fact is, We’d Be Deeply Upset…

If a Teacher/Preacher Only Taught the Bible…

Through the Words of Uninspired Men

But We Don’t have a Problem Singing Praises that Way

Whenever We Sing Praises to God…

We Sing Songs that were Written By Uninspired Men

Sure, They are in Reference to Scripture…

But So are Commentaries

And We would Never Let a Preacher Slide…

If He Only Taught from Commentaries

Just Like Commentaries, Our Songbooks Teach a Lot of Truth

But They Uninspired…

And Often Teach Things that the Scriptures Do Not

Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful…

If There was a Way to Worship God…

With Songs Inspired By God?

Wouldn’t that Be the Ideal Way to Sing Praises to Him?

Did You Know that We have Access to an Inspired Songbook?

The Book of Psalms is an Inspired Song Book

Historically, Churches of Christ…

Are All about Restoring Christianity…

To the Way it was Intended to Be from the Beginning

We Want to Live & Worship Exactly as Jesus & the Apostles Taught

We’ve Done a Decent Amount of Restoring…

But I would Argue There’s Still a Long Way to Go

One Example is in Our Singing

We Know that the Early Christians Sang in Worship to God

But What Did They Sing?

They Sang from the Book of Songs that They’d had for Centuries

They Sang the Psalms

That’s Not to Say that They Didn’t Come Up with New Songs

And There’s Nothing Wrong with Writing New Songs…

So Long as They are True to the Scriptures…

And are Glorifying to God

But We Know They Sang the Psalms

In Our Scripture Reading, Jesus Said:

Luke 24:44 (NASB95)

44 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

The Law of Moses Spoke about Him & was Leading to Him

The Prophets Spoke about Him & was Leading to Him

And the Psalms Spoke about Him & was Leading to Him

Not Only Do We Know that the Psalms Talk about Jesus…

But in Fact, the Book of Psalms…

Is the Most Quoted Book in the NT

So Much of Our Christian Theology Comes from the Psalms

Paul Wrote Similar Commands to the Churches in Ephesus & Colossae

To the Ephesians, Paul Wrote:

Ephesians 5:18–19 (NASB95)

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

The Direct Command is:

“Be Filled with the Spirit”

How?

By Singing “Psalms, Hymns, & Spiritual Songs”

To the Colossians, Paul Said:

Colossians 3:16 (NASB95)

16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

The Direct Command is:

“Let the Word of Christ Richly Dwell Within You”

How?

By Singing “Psalms, Hymns, & Spiritual Songs”

We are Filled with the Holy Spirit…

And the Word (Message) of Christ Dwells Richly Within Us…

When We Sing Psalms, Hymns, & Spiritual Songs

What Language was the New Testament Written in?

Koine Greek (Common Greek)

What Language was the OT Written in?

Hebrew & a Little Aramaic

The Hebrew OT was Eventually Translated into Greek…

And We Call it the Septuagint

And in the Septuagint, There are 4 Categories…

That the Psalms are Broken Up into

One of the Categories is “Wisdom”

The Other 3 are:

“Psalms, Hymns, & Spiritual Songs”

It’s Very Possible that What Paul was Instructing…

To the Ephesians & Colossians…

Was to Sing the Psalms

Whenever Christians Sing the Psalms:

We’re Singing about Jesus

We’re Being Filled with the Holy Spirit

We’re Letting the Gospel Message Dwell in Us Richly

The Whole Point of My Lesson Tonight is:

I Believe We Need to Start Singing the Psalms

They Fill Us with the Holy Spirit & the Gospel Message

They Teach Us Deep Theological Truths

They Touch Us Emotionally

They Show Us the Human Experience of Suffering…

And How to Faithfully Endure it

They are Songs that are Inspired By God & Glorifying to Him

But Then There’s the Practical Question of “How?”

“How can We Sing the Psalms?”

“We Don’t Know How They Sung Them 2000 Years Ago”

No, We Don’t

But You can Buy Psalters Today…

That Place the Words of the Psalms…

To the Tune of Familiar Songs that We Already Sing in Worship

I Just Bought One the Other Day

We are Working Right Now to Make Our Worship…

More Thoughtful/Intentional

I would Love to Add to that…

Singing the Inspired Songs of the Book of Psalms

Song Leaders:

I’d Love to Talk to You More about this

To Bring this to a Close

I’m Not Condemning the Singing of the Songs in Our Songbooks

There are Several that are Fully Scriptural…

And Glorifying to God

And I Love it When Our Song Leaders Take the Time…

To Read the Songs They Sing…

To Make Sure They are True & Aimed Toward Worshiping God

But They’ll Never Be as Good as the Inspired Psalms

Just Like the Greatest Commentary in the World…

Will Never Be as Good as the Scriptures Themselves

It’s Possible for Christians to Sing the Psalms Today

And Since it’s Possible to Sing to God…

From His Inspired Songbook…

I Think We Ought to Put in the Work to Do So