The apostle Paul says "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Col 3:16). It is obvious, then, that the psalms were divinely appointed for singing. But how should we sing them. With what attitude should we sing them. Should we sing them dispassionately as third parties recounting the feelings and experiences of those who lived almost three millennium ago. Should we try to step into the shoes of the psalmist and attempt to stir up, in our heart, the emotions he felt. Or should we try to ignore the historical context of the songs, and try to link what we are singing with our present experience and situation in life. But what if we have never gone through, and are not going through the experience of the psalmist, whether it has to do with persecution, sicknesses, controversy against enemies, or wretchedness due to grievous sins. Do we still sing it, but mindlessly, like the way children may sing the tragic love ballad, "Oh My Darling, Clementine!" Surely not! For the psalms are designed for singing in worship and we are to worship not only with our lips but with our heart!The solution, according to this author, is found in the words of Paul with which we began this blurb. The words of the psalms differ from that of all other songs, for they are "the word of Christ" in a distinct way from all other passages of Scripture. This is the way that the apostles have used the psalms even where the psalm suggests a specific historical context in the experience of the psalmist, and gives no hint that it has anything to do with Christ. Believers, then must sing the psalm in union with Christ to speak of His work and experiences on our behalf, and of His desires and hopes for us. When we sing the psalm, we are, as it were, joining our Savior to sing His words to praise the Father, to encourage and admonish one another, to grieve in the right way, and to imprecate in a godly manner. This simple devotional commentary is an attempt to show how the psalms may be appreciated and used with this understanding in mind.
