1.
Introduction
John Calvin described
the psalms as the “anatomy of all the parts of the soul.”
The psalms search our hearts as we use them in our worship. Psalms of praise are but one part of that
anatomy. Yet it would be a mistake to assume that all of the psalms
of praise in the Psalter are monolithic in character.
In
fact, the praise psalms in the Psalter display a great deal of variety.
When we choose praise songs to sing in worship, especially when they come
from writings outside scripture, we should be careful to stay in conformity
to the patterns of praise found in the Psalter. Yet in the same way
the preaching of the word is characterized by preaching the person and work
of Christ from all the Scriptures, worshipping from the
psalms must have a Christological focus as well. The purpose of
this paper, therefore, is to describe the classifications and
characterizations of psalms of praise in the Psalter and then to make
suggestions about how they should be used in worship.
2.
Psalms of Praise in the Psalter
2.1. Classification
of Praise Psalms
All
praise psalms are lyric poems. A lyric poem is “a short poem containing
the thoughts or feelings of the speaker.” The lyric poem is
typically a private poem in which the reader “overhears” the
author’s dialogue with another party (i.e. God, self, or a group of
people). Yet the experiences of the author are representative of our
own experiences so that we can join with him in his praise. Lyric
poems also reflect the emotions that the author is feeling. This may
be the chief trait of the lyric poem. These poems are also usually
rather short, since they “express a single feeling at the moment of greatest
intensity.” Leland Ryken has
described three types of lyric praise psalms. These are psalms of
praise, psalms of nature, and psalms of worship. For the purposes of
this paper, the these titles have been renamed as psalms of direct praise,
psalms of nature, and psalms of Zion respectively.
2.2. Psalms of
Direct Praise
In
psalms of direct praise (or what Ryken calls “psalms of
praise”), Ryken states that the author directs his “whole being
away from himself or herself toward the object of praise”—that
is, toward God. Ryken continues, “This means, paradoxically,
that although the psalms of praise are filled with the speaker’s
emotions, we do not look to the speaker. We look with the poet
at God.” Yet psalms of direct
praise were typically meant to be used in the community of worshipers. Even if the contents
of the psalm are one’s private thoughts, they are used in corporate
praise. Therefore, there are both horizontal vertical dimensions
present in psalms of praise. Tremper Longman has noted that these
psalms may be hymnic, expressing “exuberant praise of the Lord”
(Pss. 47, 48, 92, 96, 98, 113, 103), or they may express thanksgiving (Pss.
18, 30, 32, 34, 56), “confidence in God’s goodness and
power” (Pss. 11, 16, 23, 27, 62, 91, 125, 131), or they may remember
God’s great and mighty acts in history (Pss. 77, 78, 89, 105, 106,
132, 135, 136).
Patrick
Miller has observed that in the Psalter there exists a continuum between
supplication and praise. He says, “That continuum is a movement
between supplication and praise, and the basic modes of prayer are to be
discerned in the polarity of petition and praise, which in Westermann’s
analysis are two sides of a single coin.” Yet within this
continuum there is always a movement toward praise.
The logic of Israel’s mode of faithful
prayer is clear. Praise and thanks are in a sense the final
word, the direction one is headed, in relationship with God. There
the expression of faith has moved from a focus on the human situation to
reach that end toward which human life has been set, that is, the
glorification and praise of God.
Psalms
of praise always are intended to take the focus of one’s life off of
the self and onto God, so that God might be praised in all areas of our
lives.
2.3. Psalms of
Nature
There
are five nature psalms (psalms 8, 19, 29, 104, and 148), though other
psalms do display some of the characteristics of psalms of nature.
These psalms are psalms that “take nature as their chief
subject” as a means of offering praise to God. For instance, Psalm
8 praises God for the glory which He has bestowed upon man. Yet it is
not man who is praised in this psalm, but God. Psalm 19:1-6 speaks of
the revelation of the glory of God in nature. Nature is not worshipped,
but nature becomes an occasion for worshipping God. In like manner,
psalms 104 and 148 use nature as an occasion to worship God as Creator and
Sustainer of the world. In psalm 29, many have noticed a parallel
with Canaanite Baal mythology. It appears,
therefore, that this psalm is a polemic against the worship of Baal, the
god of thunder. No glory is to be ascribed to him. All glory is
to be ascribed to Yahweh (vv. 1-3) because it is His voice that
causes the earth to tremble in the storm (vv. 4-9).
