The Command to Sing Psalms

God’s people have always been a singing people. From ancient times, Israel sang the Psalms and the New Testament Church continued this practice. It was not until the modern era that Psalm singing has been completely neglected in the worship of God. This neglect is contrary to Scripture and I argue here that singing the songs of the Psalter is commanded of God’s people.

There are only three passages in the NT that directly speak of singing in the congregation and each either specifies or expects that psalms be sung; I will examine each in turn, the first being the least decisive. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “what is the outcome then, brothers and sisters? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. All things are to be done for edification (1 Cor. 14:26).” While some translations read “each one has a hymn,” the Greek word is psalmos (ψαλμός); everywhere else the word occurs in the New Testament, it is translated as “psalm.” Nothing in the context indicates it should be understood differently here so it is best to read it as “psalm.” Though there are a number of questions that can be asked of the exact meaning of this passage (e.g. What does it mean to “have” a psalm? Is this a command or an observation? etc), what is clear is that Paul considered the constant^[1] use of the Psalms in the gathered church to be normative and for edification.

Much more clear is Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He instructs the Ephesian church to “. . . be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord. . .” (Eph. 5:18b-19). Here again we find the word psalmos; Paul gives it first place in the listing of what Christian churches are to sing as a result of their being filled with the Spirit. Spirit filled churches sing the Psalms.

Paul instructed the Colossians in the same way, commanding them to “let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:16). As in Ephesians, singing the Psalms is given first place though here it is stated to be the result of internalizing Christ’s word.

Two other passages from the synoptic Gospels are relevant when discussing the use of the Psalms in the local church. These passage also indicate, by example, that psalm singing is the biblical pattern of Christ’s Church. At the conclusion of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, Christ and his disciples “went out to the Mount of Olives” but they did this only “after singing a hymn” (Matt 26:30). Here, the Greek verb is hymneō (ὑμνέω)—”after hymning”—but it is widely recognized that what they sang was a psalm (or perhaps a collection of psalms)^[2]. For example, MacArthur notes that the song was “probably Ps. 118. The Talmud designated Ps. 113-118 as the Hallel (praise psalms) of Egypt. These psalms were sung at Passover…”^[3] John Gill goes further, stating that they sang all the Hallel Psalms throughout the supper, ending with “the last part of the Hallell, . . . there being many things in it pertinent to [Christ], and proper on this occasion. . . .”^[4] Mark records the same chronology at the end of the supper; “. . . after singing a hymn, they went out. . .” (Mark 14:26). Here as in Matthew, this refers to the practice of singing the Hallel Psalms as part of the Passover celebration. When Christ instituted the Supper, he finished by singing a psalm with his disciples. These passages strongly suggest that Christ’s Church is to follow her Lord’s example and sing from the Psalter when she partakes of the Supper.

In two of Paul’s letters examined above, psalm singing is directly commanded as part of the worship of God’s people, not only to edify one another, but also as an appropriate expression of our thanks to God. Our psalm singing is to be done “through [Christ]” (Eph. 5:17) and “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Col. 5:20); Spirit filled believers who are united with Christ respond in thanks to God by singing his songs back to him. And Psalm singing was the practice of our Lord at the institution of one of the ordinances. Christ’s churches must sing the Psalms together.

What It Means to Sing the Psalms

Though the command to sing Psalms seems straightforward, putting it into practice can be challenging. Historically, some churches have simply chanted the psalm texts directly out of standard translations while others worked to put the text of the Psalms into metrical meter. I distinguish between three different types of psalm adaptation for singing: metrical psalms, lyrically adapted psalms, and psalm inspired songs.^[5] Apart from metrical psalms, these are my own categories and are not technically precise distinctions. There can be overlap between them but I find them to be useful.

A metrical psalm is a psalm set to meter such that the words fit a tune. They follow the verse layout of the Psalm precisely (or nearly so) and sometimes are translated from the original language directly into meter. While the words may not be identical between a given translation and a metrical setting, the differences are usually only such as are between a functional and a formal translation of Scripture. A comparison between a metrical Psalm and the Psalm in a standard translation is easily done, sometimes with whole phrases identical between the two. One well known example of this type is William Kethe’s “All People That on Earth Do Dwell,” a setting of Psalm 100.

A lyrically adapted Psalm does not follow a Psalm’s translated text as closely but still largely maintains the wording and structure of the original. The verse order may be altered or a portion is sometimes selected as a refrain but, for most adaptations of this type, the words are still the words of the translated psalm. Some more extreme examples will skip entire verses and may have little similarity to the Biblical text’s order though the Psalm’s words themselves remain. Lyrically adapted psalms are somewhat similar to the modern concept of a song remix and the extreme instances may be thought of as textual paraphrases. Joe Tyrpak’s adaptation of Psalm 1—“O How Vast the Blessings”—is a textually conservative example of this type.^[6]

Finally, a psalm inspired song is not truly an adaptation of a psalm but rather is a song which draws its themes and sometimes some words from a psalm or set of psalms. Whole phrases of these songs may be pulled from the biblical text but other sections will be entirely the uninspired words of the later human author. This category has the widest variation in faithfulness to the source psalm(s) with some being free paraphrases of the psalm while others are better thought of as a response to the God-breathed text. “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” by Henry Francis Lyte is an older example, from Psalm 103, of this category and “Psalm 46 (Lord of Hosts)” by Shane & Shane is a modern instance.^[7]

The above categories are helpful when we consider what it means to sing the Psalms. Determining this may seem obvious at first glance but can be difficult in practice. To use the examples above, it is easy to say that to sing “All People That on Earth Do Dwell” is to sing Psalm 100; the words of the song can easily be called the words of the Psalm. But it is much less easy to say that to sing “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” is to sing Psalm 103. I believe that only the use of the first two categories above fulfills the command to sing the Psalms.

