As I was reading Psalm 9 today, I thought to myself, “I have never sung a song in church like this!” My next thought was “Why?” If we embrace all of God’s Character, then it would make sense to sing songs about His wrath, justice, judgement, and jealously along side the well numbered songs about His love and holiness. What do you think?
1 I will praise you, O LORD , with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.3 My enemies turn back;
they stumble and perish before you.
4 For you have upheld my right and my cause;
you have sat on your throne, judging righteously.
5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.
6 Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished.7 The LORD reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment.
8 He will judge the world in righteousness;
he will govern the peoples with justice.
9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, LORD , have never forsaken those who seek you.11 Sing praises to the LORD , enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations what he has done.
12 For he who avenges blood remembers;
he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.13 O LORD , see how my enemies persecute me!
Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death,
14 that I may declare your praises
in the gates of the Daughter of Zion
and there rejoice in your salvation.
15 The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug;
their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.
16 The LORD is known by his justice;
the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands.
Higgaion. Selah17 The wicked return to the grave,
all the nations that forget God.
18 But the needy will not always be forgotten,
nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish.19 Arise, O LORD , let not man triumph;
let the nations be judged in your presence.
20 Strike them with terror, O LORD ;
let the nations know they are but men.
Selah
What about Lord Reigns?
A fire goes before Him
And burns up all His enemies;
The hills melt like wax
At the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the Lord.
Still kinda sad that this is the only one I could even think of. We are definitely more of a God is a big teddy bear (i.e. God is only love) society.
I think we tend to go in circles through history instead of maintaining a balance. We have hellfire and brimstone preachers which leads to “love, love, love”. Then to compensate for only focusing on love it is easy to go back to the other extreme. If we really preach the Bible and not just preach what we want (or think we want) to hear then the problem would never come up.
Perhaps it is because when we sing to the Lord – as those redeemed by Christ – we sing of His mercy, grace, holiness and love expressed to us inspite of His right to smote us into dust. Thus, when we sing of the mercy and grace of God – we are acknowledging that His wrath and justice was satisfied through Christ’s death – because through that we have been shown mercy, grace and love.
Skip on over to Psalms 137:8-9 and try to pin a CCM top 40 hit from that. 😉
I think the psalms are evidence that most people wear blinders when they define what “Christian music” is. Always encouraging? Always has to be directed to God? Always has to present the answer in the bridge? Safe?
Back to your original question, I could see a catchy chorus coming from “We are but men” in verse 20.
Thanks for the responses. I understand John’s point. But given everything Dan and Ken have been teaching on lately regarding the modern gospel (life improvement) I would dare say there could be a misunderstanding why God gives grace and mercy to the common attender of assembly. Is it life improvement or something far more significant like the removal of His wrath? I don’t think we should ever consider attritubes of God implicit. He deserves that we spell things out.
Looks like a have a lot of songwriting ahead of me 😉
Ah yes – I was addressing your question – not making a point. Inddeed it is not life improvement – and we should never fall into a slumber regarding this point.
But to fail to focus on God – that is dangerous turf. It is good to sing of our responsibility and our desire to be obedient – as reminders and encouragement and inspiration to follow our Lord’s example. But ultimately – our faith, our very existence, is all about the Father, the Son and the Spirt – and not about ourselves.
I think we do a disservice to the body when we avoid singing about all of God’s character and attributes. Let’s sing of God’s wrath and justice – let’s just do it with a nice melody. :^)