Psalm Singing and the Fear of the World by Rev. Benjamin Glaser

If you were going to ask random people to quote something from the Bible there is a high likelihood that they would pick John 3:16 or Psalm 23. Another one that would also hit the top 5 is Romans 8:31. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”. Those words of the apostle Paul in the book of Romans have long been the calling card of faithful Christians facing any number of trials. Yet it wasn’t just New Testament Christians who benefited from the teaching the Apostle lays out here. It has long been the heartbeat of peace for the people of God; knowing that the Lord is sovereign and truly the One in whom we can trust.

One of the best examples of putting into practice Romans 8:31 in the Old Testament was the scene between Hezekiah and Sennacherib. In 2 Chronicles you have the chief spokesman for the king of Assyria promising death and destruction to any who would stand in the way of the will of his king. There resulted from this a great worry among the Israelites. As king, Hezekiah had two responsibilities. Not only was he to defend his land from those who would like to see it laid to waste, but he needed to project confidence in the face of the danger. Many a leader has faced similar situations, especially over the last year and half, and the response of Hezekiah should be instructive for those of us in leadership, as well as everyone else, in today’s climate.

He speaks in 2 Chronicles 32:7-8 in this way:

“Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him; for there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

It is a helpful thing to remind your people if you are a minister or an elder that we walk by faith and not by sight. God and one individual Christian is a majority against all the men of darkness. Hezekiah and Judah were outnumbered, outgunned, and outsupplied, but they were playing at a different game than the men of Sennacherib’s army. So to is this the case when we look at the many dangers facing us today in the United States. We may be facing an out-of-control and increasingly totalitarian government, yet we know that all nations shaking their fist at the Lord of glory will face destruction in the day of judgment. This is a certainty promised by Christ, and if Christ says it we are duty bound in love to believe it. We cannot live in fear, but must be boldly proclaiming a warning against acquiescing to the boot of the modern State. The Church cannot keep giving up ground to the world, and think that if we just go along with the little things, that when the big things come they will give us a pass. That's quisling-like behavior.

Speaking of the Old Testament there was a way that the people of the covenant were constantly reminded of the reality of why they should not fear in moments of trouble. Every Sabbath they sang of Jehovah’s glory, His magnificence, and His love for them. They heard of David’s testimony of the LORD’s deliverance, and how the man after God’s own heart kept fast. When our forefathers in the faith were being hunted down and killed by the wicked government in Scotland in the 17^th Century these same songs of faith propelled them forward in hope. You can imagine them singing from the 1650 Scottish Psalter and verses 4-5 of Psalm 56:

   3  When I'm afraid I'll trust in thee:

   4     In God I'll praise his word;

      I will not fear what flesh can do,

         my trust is in the Lord.

This post is not directly a defense of Psalm-singing, but it is enlightening to think in this particular case what one of the unique benefits of singing the Word of the LORD is when faced with the enemies of the Gospel of Christ. Just look for a moment at this portion of Psalm 56. The context of the psalm is David fleeing from the persecution of Saul. He is being hounded by someone who is supposed to be protecting him. There is something particularly incompatible with a Minister of God (c.f.-Romans 13:1-7) going out of his way, abandoning his duty, to attack the very person he has been called to defend, but that is what Saul is doing to David. However, as is often the case with those caught in similar circumstances the man in whom God will/had placed His mark by His covenantal promises seeks to find respite in the only place he can truly find it, and that is in the nature of the Godhead, in Jehovah God, and what better way to learn and hold in one’s heart this knowledge of the LORD than in the words of God’s own Hymnbook?

As good and as biblical founded a man-made composition might be it will always fall short of the Divine Word given by our King.

Another way of looking at it is that a man or woman who truly believes in the person and work of Jesus Christ will not look outside the means and instruments that their Heavenly Father has granted and gifted to them for their protection from enemies of both the physical and the spiritual kind. The sufficiency of the Psalter and the whole Word of God to accomplish this is especially vital, no less in our day, precisely because as Protestants one of the things we believe is that the Word of God is the Word of God and because of that it alone has the ability to accurately perform the action for which it was given, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 118:5, “I called on the Lord in distress; The Lord answered me“.

Unfortunately what eventually happened to the Israelites to whom Hezekiah spoke those words, and to the descendants of the Covenanters in Scotland, is that they failed to heed the promise to which the king spoke. They feared men more than God and received the penalty of that unbelief in exile and declension. We see the exact same thing going on in the Church in the West today. We have backslidden enormously from the foundations of our faith and have given away our birthright for a mess of porridge. Instead of resting and receiving the mercy of God as He has blessedly provided in His Son, in His substitutionary sacrifice for His Sheep, the perfection of the Word in worship and life, and Christ’s mediatorial reign, we have instead fallen into the same trap as the Israelites and gone after other gods and served the creature rather than the Creator.

In closing, Brothers and Sisters heed the warning of Scripture. Listen to the words of the apostle Paul, if God is for us who can be against us? Let God be true and every man a liar. Do not fear what this World can do to you, but find ease, refreshing, and strength for your weak and wearied souls in the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. Also Keep Calm and Sing the Psalms! Hear in the Word our loving Father has graciously provided for us to sing in times of trouble that we may, as the Scottish Psalter expresses so beautifully in the words of David from Psalm 4:

1     Give ear unto me when I call,

         God of my righteousness:

      Have mercy, hear my pray'r; thou hast

         enlarged me in distress.

   2  O ye the sons of men! how long

         will ye love vanities?

      How long my glory turn to shame,

         and will ye follow lies?

   3  But know, that for himself the Lord

         the godly man doth choose:

      The Lord, when I on him do call,

         to hear will not refuse.

   4  Fear, and sin not; talk with your heart

         on bed, and silent be.

   5  Off 'rings present of righteousness,

         and in the Lord trust ye.

   6  O who will show us any good?

         is that which many say:

      But of thy countenance the light,

         Lord, lift on us alway.

   7  Upon my heart, bestowed by thee,

         more gladness I have found

      Than they, ev'n then, when corn and wine

         did most with them abound.

   8  I will both lay me down in peace,

         and quiet sleep will take;

      Because thou only me to dwell

         in safety, Lord, dost make.