Most of us experience the Psalms with a Bible open in front of us. We just read them.
But the people who first received these words originally experienced them very differently. They sang them.
The Hebrew title of Psalms is Tehillim (“Praises”), and many individual psalms contain musical instructions that make their intended use pretty unmistakable. So historically, the book of Psalms was essentially the songbook and prayer book of God's people. Many psalms were written for worship and contain musical instructions right in the text. In fact, they are essentially the worship songs and prayer book of Israel.
Check it out, Psalm 4 begins:
“For the director of music. With stringed instruments.”
Psalm 45 is identified as a song. Psalm 81 tells God's people:
“Sing for joy to God our strength… Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre.”
In fact, Scripture supports this repetitvely:
Psalm 4 - “For the director of music. With stringed instruments.”
Psalm 6 - “For the director of music. With stringed instruments.”
Psalm 45 - identified as a “song.”
Psalm 54 - “For the director of music. With stringed instruments.”
Psalm 81 - actually commands, “Sing for joy to God our strength… Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre.”
Psalm 150 - calls for praise with trumpet, harp, lyre, timbrel, strings, pipe, and cymbals.
Notice Psalm 150, a full-blown explosion of worship involving trumpets, harps, strings, pipes, cymbals, dancing, and everything that has breath.
These weren't simply written theological statements, they were worship.
David himself was a musician. He played the lyre, wrote songs, and later helped establish organized musical worship among the Levites. That means words we quietly read today may once have filled the air with voices and instruments.
“The LORD is my shepherd…”
“Create in me a clean heart, O God…”
“The heavens declare the glory of God…”
“Be still, and know that I am God…”
These weren't merely truths to understand, they were truths to experience.
And maybe that's part of what we've lost.
The Psalms give us permission to bring our entire emotional life into the presence of God.
Joy.
Fear.
Anger.
Grief.
Repentance.
Confusion.
Victory.
Desperation.
Praise.
There are psalms for days when God feels incredibly close and psalms for days when He seems painfully silent.
God apparently wasn't interested in giving His people a worship book containing only happy songs.
He gave them words for the wilderness too.
And then the New Testament carries the practice forward when Paul tells believers:
“Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.”
—Ephesians 5:19
So here's something worth trying: Don't just read the Psalms, pray them. Speak them. And sometimes, even if nobody else is around, sing them in praise. You don't need a beautiful voice. God never made that the requirement.
Maybe the Psalms weren't given merely so we could learn something about God. Maybe they were also given so that when we couldn't find the words ourselves, we would already have something to sing back to Him.
If you really want to go deeper with this, go to YouTube and search for "Psalms put to song" or "Psalms sung as music". If you do, be ready for it to take you there... It's enchanting, it offers visions of the time, and can be very emotional for some. There are versions in English and some in Hebrew, depending on how you might wish to hear them.
While we really have no clue of the original tunes or melodies, some of these are as close as you can get to how these might have been used in biblical times. Check it out!
And just so there's no misunderstanding, reading Psalms is absolutely appropriate, the point here is just to bring realization to the fact that singing them is actually closer to how many of them were originally experienced.
~ Devin
Devin Osborne
The Early Church