Compare the command to sing psalms with the command to read Scripture in public worship. In both cases, we are commanded to use God’s word in our gatherings as local churches. We rightly insist on reading the actual (translated) words of Scripture and would find it odd if a preacher delivered a sermon in which he entirely failed to open the Scripture and read any portion. We also would tend to avoid primarily or solely using a paraphrased version, such as The Message, but might occasionally read out of such a version to help us quickly understand the gist of a passage. While it is common and helpful for a preacher to allude to biblical ideas without quoting a specific reference for the ideas, we certainly would not tolerate a preacher who refused to read from any translation or even paraphrase but insisted on only appealing to the ideas of Scripture.

Similarly, while songs in the category of psalm inspired songs are useful, they cannot fulfill our obligation to sing the Psalter. While lyrically adapted psalms may need to be evaluated on an individual basis, singing them is truly singing psalms in the same way that reading a highly functional translation is truly reading Scripture; both are Scripture, though they involve a relatively high level of interpretation on the part of the translator/song writer. And singing metrical psalms are easily seen as faithful to Christ’s command in the same way that reading the NASB or LSB is faithful to the command to “give your attention to the public reading” (1 Tim. 4:13).

It is prudent to briefly address a final question here—aren’t the Psalms unfit for the worship of New Testament believers? There are a number of ways this question can be worded but the essence is that it views the Psalms as improperly (for the New Testament Church) hearkening back to the former dispensation. The obvious response is that the Psalms must be proper for New Testament worship or their use would not have been commanded. But beyond this, the Psalms are part of the Scriptures, which are “beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16) and therefore the Psalms are beneficial for each of these. The Psalms speak of our Lord’s incarnation and sufferings (Ps. 3:1-2; 8:4-5; 16:10; 22:1, 11-18; 31:5; 41:9) and his exaltation (Ps. 2:7, 22:22, 45:1-17, 68:18, 110, 118:21-22) and they do so in the most intimate of language, often revealing his very thoughts. The Psalms instructed the Church (Acts 1:15-22, cf. Ps 69:25, 109:8; Acts 4:25-28, cf. Ps. 2:1-2) and speak of her relationship to Christ (Ps 45:10-16). Even the Great Commission is rooted in the promise made to Christ in Psalm 2:8. Much more could be said on the benefits and appropriateness of the Psalms for Christ’s Church but I trust these examples will show that, though questions regarding our use of some parts of the Psalter may be difficult (the imprecatory psalms come to mind), the whole of it shines out the glories and praise of our God and Savior in a manner unsurpassed by any other portion of Scripture.

I have argued here that local churches are commanded by Christ to sing the Psalms and that, in order to be obedient to this command, we must sing the actual text of the Psalter. If your church does not already make a practice of psalm singing, prayerfully consider my argument and seek to introduce psalm singing into the practice of your local church in obedience to our Lord’s command.

Footnotes

1. This psalm usage was, in Paul’s inspired words, as frequent as teaching. It occurred “when [the church] assembled.” ↑
2. In further support of hymneō, beyond what is mentioned above, meaning to sing psalms, observe that the word occurs in only two other places in the NT–Acts 16:25 and Hebrews 2:12 (two other places, Eph 5:19 & Col 3:16, use the noun form – ὕμνος). In the first, no definite identification can be drawn of what Paul & Silas were singing, though no exegetical or theological problems arise if we understand ὕμνουν here as psalm singing. In the second, the word is found in a quotation from Psalm 22 where it speaks of singing God’s praises. This again is not definite, but, as the Psalms were what Israel sang when she gathered (the context of the singing in the quoted psalm), it most naturally is understood as singing a psalm of praise to God. All four uses of hymneō not only allow, but even suggest, that the word refers to singing psalms. ↑
3. MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, English Standard Version, 1409n26:30. See also the closely similar note on Mark 14:26, p1458. ↑
4. Gill, An Exposition of The New Testament, 1:330. ↑
5. Chanted Psalms are adapted in the sense that they are translations of the inspired words of Scripture but they are only adapted in the same sense that any translation of Scripture is an adaptation. They are not adapted specifically for singing and so I ignore them here. ↑
6. Tyrpak, “O How Vast the Blessings (Psalm 1).” https://www.churchworksmedia.com/product/o-vast-blessings-psalm-1-free ↑
7. Shane & Shane, “Psalm 46 (Lord of Hosts).” https://theworshipinitiative.com/songs/psalm-46-lord-of-hosts/instrument/introduction ↑