Hymns And Him
Psalm 99
In a previous meditation journal entry thoughts on just praying the character of God what He has definitely shown to me personally at sometime in my life, and can I pray for just Fifteen Minutes from my heart speaking to God of who He is, again, to me personally. As I thought on this reading Psalm 99, 98, and 24 another area of personal spiritual life came to me.
Speaking unto your selves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing, and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,
Ephesians 5:19 GNV
I am already exploring the psalms, but asking "could Jesus have prayed this psalm"? Equally valid is asking, "could Jesus have sung this psalm?” And in that challenge is a psalm spoken as it states here, or is it to be sung, as in "and when they had sung a psalm, they went out unto the Mount of Olives". (Matthew 26:30). But then to open that argument a little more I remember having singing described as sustained speech.
A few years back I also remember a discussion about choice of music for corporate or Sunday services worship What should they say? Should they focus on who Christ is as my fifteen minute prayer time? Or what the Lord has done, and what it means in my life, which some say is man centered? Reading these last Psalms it would seem the focus is on the greatness of all who and what God is. But quite a number of earlier Psalms center on "Lord help me", oh, definitely man centered, but seeking the Lord.
Looking again at Jesus and extending the thought of speech being sustained, and asking what did Jesus say about our speech, what should we talk of, including when we sing? We just saw that Jesus with His disciples sang a psalm. Looking in othe places we read that Jesus told the wild man of Gadara to go back and tell what great things the Lord has done for you. (Luke 5). When John's disciples ask of Jesus if he was the One they really were to be looking to come, Jesus told them to look at all was happening and then to go tell John what they saw. The Psalms are a mixture of many aspects of life and emotions all dependent on who and what the person of Jesus Christ is. And in that there are few Psalms, if any, that are a good solid combination of Psalm 88 and Psalm 99,
Thine indignations go over me, and thy fear hath cut me off.
Psalms 88:16 GNV
Exalt the Lord our God, and fall down before his footestool: for he is holy.
Psalms 99:5 GNV
Each from the heart and need of man, but different day. Also, straight to the same God both views right as needed by man of and to that same God. And in that I can sing "I need thee every hour", but also sing "In Christ Alone, my hope is found". We need Psalm 99 entirely focusing on all of who God is, and all of Psalm 88, all of man's personal desperate need of God.
Touching this aspect of speaking to ourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs once again is only my ponderings, my meditations, thoughts that run around in my head. They do not establish church polity, or doctrine. They are challenges to my personal walk before the Lord. For instance when I read Psalm 99 do I see inside of me the desire, the need to worship the Lord, the Almighty God, the King with the same passion and humility as the psalmist who wrote it?
But then in my ponderings, my wonderings, well, the Lord put within my mind to "Come, See Me", to look at Psalm 99 totally different than I have been viewing it these last several days. What a difference it makes of singing hymns, and seeing Him.