A Strange Hymnbook
The psalms, like many of our hymns, were written by individuals when they were in a certain mood. Note the different tone and subject in so many of them. But sometimes we "preach" too much on texts and don't "sing" them. Sometimes I think of a Jew lying there in the shade somewhere grinning and admiring the whole world situation with God in it—that’s Psalm 1. That’s how the book opens and it closes with this: "Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!"
Psalm 1 is like a boy, under a tree, contented and smiling, watching his pup, admiring it and rejoicing in it, seeing all its great qualities and listening to its snuffing and growling, full of life and spreading it around while the boy looks and thinks, "You’re somethin’ else!"
The whole book of psalms is called "tehillim"—praises, the book of praises. Even the lament psalms are part of the five books that make up the "tehillim". The protests of the psalms, the weeping and complaining were all brought to God as part of their trust in God. They didn't go down the road to some Ba'al shrine or over to Molech's place and complain about Yahweh. No, they came to God.
They didn't get off with a group of complaining Jews and whisper treason and dis-ease, spreading the stories of their disappointments and periods of bewilderment in unlit streets or gloomy cellars. No! They sang them—in church! In church, for pity's sake! This was no arrogant spirit that looked around to see if others were impressed by their boldness. It wasn't an ugly attempt to prove that they had "authentic faith" that would even put God in the dock. These sang their broken hearts to the one that had earned the right to hear their complaints first hand.
And when the happy psalms were sung the poor and downtrodden sang them along with their richly-blessed brothers and sisters. They didn’t begrudge the blessings to those that had them. And when the sad and groaning psalms were sung, the happy people sang them along with their hurting brothers and sisters. The lonely people and those under pressure in one way or another were not left to sing alone. Nor were they "put up with" while they sang their hurt to God. No! Their brothers and sisters added their voices to the voices of the anguished and carried the sad sounds higher into the air—just so God could hear them.
But they all sang out of the same hymnbook. The people of Israel by the Spirit of God and in light of their history with God put all their songs together, put them in a hymnbook and stamped PRAISES on the cover.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
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