2.4. Psalms of Zion
Ryken
has termed these psalms “psalms of worship.” In some ways
this is a misnomer. In a sense, all the psalms are psalms of worship.
Even the laments convey an attitude of worship, for their complaints
are directed to the only One who can answer their prayers and, as Patrick
Miller has said, “the numerous lament Psalms allude to or anticipate
the praise of God by the one or ones who have been delivered.” Ryken’s term,
however, has to do with the “life-setting” of a group of psalms
in the Psalter.
In
the Old Testament era, God dwelt in the Jerusalem temple. Male Jews,
therefore, were to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem “three times
annually, at the festival of unleaven bread (the Passover), the feast of
weeks, and the feast of tabernacles” for worship. The
group of psalms whose subject is either the worship at the temple or the
journey to the temple (the “songs of ascents”) are therefore
referred to as psalms of worship, or psalms of Zion. Psalms of Zion
include psalms 27, 42-43, 48, 84, 100, 120-134 (songs of ascents), and 137.
The
temple of God was a special revelation
of God’s glory beyond what could be seen in nature. It was the
place where God was to be worshipped and where sacrifices were made as
atonement for sins. Therefore, being in the temple, or the
anticipation of arriving at the temple, are both occasions for praise to
Yahweh. During the exile, many were separated from Jerusalem and unable to worship God
in the temple (it was destroyed in 586 B. C.). This was an occasion
for lament at being separated from the temple, as in Psalm 42/43, or even
for calling down imprecations upon those who led them into exile, as in
Psalm 137.
2.5. The Use of
Psalms of Praise in Worship
The
goal of worship is to praise God and to exalt the person and work of Jesus
Christ. Since all the psalms were written before the time of Christ,
it becomes necessary to make “adjustments” in the application
of the psalms to the Church. The psalms do
proclaim Christ, but application of the psalms must be adjusted according
to the person and work of Christ and the changes effected by Him in the
history of redemption. Clowney notes that Christ is the kurio"
(“Lord”) of the psalms.
For
instance, Clowney states, in light of Jesus’ words in John 10, that
Christ is the “Lord” of Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want…”). It was common for the New
Testament writers to translate YHWH in Hebrew as kurio" in Greek and
apply that title to Christ (Mark 1:2-3, Rom. 10:13, Phil. 2:10-11).
Therefore, it is appropriate for us to do so from the psalms.
Psalms
of nature can also be understood in light of the person and work of Christ,
for Christ is Lord of creation.
Tremper
Longman has noted that in Hebrews 1:10-12 quotes Psalm 102:25-27 (“In
the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth”) and
applies it to Jesus. It was Jesus who
laid the foundations of the earth. Also, in Colossians 1:15-17, Paul
expresses Christ’s lordship over creation when he claims that Christ
is the “first-born of all creation” (v. 15b). Hughes
Oliphant Old has noted that Paul’s use of “first-born”
probably came from Psalm 89:27 (“And I will make Him the first-born,
the highest of the kings of the earth”). Therefore, when we
sing songs of nature, we can praise Christ who is “the firstborn of
all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens
and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers
or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him”
(Col. 1:15b-16).
While
Colossians 1:15-17 teaches that Christ is Lord of creation, Colossians
1:18-20 teaches that Christ is head of the Church. Christ is not only
“first-born of all creation,” He is also “first-born from
the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in
everything” (v. 18). When we sing the psalms of Zion, we should recognize that
in His death and resurrection, Christ has replaced the Jerusalem temple with His own body
(John 2:19).
As
Clowney states, “Christ is the true temple, the true light of glory,
the true manna, the true vine. The coming of the true supersedes the
figurative. The veil of the temple made with hands is destroyed, for
its symbolism is fulfilled.” Yet not only is
Christ the true temple of God, all those in Him form a
new temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16-17, Eph.
2:20-22, 1 Peter 2:4-10). Clowney states, “It is because Christ
is the real temple in his death and resurrection that the church, and
individual Christians as well, can be described as temples of God.”
