Psalms are songs, poems, intended to teach and to aid in worship. The people of God would sing these to learn, to grow in the Lord, to honor their Creator, and to express their hearts. Psalms are good and useful to us as we worship and grow in the Lord.
But have you ever stopped to consider how different the psalms are from the things that we put forward for songs of worship today? Let’s take a look at Psalm 13 and see just how different it feels.
Psalm 13
1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
In verses 1-4, the psalm does not sound like anything we sing today. The psalmist is hurt, afraid, even desperate. He is not pretending a fake happiness to impress his friends. Instead, he is asking the Lord how long it will be before God answers his prayers. The psalmist fears he will die. He fears that those who would destroy him will boast over his demise.
Only in the final 2 verses does the tone change, and not even then does it change to a ra-ra, happy clappy sort of thing. The psalmist declares that he will trust in the Lord. he acknowledges that God is faithful, and so he will expect and rest in the salvation to come. God has and will continue to deal well with his children, and the psalmist places his hope right there. His hard circumstances have not changed, but his hope is rekindled.
Now, let me make a couple of disclaimers. I am not at all a person who believes that only the Psalms should be sung in worship—in fact I think that to be a bad idea. Nor am I someone who opposes joy in our songs. Neither do I think that all modern worship music is messed up.
But what I see is that, for so many of us, a song like this one would have no place in our worship service. Can you imagine any song in a modern church service expressing our sadness, fear, or frustration? Can you imagine a “How long O Lord” from the platform in your local church? Can you imagine singing a song that is 2/3 sorrow with 1/3 hope at the end? In most congregations, this is unthinkable.
But here is the problem, do you think that the people coming into the church are living only happy, easy, fulfilled, safe lives? Do you think that we no longer, in the depths of our souls, need to express to God our pain and our desperation that he come rescue us lest we die? Do you think that there is not a need for the hurting to feel able to express their hurt in the congregation instead of putting on a falsely happy face and being encouraged to cheer along with the crowd?
Friends, our lives are not easy. Even in Christ, even with the Spirit of God, we hurt. Worship has room for that pain to be expressed. Worship has room for that sorrow to even be sung as we also express our courage and hope that the Lord is and will always be faithful. There is and should be time for great joy and celebration in worship. But shallow happiness is not all there is to our lives, and it should not be all there is to our song.
Pastor Travis Peterson 