“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings.” (2 Samuel 7:12-14)

“That promise was remembered and pondered again and again in the days to come, right up to the time of Jesus. Nobody, it seems, was absolutely sure what it would mean in practice. But many saw the royal house of Israel as the means by which the living God would establish his own kingdom, his own rule or reign. As it was, the more the story of Israel went on, the more the ancient poets and prophets spoke explicitly about God himself being king, taking charge, coming to sort everything out.” (“Who Should Be King?”, “God as King”, Simply Jesus,  N. T. Wright, p. 43)

The Psalms – the psalms are the songs of Israel – memorable songs about what it would be like when G-d was in charge. They sang those songs – we sing those songs as well. What are the Psalms to Lutherans? Lutherans see the themes of human existence and especially our own existential realities in the words of the Psalms. The writers of these “songs” offer up their praise, their cries of anguish, and their vision of G-d’s eventual triumph in the world through the words of the Psalms. This is what the ELCA says about our use of the Psalms in worship:

“We sing the Psalms in our worship: As response to the first reading For each Sunday and festival of the church year, a psalm is appointed to follow the first reading in the Word portion of the liturgy. That psalm serves as the sung response to the first reading, turning the themes of that reading into a prayer, and often creating relationships to the other readings for the day. Another sung response follows the second reading on Sundays and festivals, often called the Verse or the Gospel Acclamation. What is established in this Word part of the liturgy is the pattern of hearing followed by a sung response. This is a natural pattern – listening, singing, listening, singing, and listening – a pattern we receive from Jewish Temple and synagogue worship, and a pattern we inherit in the Christian liturgy from its earliest times. The psalm on Sunday mornings is not a fourth reading for the day. It functions as a biblical way to sing our thanks or petition to God in the spirit of the first reading.” (ELCA, “Why and how do we sing the Psalms?”, “Worship Formation & Liturgical Resources”)

Psalms were written as songs to be sung in worship, and as such, we should sing them as often as possible.

Pastor Dave