Sing to the Lord!

“And whenever the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.”
1 Samuel 16:23

Basil of Caesarea: Homily on the First Psalm
Basil of Caesarea (ca. 329-379)

“A psalm is the tranquility of souls, the arbitor of peace, restraining the disorder and turbulence of thoughts, for it softens the passion of the soul and moderates its unruliness. A psalm forms friendships, unites the divided, mediates between enemies. For who can still consider him and enemy with whom he has sent forth one voice to God? So that the singing of psalms brings love, the greatest of good things, contriving harmony like some bond of union and uniting the people in the symphony of a single choir.”

The psalms were the earliest songs of the Christian Church and, while they have been continuously used in all the major branches of the Church, this is becoming less common in our day. Yet here all the emotions of the soul, the loftiest thoughts of the mind, the firmest convictions of the conscience, and the most far-ranging interests of humankind and the Kingdom come to expression, from the Lord’s own hand. How can we deny them in our singing to Him?

Does your church use the psalms to worship the Lord? If you wanted to do so, where would you turn?

For more insight on the importance of singing in worship, order the book, Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement, by Dan Lucarini, from our online store.

Pastor to Pastor brings the insights of great servants of God from the past to pastors in our own day, to link our ministries with theirs in the grand tradition of building the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.