Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. Psalm 96:2-3

The Bible book of Psalms is a collection of 150 poems and prayers designed to be set to music. Do you know how commercial jingles or multiplication facts set to music stick in your head? Well, Psalms are meant to permeate our minds in the same way so that we carry them with us always.

In their original Hebrew language, Psalms are full of symmetrical rhyme and meter and vivid word pictures. Psalms were part of an oral tradition passing praise from generation to generation, as many world cultures do to this day. Of the 283 times that the New Testament of the Bible quotes the Old Testament, 116 quotations are from Psalms. And, as Jesus died on the cross, he quoted Psalm 22:1, a lament that His ancestor David had cried out to God centuries earlier.

There is a Psalm for every mood and occasion. There are travel Psalms and Psalms of heartbreak sung by those in captivity. King David’s Psalms often beg God to deal with enemy forces, while Moses’ Psalm 90 is a song of victory by and for those delivered from slavery.

Do you have a favorite Psalm? Memorizing it, set to music, will help you carry it with you in every situation. You can search online for Psalms in musical form and if Psalms aren’t recorded to music in your own language, write your own music or put the words to the music of one of your favorite songs. Psalms were meant to be sung!

 

Resource reading: Psalm 96:1-13