Battle Hymns of the Kingdom
Most christians in America have never sang the Psalms in public worship. This was not always the case and should not be the case now. God gave us the Psalms to sing! There are several themes found in the Psalms, one that can’t be missed is the theme of victory for God’s covenant people on earth. When singing the Psalms, you find yourself singing about God bringing our and His enemies under our feet and trampling them! You sing about God’s Kingdom growing and extending like grass! You sing God’s promises of the defeat of the wicked, they shall not inherit the earth! This may sound goofy to someone that has been told time and time again that the devil controls the earth and the we are spiraling ever further down into failure and dispare. Those are the words of a fundamentalist in a polyester suit, Not the Word of God. The bible teaches us that Christ is our Prophet, Preist….. and King. The modern church has forgoten the Kingship of Christ. He rules the world NOW from the right hand of God the Father. All the earth is His. Singing the Psalms reminds us of that truth and reminds us of God’s promises that His Kingdom will cover the earth like the waters of the sea. The church is God’s army, ever moving forward spreading the Gospel, destroying idols and rebuilding from the ashes. When we are faithful and obedient to our charge, God blesses our efforts. When we don’t beleive that God can accomplish this task, he allows us to punished. Lets take Christ’s marching orders seriously, to baptise and disiple the nations, and lets do so while singing from God’s book of songs!
If you would like to buy a Psalter for your family worship, I will give you a link to the one that we use in our church.
June 20th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Those are the words of a fundamentalist in a polyester suit, not the Word of God.
Amen and Amen.
I grew up a baptist. About 300 years ago, baptists believed it was a sin to sing anything BUT the Psalms in worship. Now you can’t hardly get them TO sing a Psalm in worship. (Maybe a verse or two from a Maranatha chorus.)
Thank God there are circles in which Psalm singing is now growing, rather than declining. ‘Cause when you sing the Psalms, you really do start to get God’s view of things, instead of a polyester-suited dispensational modern-fundamentalist (contrasted with a Machen-fundamentalist). And, funny thing, those two views (God vs. poly-suit) are NOT the same!
Thanks for posting, Scott.