November 3, 2008

  • Psalm 104

    We read Psalm 104 last night. The last few verses of it are the lyrics to a song we often sang in church growing up.

    I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live,
    I will sing praise to my God while I have my being,
    My meditation of Him shall be sweet,
    I will be glad. I will be glad in the Lord,
    Bless thou the Lord, O my soul,
    Praise ye the Lord,
    Bless thou the Lord, O my soul,
    Praise ye the Lord.

    Except the actual psalm goes like this:

    “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live:I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.”

    God inspired the Psalms and He commands us to sing them. While I don’t believe that singing hymns is wrong, I think that it is sad that the Christian church either ignores the songs that God gave us, or mutilates them into something that He did not intend. Psalm 104 is not an isolated case. The first time I read through the book of Psalms I was astounded at how many of the songs I grew up singing cut out verses having to do with judgment.

    Judgment is an important part of the gospel and God wrote a lot of it into His songs. It is wrong for us to excise it. It is arrogant for us to think that we can edit and improve upon the words of God. There are stern warnings in both the Old and New Testament for those who alter God’s Word.

    “And if any man shall take
    away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away
    his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from
    the things which are written in this book.” Rev 22:19.

    Considering the judgments that have come upon the Church in these days, I think it behooves us to look very closely at ourselves and ask what we’re doing wrong. When we sing songs in worship that inaccurately reflect the character of God, that inaccurately proclaim the gospel, that do not warn us of our sin, but that make us feel good and happy, well, it’s at least got to be a reflection of a larger pattern of self-indulgence and complacency.

    The Psalms were written for our benefit and a return to singing them, in their entirety, would be a real blessing for the Church.

Comments (6)

  • I agree. Psalms should be sung as written! That’s just one of many reasons I sing only psalms. It’s not the main reason, but it is a strong one nevertheless – that just as choruses can leave out important parts, so can hymns be slightly theologically inaccurate or biased in the same way (or worse!!). Whereas we know that the psalms are always accurate, being written by God Himself! :)

  • I totally agree with you.  You might even say that refusing to teach all of God’s character (as in any singing in worship) by only selecting those that are likable is really an act of idolatry.  It does not faithfully convey all of who God is.  God is not only a God of love, but a God of justice and vegeance.  Otherwise, Christ’s death would be needless had the Father not required a complete payment for the penalty of sin.  Thanks for the entry,

  • Everytime a prophet like Jeremiah starts his ministry, the Lord warns them to declare His word faithfully and in its entirety.  What these subtractions amounts to is selling God to the secular world by changing God.  Since the secular world wants a non-judgemental diety, we get corrupt Christian leaders that pander to these sentiments.  The end result of this distorion of God’ will, will be judgement on these churches.  May God help us and our leaders to stay faithful and for people to seek God’s word!

  • Amen sister!! xx

  • You have a gift on my blog! :)

  • You’re very welcome, Danielle! Thanks for your great friendship too! :)

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