# Describe your Psalm experience please.



## Username3000 (Nov 24, 2015)

Greetings,

As someone who has not sung many Psalms in public worship, I would like to know how singing the Psalms has been edifying to your soul. I am interested particularly in those Psalms which have content really only found in the Psalms. There are hundreds of hymns that cover the many facets of Christ and His work, but not as many that speak of the defeat of enemies, for example. So, how has the unique content of many of the Psalms been edifying to you personally?

Thank you.


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## kodos (Nov 24, 2015)

The psalter has allowed me to express a range of emotion and vitality in my Christian experience that I hadn't found before. What has been most powerful for me is when I consider these are the songs that my Lord sang, and that I, who have His Spirit indwelling within me - am singing the songs that His Spirit inspired, and my Lord Jesus Christ sang in His human nature.

Sometimes, when I think about that - I am just overwhelmed. And then, I consider what it means that Jesus sang words like: "My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head" (*Psalm 40*), and I think - "Lord, those are MY iniquities that You sang of. How innumerable they are, and You made them Yours..." 

I get chills thinking of it: that Great Exchange of my sins to Him, and His Righteousness to me.

I could go on and on and on, but here are a few ways that I have found the psalter to be incredible in my experience as a Christian: 


They admonish me, and expose my sin (*Psalm 51*)
They allow me to grieve, and express the burdens of my soul in song (*Psalm 42*)
They show me the inner thoughts of the Christ I have union with (*Psalm 22*)
I sing of the work of Christ clearly (*Psalm 116* during Communion times has always been powerful as I think of Jesus singing it on that last Passover - "I will take the cup of salvation...precious in Your sight is the death of Your saints...I am your handmaiden's son...I will pay my vows to the Lord in the sight of His people"
When I see my brothers in foreign lands being persecuted, I can sing imprecatory psalms against God's enemies in solidarity with them (*Psalm 137*)
I can sing in solidarity with God's People about our offspring and our community (*Psalm 144*)

And finally, I get to sing the best praise Chorus ever given! Psalm 136!

*Psalm 136*
23 Who remembered us in our lowly state,
For His mercy endures forever;
24 And rescued us from our enemies,
For His mercy endures forever;
25 Who gives food to all flesh,
For His mercy endures forever.
26 Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven!
For His mercy endures forever.


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## Cymro (Nov 24, 2015)

Wales has been renowned for its choirs and hymn tunes, which are second to none. But when my eyes were opened to the public singing of psalms in the worship of the High and Lofty One, then my "conversion" to this principle was instant and sure. So the hymns of my father's, though highly theological and experimental and dearly loved at the time, felt like the contrast between chalk and cheese when singing the word of God. There is no error in the psalms as found in many hymns, and that gives certainty to lifting up ones voice in holy praise. With Kodos, I find a peculiar and particular experimental blessing at the Communion seasons in singing Ps116, Ps22, Ps103 and Ps118.


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## Jeri Tanner (Nov 24, 2015)

I'm glad you asked this brother. Cross. I can attest to the same understanding and amazement over Christ's voice and presence in the Psalms as our brothers Rom and Jeff. I began aiming to read through five Psalms daily some time ago, and I can say that doing so has reshaped much of my thinking, increased my joy and hope, and given me great encouragement to walk as our Lord walked in this life. The solidarity of Christ with his church expressed in them- words fail me. How strengthening. I have only had a couple of opportunities to sing the Psalms in public worship; it's rare around here. I do long and pray for a revival of it. I realized some time ago that one thing Christ intended to do is to declare God's name to his brothers, to praise Him in the midst of the congregation (Psalm 22:22, Hebrews 2:12, 13). And that he won't be doing this with our words, no matter how fine they are, but only with his own words! So it's a great privilege, an inestimable blessing, to read, sing, and pray the Psalms along with our high priest.


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## Jake (Nov 24, 2015)

We sing from the 1650 Scottish Psalter, which while a tad bit antiquated in places, seems to be overall the closest translation to the Hebrew in English meter. In some cases, it is better than good prose translations. 

I lead with that, because I have been very blessed to be able to memorize much more Scripture than previously. Before I was introduced to singing the psalter, I remember laboring to memorize a single psalm. Now, I have quite a few psalms in my head after using the psalter more consistently for just a couple of years, and have great more familiarity with the work. God's Word is often what comes to mind throughout the day so much easier with it put to music. The Psalms are great to memorize because they really summarize so much of the Scripture as a whole!

And though you mention many non-inspired hymns being about Christ, there is really so much of Christ's life in the Psalms. Psalm 22 has more of the struggle on the cross represented than anything a non-inspired man can write. In fact, it's interesting to think about how such Psalms are more relevant and understood to us with the light of the Gospel than they ever were to the earlier singers before the Incarnation of Christ, yea even to David himself, despite him being the mouthpiece God used. Despite God having providentially written and preserved Psalms from as early as the time of Moses, we are in the best time to sing them, because we understand how they speak of Christ and His Spirit, and where there are types and shadows, we understand the fulfillment of them. While we still do not have full understanding, we have better than believers in ages past.


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## Unoriginalname (Nov 24, 2015)

There are plenty of things the Psalms highlight so well, one thing I enjoy in singing the Psalms that I didn't see anyone directly touch on is that the Psalms remind us that we do have enemies and that the Lord is our deliverer from them. I think sometimes we reformed people, tend to highlight indwelling sin to the point of downplaying that we have enemies in the world. Our troubles are really too great to count; we battle sin within, we deal with wicked men who seek our end in a world at war with God and his people, and deal we have the great enemy of God and his church Satan. The Psalms don't shy away from this but raise up prayer that God would be our shield and deliver from trouble.


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## Username3000 (Nov 25, 2015)

Thanks for the replies. I can see how much of a blessing singing the psalms can be. Im particularly drawn to the wide range of emotions expressed in the psalms, and I would love to sing them in church. It sounds like we may begin to incorporate some into our worship though, so I will be thankful if that does indeed happen.

I have been looking into the RPW lately with regards to the sabbath as well as Christmas, but Im not all the way there yet. Yet, even without the RPW, the benefits of the psalms in worship are enough for me to want to sing them over hymns.


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## Jake (Nov 26, 2015)

Even if one is convinced that Scripture commands us to write and sing songs in worship outside of the Psalms, those songs written by the Spirit of God, it is undeniable that there we are commanded to sing the Psalms of David and the other prophets.


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## au5t1n (Nov 26, 2015)

E.R. CROSS said:


> There are hundreds of hymns that cover the many facets of Christ and His work, but not as many that speak of the defeat of enemies, for example.



The defeat of enemies is part of Christ's work. I'm not picking on you but bringing this up because it helps answer the overall question. More than anything else, perhaps, singing the Psalms has fleshed out in my thinking the breadth and depth of Christ's work. The experiences of the Psalmist are the experiences of Christ, and by faith they belong to us in Him as well.


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## nick (Nov 26, 2015)

E.R. CROSS said:


> I have been looking into the RPW lately with regards to the sabbath as well as Christmas, but Im not all the way there yet. Yet, even without the RPW, the benefits of the psalms in worship are enough for me to want to sing them over hymns.



Some advice: Be patient with people in your life as you work through these things.


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