The
temple is the dwelling place of God. God no longer dwells in temples
made with hands (John 4:21-24) for now in the Spirit,
we worship Him in Spirit and truth. Christ dwells in His church by
His Spirit, and as such, the church is “being built together into a
dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). Therefore, when we
sing the songs of Zion, we should recognize that
Christ is our temple; He is our new Jerusalem. We can know and love
the resurrected Christ to which the Jerusalem temple pointed.
However, the church is not our final destiny. The New Jerusalem is
still future (Rev. 21) though we experience it presently in the Church
(Hebrews 12:22-24). Richard Gaffin
has stated concerning Hebrews 4:1-11 that the Church is still on its
pilgrimage to Zion; we have not reached our
final destination. Therefore, we can
sing the songs of ascents in anticipation of the future rest for the people
of God in the New Heavens and New Earth.
Hebrews
2:12 quotes Psalm 22:22, which says, “I will
declare Your name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation, I
will sing Your praise.” The author of Hebrews applies these
words to Christ’s lips. Edmund Clowney has noted that Christ is
the singer of the Psalms, both with us and for us. The Psalter was
His hymnal during His earthly life, yet He continues to sing with us and
for us in His continuing priestly ministry on our behalf. Clowney
states, “the risen Savior sings in glory. He is the sweet
singer of Israel, the choirmaster of
heaven. He is not ashamed to call us His brethren, but sings in the
midst of His assembled saints in the heavenly Zion and on earth where two or
three are gathered in His name.” When we exalt Him in
our praises, He sings with us. We do not praise apart from Christ; He
joins with us in our praises. We must always remember His presence
with us when we gather together for worship.
3.
Characteristics of Praise Psalms
3.1. Narrative
vs. Descriptive Praise
In
addition to the above classifications, psalms of praise may be
characterized as either narrative or descriptive praise. Psalms of
narrative praise (Pss. 9, 18, 30, 34, 40:1-12, 48, 66, 75, 92, 106, 108,
116, 118, 138) are psalms that praise God
for His specific acts, such as acts of deliverance or salvation. For
instance, in the narrative praise portion of Psalm 40, David says (vv.
1-3),
I waited patiently for the
Lord;
And he inclined and heard my cry.
He brought me up out of the
pit of destruction,
Out of the miry clay
And he set my feet upon a
rock
Making my footsteps firm.
And He put a new son in my
mouth,
A song of praise to my God;
Many will see and fear,
And will trust the Lord.
Psalms
of descriptive praise (Pss. 8, 19, 29, 33, 67, 68, 81, 91, 95, 96, 98, 100,
103-105, 111, 113-115, 117, 135-136, 145-150) praise God for His
character, such as His faithfulness, righteousness, mercy, or forgiveness
sins. For instance, in Psalm 103:8-12, David says,
The Lord is compassionate
and gracious,
Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindess.
He will not always strive
with us;
Nor will He keep his anger forever.
He has not dealt with us
according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens
are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindess toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from
the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
This
distinction brings up an interesting point of discussion. Is it a
higher form of praise to praise God for His character than to praise God
for his works in our lives? According to the Psalms, it would appear
that both forms of praise have equal value. Praising God because of
what He has done for us is no less a form of praise than praising God for
His character. We love God because He first loved us.
Yet
how are we to praise Christ with these psalms? The narrative praise
quoted above screams Christ’s name and his active and passive
obedience on our behalf. God has heard our cry, and Christ has lifted
us up out of the mire by his substitutionary work on the cross and has set
us on solid rock by His active obedience on our behalf. Now that He
has accomplished our redemption and the Spirit has applied it to our lives,
we can sing a new song, a song of praise to our God. The descriptive
praise quoted above also praises Christ’s propitiatory and expiatory
work on the cross. It is only because of Christ’s work that God
can keep His anger from us, for Christ bore it on the cross. He did
not deal with us according to our sins; he dealt with Christ according to
our sins. Also, it is only in Him that our sins can be removed from
us as far as the east is from the west.
3.2. Individual
vs. Community Praise
One
may also make a distinction between individual praise and community
praise. Psalms of individual praise (Pss. 9/10, 11, 16, 18, 23, 30,
40:1-12, 41, 116, 131, 138) are praises offered by an
individual. These usually use personal pronouns in the first person
singular. For instance, in Psalm 30:1-3, David exclaims,
I will exalt You, O Lord,
for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my enemies
rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried to
You for help and you healed me.
