Stephen
Terry, Director
How
to Read the Psalms
Commentary
for the January 6, 2024, Sabbath School Lesson
"How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?" Psalm 137:4, NIV
For several decades of my life,
the church hymnal was ubiquitous in every church I attended. It did not matter
what the denomination, all had their own denominationally approved book of
hymns. While the hymn selection may have been filtered through the sieve of
approved dogma, one thing they all had in common. There were great hymns in
every one of them. As a musician, I like to collect sheet music and play tunes
that may be older than I am, but that I have not heard before. To that end, I
have collected some hymnals from other denominations as well as my own and have
found treasures every time.
One beautiful hymn found in most
is "Amazing Grace." The lyrics, penned by the former slave ship captain, John Newton,
have been responsible for those who, like Newton, turned from the path of
darkness to light. Another hymn that set others on the path of righteousness
was Charlotte Elliott's "Just as I Am," sung during the altar call, often by
George Beverly Shea, at the conclusion of each Billy Graham Crusade meeting.
Music is a powerful means to
convey a message. It is little wonder that one of the major books of the Bible
is Psalms, a collection of lyrics that likely were set to music as some of the
marginal notations that survive suggest. Admittedly, there are a few sects of Christianity
that eschew music altogether, but their numbers are few and Psalms seems a
powerful argument for the inspiration possible through music, and its
importance for worship and personal devotions. While the Bible does not specifically
say that Jesus liked to sing, at the Last Supper, we read they sang a hymn and
went out.[i] It
seems unlikely that the eleven Apostles that were present would sing and Jesus
would not sing praises with them. Whatever the case, the Gospels give us what
we refer to as Mary's Song[ii]
and Zechariah's Song.[iii]
Both praised God much as several of the Psalms have done.
We also find, in the New Testament
Epistles, calls to sing hymns as part of Christian praxis. Paul encouraged both
the Ephesians[iv] and the Colossians[v] to
sing hymns and spiritual songs. It appears that not only was the purpose of
Psalms to glorify God through music, but it was also an integral part of the
experience of the early church as well. It had much to do with the development
of sheet music as a need developed for the ability to reproduce music in new
locales where it had never been heard. A cathedral choir might develop a
beautiful and inspiring Gregorian Chant, but without the ability to write it
down, it would be difficult to recreate exactly by another cathedral's choir or
even in the same parish after the choirmaster moved on or died. An example of
early sheet music accompanies this commentary article. Those who can read music
may recognize there is no key signature, the staff has four lines instead of
five and the notation itself is simpler than more modern forms. But the music,
echoing through the natural acoustics of a cathedral, was ethereal. It causes
me to wonder how the Psalms sounded in their day. While we may have the lyrics,
no one I know has ever sung them in Hebrew in a Christian church. And we know
even less about the acoustics where they were sung and what instruments may
have accompanied the singing and how they were played. Could they only be
played in a prescribed manner? Were the musicians or the singers allowed to improvise?
We simply do not know.
In my lifetime, I have seen religious
music evolve. There was once a trend to feel that waltz music only belonged in
the dance hall, so approved hymns would be in 4/4 time to avoid the 3/4 time of
the waltz. This had a lot to do with churches at one time having marches instead
of dances. 4/4 was righteous. 3/4 was not. I participated in some of those marches
myself directed by the conference Pathfinder Director. Some find reason to be
upset with the church hymnal that would include such pieces as "Amazing Grace,"
"Just as I Am," and "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," which despite the "thees"
and "thous" were obviously in a waltz meter. As time went on though, these
critics were seen to be like Saul's daughter, Michal, who criticized David for dancing
before the Ark of the Covenant.[vi]
Despite such criticism, David went on to write several of the Psalms. It is the
same nowadays. Despite criticism over meter or key, new and beautiful music of
praise continues to be written and performed.
I have sat in church board
meetings where beautiful hymns of praise were reviled by those who should have
known better because the music had a back beat or was written in a minor key.
Yet these same individuals loved hymns written in the formerly criticized waltz
meter or were written in what are known in the music
industry as Cowboy Keys with open, simple chording, which was also once seen as
overly sentimental for church. Sadly, I have seen more people walk out of a
church service over music they did not like than over a questionable sermon.
Since people will cavil over the proper position for prayer, which Bible
translation is the "real" Bible, and which diet God intends we should eat, what
we should wear, and what holidays we should observe, it is not surprising that
music would also be fraught with controversy.
Contemporary Christian music is
derided for being simple and repetitious. Some also look down upon it because it
is often projected onto a screen hanging behind the pulpit so people can follow
the lyrics in congregational singing. Some ask why this is when we have hymnals
available? It is because such beautiful praises are being written and sung
faster than we can print hymnals, and the hymnals themselves are no small cost for
a congregation. If a hymnal costs thirty dollars, two hundred would cost the
church $6,000 each time a new update became available. Perhaps because of this
cost, the current hymnal, used in most Adventist churches that still use the
hymnal was copyrighted by Review and Herald Publishing in 1989. That was over
thirty years ago. It is also difficult to bind contemporary Christian music
into a hymnal as some pieces go on for as many as eight to ten pages of sheet
music. This is easily accommodated on a screen up front at church, but not so
with a hymnal. I struggle with moving the pages around when I am playing the
piano, but this is not a new problem. Consider Psalm 119 which runs on for 176
verses. Therefore, nothing in the Bible indicates that music should not exceed
a certain length.
As we progress through this
quarter's study of the Psalms. I would like to invite each of you to listen to
contemporary praises that I am including links to in the written version of this
podcast. Perhaps when we hear such contemporary praises, we can tap into what
it may have been like for the Jews over two and half millennia ago to enjoy the
contemporary music of their day, the Psalms. The Psalms reveal how they viewed
the character of God. Our Christian music today reveals the same about us. What
differences and what similarities do you see between the two eras?
Phil Wickham: "Hymn of Heaven"
(Praise) compare to Psalm
19
Amy Grant: "Better than a
Hallelujah" (Lament) compare to Psalm
51
Casting Crowns: "Does Anybody Hear Her?"
(Evangelism) compare to Psalm
100
tobyMac: "City on Our
Knees" (Repentance) compare to Psalm
6
Sometimes we develop such a
narrow view of God and his character, that it becomes impossible to see him
working beyond the walls of our church or denomination. Sometimes it even prevents
us from seeing the Spirit speaking into the life of the person sitting next to
us. It is as though we think we are the only one on the right track as Elijah
thought even after bringing down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel. He forgot
all those, like the widow of Zarephath, who fed him, and faithful Obadiah, who
hid and fed the prophets. As we study the Psalms, may we find a way to open our
hearts again to broader possibilities for God's work in this world than we have
known before. May we find a way to be motivated by love, and not cloistered in
fear behind the walls of our church. May the new year we are beginning also
bring us to a new understanding of our faith and its place in the world we live
in.