“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Let all Israel repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.” Let Aaron’s descendants, the priests, repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.” Let all who fear the Lord repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.” Psalms 118:1-4 NLT
This Psalm or song opens with a grand proclamation and David gives instructions to the worship leaders, mostly the priests, of this public time of sing praise to God. There are some very famous praise-phrases in this Psalm. “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.” “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” “You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you!” And, “The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not let me die.” Just kidding! That one never made into our hymnals, Maranatha albums or the Passion Tour.
I am so glad David and others recorded these words, but do you ever wonder what happened to the music? We’ve got the lyrics, but no notes, notations or keys. I heard recently from some of my super-senior friends that they miss the actual melody, rhythm or timing of the old hymns – not just the words. In all the flurry of the great “worship wars” of the 90’s and Y2K, worship bands were capturing hymnal words and even Biblical phrases right out of the Psalms, but our oldest friends still missed the beat of the music itself, the meters. I don’t think anyone knows exactly what the OT songs sounded like, but there was an interesting article I found on the web detailing worship and singing in the old and new testament – http://www.summit1.org/gun10/gun01.htm.
I hope God gives you a melody today! “In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody with heaven’s harmony. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love.”
PRAYER
Dad,
I love the Psalms and the beautiful words expressing praise to you! They are reminders for me to lift up a song and let it lift up my heart as well.