O Lord, You have brought my
soul from Sheol;
You have kept me alive,
that I should not go down top the pit.
Psalms
of community praise (Pss. 65-68, 115, 124, 125, 129) are praises offered by the
community of believers. These will often, but not always, use
personal pronouns in the first person plural. For instance, Psalm 124
begins by saying (vv. 1-3),
“Had it not been the
Lord who was on our side”
Let Israel say,
“Had it not been the
Lord who was on our side,
when men rose up against us;
Then they would have
swallowed us alive,
When their anger was kindled against us…”
Yet
if the Psalter was Israel’s praise book,
should not all the psalms be community praises? Ryken answers this
question by describing the concept of the “representative
I.” Ryken states,
If [some] lyric poems are
so obviously the direct personal, private, and even autobiographical
sentiments of the poet himself, how can we as readers relate to the
utterance? The answer is that we should read such poems as giving
expression to our own experiences also. It is an example of the
commonplace that the poet is our representative, saying what we want said,
only saying it better.
This
dynamic can be a wonderful expression of Paul’s command to
“rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn”
(Romans 12:15). The deliverance of
a brother in Christ can become an occasion for the entire congregation to
praise God.
Christ
is the singer of the psalms. He sings community praises with
us. Psalm 100:3 says, “We
are Your people and the sheep of Your pasture.” Clowney
comments, “Jesus sings [these] psalms with us. He is the
singing Shepherd; we are the lost sheep He has brought home
rejoicing. He sings over us (Zeph. 3:17), and with us, and for
us.” Yet Christ is also
the singer of the individual praises. Clowney notes, “Many of
the ‘I’ Psalms were written by King David. He wrote, not
as an individual, but as the Lord’s Anointed, called to suffer as
God’ servant. David’s cry, uttered in the Spirit,
anticipates the voice of Christ. His shout of victory is made ready
for His greater Son and Lord.”
3.3. Audience of
Praise Psalms
Of
course the primary audience of every psalm is God. However,
grammatically the audience may be God, the self, or others. The
audience may also shift throughout the psalm. For instance, Psalm 18
begins, “‘I love You, O Lord, my strength.’ The
Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.” The first
line begins with “I love You” while the second line
says, “The Lord is my rock.” At other times, the
audience is the self or the soul (Pss. 103, 104, 146). For instance,
Psalm 103 begins, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within
me bless His holy name.” In these psalms, it appears that the
author has himself as the audience as a means of turning his own thoughts
off himself and onto God. The audience may also be other people, such
as the nations (Pss. 2, 67) or Israel (Pss. 118, 124, 149) or
unnamed people (Pss. 148). For instance, Psalm 67:3-4 says,
Let the peoples praise You,
O God
Let the peoples praise You.
Let the nations be glad and
sing for joy
For You will judge the peoples with uprightness,
And guide the nations on the earth.
These
psalms, therefore, seem to be exhortations for other individuals or groups
to sing praise to God, yet as they do, they sing praise to their God.
The
church is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Therefore, the church
ought to sing psalms to God and exhort others in the congregation to
worship as well. Yet the church also has a call to go into all the
world with the gospel (Matt. 28:18-20, Acts 1:8). It is the function
of the church to call the nations to worship. John Piper has said,
Missions is not the
ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists
because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions because
God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless
millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God,
missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But
worship abides forever.
Until
every nation worships God, the mission of the church is to call them to
worship. As Clowney states, “Our evangelism must be
doxological. . . As we sing of God’s amazing grace among the
nations, Jesus Himself leads our praise.” Let us never
forget this missionary call in the worship of the church.
4.
Conclusion
The
psalms do indeed proclaim Christ our Savior. Yet those in our
congregations may not be aware of the richness of this truth or know how to
worship Christ in the psalms we sing. Therefore, it is important when
we sing the psalms to explain to those in our congregations the Christological
significance of the psalms we sing. We need to explain to those in
our congregations that when we sing songs of nature, we exalt the risen
Christ, who is lord of Creation. When we sing songs of Zion, we do not look forward to
a day when a temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. We praise Christ as
the true temple of God. Understanding the
distinction between descriptive and narrative praise allows us to praise
the person and work of Christ in the Psalms. Understanding the nature
of the “representative I” in worship can help strengthen the
unity of the community of believers. Understanding that the church is
to call the nations into worship is also a reminder to the church in its
mission to preach the gospel to all nations. The Psalter was the
hymnal of ancient Israel. It is also the
praise book of the Church. May we use it always recognizing that when
we sing the Psalter, we worship our risen Lord.
