FEATURE

When did you last sing a Psalm in church? Many today rarely do. Many think we shouldn’t. Their reasons for balking are plausible. The Psalms never mention Jesus by name. They contain hard statements. They’re set in the old covenant, and they feel incongruous with our position as new covenant believers. Singing them seems to go against our desire to share the gospel.

Have new covenant believers sung Psalms as Christian songs?

And yet, Jesus and the apostles sang Psalms (e.g., Pss. 113–118 at the Last Supper—see Matt. 26:30; Mark 14:26). The early church sang Psalms (e.g., Pss. 146 and 2 when they “lifted their voices together to God”—see Acts 4:24–26). Indeed, God himself tells new covenant believers to include Psalms in their singing (see Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19). It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that for eighteen centuries Psalms were the main songs sung in worship. We know that, during the Reformation, Calvin advocated singing mostly Psalms. What’s less well-known is that Luther, who wrote and encouraged Scripture-based hymns, at the same time insisted that “the whole Psalter, Psalm by Psalm, should remain in use.”

By the 19th century, however, Spurgeon was lamenting that the church’s esteem for the Psalms was eroding. This trend has only accelerated. Earlier generations of Christians thought we can sing Psalms as Christian songs but, by and large, Christians in our day sincerely think we can’t.

Can new covenant believers sing Psalms as Christian songs?

Can we sing Psalms as Christian songs? Yes, if we follow two key biblical principles. First, God intended the Psalms for new covenant believers (see Rom. 15:3–4; cf. 1 Cor. 10:11). Second, the Holy Spirit designed every Psalm to reveal Jesus and life in union with him (see Luke 24:25–27, 44; cf. John 5:39–40). These principles imply that we can (and need to) learn to use the Psalms in light of their fulfillment in Christ.

The key to doing that is how the New Testament uses them. The New Testament quotes the Psalms more than any other Old Testament book, as fulfilled in Christ. If we imitate the New Testament, then we can learn to sing Psalms in a new covenant key. Let me suggest six rules of thumb toward helping us:

1. Treat Psalms as words God inspired to shape your heart-response to him—formative words that you’re still growing into.
2. Look for “praising conversations” in Psalms, with different voices going in different directions. Try to stay alert to who is speaking to whom.
3. Look for the LORD’s Anointed—Jesus—as the primary “I” and “me” of the Psalms.
4. Look also for God’s Kingdom—the church—as the “we” and “us” of the Psalms.
5. Look for the clear contrast and conflict between the godly and the ungodly, the church and the world.
6. Look for the plot—the God-given journey from the beginning to the end of a Psalm, and from the beginning to the end of the entire book of Psalms.

Will we sing Psalms as Christian songs?

You don’t need to master these rules of thumb to begin singing Psalms with profit. The Psalter is like a gold mine that’s so rich that many treasures are easy to find on the surface, but you can keep digging forever and ever and still never exhaust it. Spirit-indwelt believers in Jesus tend to more-or-less follow these rules of thumb instinctively. Just start where you are, keep learning, and keep growing over time. Take heart from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s claim about the Psalms:

When [used] only occasionally, these prayers [songs] are too overwhelming in design and power and tend to turn us back to more palatable fare. But whoever has begun to pray [sing] the Psalter seriously and regularly will soon give a vacation to other little devotional prayers [songs] and say: “Ah, there is not the juice, the strength, the passion, the fire which I find in the Psalter” (Luther). . . . Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure vanishes from the Christian church. With its recovery will come unsuspected power. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible [Augsburg, 1970], 25–26)

Has this “incomparable treasure” vanished from our churches or our lives? God helping us, let’s do our part to recover it and experience its “unsuspected power.” The Psalms will help guide us into greater authenticity, depth, and breadth in our communion with Jesus. Let’s do what we can to begin including them in our singing—in secret, family, and public worship—with faith, fervor, and understanding! Let’s sing them in a new covenant key, always looking to Jesus, having our hearts richly indwelt and filled by his Word and Spirit.

Larry E. Wilson is a retired minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Mr. Wilson recently published a pamphlet entitled “Singing Psalms in a New Covenant Key: Can New Covenant Believers Sing Psalms as Christian Songs?” which is available as a free PDF download.