The psalms are hymns of praise to God written in poetic style. Their authors lived thousands of years ago in a culture that would be unfamiliar to many modern readers. Some of the psalms were meant to be sung, but we can only guess at the music and meter that once accompanied them.
Yet there’s something about the psalms that speaks to the heart and transcends time and culture. Their messages have inspired gifted musicians throughout the world to set them to their own music, and as a result the psalms have a larger audience today than ever before. What is it that makes these ancient poems such an inexhaustible source of inspiration?
Perhaps it’s the range of emotions they so eloquently express. Some are psalms of rejoicing and gladness; others are poignant prayers for relief from suffering. Some express reverent awe for God’s creations; others express comforting reassurance of His love.
Choirs today sing the psalms because these themes are universal. Even if we’ve never seen a flock of sheep, somehow we all can relate to these words from the 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters” (vv. 1–2). In our own way, we, like the psalmist, must “walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” but we can say with him, “I will fear no evil: for [the Lord is] with me” (v. 4). Maybe our world today isn’t so different from the world of the psalmist who wrote these beautiful words.
That seems to be a central message of the 150 hymns in the Book of Psalms. In spite of our differences, we all have feelings that can only be expressed in a song of praise. The last verse of the last psalm says it best: “Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6).
Program #4081