Musical Insights from the book of Psalms

David defined worship to God by arranging to build his house and by writing much of God’s official songbook, the book of Psalms. Again, the word “psalm” means any type of accompanied singing.[1] Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language says that “psalm” comes from the Greek word psalmos which means, “songs sung to a harp.”[2] This meaning continued into NT times to the extent that the word psalm was synonymous with singing, accompanied or not accompanied. Instruments were so pervasive as an accompaniment to singing that writers of the NT freely used psalms to describe “singing” (psallo) in worship to God without any effort at clarification of definition. Granted, there is a word for a cappella singing (ado) also used in the NT but it is used in connection with psallo (“psalm”) (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16).[3] It is difficult to know for sure whether Paul uses these words to differentiate singing styles or whether they are used synonymously. Given the close proximity of the words in these contexts of Christian encouragement, they are best seen synonymously. It is helpful at this point to examine some OT psalms to understand their impact for Paul and the early church as well as the impact that music can have on our spiritual lives today.

Psalm 33:2: “Praise the Lord with the harp: make music to him on the

ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song: play skillfully, and shout for joy.” It is important to play “skillfully” for the Lord. He wants our best when we play and sing for him!

Psalm 43:4: “I will praise you with the harp, O God my God.” The admonition to sing a “new” song inspired songwriters for the next two centuries and it is what gives music a dynamic quality. There are additional comments about this concept in a later section of this study.

Psalm 49:4: “I will turn my ear to a proverb: with the harp I will expound my riddle.” Notice that the harp is David’s method of composing and communicating his riddle. Like many musicians, David would not think of writing a song without using his harp. What musician would not sit at a piano or use a guitar to write a song? Instruments such as the harp are a normal part of the composition process and without them there would be a limited production of new songs. Almost all of the hymns we sing today were originally written by the great masters (who were not members of our movement) using instruments of music for the purpose of praising God with accompanied or non-accompanied singing.[4]

Psalms 57:7; 108: “I will sing and make music, awake my soul. Awake harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.” “I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God: I will sing praise to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel, My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you, I whom you have redeemed.” It is amazing how instruments can awaken the soul. Music seems to touch the very fabric of our spiritual being. Instruments that accompany singing inspire us to shout praises of joy to the Lord (Pss 71:22; 81:2).

Psalm 92:3: “It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.” A songwriter once observed that you can fight the devil with a song. It is true that songs proclaim the gospel and remind us of what we know to be true. A sermon gets old very quickly, but a good song can last from generation to generation. The Alfred E. Brumley song “I’ll Fly Away” was written in 1932 and you can still hear it today on the radio. At the same time that we love and enjoy the old songs, there is clear admonition to write new songs.

Psalm 98:1: “Sing to the Lord a new song for he has done marvelous things . . . make music to the Lord with the harp and the sound of singing.” Sometimes it takes a new song to catch our attention and make us reconsider our commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We have the same exhortation in Revelation to sing a new song to the Lord (Rev 5:9). New acts of redemption call for new songs of praise.

Psalm 150:3-5: “Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and the flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.” It is interesting that the conclusion and climax of the book of Psalms highlights the role of worship this way. The book of Psalms was considered the songbook of Israel as well as the early church. It would be odd for the worshipping church to sing these very psalms that mention instruments while at the same time teaching that they should be omitted from worship.

Clearly King David wrote many of the psalms. Some of the topical Bibles will even link specific psalms to events in David’s life such as 2 Sam 8:13-14 with Ps 60 or 2 Sam 12:13 with Ps 51.[5] The book of Psalms also contains songs written during the Babylon captivity like Ps 137. Once David defined the role of the harp in worship, the admonition to use it continued to be a part of the worship service in the temple and even after the temple was destroyed. Psalm 147:7: “Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp.” Verse two of this same Psalm refers to the “exiles of Israel.” This is significant because some scholars argue that harps were confined to temple worship and therefore God’s approval of the harp ceased when the temple was destroyed.

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[1] Jay Green, The Interlinear Hebrew/Greek English Bible, 4th ed. Vol. 2, (Associated Publishers and Authors, 1976), William Gesenius, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon), Hartman, Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible (Louis, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1963). There are endless lists of sources from both OT and NT periods that confirm the word psalm meant accompanied singing.

[2] Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Portland House, 1996.

[3] Ferguson, Everett, A Cappella Music (Abilene, Tx.: Biblical Research Press, 1972), 6.

[4] Smith, Brother, 110.

[5] The superscripts are not original to the psalms but have healthy traditions underlying them. They should not be used to dictate the meaning of the psalm but may help illuminate a potential meaning.