5.
Bibliography
Clowney,
Edmund P. “Preaching Christ from All the
Scriptures.” In The Preacher and Preaching: Reviving
the Art in the Twentieth Century. Ed. Samuel T. Logan, Jr. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and
Reformed, 1986.
________.
“The Final Temple.” Westminster Theological Journal 35.2 (1973): 156-189.
________.
“The Singing Savior.” Moody Monthly
(July-August 1979): 40-42.
________.
“Preaching Christ from the Psalms.” Lecture notes on the
Psalms.
Gaffin,
Richard B. “A Sabbath Rest Awaits the People of God.” In Pressing
Toward the Mark: Essays Commemorating Fifty Years of the Orthodox
Presbyterian Church. Ed. Charles G. Dennison and Richard C.
Gamble. Philadelphia: Historian of the
Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1986.
Longmann III,
Temper. How to Read the Psalms. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1988.
Miller,
Patrick D. Interpreting the Psalms. Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1986.
Old, Hughes
Oliphant. “The Psalms of Praise in the Worship of the New Testament Church,” Interpretation
39 (Jan. 1985): 20-33.
Piper,
John. Let the Nations be Glad: The Supremacy of God in
Missions. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1993.
Pratt,
Richard L. “The Psalms.” Lecture notes on the Psalms.
________. He
Gave Us Stories: The Bible Student’s Guide to Interpreting Old
Testament Narratives. Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth and Hyatt,
1990.
Ryken,
Leland. Words of Delight: A Literary Introduction to the
Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1987.
Edmund P. Clowney,
“Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures,” in The Preacher
and Preaching: Reviving the Art in the Twentieth Century, ed. Samuel T.
Logan, Jr., (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1986), 166.
Leland Ryken, Words of
Delight: A Literary Introduction to the Bible, (Grand Rapids: Baker
Book House, 1987), 227.
Ibid. 229.
Ibid. 245.
Ibid.
Temper Longman III, How
to Read the Psalms, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1988), 24-26,
30-32.
Patrick D. Miller, Interpreting
the Psalms, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), 65.
Ibid. 66.
Leland Ryken, Words of
Delight, 250.
Ibid. 253.
Patrick D. Miller, Interpreting
the Psalms, 65.
Leland Ryken, Words of Delight,
261.
Richard Pratt, He Gave
Us Stories: The Bible Student’s Guide to Interpreting Old Testament
Narratives, (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth and Hyatt, 1990), 328-331.
Edmund Clowney,
“Preaching Christ from the Psalms,” (lecture notes on the
Psalms), 3.
It is beyond the scope of
this paper to explore this in more detail. However, it may be noted
that Jesus is both the Kurio" and the Cristo" of the
Psalter. He is both the Divine and Human King, in one person forever.
Temper Longman III, How
to Read the Psalms, 69.
Hughes Oliphant Old,
“The Psalms of Praise in the Worship of the New Testament Church,” Interpretation
39 (Jan. 1985): 29.
Edmund P. Clowney,
“The Final Temple,” Westminster Theological Journal 35.2 (1973): 183.
Ibid.
Richard B. Gaffin, “A
Sabbath Rest Awaits the People of God,” in Pressing Toward the
Mark: Essays Commemorating Fifty Years of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church,
ed. Charles G. Dennison and Richard C. Gamble, (Philadelphia:
Historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1986), 38-39.
Edmund P. Clowney,
“The Singing Savior,” Moody Monthly (July-August
1979): 41.
Richard Pratt, “The
Psalms,” (lecture notes on the Psalms).
Ibid.
Edmund Clowney,
“Preaching Christ from the Psalms,” (lecture notes on the
Psalms), 6.
Ibid.
Leland Ryken, Words of
Delight, 229.
Edmund P. Clowney,
“The Singing Savior,” 40-41.
Ibid. 41.
John Piper, Let the
Nations be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions (Grand Rapids: Baker
Book House, 1993), 11.
Edmund P. Clowney,
“The Singing Savior,” 42.
SJS
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