I brought Psalm 95 along with me on a solitude retreat this past spring with the desire and intention to memorize it and to meditate on it. But as I started to recite verse 1 audibly, “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord...” the words stuck in my throat: “Come let us sing....” “Come let us sing....” Every time I tried to speak those words it didn’t seem fitting. How could I ignore the call, even a command?, to sing?! So I began to sing the words instead. Soon a full Psalm 95 song was born, and I have since been singing this to God in worship, as I wash dishes, as I drive along, and when I wake up.
This past summer as I stood atop the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado I needed some way to express my awe and worship to God as the vast, spectacular sight spread in 360 degrees of beauty around me. Psalm 95 was ready to flow out of my heart and lips:
“...the mountain peaks belong to him...and his hands formed the dry land.”
In high school, I was taught by a mentor to read one Psalm a day. That was a life-changing practice, and I have been through the Psalms dozens of times, which God has used to cause me to love them. A few years ago, I was taught to pray the Psalms, in an excellent little book by Donald Whitney, “Praying the Bible.” This was refreshing because he teaches how to pray 5 Psalms a day, skipping every 30 for every day of the month (example: Psalm 1, 31, 61, 91, and 121). Though I had read through the Psalms dozens of times, I needed a fresh way to interact with the Psalms, and this way of prayer has become one of my favorite ways!
Yet are the Psalms only meant to be read and prayed (both good things)? Think of it, Psalms are songs! What if we gathered up all the songs we sing in church, whether choruses or hymns, and put them all in text form in a book. Then during our devotional time we just read the lyrics silently to ourselves, every day for years. How dull would that become! Of course some hymns are rich poems, but how much more enjoyable to meditate on the words when put to melody and sung! This is akin to what I had been doing for years, just reading the Psalms, but not singing them!
I was on another solitude retreat in January (which I totally recommend you make part of your rhythm if you don’t already....), when I set out to consider William Law’s book, written in the 1700s!, “A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life” (1729). I was captivated by the chapter on prayer, but was completely intrigued by Chapter XV--”Of Chanting or Singing the Psalms in Private Devotions.” This godly man of wisdom outside our century had me riveted and challenged!
163: “The difference between singing and reading...whilst you only read it, you only like it, and that is all; but as soon as you sing it, then you enjoy it, you feel the delight of it; it has got hold of you, your passions keep pace with it...
...If you were to tell a person that has such a song, that he need not sing it, that it was sufficient to peruse it, he would wonder what you meant; and would think you as absurd as if you were to tell him that he should only look at his food, to see whether it was good, but need not eat it; for a song of praise not sung, is very like any other good thing not made use of.”
Not singing the Psalms is like only looking at our food, according to W. Law. This was a new challenge for me!
Without writing many more paragraphs summarizing William Law’s instructions for chanting the Psalms, and even an answer to excuses for not chanting the Psalms, I will close by inviting you to listen to the song God gave me for Psalm 95 in the hope that you will not only listen to me but join me in singing the Psalms!
“Come let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
For the Lord is the great God,
Psalm 95.1-2
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| Click here to listen to Psalm 95 |
