about the psalms

There are many quotations from the psalms in the New testament and in many the words are attributed directly to the Holy Spirit (Mark 12:36; Acts 4:25; Hebrews 3:7). The Biblical theologian Geerhardus Vos has described the psalms as ‘subjective revelation.’ He writes: “By this we mean the inward activity of the Spirit upon the depth of human sub-consciousness causing certain God intended thoughts to well up therefrom” (Biblical Theology, 21). The Book of Psalms was put together most probably some time in the post-exilic period (after 537 BC) though most of the psalms themselves were written before the exile and particularly in the time of David and Solomon. There were several different uses for the psalms and perhaps many more than we know of. Corporate praise, celebration, lament, and prayer was obviously the dominant use. Psalms such as Psalm 40 indicate that the songs themselves were presented as a kind of offering to God (see verses 3, 6 & 7). Many of them serve as examples of individual prayer and thanksgiving for the individual to learn from. It has even been suggested that the psalms may have been used in dramatic re-enactments of past redemptive events. Certainly a dominant use for the psalms was for instruction. Music is a great tool for memorising things. The importance of knowing the Word of God is a dominant theme in both testaments, not least of all in the psalms. The psalms themselves contain, in condensed form, all the fundamental truths of the faith. Salvation history, the attributes of God, the way of salvation, the law of God, principles of wisdom, the nature of man and many more points of theology are powerfully encapsulated in the psalms. In this way the people learned about these things and passed them on. This is precisely what Paul has in mind when he exhorts the Colossians to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs in worship to God so that the word of Christ would dwell in them richly (Col. 3:16). In the Old Testament worship the psalms were accompanied by an array of musical instruments of all types. The musicians were carefully chosen according to their families and the task was one of utmost importance. The instruments became symbolic of the people’s praise to God:

All the Levites who were musicians–Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives–stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: He is good; his love endures forever.” Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God (2 Chron. 5:12-14).

It is impossible to say how the original psalms would have sounded and what sort of music was used. They may have sounded much more akin to Arabic music than to any western form. What is certain however is that instruments were fully utilised to express the psalms as they were intended to be expressed. The dominant musical aspect was of course the human voice and the instruments were present simply to facilitate the vocal renditions of the psalms. In fact the instruments were generally seen as optional while the singing of psalms itself was a vital part of worship in both Old and New Testament worship. In the synagogue worship that emerged from the period of the exile the psalms were sung unaccompanied. This would have been the way that psalms were sung in the time of Jesus and also most probably in the early church.