INTRODUCTION
Worship is warfare, and the Psalter is the inspired collection of our battle hymns. The Psalter is the meditations of the “blessed man” on the law of God – the war-songs of the “happy man” who is like a tree always fruitful in every season, who stands against all evil (Ps. 1). But this means that the Psalms are the songs of Jesus (Col. 3:16). He is the happiest warrior, the most fruitful wise man, our King, who came to destroy the seed of the serpent. He began this conquest by cleansing the temple, and so we join that warfare by singing the war songs of King Jesus.
The Text: “And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves…” (Jn. 2:13-17).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
It is likely that Jesus cleansed the temple at least twice, since John seems to put this at the beginning of Christ’s ministry and the other gospels put a cleansing at the end. This may echo the multiple inspections of leprous houses in the Old Testament, which culminated in destruction (Lev. 14). Here, Jesus drives out the money changers who have crowded out the central purpose for the temple: prayer (Jn. 2:14-16, cf. Mk. 11:17). And when He does this, the disciples see Psalm 69:9: “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” When Jesus cleansed the temple, His disciples see
Him acting like a zealous King David in establishing faithful worship and the only path for political stability.
A SHORT HISTORY OF SONG
We are not told exactly when God’s people began singing in worship, but given the entirety of Scripture, it seems likely that it began in the Garden of Eden. Adam’s poem about the beauty of his new wife (“this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”) was likely a song of love and thanksgiving (Gen. 2:23). One Jewish source from the Middle Ages suggests that Adam began singing Psalm 92 (“It’s good to thank the Lord!”) right after he was confronted with his sin and granted forgiveness in the Garden. Whether or not that’s true, it would certainly fit with the broader biblical witness. God’s people were made for music, singing, and worship. And in a fallen world, worship is a war cry of defiance against sin.
The first explicitly recorded song of worship is the triumphant hymn that Moses and Miriam composed after God’s decisive defeat of the Egyptian forces at the Red Sea (Ex. 15). And of course, worship led the conquest of Canaan, particularly at Jericho with the sounding of trumpets (Josh. 6).
Moses later wrote two songs that became Deuteronomy 32 and 33. Another song is quoted in Numbers 21 that is said to be from the “book of the wars of the Lord,” which may have been an early collection of hymns. Joshua 10 and 2 Samuel 1 also reference songs from “the book of Jasher,” apparently another early Israelite hymnal. It is also possible that these are all names for the same hymnal begun by the patriarchs, added to by Moses and Joshua and Samuel, and substantially expanded by David. Many believe that Ezra may have been the final editor of the Book of Psalms as we now have it.
SONGS OF THE KING
Michael LeFebvre points out that the Old Testament associates the songs of Israel not only with wars and battles, but they were also led by their leaders and ultimately their king. If Moses was the first official war-song leader of Israel, it appears that Joshua took that over as the leader of the conquest of Canaan (Dt. 32:44). While the period of the judges languished without a clear song leader, David’s zeal finished Joshua’s conquest of the Canaanites and restored the tabernacle on Mt. Zion with a significant increase in singing and music (1 Chron. 15-16, 23-25). Political wisdom and success are never possible apart from the right worship of the true God. It doesn’t seem like an accident that the very first book printed in the United States was the Bay Psalm Book (1640). A Psalm-singing culture built our country.
If Ezra was the final editor of the Psalter, it’s striking that the Book of Psalms is a book of songs for the King in a time (post exile) when Israel had no king. Many of the Psalms are titled “For the Choir Director or Chief Musician” and while the kings of Israel certainly had musical assistants, the king was the lead singer, and at least symbolically, the “Chief Musician.” Thus, when Jesus came as David’s son, part of the confirmation that He really was the Messiah, was the fact that He came singing the Psalms (e.g. Rom. 15:8-9, Heb. 2:11-12) and fulfilling them (Jn. 2:17). As LeFebvre emphasizes, “the New Testament authors want us to recognize Jesus, not simply as one who fulfils things about Himself in the Psalms, but as the song leader who leads us in singing them.” As we join His songs, we join His zealous conquest of sin, death, and the devil.
CONCLUSION
The Apostle Paul says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16). Notice that the Psalms are called the “word of Christ” – Christ is the main singer of the Psalms. And when we sing the Psalms, we are singing with Him. The Psalms are the wisdom and grace of our conquering King. What is that wisdom and grace?
The Book of Psalms consists of 150 prayers broken into five books: 1-41, 42-72, 73-89, 90-106, 107-150: many Psalms are songs of praise and thanksgiving; many are prayers of lamentation and penitence and pleas for help and deliverance; and many are meditations on wisdom: the character of the wicked and the righteous and the law and judgments of God. Some Psalms are also called “imprecatory” because they call for God to curse and destroy the wicked, which is one of the ways we “leave vengeance to the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). The Psalms are wisdom and grace because they give us a vocabulary for how to talk to God about every situation we may face.
Why do we put such emphasis on Psalm singing and musical education? Because worship is the tip of the spear in our battle against evil. The battle begins with naming accurately. Why do we have choirs and singing schools and music camps? Because singing the Psalms is how the war songs of our King dwell in us richly.